consent.io is a tool for consumers to interact with today’s businesses. It allows every customer to say how he/she feels about a product or service with just a swipe of their finger. consent.io is just a link away, rewarding people by sharing results, asking only the right questions and allowing everyone to be a part of the solution instead of the problem. Find out why they are a product-market fit, why they chose Leapfunder as their online funding platform and what kind of investors are they looking to attract.

An Interview with consent.io

1. Hi Rado, thank you for agreeing to do the interview. Tell us about consent.io, the idea that got it all started and the amazing team behind it.

Thank you for this opportunity. There’s a very important aspect of today’s world that most people rarely give much thought to – what do decision makers both in business and government actually use when making their choices? Amongst other tools, most of the people at the top of all kinds of organizations rely on the so-called “market research reports”. It’s a 70 billion US dollars global industry, that’s rarely spoken of. But much more important than its dollar value is its strategic value. This is why it’s so important to get it right as much as possible, so that top people have the ability to actually know and understand their stakeholders, the people they govern and serve. The better they understand us – the better they can address our needs and preferences.

The practice of market research began in the early 20th century, after the advent of statistics and sociology. One of the first tools the industry developed is the good old questionnaire used to survey us. What began on paper, with researchers asking people in person on the streets or literally knocking doors, transitioned to over the phone surveys and most recently – online surveys.

Here is where the huge issue is: Many have heard of the malpractices of the “click-farms” – getting a bunch of people to click as quickly as they can on online ads, thus generating revenue for somebody at the expense of those who paid for these ads, hoping it’s their actual and potential customers who click on them. Now consider the same practice, but applied to the efforts of companies and government to hear at scale from their stakeholders… Remember – this data ends up being fed to the people at the very top and based on it they make decisions that affect all of us.

This is how we started, being on the receiving end of such services and noticing that not only are they slow, not transparent and lagging in every parameter when compared to online analytics, but much more importantly, downright poor in both quantity and quality.

2. What problems are you trying to solve? What are the benefits of your product and why is it a product-market fit?

We set out to do our best to develop not just a new tool, but rather an entirely new approach to solving this problem. How can the people at the top truly understand their stakeholders? Not month to month, but rather in real-time. Not in supposedly representative “samples” of hundreds or lower thousands, but based on an unlimited amount of people’s feedback. Not based on data gathered who knows how, but on audit inviting, objectively demonstrable transparent way direct from their actual customers and stakeholders at large.

And what’s most important to us, all done in a way that puts the individual person’s rights, values and data privacy at the very core of the technology and business model. The Cambridge Analytica and other scandals like it showed us all the enormous power of such data. We want to enable individuals to consciously, openly engage that power for the improvement of the overall relationship they have with all the businesses and governmental organizations that they engage with. Willingly, openly, to the clear benefit of all parties. What we’ve built so far we believe is as simple as enabling all people to express their sentiment consciously towards any brand, company, organization or topic overall. If you want a sneak peek, see some video demos.
3. How much growth potential do you see for consent.io and what type of investors are you looking to attract?

The potential is so big that we avoid talking about it. Best we focus on delivering results for our clients and our users and see where it all brings us down the road. The investors we have attracted so far all share our vision that if we manage to crack this problem in a way both business and people accept it will be a truly impactful endeavour. So far we have been very fortunate to get on board angel investors who all see the value of our product and the qualities of our team thanks to their personal and professional experience. We have many angel investors coming from the fields of marketing, b2b services, media, FMCG and even banking. All people who have either built their own companies or had the privilege to be at the top of leading organizations. People who understand the value of accurate and insightful customer analytics.

We are always open to talking to new potential partners. To us, it’s a great way to bring in fresh energy, knowledge and connections – all of which are as vital for our growth as the financial investment, if not more. If there is one criteria we look for above all else – it is for them to have made the choice for themselves to invest in projects that can potentially be truly great, instead of looking for the next better mousetrap. Not that investing in a better mousetrap is wrong – on the contrary, it’s probably the smartest, safest choice. But it’s not us.

4. You chose Leapfunder as your online funding platform. What makes it the right tool for your startup and what do you expect from the round?

What attracted us to Leapfunder is the ability to have a singular place where we can invite all interested parties. For any company, especially a young one, investing time and money in developing non-core competencies is a dangerous route to take. This is why Leapfunder made a lot of sense, we trust the experts behind the platform, we can leverage their already existing network of angels and it’s a simple yet powerfully clear mechanism to invite investment.

5. What are your plans for the upcoming months? Tell us about your go-to-market strategy and the plan to acquire customers.

Right now we are focusing our efforts on building relationships with media companies. To them, we offer even more value than to all other types of businesses because with our platform they can enable true real-time interaction with their audience. On TV the host of the show can invite the viewers to open a link and react to everything happening on the screen, literally second by second. With the host, producers and even guests can see exactly how much and what type of people agree or disagree with them on what was just said.

For online media companies producing written content, we enable their readers to react right within the articles on any phrase, name or brand the editors choose to make interactive. Thus giving a whole new reason for people to read and trust that publication because it’s not just the place for them to consume content, but also the place to make their voice heard and learn who else out there agrees with them about the particular players within the news. You can see the live, clickable demo here.

There are a lot of other things we could talk about. We’d be happy to address any questions, comments or ideas in a private meeting with everyone who is willing to take some time to get to know us better.

Thank you very much, Rado, we wish consent.io the best of luck.

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