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Cafeteria raises $3 million to connect brands with teenagers through a survey-based iOS app that gathers real-time, zero-party consumer insights. Teens earn money for sharing opinions on products, culture, and preferences, while brands access structured data through monthly plans. The platform emphasizes user privacy, moderated content, and limited engagement to ensure quality feedback.
Teens Speak, Brands Listen: Inside Cafeteria’s Bold Market Research Mission
[cafeteria] introduces a new approach to consumer insights by connecting brands directly with teenagers. The startup enables companies to gather authentic, unfiltered feedback from Gen Z participants through short-form surveys conducted on a dedicated app. Rishi Malhotra, CEO and co-founder of Cafeteria, previously led Luminary and co-founded Saavn, which was acquired by Reliance Jio in 2019.
The team also includes Chief Business Officer Mark Silverstein, former Chief Content Officer at Luminary, and Chief Design Officer Leeann Sheely, who served in design leadership roles at Luminary and JioSaavn. The product is designed to tap into teenage opinion to inform product and marketing strategies.
$3 Million in Fresh Capital: Who Invests and Why It Matters
Cafeteria has raised $3 million in seed funding. The round was led by Collaborative Fund and Imaginary Ventures. Additional backing came from Bertelsmann and music industry executive Guy Oseary, known for his work with Madonna and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Andrew Montgomery, partner at Collaborative Fund, said the company delivers zero-party data and real-time insights with precision. He emphasized its alignment with current needs in the consumer insights and market research industry by providing brands with direct access to meaningful input from teenagers.
The App That Pays Teens to Be Honest
The iOS app launched after a three-month beta test involving teens across 60 cities in the U.S. Participants sign up, select brands they are interested in, and receive invitations to join short surveys called Tables. These sessions last around five minutes and offer compensation between $5 and $20.
Payments can be transferred to Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, or directly to a bank account through an integration with Dots. Users must accumulate at least $10 before making a transfer.
Survey content includes lifestyle preferences, shopping habits, and cultural opinions. Teens have responded to prompts like choosing which celebrities brands like Nike should collaborate with or how they would spend $100 at the mall.
What Brands Get From All That Teenage Feedback
Insights from Tables are organized into Albums, which brands can access through monthly subscriptions. These Albums include categorized findings such as brand popularity among teen girls or typical spending on live events.
Cafeteria offers pricing tiers for business access:
- $5,000/month for access to lifestyle Album insights and cohort comparisons
- $8,000/month for two custom Tables with at least eight participants
- $2,500/month for each additional custom survey
The company processes unstructured responses into usable data using internally trained large language models that help extract patterns and structure.
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Safety, Privacy, and Moderation: How Cafeteria Handles Sensitive Data
Cafeteria conceals personally identifiable information. Brands receive only age, gender, and zip code. Teens under 18 can optionally provide a parent’s email during signup, but it’s not required.
A hybrid moderation system monitors responses using both AI and human reviewers. Submissions containing harmful or misleading content are flagged. The platform restricts users under 14 and removes data if such accounts are discovered.
Not Just Another Social App: Why Teens Actually Join and Stay
The app is structured to limit overuse. Teens receive three to five Tables per month and are not expected to become daily or weekly users. New users are added via waitlists, primarily through referrals or word of mouth.
During onboarding, teens complete a lifestyle Table with 20–25 questions related to fashion, banking, music, food, cars, and retail habits. Participants can also indicate eight brands they prefer.
Cafeteria Bets on Gen Z’s Influence to Drive Brand Decisions
Cafeteria has already completed over 2,200 Tables and collected more than 50,000 responses. It reports that several major brands are engaged, though none have been named publicly.
The company is building tools for brands to run prompts across insight Albums and search for key metrics. It also plans to let brands offer discounts or store credits to teens as part of future feedback programs.
Cafeteria continues to position itself as a bridge between brands and the teenage demographic, emphasizing structured insights sourced directly from youth perspectives.
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