Eligibility
Who can apply.
A founder or co-founder with an operating technology venture and a personal contribution that can be evidenced.
- The venture should be operating: a product in market, a deployed platform, or engineering work already being used by a customer or user.
- General trading businesses without a technology product at the centre are outside this category.
Achievement recognised
What the entry must show.
This category recognises founders and co-founders of an operating technology venture. The business must centre on a technology product, platform or engineering-led service. The entry is about the founder’s contribution, not the company as a brand.
Evidence required
- The product, platform or engineering-led service.
- The applicant’s own technical, product or company-building contribution.
- Evidence the venture operates: users, customers, deployment or a described production system.
- Results, including limits, pivots or what has not yet worked.
- Do not include employer secrets, confidential third-party material, or personal data about other people.
Assessment criteria
How the entry is read.
These are the published criteria for this category. They are not a claim that an independent judging panel is already appointed.
Personal contribution25%
What the founder or co-founder actually did, as distinct from the team, investors or a co-founder.
Technology execution25%
Whether the product or platform exists and works, and how the technical work was carried through.
Innovation20%
The specific technical or product problem the venture takes on, and the approach it uses.
Measurable results15%
Use, revenue, deployment, reliability or another result that can be supported. Projections are not results.
Supporting evidence15%
Material a reviewer can inspect without access to the company’s private accounts or other people’s personal data.
Process and fee
From application to a decision.
01Application
Submit the application for this category on this website, naming the work and your own contribution. Submitting the form does not charge the applicant. Fee-payment instructions will follow before evaluation begins.
02Evidence review
The submission is checked for whether the evidence can be considered. Incomplete, confidential or unsupported claims may need further material, or may be set aside.
03Evaluation
The entry is read against the published criteria and weights for its category. That reading is what the US$200 evaluation fee covers, when collection is open.
04Decision
An award is made only when the standard is met. A category may have one recipient, more than one, or none. A decision that no award is made is a completed assessment.
Entry evaluation fee: US$200 per entry, per category.
The US$200 evaluation fee covers the administration and assessment of your entry. Payment does not guarantee shortlisting or an award. Entries may be unsuccessful following assessment.
The evaluation fee is not refundable solely because an entry is unsuccessful, subject to applicable law and the published cancellation and refund terms.
Each category is a separate assessed entry. Entering more than one category requires its own application and its own US$200 evaluation fee.
SASACO membership is a separate programme. Membership does not influence award scores, shortlisting or selection, and it does not guarantee recognition.
The detailed cancellation and refund terms are not published yet, so live charges stay off. A successful payment, when collection is enabled, means the entry is paid for assessment. It does not grant an award.
Integrity
- Submit truthful information, and only work you have authority to submit.
- Disclose any relevant conflict, including a close connection with SASACO.
- Confidential or unsupported claims may need further evidence before they can be considered.
- A category may have no recipient if the published standard is not met.
- This is a SASACO-administered recognition programme. It does not confer professional accreditation, employment, funding, immigration outcomes or indexed publication.