The Winners of Entrepreneur of 2012

There's one significant description that can be applied to all three winners of Entrepreneur^® magazine's Entrepreneur of 2012 Awards: cool.

Our Entrepreneur of 2012, Limor Fried of DIY invention powerhouse Adafruit Industries, is the grand doyenne of the hipster-chic maker movement. Emerging Entrepreneur winner Jason Lucash of OrigAudio is meshing music, design and sustainability--essentially, everything trendy young consumers care about--in his groovy portable products. And while College Entrepreneur winner Bryan Silverman may have set his sights on a not-so-cool item--toilet paper--he's approaching it in a decidedly modern way: connecting it to digital media (yes, really) and capitalizing on his refreshingly candid acknowledgement of what people really do in the bathroom.

So how did these cool characters come to win our 2012 accolades? From thousands of entries, Entrepreneur editor in chief Amy C. Cosper and vice president of marketing Lisa Murray, along with The UPS Store's vice president of marketing and small-business solutions Michelle Van Slyke and field marketing supervisor Jennifer Nelson, narrowed the field to 15 finalists. Then readers voted on their favorites at Entrepreneur.com.

Here are the results. We couldn't be more proud.

Entrepreneur of 2012: Limor Fried

BY Jennifer Wang

Adafruit's innovative DIY open-source electronic hardware kits make founder Limor Fried our Entrepreneur of 2012.

Emerging Entrepreneur of 2012: Jason Lucash

BY Jenna Schnuer

OrigAudio, the maker of innovative folding speakers, has doubled its sales every year since 2009.

College Entrepreneur of 2012: Bryan Silverman

BY Margaret Littman

An enterprising young trep capitalizes on a captive audience with toilet paper you can read.

Read more stories about: Entrepreneur awards, Entrepreneur of 2012

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This article was originally published in the January 2013 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: The Winners of Entrepreneur of 2012.