# Founders Bootstrap Outward Intelligence to $1M Revenue > Source: > Published: 2026-06-26 10:01:43+00:00 Business Insider reports that three founders - **Amir Kanpurwala** (former CPO, The Harris Poll), **Abhish Raghavan** (former Head of Custom Research, The Harris Poll), and **Brian Tatum** (former deployments lead, Palantir) - launched **Outward Intelligence** and chose to skip venture capital. According to Business Insider, the team used AI-driven automation to keep operations lean and, within eight months of commercialization, grew revenue to more than **$1 million**. Kanpurwala is quoted saying, "The polling space is broken," flagging risks from low-quality responses and AI-automated survey manipulation. The article attributes the founders' decision to avoid VC to a preference for control, quoting Kanpurwala: "The person that you care about the most shifts from your client and your employees to the VC - satisfying the VC."