March means March Madness, of course – the time of year when eyes turn to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, one of the most watched sports events of the year.
The startup accelerator TechStars is getting in on the action with its own “bracket-style” tournament to find the next big startup. It’s picking 64 startups to face off in Startup Madness.
Rest assured, tech startups, the tournament won’t test your free throw prowess or talent on the basketball court. The startups in Startup Madness will compete for votes from the public via the user-comparison website This or That. The public will be able to vote once per match-up, and the company who gets the most votes advances to the next round.
The Tournament winner will receive over $25,000 in valuable prizes, including $12,000 in Rackspace hosting credits, $5,000 in advertising on Seattle 2.0 web site, and an invitation to “TechStars for a Day.” Finalists and semi-finalists will also receive an invitation to that TechStars event.
In order to qualify, your startup needs to have a live, usable public website or an accessible demo, and you need to have not raised more than $250,000 in investment or revenue in a single year. TechStars companies or alumni aren’t qualified.
The deadline to nominate startups is Wednesday, March 9. You can nominate a startup here or you can tweet “Hey @TechStars, I nominate [the startup’s twitter handle] for the @StartupMadness Tournament.”
