BluePill: Fast and Affordable Market Research

BluePill aims to eliminate the six-week waiting period and $20,000 cost associated with traditional market research. The company provides consumer insights with solutions that can be delivered in just 5 minutes at a 10% cost.

According to a statement made on November 12, BluePill closed a $6 million seed round to develop AI consumers that simulate digital replicas of target audiences and analyze how they respond to products, campaigns, and business strategies. This funding round was led by Ubiquity Ventures, with participation from Pioneer Square Labs and Flying Fish Ventures.

Additionally, investors such as David Wickwire from the legal firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Rotem Hershko, who previously held product management at Maersk and worked at Amazon Global, and David Spector, a former partner at Sequoia and co-founder of ThirdLove, were among those who participated in this funding.

The resources provided by BluePill will be used for team expansion and the development of industry-specific AI libraries. These libraries are designed to cover sectors such as consumer packaged goods, healthcare, sports, and entertainment.

The company's founder, Ankit Dhawan, managed research programs developed for international markets while overseeing product development efforts at Amazon Global Marketing. These research cycles progressed slowly and came with high costs, while user motivations in analyzing existing data often remained unclear.

Dhawan recognized the opportunity to blend large-scale data analysis with behavioral insights while managing generative AI initiatives at Amazon Web Services. This approach promised to deliver fast insights without the delays associated with traditional research. Since then, BluePill has emerged from this idea.

BluePill's platform allows brands to explore messages, product concepts, packaging ideas, and campaign directions. The AI models are designed to simulate consumer responses in real-time.

Traditional research groups, like Ipsos, Qualtrics, and Nielsen, rely on human panels and these processes can take weeks. Furthermore, these studies can reach high costs. Many AI-focused companies use broad language models that are not based on real consumer data, which provides limited insights into purchasing behavior. However, BluePill collects consumer data from various sources such as survey studies, public speeches, and brand research. These digital consumers undergo validation checks against human panels and receive continuous updates to reflect current events.

The company achieves a 93% match rate compared to real human responses. Brands can use the platform to conduct surveys with AI consumers, participate in virtual focus groups, or review their creative ideas and receive results in just 5 minutes. Monthly subscriptions start at $99 for standard libraries, while corporate plans for custom libraries and unlimited tests begin at $17,999.

Kettle & Fire uses BluePill to develop packaging ideas, flavor concepts, and product messages prior to market launch. Leah Swalling, Brand Management Director at Kettle & Fire, stated that they validated the platform's accuracy through parallel human surveys. “We can quickly reach the minds of our customers and iterate,” she said.

Another example is the Seattle Mariners, a Major League Baseball team. The team uses the system to review fan feedback related to sponsorship programs and engagement concepts. Chris Kennedy, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Analysis for Seattle Mariners, noted that BluePill allows the team to explore a wide range of ideas and make decisions based on simulated fan reactions.

BluePill claims to reduce research costs by up to 90%, offer turnaround times 100 times faster than traditional methods, and provide teams with the ability to conduct unlimited tests on large audiences.