Testing app features before they go live is hard. A new startup, Blok, thinks it shouldn’t be.
Blok, a fresh AI startup just out of stealth, is building tools to help product teams simulate user behavior before ever shipping code. Using AI-powered personas, developers can now test how features might work — and what users might do — without launching anything into the wild.
The result? Faster learning, fewer surprises after launch, and more polished products.
Building for a Smarter Product Cycle
Traditionally, developers release beta versions or run A/B tests to learn what works. But that process takes time — and real users.
Blok flips that approach.
“Teams are moving fast, but they’re still making key product decisions based on instinct or late-stage tests,” says Marlon Nichols, Managing Partner at MaC Venture Capital, one of Blok’s investors. “Blok offers a smarter, predictive layer to product testing.”
How It Works — In Plain English
Here’s the basic idea:
A team uploads product data from tools like Amplitude, Segment, or Mixpanel.
Blok uses that data to build AI-powered personas that reflect real user types.
The team submits a Figma design and a hypothesis they want to test.
Those AI personas simulate using the feature, again and again.
Blok shares feedback: what worked, what didn’t, and how different users reacted.
There’s even a chatbot you can talk to about your results.
“Think of it as a way to test product ideas without waiting weeks — or bothering your actual users,” says co-founder Olivia Higgs.
Real Testing, Without the Risk
Blok was founded in 2024 by Tom Charman and Olivia Higgs, long-time startup collaborators. They’ve worked together in sectors like travel and learning, and this time they’re focusing on the tools developers use every day.
The idea for Blok came from a simple question: How can teams test smarter when the bar for user experience is higher than ever?
“People expect smooth, intuitive interfaces,” says Higgs. “With chat, voice, visuals — everything blended — we need better ways to test what we’re building.”
Backing and Early Traction
Blok has already raised $7.5 million across two rounds:
- A $5 million seed round led by MaC Venture Capital
- A pre-seed round led by Protagonist, with participation from Rackhouse, Blank Ventures, Ryan Hoover’s Weekend Fund, and others The investor list includes folks from Google, Meta, Discord, Pinterest, Snapchat, and more — signaling strong belief in Blok’s vision.
Right now, Blok is invite-only, working with early customers in healthcare and finance — two sectors where it’s critical to avoid user-facing mistakes.
Why It Matters (and Why It’s Different)
Other product analytics tools like Optimizely and Amplitude help teams analyze data after users interact with a feature.
Blok takes a different approach: test and predict before users ever touch it.
It’s especially helpful for:
- Startups without enough users for live feedback
- Enterprises that want to avoid cluttering their apps with half-baked features
- Teams who want data faster, and earlier in the dev cycle
- “The biggest companies are still relying on test-and-see. We want to help them know before they go live,” says co-founder Tom Charman.
What’s Next for Blok
- Pricing: Blok runs on a SaaS model, but the team is still tuning things to handle the cost of running large-scale simulations.
- Growth: The company aims to reach mid-single-digit millions in revenue this year. Access: They’re planning to expand access beyond the waitlist as infrastructure scales.
Final Thought: Faster Testing for the Real World
Blok isn’t trying to replace users — it’s trying to help product teams work smarter. By simulating user behavior with AI personas, it gives teams the kind of feedback that usually takes weeks to collect.
It’s early days, but the idea of predict-before-you-ship might become a standard in product development — especially as apps get more complex and expectations keep rising.
Top comments (0)