World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneers Of 2011: See The 31 Most Innovative Start-Ups

Much has been made of the Vanity Fair 100, a list of "the 100 most influential people of the Information Age." But this list looks backward, highlighting well-known names like Zuckerberg, Jobs, Page, and Brin. Another just-released ranking is all about the future--and the new innovators who will define it.

The World Economic Forum has chosen 31 innovative start-ups to honor as the Technology Pioneers of 2011.

Selected from over 330 nominations from more than a dozen countries, the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneers "represent the cutting edge in innovation and are poised to have a critical impact on the future of business, industry and society." Kevin Comolli, Managing General Partner at Accel Partners, called this year's selection process "one of the most difficult to date."

See the 31 innovative and visionary Technology Pioneers in the slideshow below. You can learn more about the selection process and companies from the World Economic Forum.

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Foursquare

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Foursquare is a rapidly-growing location-based social networking service that allows users to share their location with friends and earn real-world rewards for "checking in" to locations, from restaurants to coffee-shops to boutiques.

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Foursquare is a rapidly-growing location-based social networking service that allows users to share their location with friends and earn real-world rewards for "checking in" to locations, from restaurants to coffee-shops to boutiques.

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Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Hmm... I'd invest!

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Comments

[nastybastard]

10:35 PM on 09/07/2010

I have the place - the plans and the people to do the 1st Alternative Energy Powered, Environmentally Friendly Concert Venue in the World. Turned down by the SBA - business is to small - 50 employees. Turned down by banks - not lending and Alt Energy isn't viable. Can't get any of the jet setting enviromentalist to listen - all they do is talk about the environment.
I have the designs - hydro engines will power the venue and the business and I can give away additional power to my neighbors. It will also have a 10,000 gpd desalination machine, a water filtration machine, a bottle machine and 2 wind turbines. The business will fund a food bank - a medical check up program and give H2O to the neighborhood -
Can't get the funding - but 2 of the bankers I talked to went and made offers on the property - -ahahahah
To bad I have a 90 year lease with the 1st right of refusal banker boys.

[Thomas Rand-Nash]

06:52 PM on 09/06/2010

Noone else here finds it a little ridiculous that foursquare or other companies who really create superfluous products would be featured in the same expose (and #1 at that), with companies who are trying to clean the world's drinking water for the poor and create yeast-based immune systems to develop new medicine?

[ragtag]

09:26 AM on 09/06/2010

New fuel injector technology that can be retrofitted to existing cars would be the single biggest game changer of them all. Since the mid-80s, most cars have used a form of fuel injection. If they could be retrofitted to produce say a 25% increase in efficiency, just think of all the benefits...I actually believe that at one time there were patents for this that have since been bought and buried by big oil...

[ragtag]

09:17 AM on 09/06/2010

"ReputationDefender can bombard the Web with positive or neutral information about its customers, either creating new Web pages or by multiplying links to existing ones to ensure they show up at the top of any Google search."

Nothin' like gaming the system...

[whitegayrepublican]

11:00 AM on 09/05/2010

Sad. So very sad. Same types of faces and same types of idea.

The trouble with America is in her inabilities to recognize all races, all ideas, all people. Over and over and over again, this cycle of bubble and bust will continue until she does. There are so many brown Americans that are denied access to credit every single year by bankers that refuse to acknowledge creativity in ALL shades. 57 times I was turned down; that is until I took my ideas overseas but I think that it is sad to see this trend and nobody listens because I for one, as a brown man did not hire just brown people but ALL people. This country is going to its knees and the brown people sacked and sidelined while the good whites burn Rome to the ground.

http://www.naggl.org/AM/template.cfm?

[Thomas Rand-Nash]

06:55 PM on 09/06/2010

Really "white gay republican?" Apparently you have no problem making jokes at the expense of other minorities. Enjoy your glass house!

[whitegayrepublican]

07:20 PM on 09/06/2010

I know. Its gets all of the non reading people like yourself to respond. We don't think anymore but respond without the haste. Yoube well this Labor Day holiday TRN.

[comicpro]

08:53 AM on 09/04/2010

In the USA we need more manufacturing and less social networking and service oriented businesses. The economy has always grown when our manufacturing base has expanded. More Facebook and MySpace customers did what for the economy? Innovation to me is not more idle time spent in front of a computer but building something that the world has a use for like wind turbines,solar energy panels,energy efficient vehicles,you know things that not only save you money in the long run,improve the earth,and create decent jobs. How silly of me to think like this I know. Gotta run as I think the Jersye Shore or no wait the Housewives of New Jersey are on:)

[TEVG]

07:48 AM on 09/04/2010

Did they mean Technology Pioneers of 2010 or since there are none just fast forward to next year and hope for the best?

[SwingingFromCenter]

03:41 AM on 09/04/2010

1) OpenDNS has a lot of problems. I would never allow a network I touch to utilize it.

2) This list is missing what is quite possibly the most compelling story of the year: Bloom Energy. I did a contract setting up their network security earlier this year, and was immensely impressed and fascinated with what they're doing down there. A lot of companies on this list aren't game changers. Bloom is.

[Oiiohh]

02:04 AM on 09/05/2010

Bloom is listed as a winner last year. We hope to make it next year if all continues to go well for us...

[ResearchtheFacts]

04:41 PM on 09/07/2010

You must be using the free version. I use it with no problems. Pages load lightening fast and it filters out the ads for a cleaner cruise. There could be multiple reasons why you are having problems none which you have outlined.

[Kumar Gandharva]

06:46 PM on 09/03/2010

The list is really a encouraging one.. Being a Online Marketing personal what i loved about the list that some of my Web 2.0 sites have made it to the top 10. And most other on the list and those who take them as them clientele..

Bravo.. the world drives technology and technology drives the world..

[ragtag]

09:19 AM on 09/06/2010

Or, people drive technology and technology drives people...

[PtownBen]

04:37 PM on 09/03/2010

9 out of the 10 people pictured are men, does this mean that men are more creative?

[Kumar Gandharva]

06:51 PM on 09/03/2010

Well if you are asking this question to the F brigade.. you are not going to get the right answer.. bcz analysis and voting for that also requires a lot of creativity...

What i fear is I might get a Men SHOVNIST tag here..

[TheWorldBlowsUpTommorow]

03:19 PM on 09/04/2010

Of course not?

How do you look at like 10 men out of about 150 million and say men are more creative because of that?

How dumb are you?

[jamster88]

08:32 PM on 09/04/2010

You're the 'dumb one'. They are not arbitrarily sampled people, which would have given your point *some* validity - they are ostensibly the 'top innovators' and since they are almost all men that DOES statistically indicate that men are likely to be 'more innovative' - albeit in very, very rough terms.

[paulmala]

02:39 PM on 09/03/2010

what is that ebook reader/tablet in the Scribd photo?

[Ty Thompson]

05:33 PM on 09/03/2010

Doesn't matter to me, Scribd is in my top ten most annoying sites.

[paulmala]

04:44 AM on 09/04/2010

I just want to know because i want an ebook reader that isnt the ipad, and that one looks alright

[Jorge Umana]

11:34 AM on 09/03/2010

nice !

[CaseyChesh]

10:46 AM on 09/03/2010

Funny that FourSquare is first on this list. I just wrote a blog article about how FourSquare, as currently implemented, is doomed.

[jamster88]

08:33 PM on 09/04/2010

We all know it's the flavour of the month - but more importantly it's about as important to our culture as a board game. The progressives are getting ridiculous.

[Oiiohh]

02:07 AM on 09/05/2010

fanned... Your 1st of many more, happy posting!

Peace
Liberty

[WriterGirl]

10:04 AM on 09/03/2010

A lot of these constitute a new spin on the same old ideas. But I love to read about people getting busy and making things happen, especially those who are contributing to a greener society :-)

[petzl]

06:24 AM on 09/03/2010

Sorry, Im going to have to call "shenanigans" on #17, Neuronetics.

"Neuronetics has developed the NeuroStar Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Therapy System, an alternative method for treating clinical depression and other neurological disorders. The company's goal, writes the WEF, is to develop non-invasive therapies for psychiatric and neurological disorders using MRI-strength magnetic field pulses."

"Magnetic field pulses" to treat depression? I have to believe that a) it has no therapeutic effect, or b) it has a detrimental effect. And since b) would probably result in noticeable side-effects that would halt its use, im going with a).

[WriterGirl]

10:01 AM on 09/03/2010

It had to have had a demonstrated therapeutic effect in order to gain FDA approval for marketing, petzl. But I get your point - they don't know why it works, really; they just know that it does. Very much like every other treatment we have for depression now - EST, first and second generation anti-depressant drugs, cognitive psychotherapy. We treat the symptoms because, unfortunately, we don't really know what "depression" is.

[Ty Thompson]

05:29 PM on 09/03/2010

They're simply dusting off Tesla's old discoveries, more are to come.

[jamster88]

08:34 PM on 09/04/2010

Not fair. Telsa had no idea how his little gadget would affect the psyche moreover, certainly did not know why it would do that.