Entrepreneurs have had their hands in some of the most innovative advancements history has seen, and this gives us an almost endless number of candidates from which to nominate this year’s inaugural Walk of Fame class. So, we put some criteria and qualifications in place in order for the start-up spirit to remain in tact.This includes the nominees founding a company and remaining with that company as a CEO or equivalent title for the majority of its growth.

The selection process was about looking at those founders who took a risk, followed it through and ended up creating sustainable jobs. Additionally, when we dug through these companies, we saw that a bulk of them had innovative technology based businesses, and we narrowed our search criteria to this line of business because it best encapsulated the overall start-up scene.

However, our search did not focus solely on revenue and numbers, we looked for inspiring leaders that have all positively impacted others in the tech community and ultimately earned an overall feeling of public respect.

See highlights from the first year’s unveiling.