CHICAGO — Having already won an 1871 grant and $250,000 in funding, the founders of a River North startup have just added another feather to their caps.
Tejas Shastry, 25, Alex Smith, 29, and Mike Geier, 28, were named to the annual Forbes "30 Under 30" list Monday morning.
The trio was recognized for creating AMPY, a wearable device that stores kinetic energy and uses it to charge smartphones and other electronics.
Dave Matthews explains how AMPY works:
The men met while studying engineering at Northwestern University and developed an AMPY prototype last year. They later won the Chicago Challenge Cup hosted by local tech incubator 1871, and have raised $250,000 for AMPY through Kickstarter, according to Forbes.
The device stores kinetic energy from users and converts it to battery life. For example, running 30 minutes with an AMPY can power a smartphone for three hours.
"Everyone's been in that situation where their smartphone dies before the end of the day," Shastry told DNAinfo in May. "Especially when you're active, and you're busy, and you're using your smartphone all the time, it dies faster."
Also included on the 2015 Forbes list are fellow Chicagoans Veronica Roth, author of the Divergent trilogy, West Loop Salumi Owner Gregory Laketek, Moneythink founder Ted Gonder and Chicago-based musician Chance the Rapper.
The fourth annual "30 Under 30" list features 600 people across 20 fields, or "today's greatest gathering of young game changers, movers and makers," according to Forbes.
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