Big 50 Round 2 Vote Opens Monday

Big 50 round 2 voting opens on Monday, March 7. In round 1, the Startup50 team whittled the Big 50 startup field down from 211 startups to 157.

Most of the startups cut in round one were either too old (not really startups, then, are they?) or too new (those without a Minimally Viable Product ready for launch in the near-term). Other cuts were made because these so-called startups were actually spin-outs, subsidiaries, or just side projects, rather than viable businesses.

In Big 50 Round 2, readers will vote on the top startups in each Voting Group, cutting the remaining 157 startups nearly in half. That will leave us with 80 startups vying for one of 50 spots in the Big 50-2016 startup report.

Big 50 Round 2 voting starts on Monday, March 7 at 9 am PT.

For round 2, we’ve grouped startups into 5 separate online Voting Groups. Each startup will compete against others in their market sector (or thereabouts). Of course, some sectors have many more entries than others. For instance, the Big Data sector has 29 startups, while there are only 7 storage startups remaining.

This is to be expected. So, we’ve grouped the startups to compete against others that, while they may not live on the same market sector street, they’re at least in the same neighborhood.

The Big 50 round 2 voting groups are:

Group 1: The Jetsons have nothing on us

Vote Opens: Monday, March 7 at 9 am PT
Vote Closes: Friday, March 11 at 7 pm PT

Market sectors: Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning, Internet of Things, Drones & Robotics, Wearables, Sustainability

Group 2: Building an on-demand world

Vote Opens: Wednesday, March 9 at 9 am PT
Vote Closes: Tuesday, March 15 at 7 pm PT

Market sectors: Consumer & Business Services, Sharing Services, EdTech

Group 3: It’s the data, stupid

Vote Opens: Monday, March 14 at 9 am PT
Vote Closes: Monday, March 21 at 7 pm PT

Market sector: Big Data

Group 4: We’re all in the cloud now

Vote Opens: Thursday, March 17 at 9 am PT
Vote Closes: Wednesday, March 23 at 7 pm PT

Market sectors: Cloud & SaaS; Internet/Datacenter Infrastructure, Development & Testing; Visibility, Monitoring & Policy Enforcement

Group 5: Securing and storing our digital future

Vote Opens: Tuesday, March 22 at 9 am PT
Vote Closes: Monday, March 28 at 7 pm PT

Market sectors: Cyber-security, Storage

A full list of startups competing in each group is available to Big50 competitors here: Big 50 Voting Groups and Lineups. This lineup also shows when voting opens and closes for each group.

For now, this roster is only available to Big50-2016 participants, and the page is password protected.

If your startup is still in the running and you haven’t received your password already, go here to sign up to get one.