Startups

From garages in Silicon Valley to third-floor walkups in Manhattan?and then dittoed in most every major city around the world?is a class of robotics pioneers that we?ve come to know and love as kooksters, iconoclasts, oddballs, outliers, brilliant geeks, disruptors and a whole bunch of other names that smack of innovation and engineering derring-do.

What they do really well is open our eyes to something new and useful, point the way forward for robotics and also nudge the rest of us a little into the future. If successful, they change the way things are, and if really successful, they change our world.

Some startups began yesterday while others are a decade old. Many don?t last long at all: there?s a graveyard full of their machines and their heartache on the outskirts of every place in which they?ve hunkered down to invent.

Their successes now cut our lawns, vacuum our homes, roll around Mars, pick oranges, build cars and threaten millions with the loss of a job.

Poor and scrambling

In startup mode, poor and scrambling, what they get little of is attention, especially early on?when they need it the most.

Here at Robotics Business Review, we decided to open our pages wide to these marvelous, high-tech rascals.

We?ve created Startups News, which is a special column of company profiles, technology and investment news about the hottest startup companies on the robotics horizon. And even some that are not so hot, but very interesting.

Taking on our startups news beat for us is the energetic, versatile and in-the-know Celeste LeCompte, who lives in SV and prowls the Valley?and anywhere else worldwide?where people build things that they call robots, or robot-like somethings that as of now defy categorization.

Celeste is a freelance writer based in San Francisco and Guangzhou, China. She writes primarily about innovation and the environment. Her writing has appeared in Scientific American, Smithsonian, BusinessWeek, GigaOM, and other publications.

Check out Celeste and her blog Celeste LeCompte, where you can drop her a line about you and your startup. Ping us here as well at Robotics Business Review.

Thanks. Hope to share what you’re doing with our readership.