Keep Your Colleagues Honest with BeeTold

You gave an important presentation in front of a large group of stakeholders. After, you want to know the truth about how people received your proposal and how they felt about the way you presented. Did you really do a good job?

BeeTold aims to solve this very problem by providing an app for you to ask a question to your circle of colleagues or acquaintances and receive honest, prompt feedback. Easier and faster than a regular survey, you can use the BeeTold app to ask questions about anything from presentation feedback or sensitive company HR issues. The inquiries can be answered from any device or the web. They also remain anonymous — perfect for brutal, honest feedback.

Founded in 2014, BeeTold currently has three employees including founder Bryan Kujawski, a seasoned Atlanta entrepreneur who helped build businesses like 360i and ShopVisible after earning his MBA at Emory’s Goizueta Business School in 1997.

Hypepotamus talks to Kujawski about what inspired BeeTold, why honesty is important, and how Atlanta weaves into his startup story.

BeeTold-CEOFunding or bootstrapped:

BeeTold has received one round of funding from a small group of angels, including the founder.

What’s your pitch?

BeeTold is an app that provides a simple and anonymous way to ask questions in real-time to any groups — people you work with, friends or anybody that might be relevant.  Recipients of questions know who sent the question, but always respond anonymously making their feedback MUCH more valuable because, behind a veil of anonymity, people are usually bluntly honest!  Whether you’re working on a project, contemplating change or just curious what other people honestly think, use the App any time a question arises. With BeeTold, you now have a very easy and organized method to gather honest feedback to help make decisions when they arise. Get ready to BeeTold the truth!

unnamedWhat made you think about this concept?

My observations of very typical ‘human nature’ spawned the idea for BeeTold.

In our standard conversation with others, our default is to be polite and cordial, usually saying what we think others want to hear, never wanting to offend anybody, embarrass ourselves or ‘rock the boat’. That’s human nature — to produce carefully curated dialogue. However, this tendency creates a problem if you’re really needing / wanting the truth. If you cannot be sure people are being honest with you, it’s often a waste of time to even ask questions. Based on this, I always felt there should be an easy and simple way to actually get the truth— particularly for tough and/or important questions. Enter BeeTold— the way to get honest feedback by providing anonymity so people can comfortably and freely speak their minds. Survey Monkey doesn’t do this.  Nor does Google Forms.

Why honesty as a brand?

The idea is to use BeeTold when you have question(s) and really need to know you’re getting honest feedback.  Giving people a way to increase the likelihood of honest Q&A dialogue is so important. Honest feedback, regardless of how blunt it might be, is so important and yet can be so elusive.

What problem are you solving?

Too often people are basing their decisions on feedback that is not honest and/or they’re making decisions in without bothering to consult others. Make better decisions when you know you’re getting truthful feedback (to support of negate your own assumptions).

Who can benefit from BeeTold?

BeeTold works in both social and business dialogue. In a social setting, people wanting honest feedback from their friends should use it. Questions can include feedback on your ideas, appearance, relationships and more.  In a business setting, managers can get honest feedback from their teams, sale people can pulse their customers for quick / honest feedback, HR staff can request feedback from staff. Questions can include honest opinions / feedback about managers, new staff effectiveness, peer reviews and more.

Why is your way of collecting feedback different than other methods?

While BeeTold did not invent Q&A or polling, it is distinct in three main ways: 1) Anonymity – it ensures that recipients of your questions respond 100% anonymously which dramatically increases the likelihood of honest feedback, 2) Simplicity – it’s very easy to use (creating and sending questions via your phone) and recipients of questions don’t ned the app, 3) it’s FREE.

beetold_sample

Do you have any great customer stories?

Since the app is currently free, we have no official customer, only users.  Feedback has been great — people find it liberating to know that they’re getting honest feedback. One story that stands out is a college professor who actively ‘pulses’ his students for honest feedback on the quality of guest speakers and different lectures.

What’s your current revenue model?

The first version of the App is free for standard use.  Upon attaining some level of critical mass, we hope to generate revenue via premium features, including white labeling of the app for companies.

Who are your competitors and how do you stand out?

All polling applications and tools are technically competitors. These include large players like Survey Monkey and even Google Forms. There are also a number of smaller apps that allow for surveys and polling. BeeTold stands out because of its simplicity, anonymity and one-question format.

How does ATL weave into your story?

Atlanta plays a significant role in BeeTold.  The company hired Atlanta agencies, including but not limited to ToolBox9 (highly recommend them!), has utilized the Atlanta Tech Village (thank you David Cummings inspiring substantial entrepreneurship in Atlanta) since inception and hires Atlanta-based interns and staff as needed.

Learn the truth about BeeTold via Facebook, Twitter, and their site.