Tech's 13 Most Influential People of 2013

As you know by now, at the end of every year, publications take a step back and look at the year past and take stock of what the hell just happened. In that exercise, we remember the highs and the lows, the hits and the misses, the memorable moments and the ones we’d really, really like to forget. In the tech world we try to look at the products and the services that made a great impact on the culture and market. We also take a look at the people who made those products and services possible. The individuals who are making others take note by continuing to innovate. You want to know who made the most waves in 2013? Keep reading.

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Company: Uber
Position: Co-founder and CEO
Power Move(s): Expanded service in various U.S. and foreign cities; pulled in over $1B in gross bookings

If you live in a major city in the Northeast and use Uber, there's a good chance you're not very happy with Travis Kalanick. During the bout of wintry weather, the popular taxi app used what it calls "surge pricing" to overcharge users because the demand for drivers was "off the charts!" If you felt some kind of way and vowed never to use it again, we're not mad at you. However, despite that debacle Uber has been killing it. The company has expanded like crazy over the last few months into 22 countries and 60 cities including New Delhi and Abu Dhabi. It's making money, too, to the tune of an estimated $200 million in revenue. Though, it's not hard to see why considering it's business practices. Still, some see Uber as the next big startup to make it big on the level of Facebook or Twitter. That makes Kalanick a person to seriously keep an eye on.

Company: Virgin Galactic
Position: Founder
Power Move(s): Setting up Virgin Galactic for public flights in 2014

The space race is heating up. While Elon Musk's SpaceX made headlines by winning NASA contracts to ship cargo into outer space, another space company owned by an equally outrageous CEO is also making waves. Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is reportedly ready to send regular people like you and me into space. Well, not so regular. In order to hop aboard the company's rocketship, SpaceShipTwo, you'll have to pay $250,000. Not bad considering you'll be heading into rarefied air. Even more amazing is the realization of Branson's dream of creating a space tourism company. Sure, Virgin Galactic won't passenger people to the moon, but it will take them outside of Earth's atmosphere allowing you to get your Gravity on. But, you know, less traumatic.

Company: Boston Dynamics
Position: Founder and President
Power Move(s): Developed prototypes for ATLAS, Cheetah, and other robots that will revolutionize the market

The U.S. Military sometimes operates in locations and conditions that are too dynamic for SUVs or traditional modes of transportation. So what do you do when you need to get supplies safely to an area that a truck can't go? If you're DARPA, you call Marc Raibert, the founder and CEO of Boston Dynamics. Raibert, along with some of his colleagues at the National Academy of Engineering, started the company in 1992 to build robots that were able to move like animals. Twenty-one years later, they've developed some of the most awe-inspiring and frightening robots we've ever seen. Great, but why's he on this list? Well, a little startup interested in robotics that goes by the name Google, picked up the company for an undisclosed amount. Raibert and Co. were developing some pretty cool stuff before, but we can only imagine what's about to happen now that they've got endless founding from big G. We'll go ahead and save a spot for Marc on next year's list.

Company: Microsoft
Position: CEO
Power Move(s): Oversaw the release of Xbox One and the continued rollout of Windows 8 products; Acquired Nokia

After 33 years of climbing the ladder at Microsoft, Steve Baller, the hot-headed, fire-breathing, executive handpicked by Bill Gates to succeed him as CEO in 2000, will step down as the head of one of the world's largest, most profitable companies. Sure, many are glad to see him go. There's no shortage of stories which color the fiercely competitive CEO in a negative light. But despite some major follies in years past, 2013 proved to be a good one for the beleaguered exec. He oversaw the continued roll-out of Windows 8, the most significant refresh to the world's most popular operating system in decades, the acquisition of hardware partner Nokia, and the release of Microsoft's next-gen video game console, Xbox One, which managed to sell over one million units in 24 hours. Is Microsoft ready for a change? Yes. But Ballmer had one hell of a swan song.

Company: Google
Position: Co-founders
Power Move(s): Introduced Google Glass; released Chromecast; Acquired Boston Dynamics

Google has so many projects in the works that it's hard to keep track of what exactly the company's focusing on. Well, besides search, of course. But that's how Larry Page and Sergey Brin roll. They shoot for the moon and hope to land on a rocketship. Looking back at 2013 we'd have to go with: Google Glass and Robotics. The world's largest search company blew everyone's collective minds when it introduced Google Glass, those silly-looking glasses that allow you to be even more antisocial than you were before. Really, though, Google Glass is a huge step forward in the much-discussed but ever elusive world of wearable computing. It's the first time a device that powerful and useful has been made in the form of something that doesn't fit in your pocket or sit on your desk.

Google released a number of other interesting products this year, as well, such as Chromecast which lets you stream content to your TV directly from your Android or Chrome device. It released the best-ever version of Android, too. But all of that paled in comparison to the company's recent acquisition of Boston Dynamics. We've known for a long time that Page and Brin were heavily enthusiastic about robots. Hell, everyone at Google is; just look at its work with autonomous cars. But the fact that a private east-coast company that worked closely with DARPA to develop machines and robots for military use is now under the Google umbrella is plain ol' mind-blowing. It's anyone's guess just what will come out of this union, but knowing Brin and Page's affinity for attempting the impossible, we're sure it's going to nuts.

Company: Snapchat
Position: Co-founders
Power Move(s): Rejected billion-dollar offers from Facebook and Google

Disclaimer: We're not business experts. We also don't know what co-founders Evan Spiegal and Bobby Murphy have up their sleeves. What we do know is that Snapchat, the of-the-moment messaging service first referred to as the sexting app, now seen as the future of messaging, has yet to even sniff a profit or a plan to make a profit. Despite some companies using the service to promote their wares, no viable business plan has emerged. So when Spiegel and Murphy decided to turn down $3 billion from Facebook and then $4 billion from Google, the world looked at the two former Stanford students as if they hired Edward Snowden as a lead developer. No worries, though, the company is not yet hurting for paper as it closed a $50 million round of funding on December 11. But it still begs the question: Are these dudes crazy or brilliant? We're going to go with both and hope, for their sake, everything works for the best.

Company: Facebook
Position: Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO
Power Move(s): Acquired Instagram

Word on the street is Facebook is on its way out. Supposedly the kids don't use it anymore; they've moved on to "cooler" and "safer" services like Snapchat. People think Mark Zuckerberg's company has grown to big to be nimble; that it's lost its creative edge. It doesn't help that the HTC First, dubbed the Facebook Phone, and Facebook Home, the company's attempt at a skin for mobile operating systems both failed. Take all that into account and you might start to believe the chorus of doubt. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Mark Zuckerberg is still the ruthless wolf in sheep's clothing that he was when he founded the company and he'll do what it takes to make sure Facebook stays on top. That's why he held private meetings with Kevin Systrom to discuss the acquisition of his popular startup Instagram. What all those people fail to forget is that Facebook—not Flickr, Picasa or any of those other services—is the number one photo-sharing site in the world. And Instagram just secures its position in a world where people take more photos than ever before. If you're waiting for Zuck or Facebook to fall off, you're going to be waiting a long damn time.

Company: Twitter
Position: Co-founder and Chairman; Co-Founder; Co-Founder; CEO
Power Move(s): Debuted Vine; filed Twitter IPO to become a public company

Twitter's motley crew of executives had a pretty busy 2013. Co-Founder and Chairman Jack Dorsey made headlines not with the company he helped launch in 2006, but with his other game-changing startup, Square. The payment outfit posted plans to become profitable in 2015 and hinted at a possible impending IPO. It also launched Square Cash, a product that easily allows people to transfer money using only an email address, and shot a bow directly at PayPal. Meanwhile, Twitter's other co-founders, Evan Williams and Biz Stone, saw success with their new, elegant blogging platform, Medium.

However, while all of that was going on, the company that ties them all together had a banner year. To compete with the raft of image and video sharing apps that sprouted this year and last, Twitter released its Vine app, which quickly became the video creation/sharing app to beat. Even more importantly, this was the year when Twitter went public. The service which boasted having over 200 million active monthly users saw its valuation rise to over $31 billion at the end of the first day of trading on November 7. Not a bad way to end the year.

Company: Apple
Position: SVP of Design at Apple
Power Move(s): Updated the iPhone model with the release of the 5C and 5S; designed iOS 7

Who's the most important person working at Apple today? Some may say CEO Tim Cook, or maybe SVP of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller. Leander Kahney, the editor-in-chief of Apple news site, Cult of Mac, believes that honor belongs to Jony Ive. We'd have to agree. The man who oversaw the design of the products that brought Apple back from the brink of death in the late 90s (iMac, iPod) and the products that helped it dominate the consumer electronics market (iPhone, iPhone, MacBook) is undoubtedly a, to quote Steve Jobs, "product guy." This year, Ive, now the SVP of Design, branched out from hardware and oversaw the design of Apple's latest mobile OS, iOS 7. Now that he's in charge of both hardware and software design, it'll be interesting to see what Jony churns out in the coming years. The company depends on it.

Company: N/A
Position: Whistleblower
Power Move(s): Leaked classified NSA documents that detailed the U.S. government was spying on citizens and allied countries

This was the year when one of greatest fears was confirmed: that the National Security Agency was indeed spying on us. The irony of the whole ideal is that while the NSA was playing digital detective on U.S. citizens, its own employees were operating unchecked. That oversight allowed a high school dropout by the name of Edward Snowden, who was worked for the NSA as a contract worker in Hawaii to collect millions of classified documents regarding the agency's surveillance programs and then subsequently leak them to the press. Called the most significant leak in U.S. history by the guy that leaked the Pentagon Papers, Snowden's trove of data has shined a blinding light on one of the country's most secretive agencies, the President, and the tech companies that may or may not have been complicit in the spying. Snowden, who's currently chilling in Russia where he's been granted asylum, has been called everything from a hero to a traitor. Whichever side of the fence you think he falls on, one thing's undebatable: He started a much needed national conversation.

Company: Amazon
Position: Founder and CEO
Power Move(s): Acquired The Washington Post; unveiled plans for Amazon Air; announced plans for original content on Amazon Instant Video

Jeff Bezos doesn't want to change the world so much as take it over. The founder of Amazon.com this year announced plans to enter even more markets. He picked up the ailing Washington Post for $250 million through his private investment firm. While his plans for the legendary, award-winning paper are not yet known, rumors suggest he plans to improve its digital properties; make it more of a modern-day editorial force. That's not to say Bezos is ceasing his onslaught of the retail space. Not at all. He plans to match Netflix with original series and movies through Amazon Instant Video. He also plans to shake the postal service by launching Amazon Air: a service in which packages are delivered to your house via drones. World domination doesn't seem too far away, does it?

Company: SpaceX; Tesla Motors
Position: Founder and CEO
Power Move(s): Unveiled plans for Hyperloop; announced plans to make a more affordable electric car; launched third major commercial satellite with SpaceX

Ask any of the top tech executives in the country what their mission in business is and they'll likely sprout off some sound bite about wanting to change the world. Elon Musk is one of the very few who runs companies devoted to that end. As the CEO of both Tesla Motors, makers of electric vehicles, and SpaceX, a company focused on space transportation that can count NASA as a client, Musk is actively working to mold the future in his image. At a time when critics fault Silicon Valley for not thinking big enough, this guy goes on Twitter while high on pain meds and talks about building the world's first electric pick up truck. He also took time between running two companies to map out a high-speed rail system that would connect Los Angeles and San Francisco. Yeah, iPads and photo filters are cool, but we'd rather go to Mars or be able to get from LA to the Bay in 35 minutes. But that's just us.

Company: Yahoo!
Position: CEO
Power Move(s): Acquired Tumblr; launched all-new Flickr app; poached David Pogue from the New York Times and Katie Couric from ABC; revamped Yahoo! homepage and email

Despite still being one of the most visited websites in the world (and the most visited in the U.S.), Yahoo! to many has been relegated to the status of an also-ran. A company that's not just resting on its laurels, but straight up living on top of them. Can a company so large change course? That's what former Google exec Marissa Mayer is trying to figure out. And, for the most part, she's done a bang-up job.

Since being appointed president and CEO on July 16, 2012, Mayer's pulled off a number of head-turning (and eyebrow-raising) moves, including acquiring Tumblr for $1 billion, refreshing a number of the company's mobile offerings and its homepage, and making a number of high-profile signings with former New York Times technology columnist David Pogue and ABC's million-dollar woman Katie Couric both coming aboard to launch news products.

It remains to be seen if all this will help in bringing the Yahoo! brand out of the doldrums, but the fact that people are talking about Yahoo! without mentioning fantasy football is huge.