Apptentive

Market position

Positioned as a mobile-first specialist within the customer experience and "voice of the customer" software category. The CEO said Apptentive was sought after by acquirers amid consolidation in that sector and described the company's most recent quarter before the deal as exceptional. Apptentive ranked No. 81 on the GeekWire 200 list of top privately held Pacific Northwest startups [3]. A software directory notes the platform's scope is limited to mobile applications and cites limited UI customization and a learning curve as weaknesses [1].

Focus on collecting feedback inside mobile apps at contextually relevant moments—triggering surveys, rating prompts and support conversations based on user behavior, device and app usage—rather than directing users to external channels [1][2].

Technology

Mobile SDKs enable in-app data collection and interactions; the Android SDK is publicly available on GitHub under a BSD-3-Clause license with an integration guide, interface customization documentation, Javadoc API reference and Maven-hosted binary releases [0]. The platform supports an API, localization of in-app messages for multiple regions, behavior- and device-based interaction targeting, and no-code workflow triggers [0][1].

Go-to-market

Sold directly to product, UX, customer experience and marketing teams at mobile-first brands, supported by demos, onboarding services and customer success resources, and distributed technically via publicly documented mobile SDKs and integrations with third-party tools [0][1].

Product managers, UX researchers, customer experience teams and marketers at mobile-first organizations, spanning retail, finance, telecom, healthcare, software, food and beverage, and hospitality [1]. Apptentive generally served large companies with more than a million app users; named customers include Zillow, Concur, OfferUp, Alaska Airlines, Safeway and CNN [2][3].

Geography

Headquartered in downtown Seattle, Washington [2][4]. In-app messages can be localized for different regions [1].

History

Apptentive was founded in 2011 in Seattle and graduated from the Techstars Seattle accelerator in 2012 [3]. It grew from 28 employees at the start of 2017 to 40 by mid-2017, with the CEO expecting more than 50 by year end, and by then had raised more than $12 million from investors including Origin Ventures, SurveyMonkey and Vulcan Capital [2]. Total investor funding reached $17 million from backers including Grayhawk Capital, Origin Ventures, Momentive (formerly SurveyMonkey), Founders' Co-op, Golden Ventures, Social Leverage, Cercano Management (formerly Vulcan Capital), Blossom Street Ventures and more than a dozen Seattle angel investors. On January 4, 2023, Alchemer—founded in 2006, formerly SurveyGizmo, and freshly capitalized by KKR & Co. in May 2022 partly to fund an acquisition—announced it had acquired Apptentive for undisclosed terms. Ganguly joined Alchemer's executive team as general manager of its mobile business and a majority of Apptentive employees moved to Alchemer [3].

Risks & controversies

A software directory review notes limitations including scope restricted to mobile applications, limited customization of UI elements, and a learning curve for new users [1].