Announcing The 9th Annual Crunchies Awards

It’s that time again! Our annual awards show is coming back around again for 2016. But for our 9th annual Crunchies Awards, we’ve decided to do a few things differently, and we think you’re going to like them.

This year, the Crunchies will be held at a new venue, the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, at 8:00pm on February 8th, 2016.

There are also changes with how TechCrunch selects the winners for the Crunchies. As in the past, we will start with nominations from our readers, which begin today. Those nominations will then be refined by our editors into a final list of nominees for each award. When it comes to final voting, however, we are making a big change. We are forming a 100-person Crunchies Board to pick the winners by secret, paper ballot. The Crunchies Board will include TechCrunch editors alongside entrepreneurs, investors and other tech notables, including speakers and judges who have appeared on the Disrupt stage. An independent third party will administer and tally the ballots as well as keep the results secret until we announce the awards on stage. We believe this change will bring more breadth of experience and perspective to selecting the winners of the Crunchies.

We’ve got a lot more great stuff planned for this year’s show, but for now, here’s a list of the awards to get you excited. Please head over to the show page and start nominating your favorite candidates in the categories below. Nominations will close on Wednesday, December 2, 2015. We’ll see you at the Crunchies!

Best New Startup of 2015

A startup founded or publicly launched this year.

Best Overall Startup

A star startup in all categories that was founded or launched in the last 5 years.  

Fastest Rising Startup

An award acknowledging strong growth in a variety of ways.

Best Technology Achievement

An exceptional recent technological achievement.

Best Mobile Application

A recent standout that has earned its place on your home screen.

Hardware Of The Year

Breakout hardware product of the year.

The Include Diversity Award

An organization or individual that has advanced diversity in tech.

Social Impact

Excelling in using technology to effect social impact.

Founder of the Year

A founder that has made a statement in leadership and execution this year.

Angel Investor of the Year

A breakout portfolio.

VC of the Year

An investor whose bets on founders and companies has borne fruit this year.

CEO of the Year

A true leader of a standout organization.

To get your tickets for the Crunchies you can click on over here. We hope to see you there.

Our sponsors help make the Crunchies happen. If you are interested in learning more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact our sponsorship team at sponsors@beta.techcrunch.com.