Besample

What Besample does

Besample operates a two-sided behavioral research data marketplace that connects academic researchers with a global pool of over 190,000 pre-screened respondents across 190 countries, targeting the documented gap that 96% of behavioral research samples come from Western populations representing only 10% of the world. The platform comprises a main site (besample.app), a Researcher Portal (researcher.besample.app) for designing and managing studies, and a Respondent Portal (respondents.besample.app) for individuals to participate and earn rewards. Technical differentiators include attentiveness and fidelity pre-screening for data quality, a cultural distance quantification methodology for cross-cultural research, and a payout system that links compensation to local minimum wages with no mid-survey screenouts, enabled through a December 2024 partnership with Airtm's digital dollar infrastructure.

The company monetizes via transaction fees: researchers pay a non-refundable Service Fee plus participant Rewards for each study, and Besample retains the Service Fee while passing rewards through to respondents. Go-to-market is product-led growth on a self-serve basis, supplemented by earned media coverage in Business Insider and Tallahassee.com, academic community engagement, and credibility derived from studies powered by Besample appearing in top-tier journals (Nature Communications, PNAS Nexus, Psychological Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology). The company was founded in 2023 by Elena Brandt, Ph.D., and Tamila Feldman, is headquartered in Delaware City, United States, has 1-10 employees, and raised $1.1 million in pre-seed funding in May 2025 led by Gutter Capital with participation from WomanKind Ventures.

Name

Besample

Legal name

Besample

Website

https://besample.app

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Besample is a two-sided behavioral research marketplace connecting academic researchers with over 190,000 pre-screened respondents across 190 underrepresented countries, monetizing via a service fee on study transactions and addressing the Western-bias gap in behavioral science data.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Behavioral Research Data Marketplace

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (54191), Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Psychometric Test Publishing & Norming / Validation Services (BPACAMAG)

Keywords

• Behavioral research platform
• Online participant recruitment
• Global survey marketplace
• Research data collection
• Respondent pool access

Headquarters

HQ city

Delaware City

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Research Study Fees: Researchers pay Study Costs comprising a Service Fee and participant Rewards to list and conduct behavioral research studies on the platform. The Service Fee is non-refundable, while rewards are held on trust and paid to respondents upon study completion.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Besample operates an online behavioral research data marketplace that connects academic researchers with a pre-screened global pool of over 190,000 respondents across 190 underrepresented countries. Researchers self-serve onto the platform to design studies, recruit participants, and pay a non-refundable Service Fee plus participant Rewards, while respondents use a separate portal to access studies and earn compensation linked to local minimum wages. The platform is differentiated by attentiveness/fidelity pre-screening, cultural distance quantification, and ethical payouts processed via Airtm's digital dollar infrastructure.

Product overview

Besample is a unified behavioral research platform comprising the main platform, a dedicated researcher portal, and a respondent portal. The platform connects behavioral researchers with a globally diverse pool of over 190,000 respondents from underrepresented regions across 190 countries, challenging the dominance of Western-centric research. Researchers use the dedicated portal to design studies and recruit participants, while respondents use their portal to access and participate in studies in exchange for rewards.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Besample Platform A behavioral research data collection platform that connects academic researchers with a global pool of over 190,000 respondents from underrepresented regions, enabling diverse participant recruitment beyond Western-centric studies.
• Researcher Portal Dedicated platform for academic researchers to create and manage behavioral studies, access 1,800+ scholars from top universities, and recruit participants from 190 countries, with Service Fee plus participant Rewards pricing.
• Respondent Portal Platform where individuals worldwide earn rewards by participating in behavioral research studies, with payouts transparent and linked to local minimum wages, and an award guaranteed for every study with no mid-survey screenouts.

Quantifiable outcome

• 96% of human research data comes from Western populations representing only 10% of world population
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• AirtmcoreTechnology or Integration · 2 December 2024Partnership to enhance research payment solutions for participants in 190 countries. Utilizes Airtm's digital dollar infrastructure to provide faster and more efficient compensation for research participants in non-Western countries, promoting diversity in global behavioral research.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Prolific: Prolific operates a leading online participant recruitment platform for academic and commercial research, with a global pool of pre-screened respondents. It is the closest direct competitor to Besample, differentiated mainly by its broader geographic coverage today versus Besample's non-Western focus.
• CloudResearch: CloudResearch provides online participant recruitment and survey tools for academic researchers, with a large respondent pool and tools like Connect and Sentry for data quality. It directly competes with Besample for academic behavioral research studies.
• Toloka: Toloka is a crowdsourcing platform for data labeling, collection, and human-in-the-loop tasks with a globally distributed contributor base. It overlaps with Besample in global respondent recruitment for research-style tasks, with a stronger enterprise/AI-training orientation.
• Respondent.io: Respondent.io is a participant recruitment marketplace for qualitative and quantitative research, connecting researchers with professional and consumer respondents. It is a direct competitor for paid research studies, especially in B2B and consumer research.

Broad incumbents

• Qualtrics Panels: Qualtrics offers a research suite including a panel management product and access to large global panels via partnerships. It is a broad incumbent whose research panel product overlaps with Besample's offering for academic and enterprise survey research.
• Amazon Mechanical Turk: MTurk is the original crowdsourced micro-task platform widely used by behavioral researchers for participant recruitment and online studies. It is a broad incumbent in the same participant-pool category as Besample, though with a US-skewed demographic and lower screening standards.
• Appen: Appen provides global data annotation and human-in-the-loop data services with a large, diverse contributor base across 170+ countries. It is a broad incumbent whose crowd infrastructure and global reach are comparable to Besample's, though primarily oriented to AI/ML training data.
• UserTesting: UserTesting is a human insight platform with a large global contributor network for UX, usability, and market research studies. It overlaps with Besample in paid participant-based research, especially in commercial/enterprise research use cases Besample could expand into.

Emerging players

• Prime Panels / Sonaghost Solutions: Prime Panels is a research participant provider focused on quality screening for academic studies, including in psychology and economics. It is an emerging player in the same online participant recruitment category as Besample, with a comparable academic customer base.

Regional players

• Fieldwork (FieldworkNetwork): Fieldwork operates qualitative and quantitative research facilities and online panels across multiple geographies. It is comparable to Besample as a participant-sourcing platform for research, though with a stronger qualitative/in-person and regional focus rather than global online behavioral studies.

Market position

Strengths1 record

Weaknesses1 record

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Besample_app
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/besample

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors3 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Besample