We’ve been on the edge of our seats as the Austin Inno Tech Madness bracket has progressed from 64 promising local startups to just two: Opcity and TurnKey Vacation Rentals.

Throughout this community-driven contest, we’ve asked readers to vote for the startups they’d be most likely to invest in. It’s something that can be driven by a variety of metrics — the presumed return on investment, the mission the company has or the startup team you most admire. More than 53,000 votes were cast during the contest.

And… the 2018 Tech Madness Champion is Opcity!!!

The rapidly-growing real estate tech startup burst onto the local scene with a huge $27 million Series A about a year ago. It has been hiring by the dozens since, moving to a sprawling new headquarters along the way. Their team rallied votes with tweets, and, presumably, spread the word among fans and employees to bring in a record number of votes. In the championship round alone, they garnered more than 2,700 votes.

But TurnKey Vacation Rentals had a huge showing throughout the competition, and it also rallied the votes along the way.

This year’s competition saw plenty of upsets, with No. 1 seeds falling quickly to ambitious startups who rallied their networks. We’ve had a blast watching the contest progress.

The most important takeaway from this, besides a MONSTER CONGRATULATIONS to Opcity, is that everyone won. Austin Inno created this contest to put the spotlight on local tech startups and to make thousands of people read up on new startups and consider which companies they find most compelling.

Here’s a look at the final vote. You can click in the upper left to see prior rounds — or select the whole bracket to check out all the companies.


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