Prolific wants to challenge Amazon's Mechanical Turk in the online research space
Prolific, a U.K.-based startup that wants to#nbsp;make it#nbsp;easier to#nbsp;conduct online research, has raised $#nbsp;1.2 million in#nbsp;seed funding.
The round is#nbsp;co-led by#nbsp;Silicon Valley-based Pioneer Fund, and Altair Capital, with support from various angel investors based in#nbsp;the Bay Area. Prolific is#nbsp;also a#nbsp;graduate of#nbsp;Y#nbsp;Combinator and presented at YC’s demo day this past summer.
Founded in#nbsp;2014 by#nbsp;Ekaterina Damer and Phelim Bradley, doctoral students at#nbsp;Sheffield and Oxford universities, respectively, at#nbsp;the time, Prolific offers an#nbsp;online tool to#nbsp;easily recruit and pay research participants and conduct what it#nbsp;calls "ethical and trustworthy" research. The idea was born out of#nbsp;Damer’s own frustration with existing options, including Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk), when carrying out research for her own PhD.
"I was struggling to#nbsp;recruit participants for my#nbsp;research," she tells TechCrunch. "None of#nbsp;the available tools were fit for purpose because they were either obscure, expensive or#nbsp;really slow! By 'obscure' I#nbsp;mean: It#nbsp;wasn’t clear who the participants were, how they were treated and whether the data quality would be#nbsp;any good! I#nbsp;considered Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk), the most widely used tool for academic research, but it#nbsp;only had U.S. American and Indian participants and a#nbsp;distinct lack of#nbsp;European ones."
This led her and Bradley to#nbsp;create Prolific as#nbsp;a#nbsp;better alternative to#nbsp;MTurk, and it#nbsp;wasn’t long before other colleagues at#nbsp;Sheffield and Oxford started using the product. Just a#nbsp;year in, Prolific was being used by#nbsp;researchers globally, including those from Stanford, Oxford, Yale and UPenn.
"It's grown from there almost purely through word-of-mouth, with over 3,000 customers now from researchers and companies around the world!," says Damer.
Prolific also counts the World Bank and several Fortune 500 companies as#nbsp;customers, and claims to#nbsp;reach a#nbsp;network of#nbsp;70,000-plus active research participants from a#nbsp;wide range of#nbsp;backgrounds.
"The problem is#nbsp;that behavioural research on#nbsp;the internet is#nbsp;broken," Damer explains. "Finding participants is#nbsp;difficult and slow and the data you get from other platforms is#nbsp;often low quality because incentives are not aligned or#nbsp;you’re dealing with legacy platforms that don’t leverage tech.
"Customers want participants and data they can trust, but they typically have to#nbsp;resort to#nbsp;platforms which provide disengaged people who sign up#nbsp;for pennies. Or#nbsp;they even end up#nbsp;collecting data from fraudsters and human-assisted bots. Researchers across academia and industry are desperate for higher quality sampling solutions."
To#nbsp;fix these issues, Damer says that Prolific is#nbsp;building research technology that makes people-based research "more effective and efficient" than existing solutions, from sourcing participants, to#nbsp;prescreening for the right target demographics, to#nbsp;automating participant payments. The startup also employs what it#nbsp;calls proprietary user validation technology that uses statistical algorithms and machine learning to#nbsp;catch bots and bad actors, which Damer says plague many of#nbsp;the company’s competitors.
"It's actually quite shocking how competitors often squeeze their participants (or 'workers') because they see them as#nbsp;a#nbsp;commodity," she adds. "This means that participants are either disengaged or#nbsp;try to#nbsp;game the system. In#nbsp;contrast, we#nbsp;have many positive incentives built into our platform. Participants can prequalify for studies so#nbsp;they never get kicked out randomly, we#nbsp;encourage and collect two-way feedback… researchers love that they can talk to#nbsp;participants directly through our interface in#nbsp;case questions, feedback or#nbsp;concerns arise, and we#nbsp;mandate a#nbsp;minimum pay of $#nbsp;6.50 (£5) per hour. All of#nbsp;this creates trust and virtuous cycles that power our growth."
Damer frames Prolific’s broader mission as#nbsp;making "trustworthy data about people more accessible." "Our core belief is#nbsp;that access to#nbsp;high-quality psychological and behavioural data is#nbsp;the foundation for great research and ultimately, for progress in#nbsp;business, tech, and society," she says. "The bigger vision is#nbsp;to#nbsp;build the most powerful and flexible infrastructure for research on#nbsp;the internet."
That’s not to#nbsp;say that Prolific doesn’t have competitors that are also attempting to#nbsp;make online research and insights more accessible and of#nbsp;better quality.
Companies like CloudResearch and Positly utilise MTurk’s API, but Damer says that has limitations because "great data and great research starts with a#nbsp;great community," which, arguably, MTurk isn’t.
There are also well-established operations such as#nbsp;Nielsen, Dynata (formally Research Now SSI), YouGov, Cint, IpsosMori, Qualtrics Panels and SurveyMonkey Audience, along with newer players like Attest and Respondent.io.