Thanks to a buzzer-beater in overtime — or the online polling equivalent thereof — Hollrback is moving on.
The Omaha-based startup advanced to the third round of the Startup Madness Tournament, an NCAA tournament-style contest that started with 64 startups competing for a grand prize worth more than $25,000. The 16 surviving startups have advanced through the single-elimination tournament, which is sponsored by TechStars and hosted at thisorthat.com, by receiving more votes than their opposition.
Hollrback, a context-sensitive contact-exchange platform, won its second-round matchup in a nail-biter, taking 51 percent of the vote against OnCompare (San Francisco and Seattle). The narrow victory for Hollrback came after Hollrback and OnCompare were deadlocked on Monday and after TechStars decided to extend the second round by four hours.
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Hollrback’s Gabe Kangas tweeted in celebration of another win for his company. Screenshot from twitter.com/gabek.
Now, Hollrback faces off against Big Give Media (Seattle), a service that enables online shoppers to donate a percentage of their purchase price to a charity of their choice at no cost to the shopper.
Hollrback is four wins away from the $25,000 grand prize, but just two wins stand between the Silicon Prairie startup and the semifinalist prize: a trip to TechStars and consideration to become a finalist for TechStars, a startup incubator with programs in Boston, Boulder, New York City and Seattle.
Hollrback is matched up against Big Give Media in the third round of Startup Madness. Voting runs through Monday. Screen shot from thisorthat.com.
