ANDREW GRAY | Holmes Murphy

Andrew Gray is senior account executive for insurance broker Holmes Murphy and Associates, based in Overland Park. From that perspective, he nails the key ingredients of entrepreneurship: “Strategy, vision, product differentiation and hard work play significant roles in successful entrepreneurs,” the 28-year-old says, “but there will always be adversity to overcome—and that is where successful entrepreneurs succeed.” The competitive nature of insurance services, he says, demands continual evolution and a constant embrace of innovation. As his boss, regional president Jeff Spencer, says, that boils down to Gray’s “constant search for new ideas that will drive growth” at the eighth-largest privately held insurance brokerage in the nation. Success, Gray says, also stems from having mentors who provide resources that help deliver results. In his own case, that started at home. “My father,” he says, “has been a mentor to me in both my professional and personal life. He also keeps me grounded.”

PAUL GREGORY | Novation

We could make the case for Paul Gregory ourselves, but not as succinctly as Fred Coulson, managing partner at Five Elms Capital. The 29-year-old Gregory, says Coulson, “is a stud.” Gregory spent 2½ years at Five Elms before leaving in May to become Director of Business Development for NovaStar Financial, now re-branding as Novation There, he’ll have a chance to act on his own vision of entrepreneurship: “Entrepreneurs take risks,” says Gregory. “They challenge the status quo.” He saw that in spades at Five Elms, a late-stage venture capital firm. There, he says, he partnered risk-takers every day, people who “have the audacity to believe that through their hard work and determination, they can build something that not only creates value for themselves, but jobs for those in their communities, transforming and disrupting entire industries along the way.” He holds an MBA from the University of Kansas School of Business (where he majored in accounting), and has worked in both asset management for
Merrill Lynch and investment banking at Bank of America.

ROYCE HAYNES | Legal Sonar

Royce Haynes lists 37—yes, 37—separate computer technical skills on his resume, everything from the well-known programs like Windows, Java and Oracle to exotic-sounding ones like Spring Beans, Tapestry and Django. And he’s not afraid to use them. Most recently, he’s been in the service of Argus Health Systems as a software developer, working on a Java enhancement to the system’s ePrescribing drug formulation programming. While engaged in those duties, he was also a co-founder of Legal Sonar, working with a pair of 20 in Their Twenties alumni—Diana Kander [2008] and Nathan Kurtz [2009]—to develop a platform for connecting the right attorneys to people in need of legal services. Haynes served as chief technology officer for that venture, which has since been folded into operations of a founding partner, the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association. Passion, creativity and drive, he said, are essential elements for entrepreneurs. “With these pieces of the equation, the only option is success,” say the 26-year-old Haynes.

BETSY JOHNSON | SwimZip

Entrepreneur sees need. Entrepreneur acts. Commerce is born. It really is that simple. In Betsy Johnson’s case, the need emerged from a seaside conversation with her brother. Topic: the difficulty of putting a swim shirt on a wriggling child, or taking it off again. Two months later, SwimZip was born. The UV 50+ sun protection garb is the kind of thing we all grouse about not having and wonder why someone hasn’t invented it—until we see it in the stores. Johnson, a native Topekan, moved past the grousing with vision: Armed with experience drawn from participation in Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas, she and her brother, Berry Wanless, launched SwimZip in 2009, while she was a project manager for the Boeing Co. in Seattle. Back in Kansas City now, she’s selling on the Web and in boutique stores, looking to expand into Canada and South America. There’s more to her motivation, though, than making money: A former skin-cancer patient herself, the 27-year-old is on a personal crusade to educate parents about the dangers of overexposure to the sun’s rays.