Entrepreneur’s annual look at the brightest ideas, the hottest industries and the most insightful innovators

Brilliance expresses itself in many ways–from the esoteric tinkerings of a mad genius to the profit-heavy balance sheets that illustrate the work of astute executives. Sometimes brilliance is merely a deceptively simple, why-hasn’t-anyone-thought-of-this-before solution to a nagging problem.

The products and services represented by our annual roundup of 100 Brilliant Companies are a little bit of all of these. It should come as no surprise that our list is heavy on digital technology, with apps, development platforms and gadgets related to mobile phones, social networking and health care, as well as some mind-blowing inventions that are just plain cool.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, we found much to admire in low-tech brilliance–most notably that with retro hipster appeal, as chronicled in our new-this-year category Geek Chic. Throw in a bit of fun from food, shopping, music, art and travel, and you have our list of the best ideas, the brightest innovations–and, yes, the wackiest notions dreamed up by businesses in the last year.

But brilliance is not merely subjective: In some cases, it can be quantified in dollars and cents. This is not to say that these companies are necessarily the most lucrative in their fields; few of them, if any, are that. But to get a sense of the potential value of the businesses on our list, we spoke to leading venture capitalists to find out what qualities they look for in investment targets in several of our categories. It’s a fascinating window into the minds of the people who are betting big on tomorrow’s brilliance, today.

Our hope is that, as you dip into our 10 categories, you’ll find ideas that inspire, excite and delight you–and, more than anything, perhaps galvanize you to create a bit of brilliance yourself.

TECH

How Syn Labs Brings Creative Visions to Life

Syyn Labs founder and vice president Doug Campbell arrives 10 minutes into our meeting at headquarters, a 5,000-square-foot converted paint warehouse in an industrial area of Los Angeles.

His excuse for being tardy–”I was talking Virgin Galactic into giving us some free parabolic weightless spaceflights”–is raucously approved by his colleagues: head of business development and lead engineer Brent Bushnell, lead engineer and Caltech-trained physicist Dan Busby, lead engineer and roboticist Eric Gradman and creative director and industrial designer Hector Alvarez. The purpose of these spaceflights, and the autonomous drone recently purchased by Gradman, remains a mystery (though the phrase “rubber chickens” is said in passing), but the end result is guaranteed to be a spectacle.

APPS

Geoloqi Makes it Easier to Make Apps Smarter

During her keynote speech at the 2012 South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas, Geoloqi CEO Amber Case proclaimed that the next generation of location-based apps and analytics would transform the mobile phone into a “remote control for reality,” with people as the metaphorical buttons. The problem with the current state of things, she lamented, is that you “miss a lot of life looking at the screen all the time.”

With Geoloqi, you can make apps to fix that–apps that work in the background, alerting you only if something needs to be done. The Portland, Ore.-based company provides a turnkey platform that makes it easy to add next-generation geolocation functionality to apps and mobile devices. The company demonstrates its capabilities to potential clients and partners with its own app, which has features like “Don’t Eat There” (it pings you if you’re near a restaurant that has gotten too many bad reviews). Case and co-founder Aaron Parecki programmed a set of location-based features that automatically turn lights on or off when they enter or leave their houses.

FOOD & BEV

Reinventing the Fast-Casual Dining Scene with Technology

After Jonathan Kaplan sold his Flip HD video camera business to Cisco Systems in 2009 for a reported $590 million, he became obsessed with something quite different: the perfect grilled cheese sandwich.

Specifically, he was interested in turning out an impeccable sandwich every time, using premium ingredients such as sharp cheddar, brie or Gruyère, and fresh-baked sourdough, garlic or artisanal wheat bread. At The Melt, his popular chain of soup-and-sandwich shops in San Francisco, Kaplan has not only achieved that goal but revolutionized the fast-casual dining scene through technology.

Customers of The Melt who opt to prepay online or via smartphone receive a QR code. When they walk into any location, they can skip the line and scan their order at a kiosk near the cash register. As soon as the scan is processed, cooks get to work using a proprietary, panini-style press from Electrolux that grills the sandwich using radiant infrared heat. According to CMO Paul Coletta, The Melt’s presses “balance two specialized tasks: toasting the crust and melting the cheese.” And they do this perfectly, time after time, in less than 60 seconds.

TRAVEL

Travel How One Celeb-centric Startup is Cashing in on Guided Travel Sector

Twenty people tore up Squaw Valley with Olympic gold-medal skier Jonny Moseley. National Geographic explorer Mireya Mayor led a small group on a wildlife “safari” through California’s wine country. A group of thrill-seekers sharpened their whitewater skills in Nevada’s Truckee River with world-record kayaker Tao Berman. These are the types of once-in-a-lifetime adventures, guided by celebrity gurus, that have helped drive zozi to rapidly multiplying revenue, backed by $11 million in venture funding.

“No other company has built an online platform that easily connects anyone to some of the most unattainable people in the world to go on experiences that will give you a lifetime of stories to tell,” says T.J. Sassani, founder of the San Francisco-based company. “Zozi is ultimately a discovery engine that makes bite-sized adventures accessible to all kinds of people.”

HEALTH

Tonic Health Brings Fun and Games to Boring Health Forms

Information is power–and in healthcare IT, it’s power that’s worth billions. The 2009 economic stimulus package allocated $20 billion to the cause, and consultancy Global Markets Direct has forecast that spending in the healthcare technology sector will easily surpass $10 billion by 2015.

“Internet-enabled health care is a huge area of spend, and massively inefficient, so there are many opportunities to apply technology to fix it,” says Scott Sangster, head of consumer healthcare company HealthinReach.com and former president of the Los Angeles chapter of investor group Tech Coast Angels. “A lot of money was put into consumer-directed care and wellness and biometric data collection in 2011, and I expect that to continue.”

GEEK CHIC

An Indie Publisher Brings a Creative Comic Spin to Business Books

Move aside, nerds: Comics are for everyone now–and they’re moving out of your parents’ basement and into the boardroom. Leading the shift is Franco Arda, founder and CEO of SmarterComics, a publisher of business books that have been reimagined as illustrated texts.

In 2008, Arda, who worked in derivative sales for Deutsche Bank, was approaching 40 and needed a change. So he left investment banking to write Fortune Favors the Bold, a book about achieving goals. But when he completed the project, Arda says, he “thought it sounded boring.”

He met comic artist Anjin Anhut, who suggested he illustrate the book. Arda enjoyed nonfiction but didn’t know anything about comics; the idea of combining the two intrigued him. “I thought it was a new medium for making people smarter,” he says. In 2010, SmarterComics was born.

INVENTION

Orbotix: Where Mobile Apps and the Toy Industry Collide

FConsider the ball. It’s a toy to children, rolling prey to dogs and a crucial instrument to athletes.

But for Ian Bernstein and Adam Wilson, the 28-year-old founders of Denver-based Orbotix, it’s the pinnacle of robotics and a prime example of how smartphones will one day interact with the world.

Orbotix released its first product, the $130 Sphero, in December 2011. A grapefruit-size orb that connects to iOS and Android devices via Bluetooth, Sphero is, simply, the world’s first smartphone-controlled ball. Dreamed up by Bernstein, a robotics whiz, and Wilson, a software hacker and Bluetooth master, the device consists of motors, processors, gyroscopes and accelerometers, which propel it; LED lights, which change its color; and a sturdy polycarbonate shell that can withstand a 6-foot drop onto concrete.

RETAIL

BeachMint Carves a Retail Niche with Celebrity Appeal

With a model that combines the hottest trends in e-commerce–personalized, social shopping; vertical product categories; and, most important, celebrity endorsement–BeachMint has hit on a recipe for success.

The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company, founded in 2010 by serial entrepreneur Diego Berdakin and Myspace veteran Josh Berman, offers users personalized recommendations for exclusive merchandise by BeachMint’s celebrity design partners in various categories.

The product channels–or “Mints,” as they are known–are curated by the likes of Kate Bosworth (jewelry), the Olsen twins (T-shirts), Rachel Bilson (shoes) and Jessica Simpson (skincare). The company most recently signed a deal with Justin Timberlake for a home furnishings line. The celebs work with industry experts and stylists to create the company’s merchandise.

SOCIAL MEDIA

RockMelt Revamps the Web Browser for Social Media

With a model that combines the hottest trends in e-commerce–personalized, social shopping; vertical product categories; and, most important, celebrity endorsement–BeachMint has hit on a recipe for success.

In the nine months after its public beta in March 2011, RockMelt, a cloud-based web browser, picked up more than 1 million users and made two reassuring discoveries: Some two-thirds of users were younger than 25, and people were using the personalized browser on multiple computers, iPads and iPhones. “This tells us we’ve made the first browser for the mobile, social media generation,” says CEO Eric Vishria.

It’s sweet vindication for Vishria and CTO and chairman Tim Howes. In 2007, they were searching for the next big thing to pursue after leaving Hewlett-Packard. They knew they wanted to exploit the potential of social media, but how? Their epiphany: the overlooked web browser, then dominated by Internet Explorer and Firefox.

MUSIC/ART

SoundHound Creates a Faster, Easier Way to Find Forgotten Song Titles

We’ve all been there, desperately racking our brains for that forgotten song title or lyric. It’s on the tip of my tongue …

Keyvan Mohajer, founder and CEO of San Jose, Calif.-based SoundHound, is capitalizing on that frustrating feeling and on the red-hot strength of the music and art tech scene. His app allows even the utterly tone deaf to search for tunes simply by humming or singing into a smartphone.

“We put magic in the palms of people’s hands,” Mohajer says. “Our users experience music on a whole new level.”

SoundHound, which utilizes proprietary Sound2Sound technology, claims to be the world’s fastest music-recognition service. In addition to IDing songs that are hummed or sung, it recognizes spoken searches, providing access to song previews, tour dates, artist bios, lyrics, videos and other information, as well as sharing over social networks–all straight from the app.