Rudd Davis

In 2010, Rudd Davis helped start a business that developed a technology platform to let hotels deliver personalized content to guest phones. At the same time this was happening, Davis and his parents bought a century-old country store in their small Vermont town. "I helped my parents buy the store and realized there were many of the same issues and customer dynamics at play in their little store as there were in the largest hotels," he said. "I wanted to understand how many people came into the store, where they went when they were there, what they bought."