Dan DeFrancesco's business-focused March Madness bracket concluded its first-round voting today, with SaaSpocalypse, Tariffs, Longevity and Robotics advancing to the Final Four. More than 300 votes were cast in the first round of voting.

The closest contest saw top-seeded SaaSpocalypse narrowly defeat eighth-seeded Autonomous vehicles with 52.9% of the vote to 47.1%. The widest margin came in the matchup between fifth-seeded Tariffs and fourth-seeded Prediction markets, with Tariffs capturing 67.9% of votes compared to 32.1% for Prediction markets.

In other first-round results, sixth-seeded Longevity defeated third-seeded Vibe coding 57.7% to 42.3%, while seventh-seeded Robotics upset second-seeded Private credit 64.6% to 35.4%. DeFrancesco had seeded eight business trends for the bracket competition.

The second-round matchups will feature SaaSpocalypse versus Tariffs and Longevity versus Robotics. The bracket structure follows traditional March Madness format, with higher seeds facing lower seeds in the opening round.

Software companies' stock prices have declined during the SaaSpocalypse trend that claimed the top seed in the bracket. The Supreme Court has issued a ruling on tariffs. Businesses have experienced negative impacts from tariffs, the trend that received the highest percentage of first-round votes at 67.9%.