Venture Madness incentivizes voters with brackets, apples and cash

While the odds of writing the 2014 NCAA perfect bracket were at 9.2 quintillion-to-1 odds and it only took two days for an obliteration of millions of ESPN brackets, the public gets another chance to put their luck to the test with a new game of Bracketology that involves early-stage companies, and one of them has a smart basketball.
Venture Madness, a competition where 64 early-stage companies from around the Southwest go head-to-head in a bracket-style format to win $50,000, is incentivizing voters to fill out their brackets for a chance to win a MacBook Air or iPad Air and help their favorite startup win $5,000.
The first part of the Bracketology game is the People’s Choice Award where the public can fill out a bracket online and which ever startup, regardless of progression in the competition, is named champion most often wins $5,000.
Next, the individual with the bracket closest to the judges’ selections throughout the competition will receive a 13-inch MacBook Air, and the runner up will win an iPad Air 2.
“Although the companies that advance through each competition round are selected solely by a panel of judges, we wanted to give a voice to the public participants who will choose their favorite companies this year by filling out a bracket online,” said Jonathan Ariano, chairman of Invest Southwest. “The People’s Choice Award is an added incentive for them to participate in bracketology.”
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Brackets must be filled out and submitted by 11:59 PM on Sunday, January 18, 2015. The winners of the People’s Choice Award and Bracketology will be announced after the competition.
The live competition is held on March 4-6 at Talking Stick Resort where 16 companies will demo their product.
Read more about 2015 Venture Madness here.