After making a run at a championship last year, Wichita has come out of the gate strong in 2023 in an online bracket challenge allowing voters to pick their favorite Midwest startup city.
The contest is being run on Twitter by Midwest Startups, with Wichita currently leading in a second-round matchup as a No. 1 seed against Traverse City, Mich.
Last year, Wichita made it to the final pairing before ultimately losing out to Columbia, Mo.
The Midwest Startup website currently lists Wichita as No. 41 on a list of 59 Midwest cities on its data-based rankings.
Those include the metrics of startup activity, access to resources and business climate.
That ranking was up one spot from 2021.
Wichita in recent years has pushed to create a more cohesive environment for startup activity and raise the city’s entrepreneurial profile, including the formation of entrepreneurial organization NXTUS Inc. from what had previously been the e2e Accelerator.
Voting in the second round of the Midwest Startup contest ends on Wednesday.
