The browser-native angle is the moat. Every competitor requires hardware, a lab, or a panel. This runs as a script tag. The question is which buyer to reach first.
UX agencies as the wedge. They already buy eye tracking — Tobii hardware at $5k+, lab rental at $200/hour. This is dramatically cheaper and removes the lab requirement entirely. It's a tool sale, not a concept sale. Win 20 agencies and you have 20 salespeople who don't work for you — their case studies sell to everyone else.
Target: UX research firms, CRO agencies, product design consultancies · Why: they already buy eye tracking and understand the value immediately
Cold outreach to 50 CRO agencies on LinkedIn. One-line pitch: "Eye tracking that runs in a browser, no hardware. Looking for agencies to beta test — free for 3 months."
Productise the deliverable. What does a CRO agency need to show a client? An attention heatmap and a recommendation. Build the export so they can screenshot it and put it in a slide deck. The product isn't the technology — it's the report.
White-label reseller model. $200/month flat for unlimited client sessions. Agency charges clients $500–2000 per "eye tracking study." Your $200 becomes their $2000.
Case study machine. Every agency project is a potential case study. "E-commerce client saw 23% higher add-to-cart after redesigning product image based on eye tracking data." Make it easy for agencies to share this.
Conferences: Conversion Conference, MozCon, CXL Live. Live demo of the browser SDK at a booth is your unfair advantage over any slide presentation.
Target: Shopify/WooCommerce merchants, e-commerce product managers · Why: store owners are the most data-hungry, tool-hungry buyers on the internet
Shopify App Store listing. "GazeIQ: Eye Tracking Analytics" — "See what your shoppers actually look at. Attention heatmaps. Emotion signals. No hardware required." One-click install, 14-day free trial.
The hook feature: "Which product image gets the most gaze time?" Side-by-side heatmap of two product images — one gets 3x more fixation time. That's the hero screenshot for the App Store listing.
Consent-first. Users must opt in. "This store uses eye tracking to improve your experience. Allow?" Non-negotiable. Build consent into the SDK from day one.
Pricing: Free (100 sessions/month) → Starter $29/month (1k) → Pro $99/month (10k) → Business $299/month (unlimited + emotion data).
Target: digital ad agencies, media buying teams, CPG brand measurement teams · Why: viewability is a fraudulent metric — this answers the real question
Attack the viewability lie. Create a white paper: "Viewability is not attention. Here's the data." Run your own study on display ad formats. Show a banner can be 100% viewable with 0 actual gaze fixations. This is well-established academically — you're building the commercial product.
Target ad measurement companies: DoubleVerify, IAS, Adelaide, Lumen Research. Approach as a data provider first ("we have browser-native attention measurement — interested in a data partnership?") and see which door opens.
Publisher-side play. Publishers can differentiate their ad inventory as "verified-attention" placements. A premium slot that guarantees X seconds of actual gaze time commands higher CPMs.
Pricing: Enterprise SaaS $2k–10k/month depending on scale. Per million verified-attention impressions at enterprise tier.
Target: HCI labs, cognitive psychology departments, neuromarketing researchers · Why: labs pay $5–15k for Tobii hardware — this is a fraction of the cost
Academic pricing: $500/year per lab. 100 labs = $50k ARR with zero ongoing sales effort. Scales quietly while you focus on commercial channels.
Email the PI directly. Labs doing attention, cognitive load, or UI research. "Browser-native eye tracking for human subjects research — free for academic use in exchange for an acknowledgement in publications."
The credibility flywheel. Academic papers citing your platform → engineers and product managers read those papers → they Google your platform → inbound commercial leads.
| Competitor | Requirement | Gap |
|---|---|---|
| Tobii (hardware) | $5–15k device, lab setup | Can't deploy to remote users |
| Pupil Labs | Wearable hardware | Lab-only, not scalable |
| EyeQuant | Simulated attention only | No actual user data |
| Lumen Research | Panel-based | Not your site's real users |
| RealEye | Closest competitor — browser webcam | No micro-expression emotion layer |
| This system | Script tag, any webcam | Gaze + FACS emotion + 3D parallax in one package |
RealEye is the closest competitor. Their differentiators: established panel and client list. Your differentiators: micro-expression emotion data and an open SDK. The emotion layer is the moat.