Before our regular stories continue in the new year, let's look back on 2013 and the first few months since TechWatch was born. So far we've covered eight locally-born technologies with applications from detecting intruders to reading emotions, or how about a cleantech powder that can capture and store gases efficiently, or eLearning that harnesses its community to improve its offering? I've been lucky enough to meet the founders and teams at each company and feel a little of their pain and excitement from the journey so far and the aspirations they have for the future. These are people who have chosen the rough path of entrepreneurship in pursuit of a dream to make a difference in the world, without the stability that a so-called "regular job" is supposed to offer. In San Francisco or London, anywhere innovation has seeped into the blood of society, these are the new cultural heroes. TechWatch tries to show-off these people and products but hopefully does so without portraying their status as unobtainable for the rest of us. The closer we get to the ingenious business at the heart of our growing knowledge sector, the more it becomes clear that those driving it are only heroes, not superheroes.