Collab Research

What Collab Research does

Collab Research Inc. is a privately held, digital-first market research recruitment firm headquartered in Rochester, NY with an Austin, TX contact footprint, founded in 2018. The company operates as a boutique services business with a 1-10 person team and no external institutional funding, owned by founders Adriana (COO & Co-Founder) and Nathaniel (CGO & Co-Founder) alongside directors Roshni, Franklin (Director of Nap Strategy), and Bronco (Chief Bone Officer).

The firm's core product is the Focus Group Recruiter service, which is delivered through a stack of eight service modules: B2B Recruitment, B2C Recruitment, Niche Recruiting, Ethnographic Studies, Participant Management, Nationwide Recruiting, and Field Management, all fronted by a centralized website bid submission flow. The underlying technical asset is a methodology — rather than a productized platform — that combines a proprietary custom participant database with active social media sourcing across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, and LinkedIn. This is used to identify and recruit representative participant samples for consumer and multicultural market research studies, including populations that are difficult to reach through traditional opt-in panel databases (youth under 18, Latinx communities, hyper-niche professional segments).

Collab Research generates revenue through professional services on a custom-quote, project-by-bid basis, with clients submitting study specifications via the website and receiving tailored proposals. Pricing is not publicly disclosed and contracts are described as multi-year in cadence. The company has cumulatively recruited more than 10,000 validated participants across North America (US and Canada), targeting both enterprise market research buyers and B2B/B2C research clients operating in the United States and Canada. The go-to-market combines a sales-led direct approach for study buyers with a community-led, self-serve participant acquisition motion through social channels.

Name

Collab Research

Legal name

Collab Research Inc.

Website

https://collab-research.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Collab Research Inc. is a privately held, digital-first market research recruitment firm founded in 2018 that sources focus group participants via social media and a proprietary database for B2B and B2C research buyers across the United States and Canada.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Market Research Recruitment Services

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (54191)

akta.pro primary industry

Social & Digital Insights (Social Listening, Online Community Research) (MPAAALAK)

Keywords

• Focus group recruitment
• Market research services
• Participant recruitment
• Qualitative research
• Consumer insights

Headquarters

HQ city

Rochester

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Focus Group Participant Recruitment Services: Revenue generated through B2B research services, recruiting representative participant samples for market research studies. Services include B2B recruiting, B2C recruiting, niche recruiting, ethnographic studies, and participant management.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Collab Research is a digitally-driven market research recruitment firm that recruits focus group participants on behalf of research firms, agencies, and brands. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Rochester, NY, the company uses social media channels and online communities to identify, screen, and deliver qualified respondents for qualitative research studies, serving both B2B and B2C recruitment needs.

Product overview

Collab Research operates as a digital focus group recruitment firm offering a unified platform of participant recruitment and management services. The core offering is the Focus Group Recruiter service, supplemented by specialized recruitment modules (B2B, B2C, Niche Recruiting, Ethnographic Studies, Nationwide Recruiting) and Participant Management for end-to-end support. Field Management services provide operational backbone for research execution. All services are delivered through a digital-first approach using social media for participant sourcing rather than traditional databases.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 10,000 validated participants recruited since 2018 across North America

Named customers1 record

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Toluna: Global market research panel and consumer insights provider offering participant recruitment, survey programming, and community management — overlapping with Collab Research's recruitment and participant management services for consumer and B2B research.
• Respondent.io: Marketplace-style participant recruitment platform connecting researchers with B2B and consumer participants, sharing Collab Research's digital-first, targeted-recruitment thesis but operating through a self-serve model rather than bespoke service.
• Schlesinger Group: One of the largest qualitative research facilities and participant recruitment firms in the US, directly competing with Collab Research on B2B/B2C focus group recruiting, niche demographic sourcing, and field management services for consumer and multicultural studies.
• Dynata: Large-scale first-party data and global research panel company recruiting B2B and consumer participants for qualitative and quantitative studies; directly comparable to Collab Research's core recruitment offering but at significantly greater scale and with owned-panel infrastructure.
• User Interviews: Online marketplace for recruiting research participants across consumer and B2B segments, comparable to Collab Research in using digital channels to connect researchers with niche audiences, including hard-to-reach professional and consumer cohorts.
• Discuss.io (now part of Fuel Cycle): Qualitative research platform facilitating online focus groups, IDIs, and B2B/consumer participant recruitment — directly comparable to Collab Research's focus group recruitment and field management services.
• Recruit & Field: Boutique market research firm focused on B2B and healthcare participant recruiting plus field management services, closely aligned with Collab Research's B2B recruiting emphasis and end-to-end field offering.

Broad incumbents

• Ipsos: Global market research giant operating across quantitative, qualitative, and panel-based recruitment; represents the incumbent-scale competitor for any niche recruiter pursuing enterprise research budgets.
• Kantar: One of the world's largest research firms offering panel recruitment and qualitative/quantitative studies alongside broader consulting services; competes with Collab Research's recruitment scope as part of a much wider portfolio.

Emerging players

• Prolific: Online participant recruitment platform for academic and commercial research, sharing Collab Research's digital-first thesis but differentiated by a verified-participant marketplace model and stronger footprint in academic/social-science research.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/CollabResearch_
• Facebookfacebook.com/CollabResearch
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/collab-research
• Instagraminstagram.com/collabresearch

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 Collab Research