Just a few years ago, Potloc co-founder Rodolphe Barrere was eating ramen noodles in Montreal as his startup sailed through several pivots with little traction. But in 2018, that all changed when he and Paris-based co-founder Louis Delaoustre hit on a method to use social networks to reinvent consumer surveys.
Now the company is racing to keep up with growth as money and accolades flow its way. Potloc has raised more than $30 million across three rounds while growing to 230 employees. The startup is pushing more aggressively into the U.S. market even as it inaugurated this week a new office for its Paris employees.
For Barrere, it's been a heady time, complicated by the pandemic. But he's confident that Potloc is on a path toward becoming one of the big French success stories.
Survey Says...
Potloc's magic lies in the way that it has learned to leverage social networks to attract survey respondents that companies are increasingly desperate to find.
As consumers' attention wanes, and traditional methods like phone surveys lose their effectiveness, companies have struggled to get the analytics and insights they need to understand shifting consumer tastes and behaviors. They use firms that establish panels of consumers who are paid for their time, but this has limited reach. The more fundamental problems remain.
