Round 5 update: Inno Madness is down to just two newcomers, as young startups have outlasted last year’s semifinalist.
Diadem Capital, which helps connect private companies to venture capital, non-dilutive funding sources and venture debt, took down Ognomy, which made it to the final two last year. Diadem Capital, which launched in early 2022, garnered 53.2% of the votes.
SelectFI, which created a software platform for auto dealership regulatory compliance and financing pre-qualification, defeated FoodNerd with 53.5% of the votes. SelectFI was founded last year.
Which of these two newcomers will be this year’s Inno Madness winner? That’s up to you, voters. As a refresher, this is a bracket-style contest where we ask readers to vote based on which startups they would invest in.
Scroll down to learn more about the two finalists, and be sure to cast your vote before Round 5 closes at 11:59 p.m. April 14. Our champion will be announced in the Beat email newsletter April 17.
Diadem Capital
Within its first two years, Diadem Capital’s funding platform has helped startups raise millions.
As of late last year, the Buffalo-based startup had facilitated 20 deals totaling over $60 million and had over 700 venture capitalists and about 100 lenders on its platform. The startup has a success-based fee model, which means no upfront fees until the business gets funding through the platform.
The business raised last year a $600,000 pre-seed funding round and added to its platform venture debt as an offering. The startup expected, as of late last year, to grow by adding other products like limited partner matchmaking, based on feedback from venture capitalists about pain points in the industry.
“All of this is a relationship business,” Stephanie Rieben, CEO and co-founder who is based in New York City, previously told Buffalo Inno. “In the private world, it feels like founders are left to fight for themselves because there’s no platform out there or service that helps them, so that’s where we come in."
SelectFI
Although SelectFI just launched in 2023, its executive team has decades of experience in various industries.
The startup’s software platform is an auto dealership regulatory compliance and financing pre-qualification tool that aims to help dealerships help customers with financing quickly, more accurately and in greater compliance with Federal Trade Commission fair lending practices.
As of late February, the company had raised about $4 million in pre-seed funding.
The executive team includes:
- Founder Tom Vullo, who has been in the auto industry for over a decade
- CFO Matthew Dorn, who was a CPA for several years and spent the last decade developing power plants with different partners, which included acting as CFO and raising funds
- COO Drew Dorn, an engineer who had a tech-enabled smart grid energy business that he sold to a private equity fund and a participant in the power plant development with Matt
- CMO Chris Laczi, previously vice president of marketing at Life Storage, his employer for the last 25 years
“It’s more difficult now than it’s been in a long time to originate an auto loan,” Drew Dorn previously told Buffalo Inno. “You really need smart software to help you do that.”
Round 4 update: Introducing the final four of this year’s Inno Madness competition.
This bracket-style contest, where readers vote based on which startups they would invest in, began with 32 companies based in or with a huge presence in the Buffalo area. These businesses range from retail to technology, from small teams to slews of workers.
Two of the final four are young startups, formed within the last couple of years.
Diadem Capital, which launched in early 2022, helps connect private companies to venture capital, non-dilutive funding sources and venture debt.
SelectFI, founded last year, created a software platform for auto dealership regulatory compliance and financing pre-qualification.
Ognomy, a system for diagnosing and treating sleep apnea at home, and FoodNerd, which uses its processing technology to create food products for health and convenience, round out our final four.
Stay tuned for next week when we narrow down our competitors to two. Cast your vote by 11:55 p.m. April 7.
Round 3 update: And just like that, we’ve gone from 16 startups down to eight.
In Round 2 of Inno Madness – a bracket-style contest where we ask readers to vote based on which companies they would invest in – a former competition finalist was taken down by a newcomer.
CaHill Tech, a startup that’s developed a mobile training tool for the construction industry, made it to the top four in last year’s Inno Madness. But in this year’s contest, Round 2, CaHill Tech lost by 25 votes to StepWise, a company that just moved to Buffalo at the start of this year after being named one of the winners of last year’s 43North contest.
StepWise, formerly based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, aims to make home electrification cost effective, specifically for EV charger and heat pump installations, by optimizing existing electrical panels.
Next stop: The top 4. Help us narrow it down by voting on Round 3 by 11:55 p.m. March 31.
Round 2 update: The closest matchup in Round 1 of this year’s Inno Madness came down to two votes.
Kangarootime, which develops software for daycares and nursery schools, came out on top with 50.8% of the votes in its round, overtaking CleanFiber, which had 49.2% of the votes. CleanFiber manufactures recycled cardboard into insulation materials.
Let this be a case study to show how every vote counts in Inno Madness, where readers vote based on which startups they would invest in.
Three finalists (Ognomy, CaHill Tech and Centivo) from last year’s competition once again advanced in the 2024 contest. (The fourth finalist and ultimate 2023 winner, Zizo Technologies, is not in this year’s bracket contest.)
Take a look at how our bracket currently stands below to see how local startups fared in the first round. Then be sure to vote in the second round to help your picks advance.
Round 2 voting ends at 11:55 p.m. March 24.
When Inno Madness launched in 2022, the contest became part of founder Jimmy Chebat’s routine with his son Chase.
Each morning, as he drove Chase to Canisius High School, they would look at the results of the bracket-style challenge for local startups. Chebat is CEO of Zizo Technologies, which integrates gamification with companies’ data and business intelligence systems of record to help customer service, contact center and collections businesses.
“(Chase) took to it, and it became something that he and I did together on a daily basis,” Chebat said. “That’s … my first memory of him being really interested in what I do day to day.”
Zizo, which employs 27 staff and contractors, went on to win Inno Madness, a 32-contender bracket challenge where companies advance based on people voting for who they would invest in, two years in a row.
And Chase, now a junior in high school, officially joined Zizo’s team last year, working after school a few days a week.
As we kick off this year’s contest, with contestants chosen based on editorial input from the Buffalo Inno team, two-time champ Zizo will be cheering from the sidelines. But Chebat has plenty of advice for the contestants, all of which are based in or have significant operations out of Buffalo. The winner gets mad bragging rights, of course.
“I would say, I think, get as many people involved as possible,” he said. “We’re a family-oriented organization and also an international organization."
He and his team asked family and friends to vote for Zizo. They monitored the results every day and would review their standings at their weekly demos with their whole team.
But even when it comes to asking for votes, there are best practices. Make sure it’s easy for people to access the voting link and keep people updated on how you’re doing, rather than just reaching out or posting when you’re asking for votes and celebrate victories.
“Everyone has their daily grind, and nobody is going to prioritize this except you, so you want to get people excited about it,” Chebat said. “You want to make sure people know how much it means to you and the organization.”
For Zizo, winning Inno Madness was a matter of pride and something that brought the team closer together. It’s an opportunity to celebrate, and it doesn’t hurt to get some free publicity from it.
“I think it’s a great program and a great way for young startups, especially early ones that many don’t know about … to get out there and get recognized in the community,” he said.
Welcome to 2024 Inno Madness
First round voting begins today and continues through 11:59 p.m. March 17. We'll open up voting round by round, ultimately crowning an Inno Madness winner in our Beat newsletter April 17. (Not a regular reader? Sign up here for weekly updates as the competition progresses and to stay on top of all things Buffalo tech and startups.)
Keep scrolling to learn more about all of the companies in our brackets.
Meet the players
- Aerovec aims to develop a compact wind turbine that’s integrated with energy storage and other types of renewable energy, as well as make the technology mobile.
- Aille Design, a clothing design company aims to bring inclusivity to the mainstream fashion sector.
- AireXpert’s software manages the complex series of maintenance tasks that are required before commercial planes can take flight.
- AMPAworks has a camera that uses computer vision artificial intelligence to have full inventory visibilities.
- Arbol is building a high-growth business model around the goal of keeping low-income students in college through graduation.
- Azuna makes all-natural odor removal and cleaning products based on tea tree gel.
- CaHill Tech has developed a mobile training tool for companies and workers in the construction industry.
- Centivo builds self-funded health-care plans for employers.
- Circuit Clinical decentralizes clinical trials to make them more accessible and equitable in community health care systems.
- CleanFiber manufactures recycled cardboard into insulation materials.
- Diadem Capital helps connect private companies to venture capital, non-dilutive funding sources and venture debt.
- FoodNerd uses its processing technology to create food products that are both healthy and convenient.
- HELIXintel provides digital tools that help companies track, maintain and acquire equipment.
- Immunaeon stores a person’s healthy immune cells through blood draws for the future when they’re needed.
- Jerry is building a car ownership “super app.”
- Kangarootime develops software for daycares and nursery schools.
- Kickfurther uses crowdfunding to help companies build their inventory.
- Latte aims to increase Black, Indigenous and people of color's visibility in the workplace and allow organizations to provide mentors to workers and see who is mentoring their employees internally and externally.
- Lemma Labs, which does testing for beauty product companies.
- LenderLogix provides digital tools for point-of-sale and automation for credit unions, banks, independent mortgage banks and brokers.
- Memory Fox is a marketing tool for nonprofits and charities.
- Offwell has created an online real estate platform to help agents submit, accept and manage offers.
- Ognomy is a system for diagnosing and treating sleep apnea at home.
- PostProcess Technologies develops solutions for the additive manufacturing industry.
- SelectFI’s software platform is an auto dealership regulatory compliance and financing pre-qualification tool.
- Sparq, formerly Rural Sourcing, uses a 100% remote model to tap into underutilized technology talent.
- StepWise aims to make home electrification cost effective, specifically for EV charger and heat pump installations, by optimizing existing electrical panels.
- Swift Rails has developed an autonomous vehicle individualized transportation system.
- Timberhut designs and makes high-quality, modular structures.
- Top Seedz sells artisan crackers and seeds.
- Twipes, a bio-tech company that’s developed a material that can break down in water in three hours and biodegrade in a landfill in seven days.
- Verivend has created a paperless way investment sponsors and investors can deploy and raise capital.
