TechCrunch, Founders Fund Launch First Annual ‘TechFellow Awards’

$50,000 “Genius Grants for Geeks” to Invest in Emerging Companies

TechCrunch, a leading technology blog, and Founders Fund, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, today announced the TechFellow Awards, a new annual program honoring technology innovators for achievement and excellence in high-tech entrepreneurship.

The twelve initial TechFellow recipients will be chosen from a pool of candidates contributed by the nominating committee with the help of the readers of TechCrunch. This open nomination process starts today on the TechCrunch website. Final fellowship selections will be made in June 2009 and announced at an awards dinner for the honorees.

The awards will recognize individuals for their critical role in developing breakthrough products and services in four categories: 1) Engineering Leadership, 2) Product Design and Marketing, 3) General Management, and 4) Disruptive Innovation.

Each TechFellow will be awarded $25,000 to invest in a new startup of their choice. Founders Fund will match each investment, for a total of $50,000. Founders Fund may also provide additional future investments in these companies.

“Even in a down market, the innovation and entrepreneurship of Silicon Valley continues unabated,” said Michael Arrington, Founder of TechCrunch. “The TechFellow Awards recognize and reward current role models of our industry.”

“In challenging times, focusing on innovation remains a good bet,” said Sean Parker, Managing Partner at Founders Fund. “It’s time to double-down on the future of technology by encouraging the next generation of innovators.”

Public TechFellow nominations launch today on TechCrunch via a Webform available at http://www.techcrunch.com/techfellow and will be open until Friday, May 8, 2009.

The 2009 TechFellow Awards Nominating Committee members are:

Marc Andreessen, Co-Founder and Chairman, Ning John McKinley, CEO and Founder, OurParents
Michael Arrington, Founder/Editor, TechCrunch Jonathan Miller, Chief Digital Officer, News Corp
John Battelle, Chairman, CEO, Federated Media Tim O’Reilly, Founder, O’Reilly Media
Ron Conway, Special Partner, Baseline Sean Parker, Co-Founder, Napster, Plaxo, Facebook; Managing Partner, Founders Fund
Chris DeWolfe, Co-Founder and CEO, MySpace Geoff Ralston, CEO, LaLa and former Chief Product Officer, Yahoo!
Esther Dyson, Chairman, EDventure Terry Semel, Chairman and CEO, Windsor Media and former Chairman and CEO, Yahoo!
Caterina Fake, Co-Founder, Flickr Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief, SearchEngineLand.com
Shawn Fanning, Co-Founder, Napster, Co-Founder SNOCAP, Co-Founder Rupture Peter Thiel, Managing Partner, Founders Fund, Former CEO, PayPal
Reid Hoffman, CEO and Co-Founder, LinkedIn Jeff Weiner, Executive-in-Residence, Accel Partners and Greylock Partners
Joi Ito, CEO, Creative Commons Michael Yanover, Head of Business Development, Creative Artists Agency
Max Levchin, Founder and CEO, Slide, Co-Founder, PayPal Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Facebook

For additional information about the TechFellow awards please visit http://TechFellow.com.

About TechCrunch

TechCrunch is a leading technology media empire dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies. Founded in 2005, TechCrunch and its network of websites reach 5.5 million unique visitors and have more than 15 million page views per month. TechCrunch operates a global network of websites including TechCrunch Europe, TechCrunch France, and TechCrunch Japan as well as specialized industry websites including MobileCrunch, CrunchGear, and TechCrunchIT. TechCrunch is also home to CrunchBase, a leading data resource about start-up companies, people and investors, as well as industry events including TechCrunch 50 and The Crunchies, and various meet-ups worldwide serving as community platforms for industry conversation and collaboration. TechCrunch is a privately held company located in Palo Alto, CA. For more information, please visit http://www.techcrunch.com.

About Founders Fund

Based in San Francisco, Founders Fund is an early-stage venture capital firm created in 2005. Founders Fund is run by entrepreneurs who have started and managed their own companies, and is committed to innovation in venture capital using a non-traditional, founder-focused approach to investing. The FF team is comprised of people with engineering, product, design, and online marketing experience from companies like PayPal, Facebook, and Google. If you’re solving a big and interesting problem, we’d like to hear what you’re doing. For more information visit http://www.foundersfund.com.
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