When Freshman Zorian Schiffman was 9 years old, he decided to make a bracket for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, also known as “March Madness.” At the conclusion of tournament, Schiffman ranked within the top one percent of all participants.

Over the next few years, he consistently garnered finishes within the top three percent. Subsequently, his peers would approach him for advice regarding the tournament.

“The past three years my brackets had ranked among the best in the country. So, last year I decided to make a spreadsheet showing my predictions and analysis for all 68 teams in the tournament,” said Schiffman.

As it turns out, Schiffman’s vigorous work ethic and ardor for March Madness paid off financially.

“I sold each book for $10 a piece, and I made a $220 profit off of the books,” said Schiffman.

This winter, in an attempt to reach a bigger market than Sandburg Middle School, Schiffman came up with the idea to make BracketHelp, an app which includes his own personal research and analysis on every team in the tournament.

“College basketball has always been the sport I have been most interested in,” Schiffman said. “Last year, people would approach me in the halls asking who would be in the final four. Then, I got the idea from my friends and my mom that I should make a March Madness research guide app.”

Making a fully functional app is much easier said than done, often costing a hefty amount of time and effort to create.

“I started making BracketHelp mid-January of this year, and I usually devote two hours every weekday because I have school and six hours on the weekends to do research and put it together,” said Schiffman. 

Schiffman was not alone in the creation of his app, however, and recruited the third-party app developer Swebapps.

“I am not actually coding it myself. I work with a representative of the company to put the app together,” said Schiffman.

Fortunately, BracketHelp is available for purchase for $1.99 on both the Google Play and Apple stores as of Mar. 9.

“My goal is to sell 500 this year; since the sample size was so small last year, I hope the word gets spread across a larger market this year,” said Schiffman.