Innovation

SearchOwl was started by a team of four students from Case Western Reserve University: CEO Jadon Wyant, CTO Dale Berkove, COO Cullen Combi, and CFO Ryan Kaiser. The startup was formed in May 2023 when the founders recognized the problem of online search results not recommending products that meet consumer needs due to advertisements’ strong influence. Their solution was to create an AI-powered website that delivers an ad-free and unbiased shopping experience that allows both consumers and small businesses to benefit from. On SearchOwl, users are able to search for skincare products based on specific ingredients and preferences to ensure that they find the products that meet their needs. This not only benefits consumers, but also small businesses who want to sell their products ad-free.

There are two main United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) that SearchOwl contributes to: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure (Goal #9), Reduced Inequalities (Goal #10), and Responsible Consumption and Production (Goal #12). SearchOwl’s push to provide fair access to product information and eliminate biases from paid advertisement show that they are actively working towards reducing inequality between large and small businesses. As a result, SearchOwl helps foster an inclusive marketplace for small, ethical, and diverse businesses to compete. By ensuring a transparent and data-driven search system, SearchOwl helps consumers make more informed choices while fostering a sustainable market for responsible consumption. By prioritizing these two goals, SearchOwl provides a sustainable and innovative solution that improves consumers’ shopping experience while fostering a more sustainable and ethical marketplace.

Inspiration

The inspiration behind SearchOwl came from frustration with the traditional online shopping experience. The founders were “fed up with ad search results that are not useful” and recognized a widespread problem: users were struggling to find relevant and unbiased product recommendations.

As Wyant explained, “most search results don’t give you products that meet your needs.” Traditional search engines often prioritize irrelevant, sponsored content and products with higher profit margins or partnerships over those that best match a user’s needs. Rather than simplifying the shopping process, this makes online shopping unpleasant and time-consuming, which is exactly what these sites want: increased engagement. This realization irritated the founders and fueled their mission to “fix the problem themselves.”

Cultivating these emotions into a single goal, they set out to create a more transparent and user-centric search platform. With backgrounds in technology and consumer research, the SearchOwl team used real consumer data and AI technologies to develop an ethical, innovative search engine that prioritizes authentic recommendations over paid promotions. By doing so, their goal was to revolutionize the industry and empower users with reliable, unbiased, and data-driven search results that make online shopping more efficient and trustworthy.

By turning their frustration into a mission, the founders have not only created a valuable tool for consumers but also set a new standard for ethical and transparent online search platforms. Through the elimination of misleading ads and the enhancement of search accuracy, SearchOwl is reshaping the digital shopping landscape and putting control back in the hands of consumers.

Overall impact

SearchOwl’s innovation of using AI-driven data to provide consumers with a means to shop for skincare products without seeing advertisements has made a strong statement for consumer transparency and ethical online shopping. In both the short term and long term, SearchOwl’s work has reformed e-commerce and digital marketing by adopting an ad-free and AI-driven business strategy to ensure that all consumers conveniently receive highly personalized and relevant product recommendations. In the future, as more businesses will likely adopt the ad-free strategy, SearchOwl will continue to pioneer this shift and set standards for personalized consumer experiences in online shopping.

In the short term of SearchOwl’s founding, the business has provided an impressive and unique way to sell skincare products online. Without advertisements, SearchOwl does not get revenue from traditional advertising, but instead relies on its business model, consumer loyalty, and partnerships with businesses for sustainable growth. As a result, SearchOwl has partnered with and empowered several small businesses by offering them an even playing field where they can sell their products ethically. In addition, consumers have benefited from SearchOwl’s transparent AI-driven data analysis, helping them make informed decisions about the available products.

In the long term, SearchOwl’s ad-free and AI-driven philosophies will potentially help them pioneer a movement towards more ethical online shopping. They were able to recognize a problem that others found annoying while shopping, and were able to completely eliminate it in their business. It is likely that other companies will see this as an opportunity to prove that they prioritize their customers’s preferences. In addition, incorporating AI-driven data in searches will also allow clear and unbiased product recommendations to ensure that consumers make information based on their needs instead of advertisements.

Business benefit

Because SearchOwl has automated marketing data for consumer packaged goods(CPG) businesses, they have been able to provide brands with high-quality insights without the influence of paid advertisements. This innovation has allowed businesses to make more informed decisions without the high costs of consultants, ultimately leading to increased sales and improved profit margins. By giving brands access to better data, SearchOwl has not only made the marketing process more efficient but has also created a more transparent shopping experience for consumers. Their competitive advantage comes from offering an affordable and automated solution that is both more accurate and ethical than traditional ad-driven marketing strategies.

The “high-quality data” and positive feedback they’ve received from businesses have reinforced their impact in helping brands navigate the complexities of online shopping. Because of this success, Jadon and his team have been able to continue expanding SearchOwl, allowing them to reach new markets and improve their platform further. With their growth, they have also created new unemployment opportunities and ensured that their team remains engaged in a meaningful mission. Eventually, they hope to extend their model beyond just skincare and into all consumer packaged goods, fixing what they see as a “broken and misleading” eCommerce system. By prioritizing both businesses and consumers, they are setting a new standard for marketing while creating long-term investment opportunities that will continue to drive their growth.

Social and environmental benefit

As mentioned above, the UN Global Goals that SearchOwl most closely aligns with are targets 9, 10, and 12. Their ultimate goal is to benefit the customer, the shopper so that they have a smooth, efficient shopping process while not being duped by large corporations and their advertisements into making unnecessary purchases that hurt them fiscally while also wasting their time. Their algorithm also benefits small businesses by providing them a more adequate platform to get their products out to consumers who may not know about the product they are selling, but are looking for something just like it.

The “happy and satisfied” feedback and testimonials that they’ve received from users and businesses further reinforces their impact on helping out those who didn’t have a fair platform before them. This feedback they’ve received has propelled them into eventually expanding outward to not just help small skin care businesses, but those in all consumer packaged goods. By doing this, Jadon and his team hope to fix what they believe is a “broken and unethical e-commerce market” and hope that their innovation helps improve the lives of so many shoppers and small businesses that don’t have a platform because of the inequality that is caused by the current market.

Interview

Jadon Wyant, CEO