Poll Everywhere
| Private | |
| Industry | audience response systems |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, USA |
Key people |
Jeff Vyduna(CEO, Co-Founder) Brad Gessler (Chief Technical Officer, Co-Founder) Sean Eby (Co-founder) |
| Website | polleverywhere.com |
Poll Everywhere is a privately held company headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company, founded in April 2007 [1] is an online service for classroom response and audience response systems. Poll Everywhere's product allows audiences and classrooms in over 100 countries[2] to use mobile phones, thereby "plotting the obsolescence"[3] of proprietary hardware response devices otherwise known as clickers.
The company raised $20,000 in venture funding from Y Combinator in 2008.[4]
Origins and History
Jeff Vyduna, Brad Gessler, and Sean Eby were coworkers at Deloitte Consulting charged with giving internal presentations. One day, to keep the audience awake, they decided to pull a text message "out of a hat".[5] Code was started in April 2007, and the online site launched in September 2007. During that time, Vyduna matriculated at the Sloan School of Management at MIT. On May 14, 2008, the company placed as a semi finalist in the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Challenge.[6] Vyduna subsequently took a leave of absence when Poll Everywhere was accepted into Y Combinator in mid-2008; In 2010 the company moved to San Francisco.
In September 2012, the company announced it had acquired competitors ClassMetric and TextTheMob[7]
Over 100,000 educators use the product.[8]
Company
The company is managed by two of its cofounders: Jeff Vyduna, Chief Executive Officer; and Brad Gessler, Chief Technology Officer. The company earns revenue via monthly and annual subscriptions to its software as a service website. Bespoke development and onsite technical support are also provided to large enterprise customers and events.
Key Product Launches
- August 2008: US SMS short code support; and International expansion to Australia, Europe and Asia.[9]
- August 2011: Word Clouds for Open Ended Responses[10]
- December 2011: Full Featured Mac Presenter Release [11]
- March 2012: Support for Images and LaTeX in polling answers[12]
- September 2012: Published the first comparison chart for web based audience response systems.[13]
- September 2012: Published Mobile Tools for Presenters [14]
Reception and Publication Mentions
- Mashable.com noted in 2008, "The Usefulness of Poll Everywhere is apparent." http://mashable.com/2009/06/17/poll-everywhere/
- Mentioned in Teaching Generation Text: Using Cell Phones to Enhance Learning'' l[15]" by Lisa Nielsen and Willyn Webb
- Budget Audience Response Pick, Meetings and Conventions Magazine[16]
- Mentioned in "Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments" by Derek Bruff
See also
References
- ↑ Lynch, Brendan (1 May 2008). "Startup Poll Everywhere invented the technology to conduct real time polls through cell phones". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
- ↑ Jenara, Narenberg (6 October 2010). "SMS Education: Poll Everywhere Is Making the Mobile Pop Quiz More Affordable". Fast Company. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
- ↑ Hoffman, Jan (30 March 2012). "Speak Up? Raise Your Hand? That May No Longer Be Necessary". New York Times. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
- ↑ Ha, Anthony (19 August 2008). "Y Combinator Demo Day: CO2Stats, Posterous and others show their stuff". Venture Beat. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
- ↑ Lynch, Brendan (1 May 2008). "Startup Poll Everywhere conducts polls through cell phones". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
- ↑ Reidy, Chris (15 May 2008). "MIT $100K competition awards its top prize". Boston.com.
- ↑ Wan, Tony (26 September 2012). "oll Everywhere acquires TextTheMob, ClassMetric". edsurge.com. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
- ↑ Bass, Dustin (15 August 2012). "POLL EVERYWHERE GATHERING ALL THE ANSWERS". OnlineColleges.net. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
- ↑ Kincaid, Jason (18 August 2008). "Poll Everywhere Asks The Crowd To Spice Up PowerPoint Presentations". TechCrunch. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
- ↑ Byrne, Richard. "Create Word Clouds in Poll Everywhere". Retrieved 28 February 2013.
- ↑ Rose, Michael. "Friday Favorite: PollEverywhere Mac Presenter grows up". Tuaw.com. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
- ↑ Byrne, Richard. "Poll Everywhere Introduces Voting on Images". FreeTechForTeachers.com. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
- ↑ Wan, Tony. "Check This Out: A Comparison of Audience Response Systems". EdSurge.com. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
- ↑ Byrne, Richard. "Poll Everywhere Offers New Mobile Presenter Tools". FreeTech4Teachers.com. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
- ↑ Nielsen, Lisa. "5 Ways to Connect With Parents Using Poll Everywhere". Retrieved 28 February 2013.
- ↑ Braley, Sarah. "A FEATURES Cutting-Edge Audience Feedback". Meetings and Conventions Magazine. Retrieved 28 February 2013.