SMSmart walked away with the top honors at the college business contest “Startup Madness” on Friday.

The team from Duke University defeats 15 others from universities across the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Cromoz finished second, Bioletics third and Queralyze fourth.

Karima Boukary. N.C. State correspondent for ExitEvent, reported on the fifth annual event at the State Club on N.C. State’s Centennial Campus.

Modeled after the NCAA college basketball finals, the event began on Friday with the “Sweet 16” and judges voted it down to a final “Elite 8”—the founders then pitched their startup ideas to the public.

SMSmart was lead by a Duke University senior in computer science, Alan Ni. The team will receive a $1000 cash prize from the RTP, a $1000 travel stipend from Citrix to travel to Silicon Valley for a meeting with venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a spot in the ThinkHouse accelerator, a spot in the Queen City Forward ImpactU Accelerator, 6 months of free cell phone service from Republic Wireless, one full scholarship and tuition credits for the Tech Talent Scout’s code immersion program, and another full tuition scholarship to the Leadership exCHANGE program. 

Queralyze won a $100 cash prize and a business development consultation with the CLL Group while Bioletics won $300 and a venture consultation with Idea Fund Partners.

Cromoz won a $500 cash prize, a venture consultation with the Bull City Venture Partners, a three-month co-working membership at HQ Raleigh, full tuition covered for the Leadership exCHANGE program, and a $3,000 tuition credit for the Tech Talent Scout’s code immersion program. The team presentation was lead by Cromoz President Afreen Allam, a first year MBA student at the Duke University Fuqua School of Business.

Read the full story at http://exitevent.com/article/duke-teams-take-1st-2nd-at-acc-startup-madness-150330