Reaching hundreds of founders nationwide with automatic invites

A business research team partnered with CleverX to interview early-stage startup founders across 10 states about their journey. The study included a sensitive line of questioning, which meant the moderator had to stay strictly neutral throughout.

• The target was genuine early-stage tech founders, not service businesses or people only hoping to start one.
• The core questions required never giving a single example, to avoid leading people.
• Sourcing had to reach a spread-out group across 10 states without building lists by hand.

CleverX used its automatic invite tool to reach people at scale, behind a disciplined screener.

• The automatic invite matched 441 candidates on role, company size, and the 10 target states.
• A four-step screener ruled out service businesses and companies more than 1.5 years old.
• The moderator followed a careful two-step way of clarifying questions without leading the answer.
• A rapport-first tone kept a 30-minute structured interview from feeling like a test.

• 441 automatically invited, narrowed to 141 screened, 23 qualified, and 5 completed.
• Qualified founders were spread across several major states.
• Rich written detail spanned startups in AI, healthcare, fintech, logistics, and consumer.

• An automatic invite reaches a nationwide pool instantly, with no manual sourcing.
• Scale still needs a disciplined screener behind it to turn reach into precision.
• A built-in, neutral way of clarifying questions protects data quality on sensitive topics.