CEO Monthly Reflection – February 2025: Stepping Up in Support of the MRX Company
Blog | February 25, 2025
By: Terence McCarron
It’s more than a little weird to be on this side of M&A news.
For years, I’ve blogged after major deals were announced in our industry. My focus was to help Market Researchers answer the question “what does this mean for me?”
As you likely know by now, OpinionRoute acquired Jibunu. After a few weeks of conversations, most industry colleagues understood this grows our team, adds more customers, and accelerates our tech roadmap. We are thrilled to accomplish all of that!
Underneath the surface, this deal reveals a few deeper things about our plan. Acquiring Jibunu is part of a 5-year strategy to reshape the Industry with the MR company as the focal point.
Here’s our view of the world:
- For nearly 15 years, Insights industry growth came at the expense of the MRX company labor.
- Sample Companies and Tech Startups took off, cashed out, and then caught fire.
- The aftermath of that innovation left a trail of major problems that the MRX company is struggling to clean up.
- Now a new wave of innovation has begun in the form of AI.
As a 100-year-old industry, the core of the value chain is the partnership between the Insights company and the end-client. Today, the end client wants more time and attention to figure out how they can navigate winds of change. However, MRX is stuck doing more work to deliver great insights, thanks to yesterday’s rocket ships.
In 2025, many researchers are concluding a hard truth: yesterday’s partners won’t solve the problems they created.
Since evolving into predominantly remote teams, MRX agencies face unprecedented pressures to move faster and fix complicated problems through Zoom or Teams, email and Excel. Something has to give. Or, better yet, someone has to step up to help.
We believe it’s time MRX had a new kind of partner. We couldn’t find a company built around collaboration, complementary expertise, and, yes, unique tech that upgrades how researchers work. Researchers deserve a more streamlined today, while also staging for a playground for tomorrow’s advances.
Market Researchers deserve the same level of partnership they provide to their clients. We are investing aggressively to be that partner. Acquiring Jibunu is the latest example.
Want to dig in deeper with a true partner to solve some of your challenges? Hit us up!
