Las Vegas-based startup wants to bring social polling to Internet masses

Krystal Ramirez

Jimmy Jacobson and Porter Haney, co-founders of Wedgies, work in their office in Downtown Las Vegas on January 16, 2015.

Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Ross uses social media polling application Wedgies every time he gets the chance.

Using the Las Vegas-based application, Ross has polled residents on everything from liquor ordinances on Fremont Street to medical marijuana and whether the City Council should continue discussions on a Las Vegas Major League Soccer stadium.

“I like using it because you can do real time polling,” Ross said. “When something comes up, I say ‘Shoot! I need to do a Wedgies poll on this.’”

Now, more than ever, data about people’s opinions is one of the most valuable tools at a company's disposal. Though Gallup polls and the Nielsen rating system have functioned for decades as the primary collectors of public opinion on what people watch, listen to, buy and politically support, the minds behind Wedgies are working to shake up the scene and make poll-making easy for the average Internet user.

Like other Wedgies users, all Ross has to do is load a question he wants to ask his audience into the application and offer two possible answers. The survey can then be shared on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Poll participants select their answer and real-time results are sent to the creator with a graphic percentage in real time.

Ross has often built polls on controversial subjects while sitting at the lectern at Las Vegas City Council meetings.

While the majority of attendees at the city’s town hall meetings about the MLS stadium seemed to be against the stadium, more than 60 percent of the 200 people who voted on a Wedgies poll supported the stadium.

With results in hand, Ross can better deliver the public’s opinion to Mayor Carolyn Goodman and his constituents.

Jimmy Jacobson left and Porter Haney right, co-founders of Wedgies, in their office in Downtown Las Vegas on January 16, 2015.

Jimmy Jacobson left and Porter Haney right, co-founders of Wedgies, in their office in Downtown Las Vegas on January 16, 2015.

“Ultimately we want to legitimize what a vote on the Internet means,” said Porter Hanley, one of the company's founders. “Right now we’re doing that in a pretty fun and lighthearted way.”

Wedgies offers a free version of the app that has a page view cap of 100,000. For $25 a month, users can get as many as 200,000 page views. With a professional subscription, which costs $50 a month, a user gets 500,000 page views and advanced analytics.

For mega media companies like the Wall Street Journal, which can accrue hundreds of thousands of views on a single story, pricing is figured out privately based on what a company wants to get out of the application.

Avid sports fans have likely seen the Wedgies platform in action. Reporters with USA Today have regularly created polls asking fans if they agree with a controversial call on the field. Before the referee delivers his official decision, the reporter has thousands of responses from the poll.

Formed in 2012 in Las Vegas, Wedgies recently secured $700,000 in funding through a New York City venture capital firm, bringing its total funding to over $1.2 million. A portion of that money came from Tony Hsieh’s Vegas Tech Fund and the State of Nevada’s Battle Born Venture.

In the last year, Wedgies polls have been published on 10 million web pages, generating more than 2 million voters a month for publication like Engadget and The Weather Channel.

The Wall Street Journal often collects ratings of President Barack Obama’s speeches using Wedgies, and the Weather Channel used the app to poll viewers and name the winter season’s storms.

Haney said the difference between traditional survey companies like Gallup and Wedgies is the reliance on email and telephone calls to distribute surveys.

Other survey apps -- like Survey Monkey -- primarily collect information through email marketing. Participants get a link in their email inboxes.

“We bring the polls to wherever you are on the Internet,” Haney said.

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