Justin Brownhill

Cofounded: Receivables Exchange

Silicon Alley 100 rank: 12

Why you should care (from SA 100):  The Receivables Exchange is possibly the least sexy startup idea we’ve ever heard: a market for businesses to auction off their accounts receivable as a way of improving their short term liquidity.

The company has managed to stay mostly under the radar, despite a rapidly expanding business, $17 million raised this year, and The Wall Street Journal’s Technology Innovation award, which it won in September