Pulse Q&A

Pulse Q&A operates as a social research platform and a crowdsourced knowledge marketplace targeting C-suite technology executives. Founded in 2017 by Mayank Mehta and Anand Thaker, the company established its headquarters in San Francisco, CA. The founding duo, Mehta and Thaker, previously collaborated at Cooliris, where Mehta was a co-founder and Thaker served as the mobile lead, bringing together experience in product leadership and mobile and backend engineering with a focus on data and analytics.

The firm's core business revolves around providing a platform where executives, particularly CIOs and CISOs, can exchange information, share ideas, and make more informed decisions regarding technology and strategy. It functions by turning traditional surveys into dynamic, two-way conversations, gathering real-time, bite-sized data from its verified community of thousands of executives. This model aims to disrupt the traditional IT market research industry by offering direct access to peer-generated data, in contrast to relying on one-size-fits-all analyst reports. The service is designed for business leaders to benchmark strategies, assess vendor performance, and understand emerging trends directly from their peers. Revenue is generated through a subscription-based model, where corporate clients like Salesforce, Microsoft, and Okta utilize the platform to inform their strategy, content, and marketing efforts.

Pulse Q&A's platform offers a community-driven approach where members can ask questions, create polls, and engage in discussions to gain immediate insights from a large, verified network of technology leaders. The platform provides a dashboard with data and analysis, allowing users to splice and dice the information for presentations and strategic planning. A significant milestone for the company was its participation in the Y Combinator Winter 2018 batch. The company secured $4 million in seed funding in June 2018, led by True Ventures, with participation from Y-Combinator and angel investors. This was followed by a $6.5 million Series A round in early 2020, led by AV8 Ventures, bringing its total funding to over $10 million. In mid-2021, Pulse Q&A was acquired by Gartner for a reported $30 million to be integrated into Gartner's Peer Insights platform, enhancing its community experience.

Keywords: C-suite executives, CIO, CISO, social research platform, crowdsourced data, peer-to-peer insights, technology decisions, enterprise technology, market research, knowledge marketplace, executive community, business intelligence, vendor assessment, Y Combinator, Gartner acquisition, Mayank Mehta, Anand Thaker, B2B decision making, technology strategy, peer insights