Sam had a successful career in game development. He comes from a family of doctors, and one day his dad asked him to create a game to train medical professionals. Sam built it over a few weekends, published it and forgot about it. Two years later, he discovered it had been used by 100,000 medical professionals, and studies showed it improved their performance. His company Level Ex now makes games to accelerate specialist skills, from cardiology to anesthesia. In 2021, they launched Top Derm, which educates in recognizing disease on skin of color.

Whenever Melissa wanted to travel with her dog Rocco, she struggled to find hotels that would accept him. She had to call round each one to ask about their pet policy. Once, she almost missed a friend’s wedding when she and Rocco were not welcomed at a nearby hotel – and had to stay an hour away from the venue. That day, Melissa decided to create a pet-friendly travel database, which later became BringFido. The app lists pet-friendly hotels, restaurants and dog parks, with over half a million approved venues around the world.

In 2009, Dan quit his job as a manufacturing engineer to be a stay-at-home dad with newborn twins. As they grew older, he craved a new challenge and wanted to get fit. So he taught himself basic coding and built an app, Daily Ab Workout. People loved it, and Dan ended up translating it into 35 languages. He now has 14 apps on Google Play, and his flagship app Daily Workouts has over 10 million downloads. It features short, step-by-step videos to target and strengthen the major muscle groups.

Tanya’s mom was a teacher, so she's always considered education vital for closing the gaps in society. After two Stanford degrees in industrial engineering, she'd made a career running tech businesses. When her eight-year-old daughter asked to open an investment account for her birthday, Tanya was inspired. She thought that, if she could give kids access to financial education, she might change their world for the better. So she created Goalsetter, a banking app that explains economic concepts to kids in a fun way – while helping the family build healthy money habits.

Big Fish Games has been in the industry for over 20 years. Having started out making computer games, they now focus on mobile. Nicole and her team are constantly looking for creative ways to make games that are entertaining yet meaningful. Their latest release, EverMerge, is a world-building puzzle game that challenges the traditional fairy tale with a female protagonist. It’s had huge success, with 10 million+ downloads. In the past year, Big Fish has grown its team, with a focus on diversity initiatives.

Queer developer BáiYù loves writing stories, and started making games aged 16. Part of a game-development community, BáiYù wanted an affordable way to help get their creations out. So they set up Project Ensō, publishing queer visual novels and narrative indie games. With 10 titles on Google Play, BáiYù supports developers by polishing their games before release. They often get feedback saying the games changed people’s lives. The most popular is Yearning: A Gay Story, in which gamers play a newly-out gay man navigating his freshman year of college. New titles are being developed, all featuring characters not often represented in mainstream media.

Simone has built over 100 apps from scratch, from design to coding. She originally made Vacation Countdown for herself, as she’s always loved counting down the days until her next adventure. It’s now her most popular app, with new features added regularly. Kulana Media, which she runs with co-founder Dennis, currently has 28 titles on Google Play, including countdowns for birthdays, retirements and weddings. Simone and Dennis are proud to help people share the excitement and anticipation of big life events.