Entrepreneurs thrive on data - but gathering it manually? That’s a time sink nobody needs. Meet Igor Levi, a seasoned adtech and fintech founder who turned to Apify to automate his startup research. With Apify, he’s slashed hours off his workflow, uncovered sharper insights, and built a scalable system for his latest venture, Eightception.
The challenge: gathering and analyzing startup data at scale
Eightception is a platform designed to guide early-stage founders through the chaos of launching a startup, offering tools, insights, and resources to sharpen their strategies and boost their odds of success.
To make it work, Igor needed to analyze many other startups, both successful and failed, at scale: their products, marketing tactics, audience trends, and social media presence. This data fuels Eightception’s ability to deliver actionable advice and real-world case studies to its users. But doing it by hand wasn’t cutting it - too slow, too inconsistent. He needed a way to process high volumes of data fast, without losing momentum. That’s when he turned to Apify.
"I use Apify Actors for two key things: startup case studies and competitor research. Actors help me analyze social media strategies and market positioning." – Igor Levi
The solution: using Apify Actors for web scraping and automation
Igor tapped Apify’s web scraping tools and linked them to Make.com, a no-code automation platform. The setup powers a streamlined workflow:
- Scrape startup websites with Website Content Crawler to gather key business details.
- Collect social media data to study marketing strategies.
- Use SimilarWeb scrapers to learn about website traffic and audience trends.
- Store all scraped data in Airtable and Google Docs for further review using LLMs.
With this system, Igor selects a startup from his database, clicks a button, and the automation starts. The collected data is then processed with AI tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT to create organized insights.
"I don’t even need to log into the Apify UI most of the time. Everything runs automatically through Make.com, making the process seamless." – Igor Levi
The result: faster research and better insights
By automating his research, Igor can study hundreds of startups in much less time. His workflow helps him:
- Spot trends and winning business strategies.
- Gather competitive insights for any startup he wants.
- Create AI-assisted case studies and blog posts using structured data.
This process not only saves time but is also reliable and scalable, allowing him to explore new business ideas without getting slowed down by manual research.
Next steps
The Eightception team isn’t planning to stop there. Igor and his team are also working on expanding the possibilities of scaled research with Apify to launch micro-SaaS products for entrepreneurs, helping them improve their social media strategies and do deep competitor research.
Conclusion: Apify makes startup research easier with automation
For Igor, Apify is a practical ally in building Eightception, his platform for helping new founders succeed. By using Apify’s scraping tools to automate startup research, he gathers the data he needs without the hassle, supporting his work with solid insights. Paired with Make.com, it’s a straightforward setup that keeps Eightception moving forward. Igor’s story highlights how Apify can make research easier for founders juggling big ideas.
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