Issue 10: Why Most Insights Platforms Don't Take Off 🚀

There are hundreds of “insights platforms” in market research. Most of them exist because founders subscribe to a kind of hopeful logic:

A. The industry is worth tens of billions.

B. Everyone agrees it’s messy and manual.

C. Therefore, a tech solution will make me 🚀 🤑

D. Surely even a fraction of that is worth chasing, right?

So they build a platform to solve what they believe is the industry’s core problem: inefficient access to information.

But that’s not what the buyer is solving for. Yes, the industry could be more efficient—but efficiency isn’t the end goal for most clients. It’s not what gets them to say yes. What they actually want is reassurance: confidence that the insights are valid, appropriate, and usable. And if they’re not already doing the work themselves, then the efficiency of the platform is, frankly, someone else’s problem.

Which means the addressable market many founders thought they were chasing is, in reality, much smaller.

On the best of days, exits for insights platforms are limited. The ones that succeed either (a) find product-market fit and build a sustainable, profitable business that fits a strategic buyer’s puzzle, or (b) attract a financial buyer because they’ve proven they can grow and retain customers. The rest may still be viable. They may even make decent money. But they don’t get the rocketship ending.

The biggest risk founders take is when they build a platform that depends on the client doing the work. Unless you’re highly disciplined in qualifying buyers and can prove that adoption is real and repeatable, your exit path narrows fast. You’re essentially betting that a strategic buyer sees your product as complementary. But without revenue traction, you’ll be selling low.

There’s nothing wrong with rebuilding the product or the business around a new operating model. And there’s nothing wrong with a good, profitable business, either. But these are longer, slower plays. Not the story most founders imagine when they start.

The insight platform boom isn’t just a story of winners and losers. It’s a story of misunderstood demand. The rocketship logic fails because buyers don't care about rockets. They're looking for a safe landing. 🪂