99 Promising Business Startups

In spite of America’s economic woes and the rapid wholesale transfer of manufacturing overseas, the country has plenty of talented entrepreneurs who are optimistic about their businesses futures.

A few of the best of these startups, accumulated by Business Week, are:

• A husband with a Ph.D. in physics and his wife with a Ph.D. in chemistry.  The couple have developed solar panels that are flexible and light, rather than the usual cumbersome and heavy.  They emigrated to the U.S. from China as postgraduate University of Chicago students and in the 25 years since then have become skilled not only in their respective scientific fields, but in obtaining government grants and loans, along with venture capital money.
• A former financial industry executive recruiter who has made recruiting faster and cheaper for Wall Street firms while providing more detailed candidate background information.
• A trio whose signature product is windows that automatically shift from transparent to reflective based on changes in outside temperatures. The windows save up to 50 percent in energy costs.
• A simple idea for healthier, low-calorie, air-popped snack chips that are already being sold at big-name stores
• Heavy and dangerous manhole cover removing made easier and safer
• A service that ferrets out medical billing errors to save patients money

See a slide show of all 99 startups.