The Founders and Leaders Series
Mike Stevens of Insight Platforms interviews the tech entrepreneurs and business leaders building the future of research, insights and analytics.
The Founders and Leaders Series
Episode 5: Hakan Yardakul, Bolt Insight
Episode Overview
Hakan Yurdakul, CEO of Bolt Insight, discusses AI-native research, dynamic personas, and how conversational AI is transforming market research.
Episode Highlights
- Pioneer in AI Research: Bolt Insight created the world's first AI-native conversational research platform, predating the ChatGPT boom by training proprietary models on human-moderated interviews
- Human + AI Approach: How combining human expertise with AI technology creates better research outcomes, moving beyond simple correlation to understand causality in consumer insights
- Dynamic Personas Revolution: Moving beyond static synthetic personas to "live personas" that are continuously updated with fresh consumer interviews and market trends
- Corporate Memory Solution: AI agents serving as institutional memory banks, connecting sales data, historical research, and new insights to prevent repeated mistakes and improve innovation success rates
- Entrepreneurial Journey: Transitioning from 15 years at Unilever to founding a successful AI research company, with lessons on networking and moving outside comfort zones
- Future of Research: The shift from traditional qual vs quant methodologies toward hybrid, conversational research that brings human empathy back to consumer understanding
About the Guest
Hakan Yurdakul is the co-founder and CEO of Bolt Insight, an AI-native research firm. A Harvard graduate with 15 years of experience at Unilever as a consumer marketeer across FMCG categories, Hakan transitioned from corporate life to entrepreneurship to create research tools he wished he had in his corporate roles.
Along with co-founders from Ipsos and Nielsen backgrounds, he built Bolt Insight into a 60-person company serving 95% large enterprise clients across FMCG, finance, consulting, and technology sectors. The company operates globally with offices in North America, UK, France, Turkey, and Singapore.
Learn more about the impact of technology and AI on research, insights & analytics at Insight Platforms.
