Pearl's Andy Kurtzig interview with Bambi Francisco

Why Pearl's experts give it credibility and make this service stand out

If you're an Apple fan, you know how much of a convenience it is to be able to just pick up the phone and get Apple Support. Imagine if you could pay a relatively minimal fee to ask questions about a number of topics, from legal, medical, mechanical, financial and so on. Wouldn't it be great if there were a service with tens of thousands of experts available to answer tough questions personalized for your situation?

There is such a service. It's called Pearl. The 8-1/2 year old site is basically a professional services company that gets you to experts who can answer questions. Sure you could say it's a Q&A site. But because Pearl's service qualifies everyone who answers questions and ensures that they are professionals, it has a lot more credibility than many other Q&A sites.

Recently, I caught up with Andy Kurtzig, founder and CEO of Pearl. 

"We don't think of us as a Q&A site. We’re in the professional services space," said Kurtzig, after I called his company a Q&A site... It’s about talking to a lawyer, a doctor, a veterinarian.. but it’s just as much Q&A as going to the doctor’s office."

Watch the interview to hear more about how Kurtzig brings expert answers to people. Pearl answers about 10,000 questions a day and has the same number of experts. 

Pearl is on a revenue-run-rate of $100 million and closed a $25 million round in the last year. In our next interview, we dig deeper into Pearl and learn more what will drive growth in Pearl this year. 

(Note: Kurtzig will be one of our keynotes in our upcoming Splash SF event on September 27. Hear Kurtzig share his lessons building his company from the ground up, bootstrapping until last year, when he raised $25 million.)

(Full disclosure: Kurtzig is an investor in Vator.)