Enduring shocks and overcoming adversity is essential for anyone trying to grow a business at scale. Few people in this list know that better than the founder of GoCardless. In 2016, five years after founding his financial payments firm, Takeuchi was struck by a car while cycling in London. The accident left him paralysed from the waist down. Takeuchi had to take three months off to concentrate on his recovery. Despite this, the quality of the team he had already built around him ensured the business continued to thrive. “That was good to see – it’s nice to know something you have built has got a life of its own,” he later said. The story of GoCardless, valued at $2.1bn in a 2022 fundraising, is an extreme but powerful example of how putting together a strong team can help entrepreneurs and their businesses endure even the toughest of challenges.