SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The TechFellow Awards (www.techfellows.com), a startup investment program that honors technology innovators for achievement and excellence in high-tech entrepreneurship, today unveiled the 2011 TechFellow Award winners, in the third annual event. Sponsored by Founders Fund, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and TechCrunch, the TechFellow Awards were announced Wednesday evening at a gala event held at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Each TechFellow Award winner will receive $100,000 for investment in an early stage technology company of their choosing. Over the past three years, more than 60 individuals have received the TechFellow title in a growing club of the technology community’s most revered and forward-thinking leaders. The 2011 selection committee, an assemblage of the brightest minds and most visible leaders in Silicon Valley, selected each new TechFellow for their noteworthy accomplishments in entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership.
2011 TechFellow Award winners, across each of the four categories, include:
- Joe Greenstein, founder and CEO of Flixster
- Heather Harde, former CEO of TechCrunch
- Andrew Siegel, SVP, Strategy and Corporate Development of Conde Nast
- Clara Shih, CEO of Hearsay
- Victoria Ransom, founder & CEO of Wildfire Interactive
- Diego Berdakin, co-founder and president of BeachMint
- Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper
- Leilah Janah, founder and CEO of Samasource
- Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of CloudFlare
- Perry Chen, co-founder and CEO of Kickstarter
- Tom Preston-Werner, co-founder and CTO of Github
- Craig Mod, former designer at Flipboard
- Dustin Mierau, co-founder and chief designer of Path
- Wilson Miner, designer at rdio
- Dan Cederholm, co-founder of Dribbble
- Joe Hewitt, former product manager (iPhone) at Facebook
- Ruchi Sanghvi, co-founder of Cove; former product manager (NewsFeed) at Facebook
- Amitt Mahajan, co-creator of MyMiniLife (Farmville)
- Scott Marlette, founder GoodRx; former product manager (Photos) at Facebook
- Hilary Mason, chief scientist at Bit.ly
- Brian Totty, SVP of engineering at Groupon
“The TechFellow awards honor individuals that have made a significant impact on the technology landscape through impressive business acumen and a passion for their work,” said Michael Polansky, managing director, TechFellow Awards. “This year’s class of 21 of the most revolutionary and inspiring individuals working in the technology field today perfectly exemplifies what the TechFellow Awards stand for.”
Special appearances and presenters at this year’s gala awards event included master of ceremonies, Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Jim Parsons and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, where he unveiled a new ‘Innovation Portfolio’ initiative with the goal of using technology to improve city services. Event presenters included previous TechFellow Award winners Dave Morin, co-founder and CEO of Path; Ross Fubini, vice president of SuccessFactors; David Friedberg, founder and CEO of The Climate Corporation; and Sandy Jen, CTO and co-founder of Meebo.
“Tonight we recognize the men and women who are revolutionizing the way we live, work, play and communicate. And I promise, whatever new and exciting platforms are created by the bright minds in this room, the rest of us will populate them with videos of sneezing kittens and dancing babies,” said host Jim Parsons.
“The professional achievements and innumerable contributions that this TechFellow Awards class has already made to business and society overall are an impressive feat,” said Sean Parker, executive general partner at Founders Fund. “However, the most exciting part is still to come in seeing what these individuals are going to do next, where they’re going to invest their grant funds and how they plan to further shape and enhance the way we interact with the world every day through technology.”
“To be bestowed with a TechFellow Award and included in such esteemed company is truly an honor,” said Ruchi Sanghvi, co-founder of Cove; former engineer and product manager of News Feed, Facebook Platform and Connect and a winner of a 2011 TechFellow Award. “The TechFellow Awards program offers a unique and collaborative investment model. I’m looking forward to using the grant and guidance from the TechFellow Awards network to identify and help the next wave of promising individuals and startups."
For photos, video clips from the show, b-roll and full winner bios
please visit:
http://www.techfellows.com/press
About The TechFellow Awards
The TechFellow Awards is a premier startup investment program and annual event that honors the people who make great innovation happen through excellence in high-tech entrepreneurship. Hosted by Founders Fund, TechCrunch and NEA, the TechFellow Awards provides up-and-coming technology innovators with $100,000 to build and invest in the next generation of startups. For more information, visit: http://www.techfellows.com/.
About Founders Fund
Founders Fund provides capital to transformational businesses run by world-class entrepreneurs. The San Francisco based venture capital firm invests at every stage in companies with revolutionary technologies. Companies the firm has backed include Facebook (partner Peter Thiel was Facebook's first outside backer), SpaceX, Palantir Technologies, Spotify, Knewton, and ZocDoc.
About TechCrunch
TechCrunch (www.techcrunch.com) is a leading technology media network dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies. Founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, TechCrunch and its network of websites reach millions of unique visitors each month. TechCrunch was acquired by AOL in 2011 and operates a global network of websites including dedicated properties in Europe and Japan. TechCrunch's CrunchBase is an open database about startup companies, people, and investors. In addition to TechCrunch Disrupt, TechCrunch hosts a number of other recognized conferences and events, and various meet-ups worldwide, serving as community platforms for industry conversation and collaboration.
About NEA
New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a leading venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With approximately $11 billion in committed capital, NEA invests in information technology, healthcare and energy technology companies at all stages in a company’s lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm's long track record includes more than 170 portfolio company IPOs and more than 290 acquisitions, including investments in technology leaders like Data Domain, CareerBuilder, Diapers.com, Fusion-io, Groupon, Juniper, Macromedia, Salesforce.com, and TiVo. In the U.S., NEA has offices in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area; Menlo Park, California; and New York City. In addition, New Enterprise Associates (India) Pvt. Ltd. has offices in Bangalore and Mumbai, India and New Enterprise Associates (Beijing), Ltd. has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China. For additional information, visit www.nea.com.