Earlier this week, Yahoo! participated in the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York City.  The conference brought together web innovators, thought-leaders and executives to talk about the constantly changing web and how to turn this “disruption” into opportunity.  Even our fearless leader, Carol Bartz, spoke in a fireside with TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington.

Most fascinating was the Startup Battlefield, where 20 new companies competed in front of influential judges over the course of three intense days for the chance to win $50,000. Yahoo!’s Chief Architect, Raymie Stata, was on the judging panel. While there were many interesting start ups, it was art.sy, a place to discover and share fine art online, which deserves the Yahoo! Rookie Award!

Yahoo! is a company that was started fifteen years ago by two rookies, Jerry and Dave, who created Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle during their graduate days at Stanford.  They were two people who saw a need, jumped in and created something that worked for an ever growing group of people. Today, Yahoo! is a multi-billion dollar media company that uses technology to push the boundaries of the digital landscape, creating captivating experiences, content and programming.  We support innovators with big ideas and determination; we’ve been there!

During TechCrunch Disrupt we wanted to find a startup that showed promise to succeed where others have tried and failed.   This industry is about success and yes, failure.  Creating technologies and products that allow people to do things they didn’t know they wanted to do and to do things online that they traditionally did offline – like buying fine art.

We believe the marrying of online and offline behavior is one huge area for disruption. Carter Cleveland, founder of art.sy, has demonstrated a passion and a purpose for his startup.  It’s evident that he has passion for art, as does everyone on his team, and the product they’ve created demonstrates a new approach to tap into an industry that has traditionally resisted disruption AND that shows great promise to marry online and offline behavior.

Congratulations to Carter and the art.sy team who received the Yahoo! Rookie Disrupter Award and the opportunity to exhibit at the next TechCrunch event in San Francisco. Disrupt away!