iResTech is much more than Dtect, but that’s where it started.
The concept for Dtect originated with Quest Mindshare and co-founder Greg Matheson. “Quest Detect” was born and revolutionized the way Quest delivered on research. Over time and of no surprise, clients and contacts in the industry pressed for access to “Quest Detect” for their own online research needs. Simply put, no one had access to a reasonably priced, simple to use supply management and fraud prevention application.
At last, it was time to start building the product.
Greg, along with David Herrman and the rest of the Quest team spent the next three years plotting out a game changing field management and security tool for the research industry, with the initial focus on helping the small to medium research firm.
The vision for a product that would enable the small and medium enterprise to level up their tech with the big firms and provide feature sets that would promise to revolutionize the industry as a whole.
In order to come up with something new, it was quickly realized that technical expertise from outside the industry was needed, so that’s exactly what happened.
Under the umbrella of Quest Mindshare, Greg and David recruited Ben Coats – an engineer-turned-technical-leader with a depth of experience delivering commercially successful SaaS products and building and scaling tech startups. This background combined with Quest’s track record for developing thriving market research brands, and building and scaling multi-national research firms, was a great fit.
Together, Greg, Ben and Dave assembled a winning team of tech and product talent, laid the groundwork for the platform which would become Dtect, and spent countless hours excitedly planning how they could actually deliver on this massive promise.
Our path to success runs directly through an
organization of diverse, independent,
and free-spirited creative thinkers who are
united in their curiosity and competitiveness.
Dave has seen a lot of success and more importantly made a ton of mistakes in his last 15 years in the MR Industry. The hope is that he can remember how to avoid the majority of the self inflicted wounds he’s previously experienced to be of value as Innovative Research Technology’s Senior Strategic Advisor. He believes that general curiosity as to how and why we do things in our daily job roles leads to creative solutions. Couple that with strong relationships that are bolstered by even stronger communication, and any team can overcome the obstacles in their way. Dave enjoys challenging and obscure hikes with rewarding views as well growing as vegetables that he can cook with or store for later consumption. Pickle all veggies and smoke all meats! He’s thankful to have a wife who puts up with his nonsense…
As Quest’s managing partner and over 25 years in the industry, Greg co-founded Quest to deliver a viable, trustworthy data collection and insights experience for brands and businesses alike. A passionate voice behind the need for the industry’s technological evolution, Greg’s vision and relentless drive to build Quest into one of the premier providers of quantitative sampling, online research and technology has born Innovative Research Technologies. As IRT’s CEO, it is Greg’s mission to put rocket fuel into iResTech and disrupt the research industry one great application at a time.
The trail which led Ben to Innovative Research Technologies began when at 14 he was asked to take over IT for a family medical practice. At 16 he was commissioned to develop an electronic medical records platform for a group of forensic pathologists, in the era or “going paperless”, yet no one had considered that dead people need medical records too. He consulted for them for over 6 years, and built out a staggering portfolio of products which were years ahead of their time. It was there that he developed and honed his skills around managing the entire lifecycle of product definition, development, and delivery which serve him to this day.
His first exposure to the market research industry came when he joined Quest Mindshare at the end of 2020 in order to build out an engineering department within the company. While assembling an all-star team, he was a strong advocate of turning that department into its own company which could serve other customers across the industry – a vision he shared with Greg Matheson, managing partner of Quest and now CEO of iResTech.
Ben has always been the odd duck. He makes his own fireworks with his children, and he loves Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë. He builds trebuchets, and cries at every Pixar movie ever made. He works way too much, but tries to set aside time to build a fully-functioning vehicle every Halloween which fits the costume theme of the year, for his kids to ride in while trick-or-treating. In short, he’s a walking paradox, is cool with that, thinks the diverse interests and perspectives empower him to be decent in his job, and is loving this new iResTech adventure! (He also wants to say that he wouldn’t be here without his wife Stacey, who helps her Asperger husband negotiate the minefield of human interactions…or at least, tries her best!)
Luke joined the Innovative Research Technologies team as Director of Product Management in May 2022, bringing with him more than a decade of experience as a Product Management leader in industries including insurance and financial services, identity management and protection, and healthcare. He thrives on understanding customer and business needs and transforming those needs into products and services that thrill users and solve problems. Outside of work, Luke is an avid golfer, world traveler, Chicago Cubs and Fighting Illini fan, loves seeing as many Broadway shows as possible, is a proud uncle of 10, dad to a 13 year old dachshund/yorkie mix named Gridley, and proud partner to Greg.
Tom has been into engineering since his parents can remember. Taking apart a rotary phone and putting it back together as a child to only do the same with a computer at 13. He instantly fell in love with the endless challenges and problem solving. He started programming on a fancy calculator before they finally let him into the programming classes. He launched websites and Bulletin Board Systems throughout high school and built his first business and ecommerce website for a project in college. He knew business and technology was his future (and that he dated himself by telling us all this). Through lots of hard work, great mentorships, and a hunger for learning he quickly gained notoriety for his open source work and used it as a platform to build a career on. He has helped companies around the world elevate their applications and technology to the enterprise level. He has held and succeeded in a variety of roles ranging from Software Engineer to CTO. When he joined he was only interested in engineering and his passion to code. However, he has become a great leader to a team of excellent engineers and thrives as their mentor. In his words, “he feels like a proud dad at home and at work.
