Ep. 217 - Amit Dhand - Online Surveys vs. New Methods

Happy Market Research Podcast

My guest today is Amit Ahand, Co-Founder and CEO of Nailbiter. Founded in 2014, Nailbiter is a unique platform that offers CPG manufacturers an opportunity to see their consumers make purchase decisions at the shelf and at home. Prior to starting Nailbiter, Amit has been a key executive at IRI, Catalina and Affinnova.

Find Amit Online:

LinkedIn

Website: www.nail-biter.com

Find Us Online:

Social Media: @happymrxp

LinkedIn

This Episode’s Sponsor:

Today’s podcast is sponsored by Schlesinger Quantitative, your trusted provider of global online surveys that drive the best decisions for success in the marketplace. Schlesinger Quantitative has built an entire division of experts with extensive online research experience and an unparalleled understanding of quality drivers across panel, sample, and data.

[00:00]

On Episode 217, I’m interviewing Amit Dhand, founder and EVP of Client Services at Nailbiter, but first a word from our sponsor.

[00:01]

Today’s podcast is sponsored by Schlesinger Quantitative, your trusted provider of global online surveys that drive the best decisions for success in the marketplace. Schlesinger Quantitative has built an entire division of experts with extensive online research experience and an unparalleled understanding of quality drivers across panel, sample, and data.

[00:35]

Hi, I’m Jamin Brazil. You’re listening to the Happy Market Research Podcast. My guest today is Amit Dhand, co-founder and CEO of Nailbiter. Founded in 2014, Nailbiter’s unique platform that offers CPG manufacturers an opportunity to see their consumers, make purchase decisions at the shelf and at home. Prior to starting Nailbiter, Amit has been a key executive at IRI, Catalina, and Affinnova. Amit, thanks very much for joining me the Happy Market Podcast today.

[01:07]

It’s my pleasure, Jamin, and I appreciate you doing this podcast. I think this is very overdue in the market research business. And I look forward to the conversation; I look forward to tracking your broadcast in the future.

[01:22]

Awesome, thanks very much. So, I’d like to start with a little bit of your background. Can you tell us where you grew up and a little bit about your parents and how that’s impacted where you are today?

[01:33]

That’s a great question because I ask that question in job interviews all the time. I grew up in India and did my undergraduate degree there. I grew up in a small- business family is the best way to describe it. My dad, many of my mother’s siblings, they were small business owners, traders. This was in India of a different era, which was much more socialistic, much more repressive, if you will, from both a society standpoint as well as business standpoint. So, I always saw my dad struggle, make ends meet, do well, and then get pleasure out of being an entrepreneur, I think, and also the trials and tribulations that go with it. But the one advice that he gave me consistently was to never be like him. Educate myself as much as I could and get a job in a nice, big company and be comfortable.

So that’s what I did, but I did pursue my passion, which was physics. I didn’t do the engineering track, which is common in India if you have grades that’s what you do or medicine. I was doing my masters in physics, and that’s when professor politely pulled me aside and said I didn’t have that much of a future in physics [He laughs.] because I didn’t have the temperament to a professor or a researcher. Strangely, now I’m a market researcher. So, that was my journey to looking for something new. And my sister was getting her masters in the U.S. at the time. So, I was looking for what’s next. For a lot of kids in India back then was the U.S. So I came to the U.S. for my MBA.

[03:16]

In what year was that?

[03:17]

That was in ’96.

[03:20]

Got it, got it.

[03:21]

A different millennium.