Tim Chang, Mayfield Fund

Tim Chang
A bass player by night and venture capitalist by day, Chang is the first venture investor to understand gamification and how it could be applied across industries. His early investment in Playdom, when Chang was at Norwest Ventures, was validated when Disney bought the company in 2010 for $563 million.

Such successes made him a target for rival firms, and in September Chang jumped to Mayfield, where he's looking for new ways to exploit gamification. "This is just getting started," said Chang. "We're still figuring out what industries it fits with."

Chang, ever the data nerd, is a proponent of what's known as the "quantified self"--basically, the notion of living by numbers--and that's led him to investments this year in such companies as Mybasis, which creates a device for keeping track of your health. It's all cutting edge stuff, and Chang is at the forefront.