The votes have been cast and the results are in; Pittsburgh Inno can now announce that Honeycomb Credit and MindTrace Technologies are the two final startups left competing in its inaugural Inno Madness bracket-style tournament.
It was a tight race for Honeycomb as it beat out its rival pairing, Carnegie Foundry, by just 13 votes across the more than 500 cast during the week-long voting period. MindTrace succeeded over its rival pairing, TouchWood Labs, by about 50 votes.
Now Honeycomb — a fintech startup and small business loan crowdfunding platform where businesses can borrow funds from their own customers and fans — and MindTrace — a software developer startup creating tools that aid neurosurgeons in surgical planning through its machine learning platform, which claims to simulate surgical plans that can then predict a patient's potential cognitive outcome before surgery — go head-to-head for the crowning of the first-ever Pittsburgh Inno Madness champion.
"The Honeycomb Credit team is thrilled to be named beside so many great local startups and to make it to the Inno Madness finals," George Cook, Honeycomb's CEO and co-founder, said in an email statement. "Honeycomb is on a mission to unlock fair loans for businesses while letting everyone invest in their own neighborhoods, and it is an honor to receive so much support on our journey."
Max Sims, MindTrace's co-founder and CEO, echoed that sentiment when asked about the competition thus far.
"Our team is very grateful for all the support we have received throughout the competition," Sims said in an email. "MindTrace is still a very early stage med-tech startup, so it means a lot for us to even be in the conversation with the many innovative companies in Pittsburgh. We are thrilled MindTrace's mission to improve neurosurgery outcomes is resonating with Pittsburghers and other readers."
The fourth and final round of voting has since begun and continues until 6 p.m. on Monday, March 28. Following an audit of the votes, the INNO MADNESS winner will then be crowned on March 29. Be sure to be subscribed to the free and twice-weekly Pittsburgh Inno email newsletter, the Beat, to be up-to-date on the latest round results and future pairings.
Vote in the fourth round here. Read contest rules here.
Need an Inno Madness refresher?
In summary, Inno Madness is a bracket-style challenge where readers vote to advance companies based on one question: Who would you invest in? Whether you believe in one mission or product slightly over the other or would prefer to back a more established company versus an early stage startup, how you answer that question is entirely up to you. The overall bracket is designed to shine a spotlight on 16 innovative, fast-growing local businesses.
This year's bracket was assembled based on reader nominations. Because this is the first year of Pittsburgh Inno Madness' launch, seeding was determined by alphabetical order out of the nominations Pittsburgh Inno's editorial team selected. You can read the contest rules here.
The goal of Inno Madness is to give a snapshot of some of the most promising tech companies in Pittsburgh. It is by no means a complete list of Pittsburgh's best startups, nor is it a list of the 16 most-funded startups in the region.
Instead, the bracket is meant to ideally represent the full breadth and diversity of the ecosystem. In the end, think of the bracket as just another fun look into some of the other local tech companies you need to know about in 2022.
