LoHi Labs' Three Cents polling app a quick hit

LoHi Labs launched its free Three Cents polling app in May, and it quickly took off. "We got featured by Apple out of the gate as one of their 'Best New App's on the front page of the App Store and we've actually been featured every week since in the social networking category which has been pretty awesome," says Co-Founder and Product & Business Guy Conor Swanson.

So far, it hass generated more than 400,000 votes across the world since launching, including polls generated as far away as Indonesia. Not bad for LoHi Labs first internal product.

"We do a lot of client work helping build out applications for other startups around Denver and, actually, around the country," Swanson says. "The idea is something that we essential bootstrapped using funds from the consulting business."

The iPhone-only app is designed so that others using a phone or computer can respond to the polls,Swanson explains. It integrates data from numerous sources including Yelp, iTunes, TripAdvisor, Rotten Tomatoes, the App Store and more.

"One of the coolest things we've done on Three Cents is create an experience with Twitter," says Swanson. A poll published to Twitter becomes part of the Twitter stream "so you can see the full poll inside of Twitter and vote with one click without ever leaving Twitter."

"A really famous talk-show host in Indonesia who has 13 million followers on Twitter used our app to create a poll and ask a questions about public exams," Swanson says. "Over the course of the day, he got over 10,000 votes via Twitter on his Three Cents poll."

The polls are open to the public or sent to specific people, depending on what the user wants. "There are a lot of polls around social and political issues that are happening," Sawnson says. "We see a lot of question about sports, social topics, current events, personal preferences and relationship things. People go there to get ideas for movies to watch over the weekend."

Currently the developers are focussed on the consumer side of things. "There's a lot of interesting potential for the app down the road with regards to advertising and some of the other things we're doing in the app itself," Swanson says.

Contact Confluence Denver Innovation & Jobs News Editor Chris Meehan with tips and leads for future stories at chris@confluence-denver.com.