Solsten

About the offering

Solsten is a psychological intelligence platform that measures 150+ psychological traits to power AI-driven personalization, marketing, and user experience optimization—positioning itself as "the missing psychological layer" for the AI economy. The company collects opt-in psychological data through machine learning-based assessments embedded in mobile games, building proprietary psychometric profiles on 1.5M+ users with behavioral training data from 140M+ users, assembled into 200,000+ digital twin audiences representing an estimated 3.4 billion consumers globally. With $10M+ in lifetime revenue, approaching $3M ARR by year-end 2025, and Fortune 100 customers including Meta, LEGO, Sony, Electronic Arts, Zynga, and Peloton, Solsten has raised $35M+ from leading VCs including Alumni Ventures, Galaxy Interactive, Dentsu Ventures, RedBird Capital, and Konvoy. The company holds 16 issued patents with 19 more pending and is an NVIDIA Inception Program fellow. The Wefunder campaign has raised $502,693 toward a $550,000 goal. Monthly net burn is approximately $150K, with a target of profitability by end of 2026.The ProblemThe entire internet and AI ecosystem runs on behavioral data—clicks, views, purchases—which tells companies what people do but not who they are or why. This is a fundamental limitation: behavioral data cannot explain motivation, values, personality, or what will actually resonate with a person. Every major platform (Meta, Google, Netflix, ChatGPT) optimizes based on behavioral patterns, not psychological understanding. As AI commoditizes rapidly, the differentiator is no longer the algorithm but the data and the ability to humanize interactions. The result of this psychological blindness is disengaged users, inaccurate recommendations, wasted ad spend, robotic AI agents, and generic brand experiences. Forbes has called human psychology "the missing piece to the $2 trillion AI industry." Companies like OpenAI have reportedly pursued acquisitions like Pinterest specifically to gain unique human data assets—yet marketers, product teams, and AI developers still lack access to real psychological understanding of their audiences.The SolutionSolsten has built a foundational AI model that measures 150+ validated psychological traits to power personalization, recommendations, advertising, and AI interactions at scale. The data collection method is distinctive: short, opt-in, machine learning-based psychological assessments are placed inside mobile games, where players complete them willingly in exchange for in-game rewards. This produces scientifically validated psychological profiles representing who people actually are—not just what they clicked. The approach leverages the fact that approximately 4 billion people play games regularly and behave authentically in gaming contexts.Three products serve different market segments. Elaris is an AI marketing copilot (self-serve, launched to a 14,000-person waitlist in Q4 2025) that generates audience-intelligent ad creatives, starting at $27/month with a Pro tier at $199/month. It generated $35K in its first month from limited invite with a 5:1 LTV:CAC ratio from day one. Traits is the enterprise B2B SaaS platform with a $50K average contract value on annual licenses, used by EA, DraftKings, Peloton, and others to understand audience psychology and integrate it into product and marketing decisions. Human Context (launching Q2 2026) is a usage-based API that allows any AI system or agent to adopt psychological intelligence at the query level, with revenue scaling with adoption volume.All profiles are anonymous, never linked to real identity, GDPR-compatible, and built on full opt-in consent. No personally identifiable information is collected.Business ModelSolsten monetizes through a three-tier product funnel designed for expansion. Elaris ($27-$199/month self-serve SaaS) provides the entry point for marketers, generating volume-based recurring revenue. Traits ($50K ACV enterprise SaaS on annual licenses) serves Fortune 100 customers who need deeper psychological audience intelligence. Human Context (usage-based API launching Q2 2026) captures infrastructure-level revenue that scales with AI adoption. The funnel is intentional: Elaris introduces marketers to psychological thinking, they see results and bring Solsten into the enterprise (Traits), and enterprise customers wanting deeper integration adopt the API layer (Human Context). Enterprise clients renew and expand, deepening their relationships over time.Traction$10M+ in lifetime revenue with ARR approaching $3M by year-end 2025. Fortune 100 customers include Meta, LEGO, Sony, Electronic Arts, Zynga, Peloton, Activision Blizzard, and DraftKings. Elaris launched to a 14,000-person waitlist in Q4 2025 and generated $35K in its first month from limited invite with a 5:1 LTV:CAC ratio. $35M+ raised from leading VCs: Alumni Ventures ($2.7M invested, most active VC firm globally), Galaxy Interactive, Dentsu Ventures, RedBird Capital, and Konvoy—investors who have backed Epic Games, Roblox, and OpenAI. 16 issued patents with 19 more pending protect the core AI models. Proprietary psychological data on 1.5M+ users plus behavioral training data from 140M+ users. 200,000+ digital twin audiences representing an estimated 3.4 billion consumers. NVIDIA Inception Program fellow. Monthly net burn approximately $150K, moving toward profitability. The Wefunder campaign has raised $502,693 toward a $550,000 goal (91% funded). Revenue target: $5M for 2026, $10M contracted ARR and profitability by end of 2026.Market OpportunityWorldwide AI spending is forecast to approach $2 trillion in 2026. Solsten operates at the intersection of four adjacent categories: synthetic audiences/digital twins, marketing and ad targeting, AI agents, and hyper-personalization—together representing a $186B market opportunity. The demand for AI experiences that feel more human is accelerating as AI itself commoditizes. The company's psychological intelligence layer is positioned as foundational infrastructure across all four categories. The "Intel Inside" vision—becoming the foundational model underneath every LLM, agent, and digital experience—represents a platform infrastructure play rather than an application-level bet.TeamCEO and Co-Founder Joseph Schaeppi is a serial entrepreneur and clinical psychologist with a UX background (UX Director at MRM McCann, Big Fish Games), University of Wisconsin-Madison MS in Clinical Psychology, and $35M raised from Tier 1 VCs. COO, Board Director, and Co-Founder Bastian Bergmann is an economist and strategist, former BCG consultant, founder/CEO of WATTx (Berlin venture builder), and Harvard Business Review author of Press Play. Chief of Staff Sebastian Weyer previously co-founded and led Statice (scaled from inception to acquisition by PwC Germany). AI Lead Lloyd West holds a PhD in Mathematics from Cambridge University and founded GameTune at Unity (game personalization engine adopted by thousands of studios). Psychometric Lead Julian Provenzano, PhD, architects the psychological models ensuring clinical standards of validity and reliability. The broader team includes researchers and engineers from CERN, Google, and other top institutions.

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