Welcome back to the Sunstone Way – and to March Madness!
It’s the time of year when all sports eyes turn to college basketball (both men’s and women’s) as the top teams vie for the NCAA tournament championships. It all starts this Sunday, March 15, with the announcement of the top 68 men’s and 68 women’s Division 1 basketball teams, along with the tournament brackets.
The games follow, culminating in the title games April 5 (women) and April 6 (men).
March Madness traditionally referred to the men’s tournament, where the television broadcasts and media coverage focused. In the last few years, the women’s tournament has garnered national attention as well, with superstar players and dramatic games.
Plenty of Interest
We pay a lot of attention to March Madness here at Sunstone – not just because it’s so fun to watch the games, but also because there are so many parallels to our focus on entrepreneurship and community. But let’s admit it – we are big basketball fans, too!
Many of you know that our founder, John Shen, attended Duke University, one of the perennial powers in men’s basketball. John is a superfan, and his Duke Blue Devils are among the favorites to take the title again this year. Duke’s women’s team is highly ranked as well.
My alma mater, USC, didn’t have a great basketball season this year on either the men’s or the women’s side (although it looks like the women will make it into the tournament). I still love to study the brackets, root for the underdogs, and hope for a Cinderella team to make a deep run.
Speaking of Brackets
One of the popular parts of March Madness is to fill out the brackets – to guess who will win each game as the field is narrowed to the Sweet Sixteen, the Elite Eight and the Final Four. Brackets are separated into four regions, so there are four No. 1 seeds – the top teams during the regular season, and the teams the pundits pick to have the best chance of winning the title.
But there is a reason to play the games. Any team can get hot, and even the best team has a bad game once in a while. There are upsets every year, when teams who aren’t supposed to win according to their seed beat the favorites.
If a team can string together two or three upsets in a row, they become a Cinderella – someone who isn’t even supposed to be at the ball who suddenly has a chance to win the crown. It’s a surprise to everyone – except maybe the players and coaches on that Cinderella team.
Call Them Unicorns
In the entrepreneurial world, we talk about unicorns – a startup that seemingly comes out of nowhere to become a very valuable (as in $1 billion) company. Much like the Cinderellas of the NCAA, these unicorns aren’t the sudden surprise they might appear – years of work are involved, along with good decisions and investments.
An NCAA tournament-worthy team doesn’t just happen. Coaches study players from across the country, then invest in them with scholarships and NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) deals to bring them onboard.
That’s the beginning. But to become winners, the team has to become a community, to learn how to play as a team. An elite performer – a transcendent point guard or a dominant big man – might carry a team through in one or two games. But programs that build strong culture consistently outperform rosters stacked with individual stars who lack cohesion.
The startup world mirrors this: investors increasingly evaluate team dynamics, market fit, and organizational culture alongside raw metrics. As Michael Jordan famously put it, “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships” — a principle that applies equally to a Final Four roster and a breakout startup.
Early Preparation
These elite players on elite college teams didn’t arrive on campus fully formed. It has taken them years of work under the tutelage of dedicated coaches, supportive families and more.
The same can be said of successful founders. It has taken them years of learning from high school and university teachers steeped in entrepreneurial experience. And even after that training, it takes sharing and support in a strong community of like-minded founders and mentors.
That’s where organizations like the Sunstone Venture & Innovation Center come in. The Center’s goal is to be a long-term platform for capital formation, ecosystem building, and founder empowerment.” It does this through events like the Sunstone Stage Connects every Friday as well as working one-on-one to turn every founder.
Not every startup will become a unicorn, and not every founder is a Cinderella. But the possibility is always there, with the proper preparation. And that’s the Sunstone Way!
Remember, always be a Sunstone!
John Keisler
CEO & Managing Partner
Sunstone
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Sunstone Investment Group, headquartered in Southern California, is the holding company for the Sunstone family of entities, including: Sunstone Investment Management Services, responsible for administrative services; Sunstone Advisors, an SEC-registered investment adviser, which oversees Sunstone Venture Partners LLC, a private capital fund manager; Sunstone Cities, a government economic development consulting firm; and Sunstone Community Fund, a charitable organization that supports entrepreneurship. Sunstone is dedicated to enriching lives through investment, entrepreneurship, and community. Email us at contact@sunstoneinvestment.com.
©Sunstone, 2026