Solsten

Solsten is an AI company working at the intersection of psychology and artificial intelligence. Its engine processes neuropsychological assessments together with behavioral parameters to capture psychological data points describing users' desires, values, personalities and the drivers of their behavior, while keeping individual users anonymous. The company maintains a large psychological database covering, per its Navigator product site, more than 200,000 games, 19,000 brands, 1,700 influencers, 175 psychological traits, 23 motivations, 100,000 interests and 52,000 preferences.

The product line has included Traits, which describes an audience's psychological make-up and personality in detail and supports segmentation and scientifically backed personas; Navigator, a psychological database used to explore audience insights across industries, identify high-value segments, size markets, benchmark competitors and screen potential M&A targets; and Frequency, used to predict how creative ideas will resonate with audiences. Solsten also offers Games User Research, letting game designers test multiple concepts, measure usability and check resonance with an intended audience. Its flagship platform Elaris is described as a psychological AI system for rapidly generating content and ideas. Marketed use cases span marketing (personality-based messaging, creative optimization, competitor audience trends), product building (ideal customer profiles, concept validation, feature prioritization) and research (persona mapping, community health and UX scores, research panels).

Founding story

Joe Schaeppi and Bastian Bergmann met while studying in Minnesota and co-founded Solsten in 2018. Schaeppi, whose background spans UX strategy, startup advising and adventure-based psychology, says that working with Fortune 500 companies showed him that many products were built without understanding the people using them, prompting the idea of integrating psychological assessments into product design. The founders anchored the company in Berlin, where Bergmann had prior professional ties, bootstrapping it while maintaining roots in the US market, and assembled a team of AI, gaming research and psychometrics specialists. The name derives from sunstones, an ancient navigational tool, reflecting the idea of helping companies navigate complex business landscapes.

Business model

Solsten sells access to its psychological database and AI platform to businesses, with products including Traits, Navigator, Frequency, Elaris and Games User Research; the Navigator site offers free audience views alongside gated access and demo booking for paid engagement.

Traction

Solsten's platform is used by international gaming studios and publishers including MobilityWare, Mythical Games, Sky Mavis, Super Evil Megacorp, Starbreeze, Tilting Point and Wooga. Its database is described as covering more than 200,000 games, 19,000 brands and 1,700 influencers, with sample sizes on individual brand audiences reaching into the hundreds of thousands.

Latest developments

In September 2025 Solsten signed a growth funding agreement with Decathlon Capital Partners, a non-dilutive growth capital firm, with proceeds earmarked for new emotionally intelligent AI agents, expansion of the Elaris platform and strengthening core psychological database services. The company markets Elaris as its flagship psychological AI system and lists an automated custom-audience tool as forthcoming.