Creating and sharing votable lists for decision-making

People need simple tools to create lists where others can vote on items to help with group decisions, rankings, and crowdsourced feedback.

YC GraveyardJun 1, 2008ToolProductivitySource

FL score

out of 100

Verdict

VALIDATE

high confidence

Competition

competitors found, emerging market, funded players

Trend

8 community mentions

An AI-powered votable list tool for group decision-making faces a crowded market; a solo builder must identify a desperate, unserved niche.

The pain

Group decision-making is often slow, unstructured, and leads to inefficient outcomes, causing frustration for teams, event organizers, and project managers who need efficient ways to gather consensus and feedback.

The gap

While many tools exist (Doodle, Slido, Miro), user frustrations highlight a need for simpler tools for specific polling needs, better structured decision records, and more customizable analytics beyond basic polling. The 'AI-powered list creation with smart voting analytics' is a potential gap if targeted at a specific unserved audience.

Build angle

Develop an AI-powered tool that suggests list items, analyzes voting patterns, and provides smart recommendations for group decisions, initially focused on a hyper-specific user segment with integration hooks into their existing workflow (e.g., Notion workspaces, specific project management tools).

Strengths

Addresses a real and persistent problem in collaboration.
The AI-powered angle offers a modern differentiator in an evolving market.
Clear payment signals exist, with many competitors having paid tiers.
Market for collaboration tools is growing, driven by remote work.

Risks

Extremely crowded market with many funded and acquired incumbents.
The specific 'AI-powered' gap is not yet strongly validated by user frustrations; it could be a 'nice-to-have' rather than a 'must-have'.
Building robust AI and deep integrations is complex for a solo founder, impacting speed-to-market.
Lack of a hyper-specific niche makes user acquisition and differentiation challenging.

Next steps

Conduct in-depth user interviews with specific personas (e.g., remote project managers, community organizers) to identify an *unmet, desperate* pain related to votable lists/group decisions that existing tools truly fail to solve.
Validate demand for 'AI-powered' features – do users actively wish for AI suggestions or analytics, or is the core pain elsewhere (e.g., integration, pricing, UI)?
Research the YC Slinkset failure more deeply to understand specific reasons beyond 'too early for social voting' – what modern mechanics or AI capabilities specifically address those past shortcomings?
Identify the 'narrowest wedge' product: what's the smallest, most impactful AI-enhanced votable list feature that a specific user would pay for immediately?

Fly Labs Method

Is the pain real, is there a gap, is it the right time, can one person build it.

Problem clarity: 19
Solution gap: 14
Willingness to pay: 18
Buildability: 11

The idea addresses a real, albeit indirect, pain in group decision-making, with a potential whitespace for AI-driven lists and analytics. However, the market is crowded, and the specific solo builder angle needs more validation.

Value Equation

Dream outcome and how likely it feels, against the time and effort it costs.

This idea has a viable market and a clear value proposition, but differentiation and building a sustainable moat against numerous competitors will be challenging for a solo founder.

One-Person Business

Curiosity pull, identity fit, and a path from free value to paid for a solo creator.

The idea targets a real problem but lacks a clear niche and presents significant technical complexity for a solo founder trying to differentiate with AI in a crowded space.

Viral Frameworks

Hook strength, shareability, and how cheaply it can be tested.

The idea has a clear value proposition and proven business model, but requires precise audience targeting and a strong distribution strategy to succeed in a competitive landscape.

Builder Lens

Evidence the problem exists, timing, defensibility, and a model that fits on a napkin.

The core problem is real and enduring, but the current idea lacks the desperate specificity and a truly novel narrow wedge to stand out in a crowded market.

Why this verdict

The idea targets a real problem but lands in a crowded space. While the 'AI-powered' angle is appealing, there's insufficient evidence from the research to confirm that this specific differentiation addresses an acute, unserved need that users are willing to pay for and switch tools over. A solo builder would face an uphill battle against numerous, well-established competitors without a clear, hyper-focused entry point. Validation is crucial to identify a desperate niche and avoid replicating past failures or building another 'me-too' product.

Five lenses, one composite. How scoring works

The angle

This weekend

Conduct in-depth user interviews with specific personas (e.g., remote project managers, community organizers) to identify an *unmet, desperate* pain related to votable lists/group decisions that existing tools truly fail to solve.
Validate demand for 'AI-powered' features – do users actively wish for AI suggestions or analytics, or is the core pain elsewhere (e.g., integration, pricing, UI)?
Research the YC Slinkset failure more deeply to understand specific reasons beyond 'too early for social voting' – what modern mechanics or AI capabilities specifically address those past shortcomings?
Identify the 'narrowest wedge' product: what's the smallest, most impactful AI-enhanced votable list feature that a specific user would pay for immediately?

Who is already there, emerging market

DoodleVisit
Doodle simplifies scheduling and decision-making by allowing users to create polls for preferred times or options for group consensus.
Pricing: Free plan available. Pro: Starts at $6.95/month. Team: Starts at $8.95/user/month.
SlidoVisit
Slido is a live polling and Q&A tool that enables audiences to vote and submit questions during hybrid, remote, or live meetings.
Pricing: Basic (Free): Up to 100 participants, 3 polls/surveys per presentation. Engage: €15/month (200 participants, unlimited questions). Professional: €60/month (2 users, 1,000 participants).
MentimeterFundedVisit
Mentimeter offers interactive presentations with live polls, Q&As, and surveys to engage audiences and gather instant feedback.
Pricing: Free plan available. Basic: $11.99/month. Pro: $24.99/month. Enterprise: Custom pricing.
LoomioFundedVisit
Loomio is a collaborative decision-making app designed to save time in meetings and maintain a record of decisions.
Pricing: Starter: $19/month (up to 10 members). Small Team: $49/month (up to 25 members). Growing Community: $99/month (up to 50 members). Enterprise: Custom pricing.
StrawPollVisit
StrawPoll is an online tool for quickly creating and sharing instant, real-time polls to gather opinions on various topics.
Pricing: Free. Premium plans exist for ad removal and advanced features, but specific pricing is not readily available on the main site.
VevoxVisit
Vevox is a top-rated polling and Q&A platform for audience engagement in educational and corporate settings.
Pricing: Offers flexible and straightforward pricing plans; specific numbers not directly available without contact, but promotes itself as cost-effective.
PollyFundedVisit
Polly allows users to quickly create polls, surveys, Q&As, and icebreakers within collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
Pricing: Offers 'all you can eat' workspace experience with paid plans, avoiding per-seat costs for creators; specific pricing not explicitly listed on their main page without interaction.
MiroFundedVisit
Miro is a visual collaboration tool that offers a variety of templates for dynamic meetings, brainstorming, and retrospectives, including dot voting.
Pricing: Free plan available. Team: $10/member/month. Business: $16/member/month. Enterprise: Custom pricing.
WooclapVisit
Wooclap is an interactive presentation platform with 21 question types to make lectures and business training engaging and memorable.
Pricing: Basic (Free): Limited features. Event: €9.99/month. Pro: €29.99/month. Team: Custom pricing.
VotemFundedVisit
Votem provides secure online voting solutions for student engagement and organizational decision-making, with a mobile-first design.
Pricing: Custom pricing, likely tailored for institutional use.
Canva (Poll Maker)FundedVisit
Canva's free online poll maker allows users to create interactive, shareable polls with real-time results directly within their designs.
Pricing: Free. Canva Pro: $119.99/year or $14.99/month. Canva for Teams: $300/year for first 5 people.

Funded players

What they charge

The pricing landscape is diverse, with a strong presence of free tiers for basic polling functionality (e.g., Doodle, StrawPoll, Mentimeter, Canva). Paid plans typically range from approximately $7 to $50 per user/month, offering increased participant limits, advanced features, integrations, and branding options. Enterprise pricing is custom and caters to larger organizations requiring higher security, dedicated support, and extensive features. Some solutions like Polly emphasize 'all you can eat' workspace pricing rather than per-seat costs for creators.

What people say, 8 mentions

I deleted my to-do list apps. I’m 10x more productive now
r/productivity
My YouTube videos get 100 views. They generate $12,000/month.
r/SaaS
I just made my first sale! 🎉
r/SaaS
Stop making lists of things to do. Create a 'done' list.
r/productivity
I Got My First 1,000 Visitors & Domain Rating 6 in 3 Weeks Just by Submitting to These 50 Directories (Sharing Full List + Strategy)
r/SaaS
What does it say about me that I needed to write out my to-do list because I'm pretty far behind at work and then spent the next three hours creating a very detailed and automated to-do list in Google sheets?
r/productivity
Question: What's a good app/program that would allow individuals to share their to do lists with each other?
r/productivity
Shared task list with custom sharing permissions?
r/productivity

r/r/productivity r/r/SaaS

Creating and sharing votable lists for decision-making

Simple PC build recommendations for architecture software

No easy way to hide Instagram stories from specific groups like coworkers

Manual document processing creates bottlenecks in business workflows