Today we’d like to introduce you to Elena Brandt.
Hi Elena, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
While studying for my Ph.D. in psychology at Florida State University, I noticed an innate bias towards Western samples in research. For decades, the overwhelming majority of behavioral and social sciences research has examined people in Western populations.
Being an immigrant from Russia, I knew that the world outside the U.S. can be very different, and thus focusing on such a narrow population of people was resulting in a skewed understanding of human behavior and beliefs. Before starting my Ph.D., I had worked on a few tech start-ups, and through one of those projects, I met my co-founder, Tamila. Together, we knew we could help researchers better understand human behavior at scale.
We started Besample – a platform created by researchers for researchers. Besample is on a mission to unbias human-related research by providing access to people in 42 diverse countries across the globe. After a brief beta-testing phase, we launched Besample to general availability and have received incredibly positive feedback from our early users. We also recently hired a CTO and cofounder, Michael Payson, and we plan to leverage his expertise to optimize the platform to set us up for further user expansion.
We have just secured $150K in family and friends funds this summer and we will be entering the pre-seed stage in the fall. Our pace is accelerating quickly, and we are very excited about the future of Besample.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think most startups experience bumps at some point in their lifecycle. For us, there were a lot of bumps in the beginning. My co-founder and I are both Russian natives who moved to the U.S. before the start of the Ukrainian war because we didn’t like the direction Russia was heading as a country.
We launched Besample almost exactly one year after the war in Ukraine began, and from the beginning, we’ve made it our mission to support Ukraine in any way we can. One thing we realized early on was the level of talent being displaced because of the war. We knew we wanted to hire Ukrainian nationals and immigrants, but finding and staying in contact with them was difficult: sometimes they would be cut off power because of another attack, or wouldn’t know where they would migrate. Despite the challenges, having a global team is one of our greatest assets as a company: we currently have people working from Ukraine, Israel, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Georgia, which brings a bunch of diverse perspectives to the table.
Another challenge has been building the technical infrastructure for our platform. We built the Besample prototype fairly quickly so we could launch and get feedback from early users. Once we saw the value recognition from researchers that tested the product, we had to quickly build out the technical infrastructure needed to scale the platform. Luckily, our new CTO Michael brings loads of knowledge and expertise in building digital platforms, so he has been leading the way in preparing Besample to scale.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Besample is a startup revolutionizing research by tackling the long-standing issue of behavioral and social studies skewed towards Western societies. Most studies use subjects from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic (WEIRD) areas of the world. This WEIRD bias skews data, underrepresenting around 90% of the world’s population.
By reaching a network of participants around the globe, researchers can gather a deeper understanding of people that are usually inaccessible. Not only does Besample offer a platform to aid the accuracy of the research, but it does it at a cheaper price than its competitors, e.g., panel agencies. Used and praised by researchers from top universities, Besample strives to expand its reach to deepen our understanding of human behavior and beliefs.
While Besample’s mission is to tackle diversity in research, the company is, itself, diverse. It is female-founded with a team representing five different countries.
Not only does Besample support diversity in research, but the company also advocates for people affected by international crises, such as the war in Ukraine. By giving researchers access to survey participants in Ukraine, Besample is giving the world a better understanding of the war in Ukraine and its impact.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
When I look at my journey, I can see that the stars aligned at the right place and the right time for me to be where I am today. When I came to the U.S., I decided I wanted to pursue a Ph.D. in psychology. Most people apply to 50 schools, but I had a family in Tallahassee and could only apply to Florida State University where the program happened to be one of the best in the nation. Luckily, I was accepted, and through that community, I was made aware of the innate biases in behvioral research.
I had a few mentors during my studies that showed me how behavioral research is done – and what it lacks. That was when I realized how widespread the Western bias was. Before coming to the U.S. and starting my Ph.D., I had worked for a large tech company, and without that backgroundand network, I would have had no idea how to build a platform using crowdsourcing technology. At some point, I just felt my calling: I realized that because I had the unique combination of tech skills and experience with academic research, it was my mission to solve this decades-long problem. From the start, there were people around me who believed in me and supported me: my cofounders, advisors, investors. I think our story is very much about the right people coming together at the right time and place.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://besample.app
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Besampleapp
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elena-brandt/
