by Jon Howell, Editor-in-Chief, Tech Trailblazers
Today saw the opening for entries for the Tech Trailblazer Awards 2018, the success of which can be judged by the 2017 alumni who have already raised over a quarter of a billion dollars in funding during the last year. The Awards are hoping to help even more firms this year with the introduction of two new categories, celebrating individual excellence of those in the tech startup arena.
Now in its seventh year, the competition for Enterprise technology startups is going from strength to strength, adding the categories of Industry Trailblazer and Startup Trailblazer to the list of awards. The former is to recognise the time, effort, and money of those who, although not part of a startup company, support the ecosystem. Perhaps someone from a venture capital group, or bank, or government department. The latter will acknowledge those, whilst not at the CxO level, are vital in supporting and driving their startup forward, whether through technical excellence, motivational management, or inventive thinking,
Past winners continue to demonstrate how valuable winning a Trailblazers award can be, having raised a total of 3.5 billion dollars since 2012. Edgewise Networks, who topped the Cloud Trailblazers Award last year, found that their win helped them: “Having an independent, third-party resource recognize the efficacy and innovation of our product has helped open doors for conversations with enterprise security and DevOps practitioners.”
Many previous alumni have found that their increased profile has led them to being acquired. So far over twenty firms have been acquired by the likes of BlueCoat, Dropbox, Ericsson, Microsoft, NetApp, Oracle, and Cisco has acquired three of the previous winners. Two firms, Nutanix and Zscaler, have gone on to have successful IPOs.
Edgewise Networks would certainly recommend that it’s worth the investment to enter the Awards: “Entering the Tech Trailblazers Awards is a small investment of time compared to the recognition you might receive.”
Find out about the available categories and enter here: www.techtrailblazers.com/awards/
For more information check out the FAQ: www.techtrailblazers.com/faq/