We're just a week away from a champion being named in the inaugural KY Inno Madness competition.
And you know what that means, right? Two back-to-back voting rounds this week.
The semifinal round starts today, Monday, March 21, and runs through 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, March 23. Then Thursday, March 24, we'll open up voting for the championship battle royale, with final voting ending at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, March 27. We'll announce the winner on Monday, March 28.
But first, a quick recap of the last round: We (again) had two very close matchups. No. 1 seed FreshFry beat No. 7 Pascal Tags with 51% of the vote, and No. 7 Symba knocked out No. 8 Wall Eye Solutions, also with 51% of the vote. No. 4 VividCharts and No. 8 Black Business Boxes also pulled through to the semifinal round.
We had nearly 800 voters in the last round and that's the whole point of KY Inno Madness — to get more eyes on more Kentucky startups. Be sure to share this link with your friends and colleagues to keep your favorite company in line for the championship.
Vote for your favorite below, and don't forget to sign up for the Beat, our free newsletter, which will come out just in time for me to share who's in the championship round this Thursday.
Meet the players in the semifinal round:
FreshFry (Louisville) — A food-tech company that developed an all-natural, plant-based pod that extends the life of frying oil by collecting and dissolving impurities, ultimately saving restaurant operators time, labor and cost.
VividCharts (Lexington) — A data visualization platform that allows ServiceNow customers to generate and distribute real-time reports that make data-focused decisions easy and efficient.
Symba (Louisville) — A real estate tech company that’s built a mobile-first, customer relationship management platform that enables agents to upload their contacts, track deals, organize their tasks and monitor their sales and commissions.
Black Business Boxes (Louisville) — An e-commerce company that is working to build a Black-owned marketplace makes it easier for dollars to circulate within the Black community, and curate subscription boxes from different Black-owned businesses to introduce consumers to new brands.
