Jay Conroy, 39

Jay Conroy has always been an entrepreneur. It started when he was in fifth grade, when he led a candy cartel at school. He would go to the Super America down the street to buy candy and then sell it to his schoolmates. He was so successful, he recruited a couple of kids in the grade above him and a couple in the grade below to sell candy as well. That was, until his elementary school started its own candy store and made him shut down his business.

Conroy, who describes himself as “determined, deliberate and enterprising,” knew he wanted to start his own business — but never imagined it would be in water treatment equipment. After graduating from the University of Florida with degrees in environmental engineering and sales engineering, he worked for Wiesemann, a wastewater screen manufacturer. A couple years later when the company shut down, Conroy saw an opportunity to continue to grow the business, and at age 23, opened Hydro-Dyne Engineering.