Skip to main content

Suto can help you decide on your next big purchase

ask suto launch
Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends
Researching what you’re going to buy? It’s a trait that has been attributed to millennials — according to a 2014 study that found nearly three-fourths of the Gen Y demographic do online research before buying a product.

Suto wants to capitalize on that market research — with research. But what the San Francisco-based company is doing isn’t exactly anything new, and how they do it isn’t complicated at all.

Say you’re looking to buy a new graphics card, or a new pair of headphones, but you don’t want to bother doing the research, or you’re just too busy. Head over to AskSuto.com and you can ask the cute little bot “what’s the best graphics card under $300,” or, “What’s a good pair of headphones for using while working out.” You would tailor these questions to your own liking, of course.

Once you ask the question, Suto will ask how you want to continue the conversation, and will offer options to move the conversation to SMS, email, or Facebook Messenger. Karim El Rabiey, the company’s CEO and co-founder, told Digital Trends that the company is open to having Suto compatible with multiple messaging platforms like Slack, WhatsApp, and more. The Facebook Messenger integration is down at the moment, as the company is still trying to work out some kinks on Facebook’s end.

When it did work, it was quick and seamless, just like it is on SMS. Suto will message you first on the platform you chose, saying, “Hey there — it’s Suto! Please reply with your email, and I’ll start working on your recommendations.” Once you provide your email, Suto will say that users typically get a recommendation within 6 to 12 hours. He’ll go on to say how many people are waiting for recommendations, and that should you want to add more details to your question, you’re free to send them whenever. These first messages from Suto are the bot.

The six-person team, two of whom are the co-founders, then starts researching products in the category, pooling from reviews on Amazon to published reviews from websites. They try to gather as much data they can to match the product as best as they can to the person’s requests, and they will continue to ask questions if they need more information. Once you get a recommendation, Suto will explain why it’s recommending the product to you and will offer a link to purchase the product.

“It’s more important to focus on actually getting people to purchase based on our recommendation, even if today it’s not building revenue.”

Rabiey said the company will provide links to its partnered retailers, like Amazon. The company has 12 partnerships so far, but if your product isn’t sold through one of those retailers, then Suto will still offer the link to where you can purchase it.

“It’s more important to focus on actually getting people to purchase based on our recommendation, even if today it’s not building revenue,” Rabiey said. “The reason being that once we have a certain scale, we can start actually leveraging our own power and working with retailers one-on-one, online and offline, creating deals with people and giving people coupon codes.”

Rabiey said typically Suto gets 100 to 150 requests a week, but last week they saw around 350 requests, as the company was featured on Product Hunt. He said typically a recommendation can come under four hours, and the hope is that as the company grows, more work will be done by the bot so that it can handle more tasks and reduce the turnaround time for a recommendation — to a few minutes.

Recommendations that people follow through on are displayed on the website, so that in case someone has a question that’s quite similar, they can see what other people purchased. Similarly, Rabiey said as the company continues to research products, the time it takes to deliver recommendations gets shorter as they gain more knowledge about certain products and categories.

Rabiey said the idea for Suto came when co-founder Nima Gardideh was looking to buy a projector, but couldn’t make a comfortable decision after a two weeks of research. The two decided to put their phone numbers on a website, and told people they would offer recommendations for products if they texted the numbers — and that’s what they spent their weekends doing.

Within four to six weeks, they realized that about one in three people were actually buying the products they recommended — which was surprising to them, as they were two unverified strangers who put their phone numbers online. They quit their full-time jobs and launched Suto officially in November of 2015. Right now they’re going through a Y Combinator fellowship.

But their idea isn’t original, as there have been other players in this field before, such as ClayValet, which also read requests and offered recommendations. That company closed its doors in 2008, though. We’ll have to wait and see how Suto fares.

If you’re wondering how they got the name, they translated “best” to different languages, and picked the Japanese word “besuto,” from which they then cut the B and the E.

Editors' Recommendations

Julian Chokkattu
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Julian is the mobile and wearables editor at Digital Trends, covering smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and more…
How much storage do you need on your new iPhone 14? Here’s how to decide
The five Apple iPhone 14 colors.

The new iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro are finally available, and Apple is again offering a selection of storage tiers. The big question is just how much storage do you need on your iPhone 14? Similar to last year, the iPhone 14 series lets you choose as little as 128GB and as much as 1TB. This means that if you want to get a new iPhone, you'll need to pick between 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB options. Bigger isn't always better, nor is it always excessive. Only you know how you use your phone, but here's a quick guide to help you pick which iPhone size is the best option for you.

Model
iPhone 14
iPhone 14 Plus
iPhone 14 Pro
iPhone 14 Pro Max

Read more
Android 13 is here, and you can download it on your Pixel phone right now
Official artwork of Android 13

The day has finally arrived for Android phones to get their big yearly update. Google released the stable Android 13 update today, and if you have a Pixel 4 or later model in your hand, the update notification will pop up soon. I’ve already got it on my Pixel 6a, and installation is underway.

Google says that phones from Samsung, OnePlus, Nokia, Oppo, Realme, and Xiaomi, among others, will start getting the update later this year. You can expect these brands to make an official announcement regarding the update road map for their respective phones in the next few days.

Read more
Can’t buy a Nothing Phone? Now you can turn your phone into one
An iPhone 13 Pro Max with the transparent Dbrand Something case.

If you haven't been able to get your hands on the Nothing Phone 1 — either due to limited availability or the fact that it isn't being sold in the U.S. — Dbrand is able to help you ease the pain. Now you can turn your current phone into a Nothing Phone by using transparent-style Something skins that almost perfectly mirror Nothing's design.

Dbrand's marketing for its Something line of smartphone cases and skins isn't shying away from poking fun at the hype surrounding the Nothing Phone 1. Now that the Phone 1 is here, it's clear that its main selling point is its striking, transparent design. And that's something Dbrand knows all too well.

Read more