Forget "Let's Look At What You Could Have Won" - Let's Look At What You CAN Win!

Well, it’s hard to believe it’s that time of year again already – no, not Christmas, though I’m sure The Range already has a wall of Rudolph-related items of no exact definition lined up at the entrance – it’s Tech Trailblazers awards entry time!

As one of the poor judges who has to read painstakingly through entry after entry after entry… it’s time to raise the call to all those deserving early(ish) stage tech companies who want a bit of glory. Please, all those of you with quality tech, enter, and make my life a pleasure 😊

Just for reminders sake, in terms of the entry quals, you need to be under seven years old (the company, not the employees) – now there’s a thought: Junior Tech Trailblazers? Maybe not. Location is not important, though we haven’t – as of yet – had any entries from beyond the globe. Come on you Martians – get involved. The other condition regards funding stage: you can be either privately funded or at C-series funding or below.

If you’re thinking: “what’s in it for me?” then here’s a resumé of very recent post-award activity. In April 2024, two winners, Luminance (AI) and Coalesce (Big Data) raised impressive round B funding of $40 million and $50 million respectively, while Dig Security (Cloud Trailblazer ) was acquired by Palo Alto Networks late last year, shortly after winning. And Noname Security (Security Trailblazer) has recently announced its acquisition by Akamai.

In general, Tech Trailblazers winners (and runners up for that matter) over the past decade have executed exceptionally on their strategies with funding in excess of $2.5bn in total plus acquisitions from the likes of Microsoft, HP, Amazon, Google, Dropbox and SANdisk. We have even witnessed one winner acquiring another over the years, with Nutanix’s acquisition of Pernix Data.

It’s also worth mentioning the Firestarter bursary – designed to support early-stage startups. We all know funding can be tough – 35% of surveyed startups indicated that raising funds took longer than expected, and 31% found it harder than anticipated (as the actress possibly said to the bishop). The Firestarter  bursary ensures that even the youngest startups have a chance at recognition and winning the new cross-category early-stage “Firestarter” award. If you want to specifically check this out, email the guys at: [email protected]

For more info and/or to enter the awards, simply checkout: https://techtrailblazers.com/  – and look for the “Enter Now” button. Good luck to all entrants and I – hopefully – look forward to reading your entries. Remember, minimise marketing flannel and focus on the salient points: why the product is necessary and what is special and/or different about it. Lastly, you don’t have to be “the first” or “the only one” or “unique” – you simply have to be better that what’s already on offer!