Motives

What do they actually do

Motives is a web service that runs qualitative consumer research end-to-end with AI. Teams enter a research goal and target audience, and Motives drafts a study plan and discussion guide, recruits participants from panel networks, conducts one-on-one video interviews with an AI moderator (multilingual, 24–48 hour turnaround), and delivers transcripts, analysis, and a written report with video highlight reels and slide exports for stakeholders (homepage, how it works, FAQ).

It’s used by marketing, insights, and product teams at consumer brands to get fast qualitative feedback without managing recruiting, scheduling, moderation, or manual analysis. The site highlights case studies with brands like Unilever’s Wild and MoneySuperMarket as examples of current usage (homepage — customers & case studies).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Product managers at consumer brands validating early product concepts: They need quick, directional feedback and quotes without waiting weeks or paying large agency fees; Motives automates study design and promises 24–48 hour turnaround (how it works).
• Marketing and creative teams testing ads, packaging, or messaging: They need repeatable tests and stakeholder-ready outputs (clips, slide exports) to compare creative options without lengthy agency cycles (homepage, how it works).
• Brand and consumer-insights teams running segmentation and brand health studies: They lack bandwidth for frequent qualitative work and want comparable reports and interactive analysis to support decisions between big annual studies (homepage — use cases).
• Growth or UX researchers at consumer digital companies: They need fast, targeted user feedback on flows/features and don’t want to manage recruiting, scheduling, incentives, or transcription—Motives handles these steps end-to-end (how it works, FAQ).
• Small research agencies or solo consultants running routine qual studies: Manual processes create low margins and slow delivery; they need automation to scale throughput while still producing clips and written reports clients can use (homepage).

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Founder-led pilots via YC and personal networks with white-glove support, guaranteeing a 24–48 hour turnaround and delivering full reports with video highlights and slides; convert each to a case study and secure reference calls (how it works).
• First 50: Hire 1–2 reps to run targeted LinkedIn/email outreach to product, marketing, and insights leads using one-page case studies and short demo videos; host webinars/panels with research communities and offer time-limited trial credits to convert attendees (homepage).
• First 100: Add channel partners (small agencies, panel providers) and resell packaged studies (creative test, concept test, segmentation). Support with templates, short how-to content, and modest paid acquisition (LinkedIn/search) for predictable demand.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

ESOMAR estimates the global insights industry at roughly $140–153B; qualitative methods represent about 16% of global spend, implying a ~$22–25B qualitative market that Motives’ AI-moderated interviews can address in part (ESOMAR/Research World, ESOMAR/Research World on methods mix).

Bottom-up calculation:

Focus on initially accessible buyers (US/Europe consumer-facing companies). If ~60,000 such companies have 100+ employees, ~20% actively buy qualitative studies, each running ~6 studies/year at ~$5,000 per study, that implies ~12,000 buyers × 6 × $5,000 ≈ $360M in near-term accessible spend; expanding to global and larger-enterprise penetration moves this toward multi-billion potential, consistent with the top-down range.

Assumptions:

• Count of 60k consumer-facing companies with 100+ employees in US/EU; 20% are active qual buyers.
• Average of 6 qual studies per buyer per year in the accessible segment.
• Average realized price per AI-run qual study of ~$5,000 (including recruitment, incentives, moderation, and reporting).

Who are some of their notable competitors

• PlaybookUX: Recruitment plus moderated/unmoderated video testing with AI summaries, quote highlights, and shareable reports; stronger heritage in UX/usability testing and AI for analysis vs. a fully autonomous live AI interviewer (PlaybookUX home, AI page).
• UserTesting (UserZoom): Large-scale participant recruitment and session capture with stakeholder-ready clips/reports; typically centers on human-moderated or task-based tests rather than fully AI-moderated, end-to-end interviews (recruitment/product, product updates).
• Respondent.io: Marketplace for recruiting and paying consumer/professional participants with scheduling and incentives; primarily solves matching, while researchers still moderate and analyze themselves (Respondent home, unmoderated info).
• dscout: Qual platform for diary studies, in-the-wild tasks, and live interviews with recruiting and research management; strong for longitudinal/contextual work and AI-assisted analysis, not centered on a fully autonomous AI moderator (platform, participants).
• Remesh: AI-driven, large-group, real-time conversation and voting with instant thematic analysis; group/text-based format differs from one-on-one, multilingual video interviews with automated highlights (Remesh qualitative research).