A two-person startup that launched only last summer dominated the competition and took home the crown in Chicago Inno’s 2021 Tech Madness challenge.
Choobs, a marketplace for socially conscious clothing brands, beat M1 Finance in the final round of the 64-team, month-long bracket-style challenge.
Readers voted for startups to advance in the competition based on which company they would invest in. Over the course of the competition, nearly 33,000 votes were cast for Chicago startups.
As one of the most competitive startups in Tech Madness history, Choobs, a 16-seed startup, was hungry for the win, building momentum and gaining support on social media.
Choobs ended up beating M1 Finance, a fintech startup with 150 employees and $170 million in funding, with more than 75% of the vote in the final round.
“It feels amazing,” said Choobs co-founder Alex Mueller about winning Tech Madness. “We launched in July and have been flying under the radar in terms of publicity, so this is a really fun coming out party. People got really excited to support us, especially as an underdog.”
Choobs serves as an online marketplace for brands that have a socially conscious mission, whether it is donating a portion of each purchase to a charitable cause, or creating and selling items that were made in a sustainable fashion.
Choobs currently sells more than 20 brands, including Headbands of Hope, Ocean Bottle, and Roma, and takes a small fee for every purchase made on its platform.
“Choobs helps people feel fulfilled with their shopping,” Mueller said. “You can shop clothing that will make you look good and do good on Choobs.”
The Tech Madness bracket was assembled based on reader nominations, as well as editorial input from the Chicago Inno team, and seeding was based on total funding raised. The bracket included private (non-exited) venture-backed or bootstrapped companies based in Chicago.
The goal of Tech Madness, as it's been every year since we began this annual competition in 2015, is to spotlight 64 fast-growing tech companies in Chicago and provide some lighthearted competition for the city's startups and our readers.
Choobs joins past winners Leaf Trade (2020), 2ndKitchen (2019), SpringCM (2018), GetSet (2017), SpotHero (2016) and Kapow Events (2015) as Chicago Inno Tech Madness champs.
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