The TechFellow Awards is the Oscars of high-tech entrepreneurship. As selection committee member Sean Parker puts it “We’re shining a spotlight on individuals who are on the cusp of bringing us something revolutionary.” On February 22nd at the SFMOMA, 20 innovators will be presented with $100,000 grants to invest in startups of their choice. Nominations are open through February 17th at the TechFellows website.
Today, the TechFellow Awards announced that Emmy-winning nerd hero Jim Parsons, star of hit tv show The Big Bang Theory, will host the awards ceremony. Marissa Mayer, Dave McClure, and Terry Semel will also join the all-star selection committee, which includes Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, Ron Conway.
The TechFellow Awards are presented by Founders Fund, TechCrunch, and New Enterprise Associates (NEA) to honor visionary technology leaders with the opportunity to support the next generation of innovators. 5 winners will be selected in each category — Engineering Leadership, Product Design and Marketing, General Management, and Disruptive Innovation.
Along with the $100,000 grant, the winners will join an elite technology community think tank of past winners including Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter; Maria Thomas, former CEO of Etsy, Adam D’Angelo, co-founder of Quora and former CTO of Facebook, and Paul Graham, co-founder and Partner at Y Combinator. They’ll attend quarterly dinners, livestream events, and Q&A sessions where they’ll receive expertise and insight to help them shape the future through investment and their own projects.
Visit the TechFellows website now to nominate who you think are the most disruptive figures in tech, and check back on February 22nd for live coverage and interviews from the awards ceremony. Here’s the full list of selection committee members for this year’s awards:
- Marc Andreessen (Co-Founder, Andreeseen Horowitz, Netscape)
- Michael Arrington (Founder, TechCrunch)
- John Battelle (Founder/Chairman/CEO, Federated Media)
- Ron Conway (Managing Partner, SV Angel)
- Chris DeWolfe (Co-Founder, Myspace)
- Esther Dyson (Chairman, EDventure)
- Caterina Fake (Co-Founder, Flickr, Hunch)
- Shawn Fanning (Founder, Napster, SNOCAP, Rupture, Airtime)
- Reid Hoffman (Co-Founder, LinkedIn)
- Joi Ito (Director, MIT Media Lab; Chairman of the board, Creative Commons)
- Max Levchin (Founder/CEO, Slide; Co-Founder, PayPal)
- Marisa Mayer (VP Location & Local Services, Google)
- Dave McClure (Founder, 500 Startups & Partner, Founders Fund)
- John McKinley (Founder/CEO, OurParents)
- Jonathan Miller (CEO Digital Media, News Corp)
- Tim O’Reilly (Founder, O’Reilly Media)
- Sean Parker (Co-Founder, Napster, Plaxo, Causes, Airtime; Founding President, Facebook; Managing Partner, Founders Fund)
- Geoff Ralston (Former Chief Product Officer, Yahoo!; Former CEO, Lala)
- Terry Semel (Chairman/CEO, Windsor Media; Former Chairman/CEO, Yahoo!)
- Danny Sullivan (Founder, Search Engine Land)
- Peter Thiel (Managing Partner, Founders Fund; Chairman & Co-Founder, Palantir Technologies; Former Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder, PayPal)
- Jeff Weiner (CEO, LinkedIn)
- Michael Yanover (Business Development, Creative Artists Agency)
- Mark Zuckerberg (Founder/CEO, Facebook)