The $26 billion video conferencing giant is giving away $30,000 each to five solo business owners as part of its first-ever Zoom Solopreneur 50 rankings, shared exclusively with Fortune. No strings attached. 

The first-of-its-kind list, which showcases the top 50 solo entrepreneurs in the U.S., was selected by an independent jury of business leaders and academics from nearly 3,000 applications across 48 states and over 400 cities. 

“This program reflects where work is going—and the people already building there,” Zoom CMO Kim Storin told Fortune. 

“This isn’t about building billion-dollar companies. It’s about building sustainable, profitable businesses that support a life. That’s a modern version of the American Dream—where ownership, independence, and control are all enabled by technology.” 

33 million people have ditched traditional career paths

The timing is deliberate. As AI continues to reshape the workforce and hollow out traditional career paths, a new class of solo operators is quietly thriving. There are more than 33 million self-employed Americans, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with 82% of small businesses operating without a single employee. That’s precisely what sets solopreneurs apart from entrepreneurs. No team. No office. No cofounder. And Zoom wants to be the company that backs them.

“The Solopreneur 50 is our way of recognizing that shift early,”  Storin says. “It highlights a new class of builders who are redefining what a company looks like and proving that ambition today is shaped more by focus and capability than by size.” 

“For decades, scale meant headcount,” she adds. “That equation is breaking.” Now, she says, one person with the right tools can outperform entire teams built the old way—because the barriers that once kept solo operators small have largely disappeared. Zoom, naturally, counts itself among the tools making that possible.

And the breakdown of who applied for the grant further highlights that you no longer need to know how to code to build a thriving business. Just 5% of the founders were in the technology and SaaS sector.

In fact, services and consulting made up the biggest slice of solopreneurs at 20%—suggesting the most common path to going solo is simply monetizing expertise you already have. Close behind are founders in health, wellness, and social impact, pointing to strong purpose-driven motivations among those striking out alone.

As Zoom noted in its report, “the democratization of AI tools means technical skills are no longer prerequisites for building scalable businesses—a fundamental shift in who can participate in the innovation economy.” The proof is in the winners themselves, whose industries span everything from philanthropy to cake designing.

Meet the five solopreneurs splitting $150,000

To make it onto the list, candidates were evaluated on five criteria: the originality of their idea; evidence of real growth and sustainability; their impact on customers or communities; how authentically the business reflected the founder’s values; and their reach and influence in their field.

“What stood out was ambition combined with precision,” Storin says. “The best solopreneurs aren’t trying to do more; they’re ruthlessly focused on what only they can do, and they offload everything else to technology.”

As well as receiving cash to reinvest directly into their businesses, the 5 winners will gain access to Zoom mentorship, technology resources, and partnerships. 

Cierra Gross, founder of Worklution Inc, is using her $30,000 to grow Wrk Receipts—a workplace documentation tool already used by over 22,000 employees. 

“As a solo entrepreneur who is completely bootstrapped, I’m building without a large team or safety net, so this recognition affirms that the work I’m doing is not only needed, but impactful,” she tells Fortune. “It also creates more visibility for the mission behind my work, which is to provide people with information and tools they need to advance their careers and improve their lives.

Michael Odokara-Okigbo is putting his grant toward scaling NKENNEAi, his AI-driven platform for African language translation—working to make the continent’s languages more accessible and celebrated on a global stage.

Derek McCracken spent nearly a decade teaching agriculture in Ohio before launching The Owl’s Nest to give fellow educators ready-to-use classroom resources that actually inspire students. He’s using the $30,000 to bring in more teachers as contractors and expand his curriculum offering nationwide.

Dana Snyder of Positive Equation—which helps nonprofits attract supporters to their cause and build sustainable recurring revenue—is investing her grant into the visibility of the Monthly Giving Builder. “When more nonprofits have the tools to grow recurring giving programs, they can build the sustainable infrastructure they need to support their communities,” she says. “More monthly supporters means more generosity in the world, and that’s how I know I’ve done my job.”

And Angela Morrison of Cakes by Angela Morrison rounds out the five—a reminder that solopreneurship has no industry requirements, no tech prerequisites, and no ceiling.

And for anyone thinking of getting started, Snyder says there’s never been a better time.

“Nine years ago, solopreneurship felt lonely and isolating,” Snyder adds. “Today, the support and communities for female entrepreneurs are incredible. Add in AI and technology advancements, and building something global entirely on your own is limited only by your imagination and curiosity.”

The global nuclear energy renaissance we’ve been seeing in the past few years has been driven by a few different factors, but one of the biggest is the energy needs of artificial intelligence (AI).

There was already a general push toward clean energy, but the rapid data center build-out to run AI programs has created an even larger demand for power.

One of the most promising solutions to the data center problem is the small modular reactor (SMR).

These pint-sized power plants work just like their larger counterparts but at a fraction of the size. The idea is that an SMR could be plopped in the middle of a cluster of data centers to power them without relying on the local grid.

Many companies are working on SMR technology, but lots of them are cash-strapped start-ups solely focused on SMRs. However, two of them, BWX Technologies (BWXT 0.02%) and Rolls-Royce (RYCEY +1.24%), are developing SMRs but with steady revenue streams from their existing business operations.

By my math, they’re two of the best nuclear energy plays right now, especially when it comes to SMR technology.

One if by sea

Up first, BWX Technologies has been a leader in naval nuclear propulsion since the very beginning.

It designed and built components for the USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, back in the 1950s. Since then, the company has built over 400 nuclear reactors for the U.S. Navy.

Since then, BWX has been on the bleeding edge of nuclear technology and it has a wealth of experience making nuclear reactors work on the smaller-scale demanded by the confines of a ship or submarine.

The company’s BWXT Advanced Nuclear Reactor (BANR) design is a modular factory-built nuclear power plant capable of generating 75 megawatts of power wherever it’s deployed. It’s being designed with data centers in mind and uses BWXT’s TRISO-coated fuel, which is more resistant to irradiation, corrosion, and high temperatures than conventional nuclear fuel.

And BWX is pretty far from a start-up. Its main business of nuclear engineering for the Navy means it has plenty of cash to put into developing the BANR. At present, the company runs a net profit margin of 10.31%. The whole of 2025 saw its revenues climb 18% over 2024 to $3.19 billion and its earnings per share (EPS) surge 20%.

So, if you’re looking for a more financially stable SMR company, consider BWX Technologies before any of the start-ups.

Today’s Change

(-0.02%) $-0.05

Current Price

$216.34

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$20B

Day’s Range

$212.96 – $218.22

52wk Range

$102.42 – $241.82

Volume

20K

Avg Vol

990K

Gross Margin

22.87%

Dividend Yield

0.47%

Two if by air

Second is Rolls-Royce, which is similar to BWX but focused on aircraft engines as opposed to naval propulsion.

You might see the name Rolls-Royce and think of the ultra-luxury cars, but the automotive segment of Rolls-Royce was sold to BMW in the 1990s. The core of the business has always been aircraft engines going back to World War I.

Today, Rolls-Royce produces jet engines for both civilian and military applications. But it does also develop nuclear propulsion systems for the Royal Navy’s submarines. That expertise is being poured into the company’s SMR prototype, which is larger than BWX’s. It’s still assembled in parts in a factory but is capable of producing 470 megawatts.

That perhaps makes it a better solution for powering neighborhoods or small cities as the reactor can power up to 1 million homes. But either way, the reactor’s footprint is much smaller than a traditional nuclear power plant.

The reactor has been selected in the Great British Nuclear SMR competition and is slated to be the U.K.’s next-generation nuclear power solution. Czech power company ČEZ has also signed an agreement with Rolls-Royce to adopt its SMR in Czechia.

Today’s Change

(1.24%) $0.20

Current Price

$16.34

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$137B

Day’s Range

$16.06 – $16.48

52wk Range

$10.22 – $18.98

Volume

7M

Avg Vol

3.8M

Gross Margin

27.89%

Dividend Yield

0.41%

At present, there are no SMRs in operation anywhere in the world. That’s a problem for the start-ups solely focused on the technology. But for companies like BWX and Rolls-Royce, they have other revenue streams keeping them afloat and growing.

In Rolls-Royce’s case, it saw its revenue grow 12.15% in 2025 over 2024 to $21.21 billion, and its EPS more than double from $0.30 to $0.69 over the same period. The company also runs a net profit margin of 27.52% at present.

Rolls-Royce can be looked at as BWX’s larger and older brother across the pond given the similarities between their businesses. Either or both of them together makes a great way to play SMR technology with much lower risk than the smaller companies engaged in developing it.