Motives blog
Motives said it was featured in The Drum via an interview with PZ Cussons' Head of Insights, who said the platform cut research timelines by at least three months.
Company research
Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals
Updated Jul 29, 2026
Overview
Motives (motives.ai) is a London-based, YC-backed startup building an AI qualitative research platform for consumer brands. Its product automates study design, participant recruitment, AI-moderated video interviews, and analysis, then returns reports and source material in roughly 24–48 hours or a few days instead of the weeks typical of traditional focus groups and qualitative research.
Primary product
An AI-powered qualitative research platform that plans studies, recruits participants, runs AI-moderated video interviews, and analyzes results for consumer brands.
Founded
2023
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom
Team size
1-10
Work style
Hybrid
Industry
Research Services
Sub-industry
AI qualitative consumer research / market research software
Offices
London, United Kingdom
Business model
B2B SaaS
Enterprise software
Research-tech platform
Funding
People & investors
Leadership
Co-Founder & CEO
Co-Founder & CTO
Brendan Quinn
Insights Director
John Curran
Head of Sales
Work & culture
Motives presents itself as an AI-centric, fast-moving startup that works closely with founders, values flexible day-to-day working, and uses frequent in-person collaboration and client events while remaining output-focused.
Work style
Hybrid
Compensation
Public job posts indicate £40K–£70K GBP for a Founding Operator and £60K–£100K GBP for a Software Engineer, with equity; the company also describes compensation as negotiable or above-market depending on role.
Benefits
Health insurance
Flexible working arrangements
Unlimited holiday / generous holiday policy
Significant equity
Product & market
Pricing
Custom / quote-based; no public self-serve pricing was found and the website routes buyers to book a demo.
Differentiators
- —End-to-end workflow covering research planning, participant recruitment, interviewing, and analysis.
- —AI-moderated video interviews with real consumers rather than synthetic personas.
- —Fast turnaround: reports in 24–48 hours or 1–4 days versus weeks for traditional qualitative research.
- —'Ask the Researcher' lets customers query transcripts and revisit source material after a study ends.
- —Asynchronous, multilingual interviewing across time zones without scheduling constraints.
- —Exports video clips, highlight reels, and PowerPoint-style outputs for stakeholder sharing.
Technology
React
TypeScript
Next.js
GraphQL
OpenAI
Anthropic
Google Cloud Platform
Vercel
NeonDB
Deepgram
Livekit
Agora
Datadog
Sentry
Render
GitHub
Figma
Slack
Linear
Google Workspace
Customers
PZ Cussons
Divine Chocolate
MoneySuperMarket
Wild (Unilever brand)
Amber Beverage UK
Uber
Diageo
Anthropic
Fittle
Scale & contact
Estimated revenue
$0.5M-$1M
Estimated monthly visits
5.1K
Latest news
Motives blog
Case study on St. Tropez/PZ Cussons showing Motives completed AI-moderated consumer research in four days and enabled ongoing access to source video and transcripts.
Motives blog
Case study describing use of Motives' AI Researcher and AI Moderator for concept and packaging testing, with insights delivered in days.
Motives blog
Case study covering 46 AI-moderated interviews for the 2025 Money Talks report with MoneySuperMarket, CALM, and UM.
Y Combinator
YC launch page describing Motives as AI-run qualitative consumer research that replaces slow, expensive focus groups with AI-led recruiting, interviews, and analysis.
Jobs and careers at Motives
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