I don’t think there’s anything more interesting than an entire PandoList dedicated to companies making cool robots. Based on the interviews we did this week, I’d say we’re making huge strides towards a world where we’re interacting with robots in our day to day activities. We interviewed Keller Rinaudo from Romotive, Charles Grinnell from Harvest Automation, Garratt Gallagher of Bilibot, Paul Berberian from Orbotix, and finally Steve Cousins of Willow Garage. Check these guys out and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

[Image courtesy davedehetre]

When you hear the term “Mad Scientist,” what do you think? Personally, I think of “Pinky and the Brain,” the genetically enhanced laboratory mice who are constantly scheming about the best way to take over the world. This week we had the chance to interview five mad scientists. Chances are they’re each trying to take over the world in their own way, but you’ll have to check out the interviews and make your own conclusions.

We interviewed founder of Second Life and co-founder of Coffee & Power Philip Rosedale, co-founder of LeapMotion David Holz, founder of GreenGoose Brian Krejcarek, founder of Station X Richard Goold, and finally founder of Lytro Ren Ng.

[Illustration by Hallie Bateman]

Australia is over 9,000 miles from the United States, and yet it still has a strong entrepreneurial presence here in Silicon Valley. In fact, after you take a look at our interviews, you’ll see that Australian innovation is just beginning.

We had the chance to interview CEO and co-founder of software development company Atlassian Mike Cannon-Brookes, CEO and co-founder of Halfbrick Studios Shainiel Deo (and the man who came up with Fruit Ninja), Kaggle’s Anthony Goldbloom, the diplomat turned Entrepreneur of RedBubble Martin Hosking, and finally CEO of the recently launched Simple Joshua Reich.

[Illustration by Hallie Bateman]

You often hear about great CEO’s and their successful companies, but not all CEOs were nearly as impressive when they first began their careers. In fact, like most things, it takes a lot of experience, work, coaching, mentoring, and guidance before anyone gets good.

A CEO coach may not be a profession, but, this week we featured five amazing entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley who have helped countless CEOs to figure out the best way to run their companies. We featured former Ask.com CEO and advisor to Netflix, LinkedIn and Expedia (to name a few) Skip Battle, advisor for Y Combinator Harjeet Taggar, founder of The Funded and The Founder Institute Adeo Ressi, Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz, and founder of Power Presentations Jerry Weissman.

Many Silicon Valley startups today are all about user acquisition and scale. Business model-shmisiness shmodel.

But for every Twitter or Facebook that’s made it, there are plenty of other quiet revenue-generating machines dotting the landscape of Silicon Valley. Some are even profitable, or at least, have the ability to be profitable. They’re not highly publicized, so don’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of them. Each company we profiled is viable with a very real revenue stream.

We interviewed Ahhha, the platform where you can make ideas a reality, and Axcient, the platform for data protection and information management. Then we visited ReTargeter, a company that focuses on display retargeting, and M6D, the prospect engine for brands. Finally we spoke with AddThis, one of the largest social sharing platforms in the world.

[Illustration by Hallie Bateman]

Last week we had the chance to go beyond the limits of Silicon Valley, off the Bay Area grid, and into Chico, California. Yep, there’s tech happening in Chico, a lot of it, and it’s innovative, interesting, and useful. The Sierra Nevada Innovation Challenge was last Thursday, and we got to pick out companies that would probably never get a second glance at any other demo day. All five of the companies we profiled are amazing.

There was Aqua Cents, a company trying to decrease the amount of water wasted through water absorbing polymers. Then we saw EASE seating system, which has created a cushion that changes shape every three minutes preventing pressure sores. Trevair is a combination scooter wheel chair that doubles as a manual wheelchair and power chair, and Build-a-Blade is an energy saving custom blade server. Finally, SIGNa Chemistry has created a mobile H2 cartridge that can be paired with fuel cells to power mobile electronics.

We profiled the loud and colorful co-founder of Fab Bradford Shellhammer, the expert on all things vintage and ModCloth’s co-founder Susan Koger, the dapper founder of Dogster and Catster and current VP at Say Media Ted Rheingold, the founder of StyleSaint Allison Beal (who looks like a rocked out Veronica Lake), and women’s skinny jean wearing Ryan Matzner, Director at Fueled.

This week we checked out the LAUNCH Education and Kids conference, where we had the chance to listen to lots of amazing companies pitch ideas that showcase the way they’re using technology to improve education. You can imagine how difficult it was to pick only five to profile.

Nonetheless five were picked. You may have heard of Launchpad Toys, the company that created Toontastic and ToonTube. But have you heard of their newest application, MonkeyGram? Or maybe you’ve always wanted to learn an instrument but had trouble with the whole practicing part of it. JoyTunes has solved that problem. PlayTell, which was launched at the conference, has made a platform combining video chat with ebooks. Motion Math can teach numbers to kids as young as two-years-old (unreal), and GoAnimate has created a do-it-yourself video platform where anyone can create an animated video.

It’s that time of the week, and for your viewing pleasure we’ve profiled some serious geniuses. Today’s list is on teenage entrepreneurs, and these kids are so amazingly smart that it gave me a little bit of an inferiority complex. Seriously. It’s one thing to hear about the engineers and founders behind successful companies, it’s another thing entirely to hear about teenagers who have achieved similar accolades and done even more than that. Who knows, one of these guys may become an even bigger deal than Mark Zuckerberg.

We interviewed Laura Deming a Thiel Fellow working to prevent aging, Taylor Wilson the youngest person in the world to achieve nuclear fusion, Web application guru and Founder of Gumroad Sahil Lavingia, Israeli soldier by day and serial entrepreneur by night Ben Lang, and 15-year-old student, designer, and entrepreneur Brandon Wang.