John Davie sought to enhance Buyers Edge Platform, his hospitality procurement company, with AI advancements. Unsatisfied with existing options, he turned to CollectivIQ, a Boston-based firm developed within Buyers Edge Platform. CollectivIQ provides users with improved AI query answers by aggregating responses from multiple large language models, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Grok, among others.
Initially enthusiastic about new AI tools, Davie’s excitement waned upon realizing that using various AI tools could potentially share sensitive company information. Exploring enterprise AI contracts, he found them costly and prone to inaccuracies. Unhappy with the inaccuracies and biases in AI-generated responses, Davie tasked his CTO with creating a superior solution.
CollectivIQ emerged as a platform that queries various major language models like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI simultaneously, combining results to generate more accurate responses. It ensures data privacy by encrypting and deleting data after use.
Davie, aiming to provide top AI solutions to his team, saw an opportunity when many Buyers Edge Platform clients expressed similar concerns about adopting AI. Consequently, CollectivIQ was publicly released. It operates on AI model enterprise APIs, with CollectivIQ covering token costs and clients paying based on usage. Davie hopes this structure will differentiate CollectivIQ in the competitive enterprise AI space.
Funded entirely by Davie, he plans to seek external funding later this year. Reflecting on the venture, Davie enjoys the startup experience, reminiscent of launching his original company nearly 28 years ago, and finds joy in working alongside software developers building the product.