Some decisions, like picking a car, apartment or college, are worth agonizing over. Other decisions, like choosing between movies on Netflix or different brands of yogurt, just aren’t.
Trendendo, a Chicago-based startup, created a simple review platform to help you make those quick decisions and get on with your day. It does so by asking users to identify their favorite products, brands, movies or anything else they can think of, and then presenting the crowdfunded results as ranked lists.
“There’s a lot of review platforms out there, but they’re based on a lot of content and wordy and biased reviews,” said CMO Tyler Stafford (pictured left). “What we want to do is create a hub for people to come on and rank things based on their opinions.”
Trendendo’s voting system is designed to make ranking as efficient as possible. After choosing a list, like "The best Marvel movies," users are presented with four options to choose from. The user then picks their favorite of the bunch, and the losing alternatives are swapped out for new ones. This process is repeated until all the options have been exhausted.
The company’s algorithm promotes or demotes list items based on how often they’re picked ahead of each other. Users can also see graphs of how the popularity of certain items change over time.
Founder and CEO Cameron Laudick came up with the idea in college because he wanted a simple way to ask people for recommendations.
“There just isn’t one place to go to get a ranked list for anything you want,” he said. “I have a girlfriend who likes romantic comedies, and there isn’t one place to get a ranked list of the best romantic comedies, for instance.”
Trendendo’s lists, or “cards,” as they are called, span 13 categories ranging from food to sports, music and movies. Some cards, like restaurant rankings, are local, while others are independent of location. Currently, all cards are curated by the staff, but the company’s developers are working on new features that would let users add list items or create new lists altogether.
The Trendendo team sees multiple potential avenues for monetization. By capturing detailed information about what users like and don’t like, the app can become a powerful delivery mechanism for targeted advertising. Moreover, through sponsored cards, like “Best $50 gift on Amazon” or “Best Nutella recipes,” brands can gain a deeper understanding of potential customers while simultaneously gaining exposure.
Trendendo is currently available for iPhone and has local content for Chicago, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland and Denver. The founders said additional cities are on the way.
Image via Trendendo.
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