XandY

What XandY does

XandY is a privately held research and strategy firm founded in 2019 in New Haven, Connecticut by two Yale scientists. The firm helps organizations understand how audiences form opinions and make decisions on emerging, contested, and high-stakes issues, then designs evidence-based strategies to move public opinion and behavior. Its client base spans global nonprofits, billion-dollar corporations, major tech startups, Ivy League universities, and advocacy organizations in domains such as autonomous vehicles, psychedelics and drug policy reform, climate change, nuclear energy, and blockchain.

The firm's core technology is its proprietary research methodology, which combines quantitative and qualitative social-science methods—including national surveys, randomized experiments, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and advanced statistical modeling—with a proprietary "backward research design" approach that begins with the client's decision needs. Its flagship instrument is The XandY Poll, a national polling engine that uses census-matched samples (N≈1,467–1,527), weighting to U.S. Census benchmarks, and an average margin of error of ±2–3 percentage points. Supporting tools include the XandY Data Explorer, a free interactive web tool for exploring survey data, and the Social Insights Hub, a free resource built for the psychedelics movement with state-level strategy playbooks.

XandY operates a sales-led, high-touch go-to-market model that engages a limited number of organizations through custom research partnerships. Revenue derives primarily from professional-services engagements spanning research design, fieldwork, analysis, delivery, and implementation. Secondary inflows come through fundraising via MAPS 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsorship for the Social Insights Hub. Pricing is not publicly disclosed; reports and the Data Explorer are freely downloadable for non-profit and educational use. The firm is independent, with approximately 9 employees including founders Matthew Goldberg (Yale faculty) and Abel Gustafson (University of Cincinnati professor), and has no disclosed external institutional funding.

Name

XandY

Legal name

XandY

Website

https://xandyanalytics.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

XandY is a research and strategy firm founded in 2019 by Yale scientists that uses proprietary polling and behavioral science methods to help organizations measure public opinion and design behavior-change campaigns for emerging and contested issues.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Market Research Services

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910), Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (541720)

SIC

Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700), Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Survey, Panel & Fieldwork Services (BPAHALAJ)

Keywords

• Public opinion research
• Market research services
• Behavior change strategy
• Survey methodology
• Communication research

Headquarters

HQ city

New Haven

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Custom Research Partnerships: Custom-built research engagements with organizations including global nonprofits, billion-dollar corporations, leading industry groups, major tech startups, and Ivy League universities. Engagements are white-glove, curated services across research design, fieldwork, analysis, delivery, and implementation.
2. Social Insights Hub (Fundraising): Fiscally sponsored charitable project through MAPS (501(c)(3)). Fundraising to build free open-access resource for psychedelics movement with polling, audience research, and strategy playbooks for all 50 U.S. states.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

XandY is a research and strategy firm that designs and conducts custom public opinion and behavior-change research for select partner organizations. The firm runs The XandY Poll, a proprietary national polling engine, and supplements it with interactive data visualization tools and free open-access resources such as the Social Insights Hub for the psychedelics movement. Services span research design, fieldwork, analysis, delivery, and implementation of evidence-based communication strategy.

Product overview

XandY is a research and strategy firm offering a suite of products centered on The XandY Poll (their national polling engine), supplemented by the XandY Data Explorer (an interactive data visualization tool), and the Social Insights Hub (a free resource for psychedelics advocates providing state-level insights and strategy playbooks). The core offering consists of custom research partnerships, published public opinion reports, and data-driven strategy services.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• The XandY Poll: National polling engine tracking how Americans think about emerging ideas and innovations, including autonomous vehicles, psychedelics, and policy reform.

Products and services

• The XandY Poll

Quantifiable outcome

• National surveys with N=1,467 to N=1,527 and margin of error ±2-3 percentage points
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024XandY partnered with MAPS to build the Social Insights Hub - a world-class resource providing free, open access to custom polling, audience research, strategy playbooks, and communication tactics for the psychedelics movement across all 50 U.S. states. MAPS serves as the fiscal sponsor (501(c)(3) public charity, federal tax ID: 59-2751953). XandY is fundraising through MAPS to build this resource.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• SSRS: Full-service survey research firm serving nonprofits, news organizations, and academic clients with methodological rigor; directly comparable mid-sized custom research peer with similar client mix.
• Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research: Strategic polling and research firm focused on public policy, advocacy, and behavior-change campaigns; directly comparable in serving nonprofits and progressive advocacy with custom opinion research.
• YouGov: Global online panel-based polling and custom research firm with publicly released reports on social attitudes, technology adoption, and policy; similar delivery model combining a polling engine, public reports, and paid custom research.
• Morning Consult: Technology-driven polling and market intelligence firm that combines custom research partnerships with regular publication of opinion data across emerging verticals; directly comparable business model and target customer base to XandY.
• Pew Research Center: Largest U.S. nonpartisan public opinion research organization producing national polling on emerging social and technology issues; directly comparable to XandY's national polling engine on topics like AI, climate, and emerging tech.

Emerging players

• CivicScience: Real-time consumer and public opinion polling platform with published daily insights; comparable in its tech-enabled polling product and publicly released trend data, though targeting more commercial/consumer questions.

Broad incumbents

• Ipsos: Global market research and public opinion firm with a large U.S. polling practice serving corporate and public-sector clients; comparable in offering custom public opinion research across policy and emerging-technology topics.
• NORC at the University of Chicago: University-affiliated independent research organization conducting national opinion surveys and academic-grade behavioral research; comparable to XandY in the academic-credibility, methodological rigor dimension.
• Gallup: The incumbent global leader in opinion polling with established national tracking polls; comparable in that it sells custom research alongside publicly released polling on social and policy topics, though at vastly greater scale.

Others

• Blueprint (Yale Program on Climate Change Communication): Yale-affiliated climate-change communication research program where co-founder Goldberg serves as Director of Experimental Research; adjacent in domain and methodology, and represents both a feeder relationship and a methodological benchmark.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/xandy-research

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about XandY