With experience providing marketing and consulting services to small- and medium-sized businesses, the co-founders of St. Louis startup Harmonee understood the challenges many companies encounter in compiling market research. Firms either struggle to capture an audience to provide feedback or can’t pay thousands of dollars to generate market research, says Harmonee co-founder and CEO Tara Nesbitt.
However, Nesbitt and her co-founders David Rygiol and Justin Trusty believe they’re now positioned to offer an alternative to traditional market research for companies of all sizes. The trio’s startup is designed to provide market research with a twist: For each answer received as part of a survey, the company makes a $1 donation to a nonprofit. It's a business model Harmonee says provides companies with easy access to research while also giving nonprofits a new form of passive income.
With its team’s background in technology consulting, marketing and the nonprofit sector, Harmonee is confident it has entered the market research industry at the right time.
“It was just like the perfect mix of skill sets and market opportunity,” Nesbitt said.
Harmonee plans to launch its product with beta users next month, Nesbitt said. Early users of its technology include local companies like Big Heart Tea Co. and Gerard Craft’s Niche Food Group. Nesbitt said Harmonee will focus exclusively on working with St. Louis companies for the first six months following its launch. It hopes to raise seed funding this year to chart further expansion.
The technology: Harmonee has developed an app it says is designed to create connection between businesses and consumers while at the same time assisting nonprofit organizations with passive income. Through its app, businesses can post questions to a specific group of individuals and pledge a donation to a nonprofit the group supports. With each answer received by respondents, a donation is made to the nonprofit organization.
How it makes money: With its pricing model, Harmonee says businesses only pay when they get the answers they need. Each answer costs a $1 donation, plus a 20% usage fee. So if a business, for example, needs answers from 500 people, it’ll pay $600 — $500 going to the nonprofit and the other $100 as revenue for Harmonee. The startup said it expects to grow revenue by increasing its customer base over time, with plans to expand to other cities after launching in St. Louis.
Size of the market: Harmonee is part of the market research industry, which has been estimated as a $24 billion market in the U.S. The St. Louis startup’s target clients include businesses of varying sizes, including large employers, small- and medium-sized businesses and startups. It says its ideal customers are companies who are seeking to complete market research at a lower cost and that also are focused on giving back to their communities.
Competition: The direct competitors to Harmonee are traditional market research firms that help businesses solicit feedback from their target audiences. The startup will also go head-to-head with existing social media networks (i.e. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) that each have some type of poll functionality and broad user bases.
Competitive advantage: Harmonee contends it provides companies better data for a fraction of the cost. It believes its focus on giving back to nonprofits provides better data because it comes from people who are motivated to answer quickly and honestly. It says its business model “provides an easy win for everyone involved and fulfills an unmet need for our customers.”
Business it could disrupt: Harmonee wants to redefine how businesses do market research through better pricing and positioning. It says traditional market research can cost thousands of dollars and does not guarantee that a company will hit its target audience. Through its business model, it believes it can provide companies with affordable pricing while passing a majority of the costs to local nonprofits. It also creates a new way for nonprofits to fundraise, which it believes could unlock huge earning potential for nonprofits as it builds up operations.
Managers and their background: Harmonee’s co-founders include CEO Tara Nesbitt, Chief Technology Officer Justin Trusty and Chief Creative Officer David Rygiol. Collectively, the trio have worked in marketing, technology consulting, product design and user experience across a variety of industries. With prior experience in startups and technology consulting, Harmonee said its co-founders are aware of the difficulty of scaling a company as well as the best practices that go into running a sustainable business.
Investors: Harmonee’s founders have bootstrapped the business so far. The company received a $50,000 grant from local nonprofit Arch Grants through its 2021 startup competition.
Capital sought: In 2022, Harmonee aims to raise $1 million in a seed round.
Ideal exit: Harmonee’s founders said they would eventually like to have the startup exit through an initial public offering.
CLOSER LOOK
Company name: Harmonee
Headquarters: St. Louis
Year founded: 2020
CEO: Tara Nesbitt
Website: https://www.harmonee.org
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