The Red Herring Top 100 North America event in Monterey, California brought together a vast and remarkably successful field of companies. The group of finalists hailed from many different industries, offered a wide range of products and innovated in spectacularly diverse ways. But they all shared a common will to disrupt the spaces in which they operated in, whether that was mobile advertising, cloud storage or the treatment of diseases as harrowing as cancer and HIV.
The event itself was dotted with experienced and inspirational speakers. Paul Deninger of Evercore Partners outlined the landscape of the tech sector, Michael Abbott of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers discussed the best ways for an entrepreneur to get funding and Silicon Valley legend Michael Marks revealed the lessons he has learned over his industrious career.
The judging process to decide the 100 winners was the toughest in years and many excellent companies went home without an award. That astronomical level of competition made the achievements of the victors even more impressive and huge congratulations should be given to 2014’s Red Herring Top 100 North America winners.