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Ranking the most influential LGBT+ entrepreneurs and cultural figures worldwide

October 17, 2021

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JS3 Global

Over the past decade, LGBT+ representation has increased dramatically, marking a step-change towards greater freedom and equality for individuals across the societal divide. Indeed, many of the world's most acclaimed artists, musicians and cultural figures identify as LGBT+ – from legends like Elton John and Giorgio Armani to contemporary personalities like Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato.

But of all the famous faces who identify as LGBT+, who are the most influential? And which inspirational figures offer the most in terms of charitable donations and cultural clout?

In this in-depth guide, we're shining a light on the world's most influential LGBT+ artists, entrepreneurs and cultural figures. Exploring things like net worth, demographics and social followership, we'll also compare LGBT+ personalities to those who identify as heterosexual to see if there's any disparity between gender and sexual orientation.

Find out what our research threw up, and how we did it, in our complete guide below.

How We Did It

We used data from the Forbes Rich List to analyse the net worth of LGBT+ billionaires and supplemented this with further research to discover the net worth of other high-earning LGBT+ entrepreneurs. This allowed us to come up with a list of the 50 richest LGBT+ entrepreneurs overall.

Putting these names through Google Keyword Planner, we discovered how often people had searched for them online. We then used our media database to find out how many social followers each entrepreneur had and how many times they had been mentioned in the press.

From there, we combined their net worth, Google search volumes, social media followers and press mentions and assigned each category 25 points. This gave each LGBT+ entrepreneur a total point value out of 100, allowing us to rank them in order of total influence.

The World's Most Influential LGBT+ Entrepreneurs Overall

LGBT+ culture has had a massive impact on society, helping to break down barriers while ushering forward a generation of progressive thinkers. But the question remains: who are the world's most influential LGBT+ figures?

Find out in our visual guide below.

World's Most Influential LGBT+ EntrepreneursPhoto courtesy of JS3 Global

1.Lady Gaga

Although her net worth is substantially lower than the top 10 richest LGBT+ entrepreneurs (at just $150 million), Lady Gaga is the most influential LGBT+ entrepreneur in 2021. That's thanks to the huge popularity she has between her high search interest and social following – an astronomic online presence that contributes much to her business ventures.

.Alongside her mother, Lady Gaga runs a mental health charity, Born This Way Foundation, which she established back in 2012. She also owns her own cosmetics company, Haus Laboratories, which, as well as offering 100% vegan and cruelty-free makeup, also donates $1 for every product sold to charity.

2.Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus is the second most influential LGBT+ entrepreneur. She has a net worth of $300 million and over 220 million followers on social media.

Outside of producing music, Cyrus started The Happy Hippie Foundation in 2014 that focuses on youth homelessness and protecting the LGBT+ community. And at 28 years old, she's the youngest artist and entrepreneur to make the top 10.

3.Demi Lovato

Starting their own charity, The Mental Health Fund, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Demi Lovato is the third-most influential LGBT+ figure in the world. That's thanks to a sizeable net wealth and huge social following, not to mention over 2.7 million related searches on Google.

Lovato is one of three pansexual people to make the top 10 most influential list and recently came out as non-binary

4.Ellen Degeneres

Known for her comedy and television career, Ellen Degeneres has an empire of businesses and charities around her that contribute to her influential entrepreneurship, including the Ellen Degeneres Wildlife Fund, ED Ellen Degeneres (a lifestyle brand) and, of course, her production company, A Very Good Production, which produced The Ellen Degeneres Show.

At 63, Degeneres is widely regarded as a leading figure within the LGBT+ community and has successfully leveraged her platform to raise awareness of LBGT+ issues for over 40 years.

5.Elton John

Considered one of the most iconic LGBT+ artists of all time, Elton John has enjoyed an illustrious and colourful career spanning over five decades. To date, John has produced 30 albums, selling over 300 million copies around the world.

As well as an illustrious music career, John is known for his philanthropy and charity work. In 1992, he founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which remains one of the most important organisations set up by an LGBT+ figure.

6.Ricky Martin

Latin American pop icon Ricky Martin has run the Ricky Martin Foundation for the last 20 years, protecting children's rights and helping to raise awareness of LGBT+ issues. Described as 'The King of Latin Pop', Martin is revered for his humanitarian work as well as his passionate LGBT+ advocacy.

7.Tim Cook

Having served as Apple Inc.'s chief executive since 2011, Tim Cook is regarded as one of the most high-profile LGBT+ figures in the world of business and entrepreneurship. This is backed by a tremendous social followership, as well as over 75,000 mentions in the press.

8.Cara Delevigne

British model, actress and singer Cara Delavigne is among the most influential LGBT+ millennials of her generation, with a vast, 60-million strong social followership. Delavigne identifies as pansexual and genderfluid.

9.Giorgio Armani

Despite overseeing a powerful online brand, legendary Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani doesn't have much presence himself on social media. Instead, he draws influence from his enormous media presence, and remains one of the wealthiest openly LGBT+ people in the world, second only to David Geffen.

10.RuPaul

American drag icon RuPaul is revered for his work raising awareness for drag and LGBT+ culture around the world. After a storied career in the entertainment industry, this charismatic figure remains one of the most influential figures in LGBT+ culture.

Net Worth Compared: LGBT+ vs Heterosexual

While it's clear LGBT+ representation has increased in recent years, there are still major disparities in terms of equality, opportunity and pay parity. This is evident when comparing the net worth of heterosexual and LGBT+ entrepreneurs, as highlighted in our visual below.

Richest LGBT+ Entreprepreuners vs Richest Heterosexual EntrepreunersPhoto courtesy of JS3 Global

The LGBT+ rich list is more diverse than its heterosexual counterpart, with two women, Megan Ellison and Jennifer Prtizker, making the cut. Prtizker is one of three transgender people influential enough to feature in our research, and she is also the only transgender billionaire in the world. By comparison, the top 10 rich list overall has only heterosexual men.

When it comes to net worth, remarkably, there's a $177.5 billion disparity between the richest heterosexual billionaire and the richest openly LGBT+ billionaire. David Geffen, the wealthiest openly gay LGBT+ person in the world, ranks just 233rd on the Forbes Rich List.

Elsewhere, there were interesting differences in how and where entrepreneurs acquired their fortunes. The world's richest billionaires are primarily associated with technology, e-commerce and finance. LGBT+ entrepreneurs, on the other hand, most commonly succeed in more creative industries such as fashion, television, and film and music production.

Demographics of World's Richest LGBT+ Entrepreneurs

So, we've established that there are major variances between heterosexual and LGBT+ entrepreneurs, but how do LGBT+ figures compare with one another? Exploring the demographics of our most influential list, we discovered the following:

50 of the World's Richest LGBT+ EntrepreneursPhoto courtesy of JS3 Global

Gay men made up 58 per cent of the world's most influential LGBT+ entrepreneurs
Lesbians made up 25 per cent of the world's most influential LGBT+ entrepreneurs
Bisexuals made up just 7 per cent of the world's most influential LGBT+ entrepreneurs
RuPaul was the only black LGBT+ entrepreneur to appear in our top 50 LGBT+ Rich List
There was just one Asian LGBT+ entrepreneur with a high net worth, Gigi Chao, who we estimated has a fortune of between $1 and $5 million overall
There were just three transgender entrepreneurs – one of these is Jennifer Pritzker, who is the fourth-richest LGBT+ entrepreneur in the world
There were only three pansexual entrepreneurs (Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus and Cara Delevigne), but all three made it into the top 10 most influential list

Most Charitable LGBT+ Entrepreneurs

LGBT+ entrepreneurs are well regarded for their activism and philanthropy, with many donating large sums to charity or else establishing their own initiatives. But of the world's influential LGBT+ figures, who is the most charitable? And to which causes are they most likely to donate to?

While we don't have data for exactly how much each entrepreneur donates, these are the 10 entrepreneurs donating to the greatest number of different causes.

The World's Most Charitable LGBT+ EntrepreneursPhoto courtesy of JS3 Global

When it comes to generous givers, Lady Gaga came out on top with at least 76 charities registered to her name. Elsewhere, Elton John also proved himself a long-time philanthropist, donating to 64 good charities and counting.

While they had fewer charities registered publicly to their names, LGBT+ entrepreneurs such as Jon Stryker, Tim Gill, David Geffen, Jennifer Prtizker and David Bohnett have entire charity foundations made in their name that fund many charitable causes in the fields of social justice, LGBT+ protection, education and more meaning the actual number of charities they donate to likely far larger than what is publicly recorded.

Around 25 per cent of the good causes LGBT+ entrepreneurs donate to are children's charities, making it the most popular charity sector. This is followed closely by health charities, which made up 21 per cent of the charities donated to.

Most Popular Charities for LGBT+ EntrepreneursPhoto courtesy of JS3 Global

Joining health and children's charities in the top five were LGBT+ charities (12 per cent), wider social justice charities (10 per cent ), and charities involved with HIV/AIDS (10 per cent ). LGBT+ entrepreneurs are also enthusiastic about animal protection rights and arts and culture, as these were the sixth and seventh most popular charities to donate to respectively.

The most popular LGBT+ charity to donate to was GLAAD, while the most popular HIV/AIDS charity to donate to was The Elton John AIDS Foundation. Overall, LGBT+ entrepreneurs are very likely to donate to good causes related to LGBT+ issues.

So there you have it, an in-depth look at the world's most influential LGBT+ entrepreneurs. For more information on the results of our study, including how we conducted our research, get in touch.

For more information , visit JS3 Global's website here.

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Can tech help female entrepreneurs break the bias?

Women founders continue to come up against common challenges and biases

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.