Shownotes
What happens when a founder treats her own business idea like a research question? In this episode of the CEO Series, Karen Lynch speaks with Angelique Taylor, founder and CEO of AddMaple, about building a research technology company by testing assumptions, gathering evidence, and letting the product prove itself. That approach has paid off: AddMaple won both the 2026 Expert’s Choice and Audience Favorite Awards at IIEX North America. Angelique shares how her background in product ownership shaped AddMaple, why asking better questions can be as valuable as finding answers, and how she bootstrapped the platform before attracting major enterprise clients. They also discuss managing risk through small experiments, representation for female founders, and why empathy remains central to Angelique’s approach to product development and leadership.
Key Discussion Points:
- Building AddMaple from a simple “what if?” — How Angelique’s frustration with slow, manual data analysis led to the idea of making complex research data immediately explorable.
- Replacing assumptions with questions — Why organizations can make better decisions when employees are empowered to interrogate data rather than simply accept static findings.
- Using experimentation to reduce founder risk — Angelique explains how small, manageable tests helped her validate demand before investing heavily in growth.
- Bootstrapping and finding product-market validation — From early free users to unsolicited enterprise interest and AddMaple’s 2026 Insight Innovation Competition win.
- Leading with empathy — Why Angelique approaches customers as people with goals and frustrations rather than prospects, and how that philosophy shapes AddMaple’s product development.
Resources & Links
You can reach out to Angelique Taylor on LinkedIn.
Many thanks to Angelique Taylor for being our guest. Thanks also to our production team and our editor at Big Bad Audio.
