For some, getting the right feedback on their software or policies can be tough.
Not all companies are, say, Uber, that can figure out how customers feel about how their app by sending a survey to millions of relevant users.
Consider other types of tech companies. Network engineers. Data scientists. How do they get the feedback they need?
Enter UserMuse, a D.C.-based startup that "makes it easy for tech companies, particularly B2B tech companies, to recruit user testers," said Christian Bonilla, its founder and CEO.
"They're able to find the people in their target niche on UserMuse," he continued. "The main challenge B2B tech companies face that consumer tech companies tend not to: it’s not as easy to find people in their target niche."
It works like this: Marketers, product managers and others involved with user research connect with UserMuse "experts" that best suit their needs by submitting a project into the UM marketplace. These experts have set their own rates that the team who hired them pay directly, in essence "own[ing] the relationship," the UserMuse website states.
"We broker the introduction and communication between people who are designing and building software with people who ... have a reason to give feedback that’s of particular value to product managers," Bonilla continued. "It’s the resource that everyone needs, [but] it’s hard to create. It's not what product managers and designers want to spend their time doing."
UserMuse's focus is on the enterprise software market. "That allows us to steer the entire process," he said. "We’re not a general-purpose market research platform."
The idea behind the startup was Bonilla's, who spent nearly 10 years in a variety of product manager roles at a handful of startups. During that time, he realized how difficult it was to find the right people to provide the feedback that his work required.
"What I really wanted was some place where I could look up 19 people using the competing Adobe product in my space," he said. "There wasn’t a good place to do that. Over time it started dawning on me: How would I want [something like] that to work?"
That was 2015. Fast forward to 2016, when Bonilla formally created the business. He and his team of developers were working nights and weekends to build the company while maintaining a full-time job. That changed when Bonilla formerly came on as CEO nearly a year ago, in June 2017.
The company was initially bootstrapped, with additional funds coming from a small funding round amongst friends and family. Since Bonilla became CEO, however, UserMuse primarily funds itself through cash flow via operations.
As far as those go, UserMuse has more than 40,000 clients who have created a profile on the UM site, with the pool growing by about "1,000 or so" a week. On the corporate client side, customers are in the dozens, entities that have utilized UserMuse "over and over again."
Serving its clientele and growing its user base is among the company’s biggest goals moving forward. Immediately on the docket? Rolling out a more self-service platform for users that don't want a middleman when courting experts.
The company will also present at TechBUZZ next month.
Additionally, "we're having conversations with interested investors that see value in what we’re doing right now," Bonilla said.
