Online market research firm uSamp is on the path to diversify its operations just one month after launching a free online surveying tool. The Encino-based firm, which crowned the San Fernando Valley Business Journal’s List of the Valley’s fastest-growing private companies, has invested millions in SurveyBuilder, a new online survey site that it unveiled in October. uSamp officials say the new technology platform will be instrumental to the firm’s future growth, as the site is already helping it to expand beyond a traditional client base of large research agencies, such as J.D. Power and Associates and the Kiplinger organization. “The goal now is we can diversify and potentially have tens of thousands of customers using the software,” said Co-founder and CEO Matthew Dusig. The target customer base: small businesses, advertising and marketing agencies and universities and colleges. Specifically, uSamp wants to get SurveyBuilder into the hands of graduate students who need survey feedback to finish dissertations. In less than four years, uSamp has carved out for itself a position in the online survey industry through the use of proprietary technology that makes its online panels more efficient and easier for its clients to use. Revenues have skyrocketed, and the company has added offices in the U.S. and abroad and has expanded its workforce. In 2011, uSamp hired 96 new workers, 53 of which are at the headquarters in Encino. With SurveyBuilder, however, uSamp faces direct competition against companies such as SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang, which have been around longer and offer clients many of the same functions. One feature that made SurveyBuilder different from other online survey sites — at least for a few weeks — was that uSamp offered clients its database of five million registered users to respond to the surveys. By using SurveyBuilder, for example, companies instantaneously get real-time responses on consumer purchases and other consumer-oriented questions. Small business owner Dolly Thicke turned to SurveyBuilder as she prepared to produce a new line of dresses for special occasions. Thicke custom-makes short wedding dresses sold online and through her Dolly Couture shops in Tarzana and New York City. Headquarters: Encino CEO: Matthew Dusig 3-year growth rate: 1,050 percent 2010 Revenue: $23 million 2009 Revenue: $8.6 million 2008 Revenue: $2 million The survey results determined that her price points for the dresses were more than customers wanted to spend. While Thicke did make some of the dresses to sell at high-end boutiques, she decided against mass producing them. “It was an excellent value,” Thicke said of SurveyBuilder. “The customers they reached are our usual customers, and it helped narrow down our decision.” SurveyBuilder: A closer look uSamp’s SurveyBuilder technology gives free unlimited access to creating surveys. The company applies a charge only for using its panelists to answer the survey. Costs start at $5 per person surveyed and vary based on the desired sample size and the length of the survey. Prior to SurveyBuilder, the technology giving on-demand access to survey respondents was already available, so all that was needed was to create the survey product from the ground up, Dusig said. Dusig and business partner Gregg Lavin started uSamp in 2008. The long-time friends had previously collaborated on GoZing, which they sold for $30 million in 2005. After waiting out a three year non-compete clause, Lavin and Dusig embarked with uSamp, which they view as a technology company. The company is known for its easy-to-use technology. uSamp’s SampleMarket platform, for instance, is a web-based feature makes it more efficient to find survey respondents. To find a sample of respondents, clients log in directly to a site, eliminating the need for clients to exchange e-mails with uSamp and offering more transparency and control. But technology companies rarely keep their edge for very long. At the end of October, SurveyMonkey began registering its survey takers for its own audience panel. The move siphoned off some of SurveyBuilder’s novelty. But Dusig is not worried. He said he gave SurveyMonkey executives the idea to build an audience panel when the executives from both companies met about two years ago at the SurveyMonkey headquarters, which at the time was located in the Silicon Valley. Besides, uSamp is so far ahead with its panels that the steps taken by SurveyMonkey are not a concern to the company, Dusig said. “Sampling is much harder than creating a software application that creates questions and answers,” he said. The early acceptance of SurveyBuilder, however, hasn’t kept Dusig and Lavin from thinking of ways to make improvements. “We are looking at the possibility of creating a two-way conversation with the respondents to have a back and forth dialogue,” Dusig said.