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1. What is your company in 2–5 words?
Human expertise, on demand.
2. Why is now the time for your company to exist?
Trust is the scarce resource online right now. Anyone can claim expertise, and AI has made generic advice free. ExpertEase exists to make trusted human expertise easy to find and easy to verify, right as the market is splitting between commoditized information (which AI now owns) and high-value human judgment (which it can't replace). We're built for that second half.
3. What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?
We're a small, fully remote team spread across several countries, which mirrors the problem we're solving: trust across distance. What I value most is that people here aren't just executing; they're building. Several joined specifically because they wanted to leave a mark early, and that ownership shows in how fast we move.
4. If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?
Probably building something else. I'm drawn to creation, innovation, and connecting people, so entrepreneurship is less a specific idea and more a way I default to operating.
5. At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your metrics?
We're early, so we weight qualitative signal heavily: direct feedback from experts and clients after each consultation, and repeat usage. Client and expert satisfaction is our leading indicator because at this stage, retention and word-of-mouth matter more than raw volume.
6. In a few sentences, what do you offer to whom?
ExpertEase.app connects clients with vetted experts through live video consultations, so people can get real, personalized guidance instead of generic search results or AI answers. For experts, coaches, consultants, and specialists, we offer a way for them to monetize deep knowledge and stay relevant in a market where AI has commoditized surface-level information.
7. What’s most exciting about your traction to date?
Our community skews genuinely international, with different countries, backgrounds, and industries, and engagement has followed: people aren't just booking once; they're coming back and referring others in. That tells us the trust model is working, not just the marketplace mechanics.
8. Where do you think your growth will be next year?
Our focus is turning passive users into active contributors — clients who refer, experts who bring their own audience in, community members who participate beyond a single transaction. The marketplace model works; next year is about deepening engagement so growth becomes community-driven rather than something we have to manufacture.
9. Tell us about your first paying customer and revenue expectations over the next year.
Our first paying client came to us for a resume overhaul. They were stuck and needed outside clarity to position themselves for their next role. Our expert gave them exactly that, and it converted into their next opportunity, which is the outcome we want every engagement to produce.
10. What’s your biggest threat?
The obvious answer is AI. A lot of people now default to it for advice, coaching, even emotional support. But we don't see that as a threat to wait out; we see it as the reason we exist. As AI absorbs the generic and commoditized layer of information, human judgment, accountability, and connection become the differentiated, valuable thing and that's exactly what we provide. If anything, the more AI mediates daily life, the more isolated people report feeling, which is a tailwind for real human connection, not a threat to it.
This startup founder interview template is based on HackerNoon Founder & CEO David Smooke’s ten questions for startup founders.
Would you like to take a stab at answering some of these questions? The link for the template is HERE.