A Chat with Hakan Yurdakul, CEO & Co-Founder at Market Research Company: Bolt Insight

Tell us about Bolt Insight

Bolt Insight is a tech-driven market research company on a mission to bring the voice of the consumer into everyday business decisions. Our flagship platform, BoltChatAI, delivers qualitative insight at speed and scale, using AI to moderate live, dynamic conversations with consumers around the world.

We’ve supported over 100 brands in 90+ countries and are proud to be transforming how insights are captured and actioned.

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

Before founding Bolt, I spent over a decade leading research projects at one of the world’s biggest FMCG companies. I saw how the pressure for speed was clashing with the need for depth, and how traditional tools couldn’t keep up.

The original spark for Bolt was simple: how can we help teams make better decisions by listening more closely to consumers, without sacrificing quality or agility? That led to the launch of Bolt Insight in 2019, and later BoltChatAI, our AI-powered qual platform.

Tell us about your core product or service: BoltChatAI

BoltChatAI is the future of qualitative research. It blends real-time AI moderation with multi-media capture, respondents can utilise text, video, audio or photos responses. After the conversations, the platform automatically generates a bespoke report for you, featuring key themes, quotes and sentiment summaries.

With this data, it can build evolving personas from real data, run UX tests, compare markets and uncover trends through Meta-Analysis. The platform is designed to be fast, smart and intuitive, helping teams turn raw consumer conversation into decision-ready insight.

What most excites you about the industry?

There’s never been a more transformative time in research. What excites me most is the shift towards inclusivity, agility and strategic relevance.
AI is enabling teams to get closer to consumers in ways that were previously unthinkable, not just faster, but deeper. We’re seeing a convergence between qual, quant and analytics, and BoltChatAI sits right in the middle of that evolution.

Clients are no longer asking “Can we do this faster?” but “How do we unlock richer understanding?” That mindset change is powerful.

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome along the way?

I’d say educating the market has been a challenge. When we first launched BoltChatAI, AI in qual was still seen as a futuristic concept. We had to show people that this wasn’t about replacing researchers, it was about empowering them.

We also made ethics a non-negotiable: our AI is trained only on research-specific data, never on client projects, and every respondent gives informed consent. Upholding those standards while innovating at speed has required discipline, but it’s what we believe in.

What is your number one piece of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs?

Build for a real need, not just a trend. The temptation with tech is to chase what’s flashy. But lasting impact comes from solving real problems in meaningful ways.
Speak to users, understand their pain points and design with empathy. And when things get hard, which trust me they will, go back to your “why.” That clarity will carry you through.

What can we hope to see from Bolt Insight in the future?

We’re building towards something much bigger. BoltChatAI is evolving into a strategic insights layer for modern decision-making. Not just a tool, but a trusted partner that helps brands stay ahead.

We’ll continue expanding features and we’re also investing in local presence globally, the team is growing and I’m really excited to see so many wonderful people working towards the same goal!

We’re here to shape the future of research, faster, fairer and more human.