The List

1. SpaceX - The company that wants to send you to space and colonize Mars.

2. Warby Parker - Taking on the Luxottica eyewear machine.

3. Etsy - A big voice for small artisans.

4. Motif Investing - Building theme-based portfolios online.

5. Palantir Technologies - Silicon Valley's CIA operative.

6. GitHub - Cracking the code on collaboration.

7. Aereo - The company TV hopes will die.

8. Moderna - Therapeutics Reprogramming cells to fight disease.

9. Spotify - The most controversial act in music.

10. Uber - The 21st-century taxi service.

11. Zuora - A renewal in the subscription business model.

12. ChargePoint - Putting the gas station out of business.

13. Dataminr - The search for intelligence on Twitter.

14. Skybox Imaging - The spy who came into the Google fold.

15. Stripe - The start-up challenging PayPal.

16. TransferWise - Getting bankers out of the forex biz.

17. Personal Capital - A 360-degree view of your finances.

18. Quirky - Crowdsourcing an idea for basement tinkerers.

19. Pure Storage - Predicting a flash flood of data.

20. Wealthfront - Silicon Valley's plan to oust wealth managers.

21. Fullscreen - YouTube's hot multichannel talent network.

22. EcoMotors - Turning the engine inside out, in Detroit's backyard.

23. Shape Security - Putting organized cybercrime out of biz.

24. Dropbox - The 800-pound gorilla in the cloud IPO room.

25. Cool Planet Energy Systems - From farm to fuel, and back to farm.

26. AngelList - Getting disruptors the money they need to disrupt.

27. BrightRoll - Betting detergent ads on TV won't wash.

28. Yext - Resurrecting the Yellow Pages.

29. DocuSign - Sign on the dotted e-line.

30. Apptio - A cloud-based Peter Drucker.

31. Nebula - A private cloud the size of a pizza box.

32. Pinterest - The world's bulletin board.

33. Lending Club - Borrowing without banks.

34. Redfin - The only real estate broker who hates commissions.

35. Coinbase - The closest thing bitcoin has to a central bank.

36. Hampton Creek Foods - The egg comes first; no chicken necessary.

37. Bill.com - Making sure the check's never in the mail again.

38. Rent The Runway - Nice dress. Can I borrow it?

39. Nexmo - How billion-dollar start-ups text.

40. Fon - The Airbnb meets Uber and Aereo of Wi-Fi.

41. Airbnb - The newest idea in room service: renting one.

42. MongoDB - Solving humongous data problems.

43. Oscar - Health insurance for the Obamacare era.

44. Kumu Networks - A much-needed boost for wireless networks.

45. Betterment - Robo-advising for the masses.

46. Kymeta - Bill Gates' next potential blockbuster.

47. Twilio - Riding the mobile-app wave.

48. Snapchat - The app for selfie photo lovers.

49. Kickstarter - Cashing in from the crowd.

50. Birchbox - Free samples, for a price.