Validately

Validately was a software company offering a user research platform for collecting customer feedback. Its product supported live moderated customer feedback sessions as well as remote usability sessions, and allowed teams to run tests while observing and listening to users as they navigated a website — a scope its listings describe as closer to focus-group-style research than narrower testing tools. The company was based in New York City and described itself as at the "full product ready" stage with 8 employees.

Validately is no longer operating as a standalone platform. UserTesting acquired the company, and Validately has shut down and stopped running research studies; former Validately panelists are directed to join the UserTesting Participant Network, where usability tests, surveys, and other feedback sessions are offered with participant payments typically ranging from $4 to $60 per test. The validately.com domain now presents UserTesting's human insight platform, which offers customer feedback on apps, experiences, and content, AI-assisted analysis to surface patterns and themes, and a participant network described as covering more than 7 million authenticated participants across 34 countries spanning B2C and specialist B2B audiences.

Founding story

Validately was founded in January 2014 and launched its product in August 2014. It was started by a team of three founders, each of whom had previously exited a company: Steven Cohn (Founder, CEO), for whom Validately was a third startup after selling companies to LivingSocial and TripAdvisor and holding roles at Quantcast and DoubleClick; Mark Bathie (CTO), founder of CVSDude, a cloud source-code hosting business sold to CollabNet in 2010, and founding CTO of Australian doctor-scheduling service Appointuit; and Jessica Ogilvie (CMO), a McKinsey and Harvard Business School alumna who sold her first company to MediaOcean.

Business model

Validately sold a user research software platform to companies, which used it to run moderated and unmoderated usability and customer feedback sessions with participants. Under UserTesting, the platform is positioned as an enterprise human insight offering, combining research tooling with access to a vetted participant panel.

Validately reported 30+ paying customers for its user research product, indicating paid customer subscriptions/licensing of the platform.

Traction

By its Gust profile, Validately had launched in August 2014, claimed early product-market fit, 30+ paying customers including Shutterstock, The Economist, CareerBuilder, and Medallia, and 8 employees.

Latest developments

Validately has been acquired by UserTesting and has officially shut down as a standalone platform, no longer running research studies; former Validately participants are being onboarded to the UserTesting Participant Network.