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Marketplaces for software and services based on reviews are starting to reach their sell-by date. The user-generated reviews on sites like G2 and Capterra (one of Gartner’s three software directories) have often been accused of being paid for by software vendors. In fact, 8 out 9 of the reviews on the first page of G2’s reviews of HubSpot are labelled ‘Incentivized Review’. Borne out of the AI-pioneers behind Jukedeck, Stackfix is a startup that has now raised $3 million in Seed funding to make AI test and review software instead of humans, thus introducing a greater level of transparency and independence to the process.
Stackfix was founded in 2023 by Paddy Stobbs (previously fo-founder of Jukedeck, acquired by TikTok) and Camin McCluskey (formerly of Skyscanner).
After Jukedeck, Stobbs joined the London-based Accelerator Entrepreneur First as an Advisor, where often the most common question from the startups was “What software should I use for XYZ?”. He used this as inspiration to come up with this startup.
On software review marketplaces, vendors can pay to appear higher up the search results. Meanwhile, there is a thriving in industry bribing people to give five-star rating to software products they’ve never used, often with credits for the software in question. And lastly, hours of endless Googling, trawling through blogs, reading reviews and asking friends no longer scales to the problem most companies face in choosing software.
Ironically, the problem is in fact compounding because of AI: AI makes it easier to build software, so the sheer amount of software out there means the review-based approach is creaking under the weight of new releases.
Stackfix tests software products in real time, providing an up-to-date, standardised dataset on which to assess software products. This enables it to offer buyers insights into pricing, features and performance using an AI approach rather than a user-review approach, which is highly gameable.
Stobbs told Techcrunch: “G2/Capterra use user-generated reviews to try and understand software products. This method is no longer fit-for-purpose. User-generated reviews are untrustworthy, quickly become stale, and are not comprehensive.”
The company says businesses across Europe and North America have used Stackfix in private beta, thus generating some revenues already.
Chalfen Ventures led the funding round, with participation from Seedcamp and helloworld.
Mike Chalfen, General Partner at Chalfen Ventures, said in a statement: “For small businesses, the software buying process is often time-consuming, complex, and expensive. Stackfix leverages AI to simplify the entire process.”
Stackfix is also backed by angel investors including Mehdi Ghissassi (Head of Product at DeepMind), Matt Clifford (Chair of Entrepreneur First) and other angels.
Mike Butcher (M.B.E.) is Editor-at-large of TechCrunch. He has written for UK national newspapers and magazines and been named one of the most influential people in European technology by Wired UK. He has spoken at the World Economic Forum, Web Summit, and DLD. He has interviewed Tony Blair, Dmitry Medvedev, Kevin Spacey, Lily Cole, Pavel Durov, Jimmy Wales, and many other tech leaders and celebrities. Mike is a regular broadcaster, appearing on BBC News, Sky News, CNBC, Channel 4, Al Jazeera and Bloomberg. He has also advised UK Prime Ministers and the Mayor of London on tech startup policy, as well as being a judge on The Apprentice UK. GQ magazine named him one of the 100 Most Connected Men in the UK. He is the co-founder ThePathfounder.com newsletter; TheEuropas.com (the Annual European Tech Startup Conference & Awards for 12 years); and the non-profits Techfugees.com, TechVets.co, and Coadec.com. He was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2016 for services to the UK technology industry and journalism.
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