Poutsch: 4 reasons this social polling startup left Paris for Brooklyn

The social polling craze has brought about its fair share of ventures in recent years. Brooklyn has its own, a four person startup in South Williamsburg called Poutsch, which is focusing on data, social and engagement.

The Next Web called it ‘Quora for polls.’

That’s why, as Entrepreneur reported, the average number of answers per user during a Poutsch beta test was an impressive 200. Connect brands with that kind of engagement and suddenly you realize why there is hot interest in the space.

“This is an opportunity era [for social polling]. Some are going to make it very big, and some are not,” John Zogby, the creator of the Zogby poll, told Entrepreneur.

So it’s worth noting that cofounder Melchior Schöller and his team chose Brooklyn — in a space on 8th Street below Broadway they share with fellow startups Glose, Checkthis and Frontback.

Poutsch and its competitors are aiming to offer the best experience for companies and individuals to put out a question — opinion, news or product — and collect answers from around the web.

Beginning in January 2012, Schöller and team bootstrapped the company before joining the startup accelerator Le Camping in Paris. In January 2013, they moved the company to Brooklyn after raising a small early round in France.

Why make the move? Schöller gave four reasons to Technically Brooklyn:

• Familiarity: All four team members had spent time at college here,  Schöller having studied at NYU.
• Proximity: The team was “looking for a consumer tech ecosystem not too far from Europe,” he said.
• Investment: Schöller wanted access to the kind of “experienced investors” that the United States, and New York in particular, are known for.
• Quality of life: The team wanted to be somewhere they wanted be, in a vibrant city.

“Brooklyn was a natural choice for us because we have not raised funds yet,” said Schöller of Williamsburg’s relative affordability compared to over the bridge. “That said, we might stay in Brooklyn even if we end up raising funds.”

The Poutsch app is available for free, now, in the Apple App Store. Other social polling ventures include Seesaw, Quipol and Loop.