Episode 18 – MotivBase

MotivBase has created the world's only Artificial Intelligence powered Anthropologist that can predict trends that will shape consumer behaviour. In this episode we sit down with cofounder Ujwal Arkalgud and learn about the early foundation stages of this successful yet boot-strapped venture as well as how context informs trends in unique ways online. [expand title="Podcast Transcript"] Qasim Virjee 0:23 All right, welcome back to another episode of the start, well podcast, I am your host with the most or something, the only host on this podcast. So I do have the most it's Qasim Virjee. Back again the CEO and founder of start well, for those of you just tuning in for the first time, this is the 18th episode. So do go to iTunes or wherever you're listening to this on and and scroll back through all of our episodes, It's tons of fun listening with entrepreneurs, and creatives alike, based mainly in Toronto circulating either in or around, start well, which is a wonderful incubator accelerator co working space, mashup spread between two heritage buildings come visit us, if you get the chance, drop it for a cappuccino, we've got a complimentary Cafe, and we're right on King Street West in downtown Toronto. So for this time around, I'm going to have a very interesting conversation, I'm quite sure, because I know the man in front of me, and we always do His names as well. And he's gonna tell us about his company, which is called motive base. There we go. It sounds like a hip hop group from the 90s. I love that name. Well, Ujwal Arkalgud 1:34 for a long time, we jokingly would tell people that we spoke to that. It's got the hipster spelling, there's no E in motive, pretty cool. But it was because there was no domain there's no domain, as usual. So yeah, thanks for having me. I'm basically a cultural anthropologist. It started this company three and a half years ago, along with my business partner, Jason. And we have built basically what we call an AI anthropologist, we use a machine in order to study consumer culture and help our clients, which ranges from Fortune 500, to two really interesting, well funded startups that can afford us to basically identify track demand spaces so that they can make the right research development bets, innovation bets at the right time. Qasim Virjee 2:26 So walk me through that, because there's a lot there for me to digest. I'm sure our listeners also are kind of unpacking that right now. Maybe the best way to unpack that is you said an AI anthropologist. So I guess the first side of it is telling me about anthropology, your understanding of it as its applique applied to the problem that your solution solves. Yeah. And then maybe we could talk about like, how it does it or a couple of case studies, what the client experience kind of is. Ujwal Arkalgud 2:52 Yeah, the type of anthropology obviously, that I'm referring to is cultural anthropology. So the study of, of sort of modes, rituals, habits of groups of consumers, groups of people, obviously, we're focused on consumer culture in particular. But really, what we've done is built a machine that can do a form of research that, at least nowadays is very, is a very popular form of research for innovation purposes, which is ethnography. So what we've really done is built a technology that can conduct an ethnography, so a machine that can do that, by examining the natural conversations that people have language processing, language processing, and I should qualify for listeners who may not know what ethnography is, really, it is the art and science of observing people in their natural setting, in order to understand three really important things, cultural, economic, and social practices. So in essence, understanding not just what people say, but how they say it, and then why they say those things. And the why part really is about unders