How Real Brilliance Is Measured Rather than looking at typical benchmarks, we focus on the ideas, almost all fueled by passion and implemented by strong leaders.

"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions."
—Albert Einstein

Every year we do this list -- this fantastically unscientific list, in which we acknowledge 100 brilliant ideas, companies and the founders behind them. This list represents everything that is great and meaningful in entrepreneurship and living in a country that celebrates and cheers for disruption. (Gotta love an election cycle.) It's sort of our kiss on the cheek and nod to innovation.

Honestly, it's my favorite issue of the year because it captures the spirit of what we entrepreneurs stand for: boldness, creativity and collaboration. It's our essence, and more important, it's your essence. And in the spirit of disruption, this year we made a point of doing away with the traditional, quantifiable markers of brilliance -- revenue numbers, head count, archetype and whatnot -- to focus on the ideas, almost all fueled by passion and implemented by strong leaders who simply get shit done. This is our definition of brilliant, and this year all the visionaries we highlight really are freakin' brilliant.