Startup of the Year
An early stage business, roughly under three years old, showing real traction and a clear runway to grow.
Startup of the Year
A business founded within approximately the last three years that has moved decisively past the idea stage. The judges are looking for a market that wants what she is selling: paying customers, repeat purchase, a product or service that has been refined in contact with reality rather than in a slide deck.
Who should be nominated
Founders whose business launched on or after 1 January 2023, with revenue or funded traction, and a credible plan for the next two years. Pre revenue businesses are welcome where traction shows up in other ways, such as signed pilots, a waitlist, letters of intent or regulatory milestones.
How this category is scored.
Each judge scores every criterion from 1 to 10, and the weights below turn those into a single averaged score. Nothing is scored that is not on this table.
| Criterion | Weight | What judges are assessing |
|---|---|---|
| Traction & Early Results | 30% | Revenue, customers, contracts, pilots or funded milestones achieved since launch, measured against how long the business has existed and what it started with. |
| Problem & Market Fit | 25% | How clearly the founder understands the problem she is solving, the size and reachability of her market, and the signs that customers actually want the solution. |
| Founder Capability | 20% | Judgement, resourcefulness and decision making under constraint, including how she has responded to what has not worked. |
| Scalability | 15% | Whether the model can grow without proportionally growing cost, and whether the founder has thought seriously about how. |
| Resilience as a Newcomer | 10% | Barriers navigated while building in an unfamiliar market, such as credentials, capital, networks and language, and how they were overcome. |
Nominations Open
Someone you know has built something remarkable and has never once been asked to tell the story. Take fifteen minutes and put her forward.
