The field is narrowing fast, folks. Eight companies remain in this year's rendition of Inno Madness as they go head-to-head for all the glory.
For a little refresher, in round one, every matchup resulted in an underdog making it through to round two. That meant our highest seeds left were No. 5. Of those four companies, only two — Hearty and Homebuyer — have made it through to round three.
And while round two wasn't immune from upsets, some higher seeded teams have lived to see another day. You can help us narrow the pool down to just four teams by casting your ballot now. You can find quick bios on each of the remaining companies below.
The Players
7. Founded by ex-P&Ger Jake Whitman, Really Good Boxed Wine is a direct-to-consumer wine brand based in Cincinnati.
8. Techstars-backed TinnCann lets users video chat 1-on-1 with a curated group of athletes and experts in fashion, photography, music and more.
5. Hearty is a LinkedIn alternative that lets you build a professional network based on personal recommendations. It was founded in 2021 by three former Ahalogy execs, who exited their prior company for $50 million the year before.
7. Clean Earth Rovers, comprised entirely of University of Cincinnati and Xavier University alumni, is developing a high-tech machine to fight plastic and water pollution.
6. Montgomery-based Neural Payments connects banks and credit unions to payment providers like PayPal or Venmo, cutting down an otherwise clunky user experience and bridging a gap between fintech and financial institutions.
8. Get Together, a scheduling tool, integrates directly into any group text message, Slack channel or Discord server to scheduling everyone on the chat in seconds. The company’s app officially went live in the App Store and on Google Play in January.
5. Another Techstars alum, Homebuyer is a mortgage lender targeting first-time homebuyers. The company uses tech to make the approval process fast and less expensive, while offering targeted information, newsletters and articles to help newbies navigate the buying process.
7. Tech startup Contact CI, based in Over-the-Rhine, is developing “haptic human-computer interaction,” focused on extending the hand's sense of touch into virtual reality.
