‘Tis the season for Seattle startup awards. This week, the finalists have been announced for two separate sets of techie awards—one local, one national. If nothing else, the awards call much-deserved attention to the efforts of some very busy companies around town that we follow closely here at Xconomy.
—Finalists for Marcelo Calbucci’s Seattle 2.0 awards were announced in 10 different categories. (I was a judge for every category except for one, startup blogs, because Xconomy is one of the finalists. Thanks to everyone who nominated us.) Photo-editing startup Picnik leads the way, as a finalist in four categories. The ceremony, at which the winners will be named, is happening on May 7 at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, and you can cast your votes here.
Best startup: DreamBox Learning, Picnik, Redfin, Wetpaint
Best bootstrapped startup: Appature, BigOven, Picnik, Urbanspoon
Best startup CEO: Andy Liu (BuddyTV), Glenn Kelman (Redfin), Jonathan Sposato (Picnik), Matt Hulett (mPire/Widgetbucks)
Best startup technologist: Chris Hahn (Appature), Greg Harrison (mPire/Widgetbucks), Joe Heitzeberg (WhitePages), Nat Brown (iLike)
Best startup product designer: Jenny Lam (Jackson Fish Market), Keith Harper (Inkd), Peter Roman (Picnik)
Best venture capitalist: Bill Bryant (Draper Fisher Jurvetson), Bill McAleer (Voyager Capital), Matt McIlwain (Madrona Venture Group), Nick Hanauer (Second Avenue Partners)
Best angel investor: Andy Sack (Founder’s Co-op), Bill Bryant (Draper Fisher Jurvetson), Geoff Entress (Voyager Capital), Mike Koss (Startpad)
Best service provider to startups: Adam Philipp (Axios Law Group), Craig Sherman (Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati), Shannon Swift (Swift HR Solutions)
Best blog about startups: Startup Whisperer (Matt Hulett), TechFlash (John Cook, Todd Bishop, Eric Engleman), Xconomy Seattle (Greg Huang, Luke Timmerman)
Best social event for startups: Ignite Seattle (Brady Forrest), Lunch 2.0 (Josh Maher), nPost Networking (Nathan Kaiser), Open Coffee (Andy Sack)
—CNET’s Webware 100 award nominees were announced (all 300 of them), also in 10 different categories across the Internet and Web 2.0 sector. Not counting some more established technologies from the likes of Microsoft and Amazon (like Amazon Web Services, Silverlight, and Windows Live Sync), here are the Seattle-area startups we found nominated in their respective categories. Winners will be announced on April 19. Vote here.
Audio & Music: iLike
Commerce: Farecast, Zillow
Communication: Jott
Photo & Video: Picnik
Productivity: Blist, LiquidPlanner
Search & Reference: eHow, Evri
Social Networking & Publishing: Wetpaint