Pulse Labs

Pulse Labs operates a user and product research platform that combines AI analysis with UX research methodologies. The platform supports surveys, 1:1 interviews and focus groups, task-based directed evaluations across web, mobile, smart devices and automotive systems, naturalistic in-situation observations, and embedded in-app feedback capture via the company's FlightRecorder SDK. Collected interactions are automatically organized, analyzed and surfaced as insights so product teams can prioritize improvements and benchmark performance over time and against industry standards.

Alongside the software, Pulse Labs offers participant sourcing through its Pulse Voices panel, a vetted respondent pool used for research recruiting. Company materials describe AI features including an AI panel builder, a study chatbot, AI study planning and live in-app monitoring, plus workflow integrations with Jira and ServiceNow. Enterprise positioning includes GDPR compliance and ISO 27001 certification, and stated commitments to ethical AI, privacy and fairness.

The company began in voice: its original product let voice application designers and developers test Alexa skills and other voice apps with users from a target audience, recording sessions through a browser-based voice device emulator so testers did not need a physical smart speaker. Customers could bring their own testers or specify a target demographic and number of participants for Pulse Labs to recruit. Earlier positioning also emphasized capture of human-machine interaction across video, audio and written feedback, with proprietary AI/ML models analyzing the data at scale.

Founding story

Co-founders Dylan Zwick and Abhishek Suthan encountered voice devices in their prior roles — Zwick as director of data science at Overstock.com and Suthan in technology product roles at Goldman Sachs — and concluded the emerging voice platform lacked usability testing tools. The two had met years earlier when Zwick posted flyers in his building seeking an early-morning workout partner and Suthan responded; they became friends before ever working together. They left their jobs and started Pulse Labs with Akansha Mehta. The company was launched in December 2016, and the team moved to it full-time in July 2017 when it entered the inaugural Alexa Accelerator powered by Techstars in Seattle, where it had a prototype addressing voice designers' testing needs.

Business model

Pulse Labs sells access to a research platform and associated research services to enterprise product teams. Offerings include self-service entry via a free trial and sign-up, consultative enterprise engagements arranged through sales contact, custom research studies, a standardized Benchmark Series, and participant recruiting through the Pulse Voices panel. Customers can supply their own testers or have Pulse Labs source participants matching a target demographic.

Company materials describe a free trial and free consultation as entry points alongside enterprise research solutions, custom research and benchmark study offerings; specific pricing is not stated in the sources.

Traction

Within roughly six months of the accelerator the team had assisted in the successful launch of more than 20 Alexa skills for top brands and had a waiting list for access to the platform as of early 2018. The current website cites enterprise compliance credentials and a vetted participant panel, and lists customer logos without naming them in the retrieved text.

Latest developments

Current company materials describe an expanded platform spanning surveys, interviews, evaluations, observations and app integrations via the FlightRecorder SDK, the Pulse Voices participant panel, AI panel builder and study chatbot features, AI study planning, live in-app monitoring, enhanced Jira and ServiceNow integrations, and ISO 27001 certification with GDPR compliance.