Public Voting Underway for 2021 CT Entrepreneur Awards

Now, it’s the public’s turn to vote, as a total of 184 individuals, businesses and organizations from throughout Connecticut are finalists in the 2021 Connecticut Entrepreneur Awards. The awards – to be presented at Connecticut’s largest and most comprehensive entrepreneurial awards event - identify, recognize, and celebrate Connecticut’s leading entrepreneurs and ventures, and the ecosystem elements that support them.

Online voting will close Friday, April 2, 2021 in 10 community-favorite categories, highlighting a range of entrepreneurial endeavors that are just starting up, or already up and running and contributing to Connecticut’s entrepreneurial vibrancy. Votes can be cast in each of the categories at www.ctentrepreneurawards.com/finalist. The most popular category, Entrepreneur, includes 73 finalists from communities across the state.

The ten categories now open for community online voting are: Entrepreneur, Venture, Community Builder, Space, Corporate/Institutional, Education, Funding, Economic Development, Event, and Program. There will be winners and honorable mention recipients in each category, based on the community voting totals.

A special virtual event announcing and celebrating the 2021 winners will be held on Monday, April 19. Tickets are now on sale, and information is available at www.ctentrepreneurawards.com

In addition to the 10 community categories, there are category winners to be determined by panels of more than two dozen expert judges from outside Connecticut, who will be evaluating the finalists. The specific categories that will be awarded based on the decision of the judges are in addition to the community voting award categories. The judges’ categories are:

• Entrepreneur*
  • Scaling (>$1MM revenue)
  • Scalable
  • Main Street
  • Social Good
  • Student (<25 years old)
• Venture*
  • Revenue
  • Pre-revenue
• Community Builder*
• Space
• Program
• Economic Development
• Event
• Education
• Funding
• Corporate/Institutional

“The quality and quantity of the finalists this year reflects the incredible growth of the entrepreneurial community across Connecticut,” said founder Bill Kenney. “We look forward to robust voting again this year, as people throughout the state take a look at the remarkable, innovative work being done by scores of finalists, individually and collectively, in many different disciplines. Together, they all have a strong impact on our state and its communities, and that’s good news for Connecticut for this year, and years to come.”

Already signed on as 2021 program sponsors are: Imageworks, Murtha Cullina, Startups and Scholars, Webster Bank, and Entrepreneurship Foundation. Additional sponsorships are available.

The number of finalists varies by category, including 73 in the Entrepreneur category, 29 in Community Builder, 20 in Venture, 14 in Education,12 in Program and 11 finalists in the Event category. The Economic Development category includes 9 finalists, there are also 9 in Space, 4 in the Corporate/Institutional category, and 3 in Funding.

In the community voting, individuals can only vote once for any particular finalist but can vote for more than one finalist in each category. Finalists can also share the link to their nomination on the CT Entrepreneur Awards nomination website with individuals in their own networks, to spread the word about their nomination and the upcoming awards ceremony.

The 5th Annual CT Entrepreneur Awards are a product of the CT Entrepreneur Event Organizers consortium, an all-volunteer cooperative effort of people and organizations that host and facilitate entrepreneur-facing events in Connecticut. (A list of affiliated organizations can been seen at www.ctentrepreneurawards.com.) The CT Entrepreneur Awards have been held annually since 2017, coordinated by volunteers and led by founder Bill Kenney.

After being nominated, nominees were reviewed to ensure they met criteria for the awards, and remaining nominees were then asked to provide information that would give community voters and judges more information about their endeavors. Those submissions, as provided, appear on the website.

For more information about the event, including how to get involved or become a sponsor, contact Bill Kenney at scallywag@ctevents.co.