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These Brothers Just Sold Their Market Research Startup To The World’s Largest Student-Run Company
User research for companies can be time-consuming and lead to low-quality feedback from the study’s participants. Two brothers have worked to improve the consumer user experience (UX) and marketing research for Millennials and Gen Z, leading to their startup being acquired by the world’s largest student-run agency.
Riley Soward was a senior in high school when he participated in a consumer research interview.
“I found the experience to be genuinely uncomfortable,” Soward said.
He was placed in a drab, small room with a one-way mirror to his right. Product managers were observing the interview from behind the glass. His interviewer, a man in his 40s, drilled the high school senior with a barrage of questions. The interview quickly turned into an interrogation. By the end of the interview, Riley was exhausted and unhappy. He left the room disappointed, as he felt there was a better way of getting his feedback about the company’s product.
Riley shared his frustrations with his older brother, Stephen. Stephen, then a junior at the University of Michigan, had never gone through a market research interview. After hearing Riley’s story, he never wanted to either. Yet, the two realized that UX & marketing…
