Patrick Stokes, whose company Rep Data acquired fellow local start-up Research Defender on Thursday, said the combination of the two is an indication of the growing New Orleans tech sub-sector of survey analysis firms that was spawned by the $1 billion sale of Lucid two years ago.
Stokes founded Rep Data in 2020 after he and others left Lucid amid the sharp business downturn that came when the COVID pandemic hit. Over the last three years, Stokes said he hired many of those laid off employees and has built the company up to employ more than 40, using Lucid and other similar software to compile market research survey data for more than 350 corporate clients.