Underdogs Take the Lead in NC Tech Madness! Vote for the Sweet 16 Now.

The second round of Tech Madness is over, and we officially have our 16 remaining teams. Congrats to all that made it!

Just like the actual tournament, we saw a fair share of upsets—in fact, the best seed left is a #5. This illustrates that people love the underdog; or, more likely, North Carolina is just chock-full of promising startups that can succeed without massive amounts of funding (in fact, six of the 16 remaining teams are bootstrapped).

Some highlights from Round 2:

-We had nearly 2,300 votes, beating Round 1 totals (1,900)
-Stealz (#8), EmployUs (#9), and MATI Energy (#8) all beat #1 seeds (Ncino, Pendo and Netsertive respectively). Amazingly, Stealz won by just 49 votes, and EmployUs slipped past Pendo by 13!
-The Produce Box had the most votes of any company, at 1,205, as well as the highest margin of victory (76% vs 24%). Untappd was a close second with 1,119 votes.
-Nugget is the only #16 left in the competition
-There’s a clear love of food and alcohol brands, with five of the 16 teams falling into that category

Sweet 16 (round three) voting is now open and ends Midnight, Sunday the 26th. We’re veering slightly off the actual March Madness schedule to give you more days to vote.

Here’s the bracket (click on it for a larger version) and below are the upcoming match-ups: