Monday, May 5, 2008

Shooting for the 100K

Startup Poll Everywhere conducts polls through cell phones

By Brendan Lynch

Poll Everywhere's technology allows users to conduct polls via mobile text messaging and then watch the results in real time via programs like Microsoft Corp.'s PowerPoint.

"It's like American Idol," said co-founder Jeff Vyduna. "Or more accurately, like 'ask the audience' from 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?'."

The company, founded in 2007, already has customers including Microsoft, Virginia Tech, and a few megachurches. College professors use the technology to ask questions of, and take attendance from, a large class, while the megachurches use it to ask questions about a Bible passage or to expose a common misconception among the flock, Vyduna said.

Vyduna and his two fellow co-founders, based in Chicago, got the idea while working for Deloitte Consulting LLP. The trio were running a presentation and wanted to keep the attendees engaged by having a raffle. They chose a text message "out of a hat" to determine the winner of an iPod -- Poll Everywhere was born. The company plans to charge for polls that require more than 30 votes.

Vyduna, a first year student at MIT's Sloan School of Management, said he thinks Poll Everywhere has a good chance to win the business plan contest of the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship competition. An entrepreneur from Ubitrack, a competitor in the mobile category, lives across the hall from Vyduna.

"We kid each other all the time about who's going to win, strategy and stuff," he said.

The Poll Everywhere team flew to California last Thursday to make its pitch to be part of Y Combinator, a startup incubator and investor with operations in Cambridge and Silicon Valley. The outcome will determine whether the startup will be based in Chicago or Cambridge. Vyduna was bemused by the prospect of flying from Boston to California to talk to people from Boston for 10 minutes.

"That's irony for you," he said.