[Update: Round one voting has closed, but round two voting is open. Head here to make your picks.]
With the conclusion of Selection Sunday comes the beginning of a blissful, basketball-filled few weeks ahead. The official 2014 March Madness bracket has made its ceremonious debut, and the predictions have already started pouring in, including those from the clairvoyant likes of FiveThirtyEight Founder Nate Silver — a man whose bracket will be copied round-for-round by fair weather fans nationwide.
Here at BostInno, we couldn't miss the opportunity to inject a little friendly competition into the everyday chatter of the startup community. The bros behind the BostInno Beat, Chase Garbarino and Greg Gomer, warned you this was coming. (If you missed the news, you should probably sign up for the Tech Beat so you don't look behind again, yeah?)
After sorting through your nominations, the Boston Startup March Madness Bracket is here, thanks to the invaluable help of Brackify. And now, we want to hear from you: Who's going to be the most valuable Boston-based company in five years?
Will it be e-commerce leader Wayfair, who's currently dancing its way to an IPO? Or, could an up-and-comer like Fancred, a Techstars Boston grad with $1.62 million in total funding, upset the big boys with its sports savvy and support from designated Red Sox hitter David Ortiz, more fondly known as Big Papi?
Although the seeding (embedded below the Brackifybrackets) was decided by the BostInno staff, the ultimate fate of each startup is in your hands now. Unfortunately, we had to divvy up our chosen 64 into two brackets, but the winner of each will go head-to-head in a final championship round.
So, get to voting. Per the motto of the beat, "We're doing it live," meaning voting will coincide with the basketball tournament. You have until Thursday, March 20, at 8 a.m. to vote for the first round of startups, and then we'll waltz with you from there.
Who do you think is guaranteed to win big? Let's get some (cordial enough) trash-talk going in the comments section.
- No. 1 Seed: Wayfair, DataXu, Karmaloop and Extreme Reach
- No. 2 Seed: Actifio, Acquia, Bit9 and Dyn
- No. 3 Seed: HubSpot, Applause, Nanigans and Brand Networks
- No. 4 Seed: Veracode, VMTurbo, Gazelle and RunKeeper
- No. 5 Seed: Visible Measures, CyberArk, DraftKings and WiTricity
- No. 6 Seed: SessionM, Apperian, Rethink Robotics and CustomMade
- No. 7 Seed: Paydiant, Localytics, Swipely and Recorded Future
- No. 8 Seed: Yesware, Nexage, Moontoast and EverTrue
- No. 9 Seed: Leaf, Plastiq, HeyWire and InsightSquared
- No. 10 Seed: GrabCAD, CashStar, Stackdriver and Adelphic Mobile
- No. 11 Seed: Clypd, Boundless, CoachUp and Objective Logistics
- No. 12 Seed: Lose It!, Skillz, Foodler and OYO Toys
- No. 13 Seed: Backupify, LevelUp, Gemvara and CO Everywhere
- No. 14 Seed:ownCloud, Skyword, Abine and IdeaPaint
- No. 15 Seed: Drizly, Kinvey, Bolt and Ovuline
- No. 16 Seed: Ubersense, Dragon Innovation, Fancred and Smarterer
Featured image via Shutterstock, Brackets via Brackify
