Trove's AI, Backed by Cresta Founders, Aims to Revolutionize Surveys and Make Them Fun Again

Surveys have become a crucial part of our daily lives, yet many remain tedious and unengaging, resulting in ineffective responses. Recognizing a unique opportunity, software engineers Dinghan Shen and Yuan Xue from Silicon Valley are harnessing the advancements of large language models to revolutionize survey experiences.

About six months ago, Shen and Xue, long-time friends since high school, launched Trove, a SaaS platform that enables users to create interactive, conversational surveys using GPT-4 and their own finely-tuned models. Their innovative approach has already attracted support from investors including Zayd Enam and Tim Shi, co-founders of Shen's previous company, Cresta—a unicorn backed by a16z that empowers contact center agents with AI.

Since its launch just six weeks ago, Trove has gained over 1,000 users, primarily small and medium-sized businesses from around the globe. Many of these users have sent out surveys multiple times, and the platform remains free to use. Its diverse clientele includes a spa in London, a K-12 school in Boston, and a travel agency specializing in Latin America.

In a market buzzing with AI, leveraging conversational AI for surveys seems like a straightforward opportunity. Established survey giants like Qualtrics have integrated AI into their customer and employee feedback platforms, while SurveyMonkey is automating survey creation using AI technologies.

To set itself apart, Trove aspires to evolve into a comprehensive “customer and employee experience management platform” for businesses of all sizes, according to Shen. The essence of their product revolves around managing experiences across customers, employees, products, and more. In light of recent management transitions at OpenAI that momentarily impacted its chatbot service, applications built on ChatGPT are reassessing their reliance on third-party APIs.

“We are 80% SaaS and 20% AI,” Shen explained in an interview. He emphasized that Trove delivers significant value beyond its OpenAI-powered features. “We aim to streamline the entire process—from survey creation and response analytics to ticket generation and CRM integration, creating a continuous AI-driven feedback loop.”

The forthcoming CRM integration will enable Trove to design bespoke surveys, automatically generate support tickets, and send personalized follow-up emails thanking customers for their feedback.

“Fundamentally, we’re reimagining experience management workflows from the ground up, leveraging the capabilities of today’s powerful large language models,” said Shen.