Outset
YC S23San Francisco, US · Founded 2022 · 30 employees · Hiring · 8 known investors
Outset is an AI-powered research platform that combines conversational AI, behavioral intelligence, and emotional analysis to conduct moderated research interviews and synthesize consumer insights at scale across multiple languages and countries.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareMarketing TechSaaSB2BMarket ResearchAIUnited States of AmericaAmerica / Canada
Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (S23)
Outset was founded in 2022 by Aaron Cannon and Michael Hess.
AC
Aaron Cannonin𝕏Co-Founder & CEOAaron Cannon held product leadership roles at Untapped and Triplebyte, and previously served in senior product positions at Tesla, Pebble, and Monitor Deloitte; he began his career as a tour manager.
MH
Michael HessinCo-Founder & PresidentMichael Hess has worked as an engineer and firefighter before starting Outset.
Investors · 8
8VCAustin · $100K – $50M
Adverb VenturesSan Francisco · $500K – $5M
Radical VenturesToronto · $1M – $25M
Ritual CapitalMenlo Park · $100K – $500Kvia Chris Howard · inferred
Y CombinatorSan Francisco · $500K
Rebel FundreportedSan Francisco · $100K – $5M
WEEKENDreportedMiami · $100K – $300K
Also in the syndicate · 1
M12lead
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements$30M disclosed across 1 of 5 rounds · 2025
Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.
Competitors · 9
by search overlap
UserTesting258 shared keywordsUserTesting provides a human insight platform that helps Product, Marketing, Digital, and CX teams at enterprises collect and analyze real human feedback to validate decisions and improve customer experiences. The platform combines participant networks, AI-driven insights, and expert services to enable organizations to understand customer reactions and behavior.
Dovetail246 shared keywordsDovetail is a customer intelligence platform that centralizes and analyzes fragmented customer feedback from multiple sources using AI to generate actionable insights across organizations.
Contentsquare202 shared keywordsContentsquare offers a digital experience analytics platform that uses AI to help teams understand customer behavior across websites and apps through heatmaps, zoning analysis, journey mapping, and session insights. It serves marketing, analytics, and e-commerce teams looking to improve engagement, conversion, and retention.
Maze182 shared keywordsMaze provides a research-grade AI platform that helps teams conduct customer research and gather user insights. The platform is used by over 60,000 teams to understand customer behavior and inform product decisions.
SurveyMonkey173 shared keywordsSurveyMonkey is an online platform for creating surveys and forms to run market research, customer satisfaction, event registration, and employee feedback programs. It offers AI-assisted survey building, expert templates, a global respondent panel, analytics tools, and integrations for individuals, teams, and enterprise organizations.
Looppanel142 shared keywordsLooppanel offers an AI-enabled platform for analyzing customer research and feedback, helping teams organize interviews and surface insights faster. It serves product and UX research teams, including enterprise organizations.
Pollfish128 shared keywords
User Interviews125 shared keywordsUser Interviews provides a research platform with tools for managing panels, teams, and studies, including participant databases, permissions, reports, and governance features. It serves enterprise research and research operations teams running user research at scale.
SURVICATE120 shared keywordsSurvicate offers a Microsoft Teams integration for its survey and customer feedback platform, letting teams collect and share Voice of Customer insights. Its Research Assistant feature analyzes survey responses to surface key themes.
Companies competing with Outset for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
In the news
Frequently asked questions
- What does Outset do?
- Outset is an AI-powered research platform that combines conversational AI, behavioral intelligence, and emotional analysis to conduct moderated research interviews and synthesize consumer insights at scale across multiple languages and countries.
- Who founded Outset?
- Outset was founded by Aaron Cannon, Michael Hess in 2022.
- Who are Outset's investors?
- Outset's investors include 8VC, Adverb Ventures, Radical Ventures, Ritual Capital, Y Combinator, Rebel Fund, WEEKEND.
- How much funding has Outset raised?
- Outset has disclosed $30M raised across 1 of its 5 known rounds.
- Where is Outset headquartered?
- Outset is headquartered in San Francisco, US.