Can we get a drumroll going, please?
More than three weeks and 30,609 votes later, BostInno is ready to crown this year's Tech Madness champion.
First, let's look back at the contest. We kicked things off on March 9 with a full bracket of 64 high-flying, fast-moving Boston-area companies. The bracket, which BostInno's editorial team assembled based on nominations you sent in over the course of several weeks, encompassed a broad range of private, venture capital-backed or bootstrapped firms — new ventures at the earliest stages as well as some established favorites.
Tech Madness is a friendly competition, designed to showcase the local innovation scene's best and brightest. But it is still, to be clear, a competition.
Things were heated from the very beginning. In Round 1, Neurala beat Boston Microfluidics by just four votes — single digits! — and Wonderment edged out Celios by ONE. Neurala held on for the next two rounds before falling to BitSight, which in turn fell to MineralTree just one round later.
MineralTree, the Cambridge fintech company that automates accounts payable processes, was the competitor we had our eyes on throughout the contest. It was the top vote-earner in Round 2, then Round 3, then Round 4, then Round 5... you get the picture. But everyone loves an underdog, and on the other side of the bracket, GelSight was steadily making its way forward.
GelSight, a Series B-level startup that produces high resolution, non-destructive elastomeric 3D imaging, narrowly beat competitor after competitor to make it to the very last round. The Waltham company won against its opponent in the semifinals, on-demand staffing startup Jobble, by just 66 votes.
Sometimes, though, the underdog falls to the established favorite — and that's exactly what happened when MineralTree and GelSight went head to head.
BostInno, meet your 2021 Tech Madness champion. MineralTree secured the crown with 744 votes (54.9%), 133 more than GelSight was able to bring in during the final round.
It's a sweet victory for MineralTree, which last year fell early on to Knoq, the door-to-door sales startup formerly known as Polis that was acquired by a Puerto Rican marketing firm this spring.
The fintech company now joins the unofficial Tech Madness hall of fame with other past winners, including Berkshire Grey, Toast and Botkeeper.
