Dan Vanderheyden, 35

Military veteran Dan Vanderheyden was sick of seeing defense contractors who only cared about profits, so he and his friends decided to set out on their own.

Over beers after work, while working together on a billion-dollar contract for U.S. Special Operations Command, Vanderheyden and his friends used to joke about starting their own business. But the four men soon found their jokes turned into serious conversations about how they could make money while treating employees well. In 2011, they decided to make the leap.