Nathan Kalin, 28

In 2013, Cruise Car CEO Adam Sulimirski offered Nathan Kalin a job doing the company’s marketing. It seemed like a good fit for Kalin, with a degree in English.

In his marketing role, Kalin worked on a website and press releases and started to move into sales for the company, which now has some 15 employees and did $10 million in revenue in 2018. “It takes a little while to get the hang of it and really get the pitch down,” he says. “After about a year or so, I turned out to be a pretty good salesman.”

Kalin, now the company’s president, learned about the world of business through online research and voracious reading. “As an English major, reading was one of my favorite things,” he says. “That’s one trait that has been very helpful for me. I’ve read just about every business book I can find.”