GTM for Early Stage SaaS | Co-founder @ Datapad | SaaS Growth Advisor | Reforge | 1x Exit |

I’m a marketer, 2x entrepreneur with 1x exit, and helped companies to go from 0 to 8 figures.

My achievements:

- Built 2 VC backed startups with one exit

- Built a 7 figure productized marketing agency

- Became a mentor in top accelerators such as: 500, Plug and Play, Techstars

- Got to work with the portfolio companies of amazing investors such as A16z, Craft Ventures, YC

- Built a podcast with 20k downloads in a year-figure

- Transformed my body more times than Christian Bale ☺️

John Ozuysal

Apparently, according to someone’s lead list, I’m a high-performing woman.

Here is why:

“We help high-performing women like you.” - This is the email I got

I wonder where they got the list? Or maybe personalization is having a rough day.

Oh well, at least I am "high performing" so thank you for that 🤣

🚨Hiring: House of Growth - AI Led Growth Agency is growing, and we are looking for 2 new roles 🚨

1️⃣ GTM Engineer

We’re looking for a GTM Engineer who will work on:

Internal campaigns for House of Growth on email and LinkedIn to expand our reach. This will be a mix of:

- Signal based plays
- Cold outbound

Important:

 👉 Please reach out only if:

You’re really good with Clay
You’ve run outbound campaigns before
Bonus points if you’ve worked with agencies or done outbound for agencies
This is a hands-on role for someone who enjoys building systems, testing channels, and scaling what works.

2️⃣ Content Marketer (Internal Role)

We’re also hiring a Content Marketer to work on (internal brand, not client work).

You’ll focus on:

Research-driven content
LinkedIn content
Thought leadership pieces

This is not a client-facing role, and you will be doing content only for House of Growth

📩 Interested?

Send me a DM and tell me:
Which role you’re applying for
Why you’re a good fit

Both roles could be PT and FT

Looking forward to meeting sharp builders and thinkers.

Here’s how we helped a B2B SaaS client increase their AI citations by 21% and improve positions by 37% in just one month.

One thing I really like about AI search compared to traditional SEO is speed.

If you play your cards right, results come much faster.

The problem:

This client wasn’t struggling with visibility. Their brand was already well known.
The real issue was how AI systems were describing them.

When we analyzed AI-generated answers about their company, we noticed:

- The positioning didn’t match how they wanted to speak to prospects
- Product details were inaccurate or incomplete
- Most information was pulled from outdated sources (old blog posts, Reddit threads, and G2 reviews)

In short: AI didn’t understand their current product.

What we did:

Step 1: Identify the prompts that matter

We mapped the exact prompts they wanted to “win” in AI search, including:

Product overviews
Integrations
Competitor comparisons
Pricing-related queries

Then we created focused, high-quality content specifically for those prompts.

Step 2: Fix brand confusion with an AI info page

We discovered that AI was confused about their brand, products, and features.
So we created a dedicated AI-friendly information page that clearly explained:
What the company does
Core products and features
Use cases and positioning
This gave AI systems a reliable, up-to-date source to crawl and reference.

Step 3: Clean up outdated third-party information

We found multiple external articles and reviews sharing outdated or incorrect info.

Actions we took:

Reached out to publishers and requested corrections
Identified outdated G2 reviews
Launched G2 review campaigns to reflect the current state of the product

The result (in 30 days)
📈 +35% increase in citation rate
🚀 +21% improvement in AI search positions

Key takeaway:

AI search isn’t just about visibility.
It’s about controlling the narrative.
If AI doesn’t have accurate, up-to-date information about your product, it will fill the gaps with whatever it can find—even if it’s wrong.

And that’s where the opportunity is.

Thank you, Scrunch, for making it easy for us to track this

AEO/GEO is not the same as SEO 

Microsoft confirmed this with the latest playbook they released 👇

Without going into too much technicality below are some of the remarks that got my attention:

"In shorthand, the industry is talking about shifting from SEO to AEO and GEO. At Microsoft, we believe SEO and catalog investments built a foundation to expand upon in LLM-based search"

"The base remains the same: up-to-date product feeds and clear, crawlable, structured content. But retailers and brands must now treat their entire catalog and site architecture as content, ensuring every product detail, benefit, and price signal is machine-readable, up to date, and context-rich"

"Traditional SEO remains essential because AI systems perform real-time web searches frequently throughout the shopping journey, not just at purchase time, and your site must rank well to be discovered, evaluated, and recommended."

"If SEO focused on driving clicks, AEO is focused on driving clarity with enriched, real-time data. GEO helps establish credibility through an authoritative voice. "

"CMOs need to ensure AI correctly understands and elevates,brand differentiators. Growth and performance leaders must adapt to AI-led. Digital and e-commerce leaders should plan new metrics for AI-intermediated journeys. CTOs must make the stack AI-readable and AI-accessible. Data and analytics leaders need strategies for the ‘invisible’ early-funnel research happening inside AI conversations." - CONTENT TEAM SHOULD NOT BE IN SILOS ANYMORE

Microsoft AEO Playbook

If I were a CMO of a B2B SaaS company…”

👇
But you’re not.

And honestly, that’s where most advice falls apart.

Stop telling people how to do things you’ve never actually done.

If you really want to be something, go be it first.

This is no different from people selling courses on how to make $1M
when they’ve never made it themselves.

Experience beats theory.

Execution beats opinion.

Results beat credentials.

If you haven’t walked the path, don’t sell the map.

I recently attended a founder dinner in Dubai, and a few patterns stood out. 

Sharing my observations around GTM:

1️⃣ Investment often feels easier when it is visible.

Merch, events, and branding are tangible and familiar, which makes them easier to justify. Companies are willing to invest in merch and traditional offline events, but not so much in channels such as content, community, ABM, etc.


2️⃣ Demand generation often comes before demand capture.

Many teams are excited to explore PR or paid social early on.

What is sometimes missed is fully capturing existing demand first through intent driven or signal based channels before expanding into broader awareness efforts.

 Both approaches matter. Sequencing changes efficiency.

3️⃣ Acquisition is heavily relied on paid

Many teams start with paid acquisition and end up relying on it almost exclusively.

 As ad costs rise, this naturally creates pressure and stress. Without diversification, there is also uncertainty around what happens if the channel changes or performance drops.


 4️⃣ Product market fit is discussed often. Message market fit less so.

 A lot of energy goes into building the product, followed by scaling acquisition.

What is easy to skip is validating whether the messaging resonates with the intended ICP, especially with cold audiences.

When that validation is missing, channels can look ineffective when the opportunity is really in the narrative.


There is an incredible amount of talent here, and the quality of builders and operators in this ecosystem is genuinely impressive. I am really enjoying the conversations and the openness to share and learn.

If you are around Dubai and open to a coffee and a thoughtful growth conversation, I would love to connect.

The intent data told us they raised a Series A.

What it didn't tell us: where they're actually bleeding cash.

"Recently raised Series A" - yeah, so did 47 other vendors in their inbox.

"Just hired a CMO" - congratulations, you and every other growth agency just sent the same pitch.

We were competing on speed, not relevance.

So we built something different.

Our internal tool doesn't just pull signals. It stacks them.

Series A in last 6 months? Cool. Everyone knows that.

But Series A + running Google Ads + zero organic traffic for their keywords + no competitor comparison pages?

Now we're talking.

That's a company burning cash on paid because their content strategy doesn't exist. That's someone who needs what we actually do.

The tool creates an AI agent that hunts for these signal combinations. The ones we define. The ones that actually matter to our specific service.

Our list went from 2,000 "warm leads" to 47 companies.

But those 47 companies? They actually respond.

Because when you reach out, you're not pitching.

You're diagnosing a problem they didn't realize they had.

We've tried everything. Content. Cold email. Mass outreach. Paid ads.

This signal-based ABM is crushing all of it on ROI. (No random ABM)

Not because the list is bigger.

Because the list is real.

🚨 Hiring 2 FT or PT GTME to work with me 1-1

👇

I do hate writing job descriptions, but here's the TL;DR 😀 

You'll work directly with me to build the internal growth engine for House of Growth. We will do some cool stuff together if you are committed

Below is your typical formal JD (boring)

Expectations:

Build and run full outbound and warmbound GTM motions for House of Growth

List building to enrichment to copy that converts to launch to optimization to results

Work one-to-one with John as a GTM operator

Your output is meetings, pipeline, and insights to scale

Monitor deliverability, domain health, warmup and performance

Provide weekly performance reports and tactical recommendations

Route all warm and hot prospects directly to John

What You Need:

Expert level Clay skills

Workflows, enrichments, AI formulas, API integrations, waterfall enrichment, scoring logic and cost efficient data pulls through tools like SimilarWeb, Ahrefs and Adyntel

Strong list-building ability

You understand how to segment by ICP, triggers, signals and verticals

Strong cold email copywriting skills

Data-driven mindset

You understand reply rate, positive reply rate, meeting rate, and how to move each metric

Real GTM experience

This role is not for someone learning Clay or outbound for the first time

Autonomous operator

You can build, launch, and optimize without hand-holding

Application link under comments 👇

Send me your best stuff and we will see

Here is how we increased AI search visibility around buying intent prompts from %26 to %48 in 3 months only👇

1️⃣ Identified the most cited pages and updated them

Before we did updates at scale, we prioritized the most cited pages because we don't want AI to be fed with outdated information

2️⃣ We refreshed all of the decaying content

LLMs strongly favor fresh and accurate content.

We started simple:
• Updated publish dates
• Updated titles and dates inside titles
• Removed outdated stats, features, and claims
• Republished quickly
Then we went deeper:
• Took the main keyword
• Turned it into a prompt
• Searched it in ChatGPT
• Extracted follow-up questions people were asking
• Added those as new H2s and H3s
• Added internal data or external data (stats, quotes etc..)

 3️⃣ Reddit mentions

We identified Reddit threads already influencing AI answers for our target prompts.

What we did:
• Commented with genuinely helpful answers
• Pushed comments to the top
More third-party visibility → more AI citations → faster lift.

4️⃣ We fixed inaccurate AI narratives about the brand

AI was already citing the company, but with wrong information.

So we:

• Identified which URLs influenced AI answers
• Found outdated pricing and features
• Reached out to those publishers
• Corrected the source data

AI search is not just about visibility.

It’s about controlling your narrative.

 5️⃣We rebuilt comparison content for AI consumption

The listicles looked fine visually, but were semantically weak.

Fixes:
• Converted image-based tables into HTML
• Expanded rows to match real buyer comparison questions
• Added future-proof attributes
• Benchmarked tables against what AI already outputs

6️⃣ We improved the structure for humans and models

Across BOFU pages:
• Added TLDR sections right after the intro
• Added Q&A-style supporting articles
• Cleaned internal linking
This improved readability, extraction, and reuse in AI answers.

7️⃣ We optimized entities at scale

For every article:
• Intro
• Outro
• Every important H2
We identified missing and weak entities and reinforced them naturally.
This helps AI understand context, not just keywords. 

8️⃣ Brand mention campaigns 

We used Scrunch to pull all the relevant mentions for us. Our internal tool identified whether those pages are landing pages, reddit thread or listicles etc... 

Then our agent scraped the contact information of authors we want to reach out. After this step, we started a campaign to get mentioned on the listicles. Since we also run the GTME department inside House of Growth - AI Led Growth Agency it wasn't hard to scale outreach campaigns

We also repurposed some of the articles we did as LinkedIn articles - this is a new experiment we are doing after seeing LinkedIn articles starting to be picked up by LLMs. I will report on this when we have more data

If a company hasn’t invested in AEO, where should they start?

👇

Start by diagnosing the problem.

Before creating any content, figure out whether the issue is visibility, representation (citation control), or both.

Later-stage companies usually already have visibility. The risk is how they’re being represented.

 AI search often pulls from competitor blogs, old Reddit threads, reviews, and third-party posts that don’t reflect the company’s current narrative.

The first step is to identify the URLs influencing AI answers and audit them for accuracy.

In parallel, build earned content quickly so AI systems learn from the company’s own materials, not someone else’s.

Earlier-stage companies typically have a visibility problem and a representation problem.

Start by mapping the prompts you want to win, then identify which URLs currently influence those prompts (often listicles and Reddit threads).

From there, focus on earned visibility by participating in those conversations and getting included where influence already exists.

Once there’s more budget, expand into creating content designed to compete for broader, category-level prompts.

"SEO isn't expensive. Being invisible when your ICP is choosing vendors is

👇

Many start-up founders are hesitant to invest in SEO/AEO as a growth channel.

This is because of the stigma that it takes too much time to see results, and that there is a high upfront cost before results properly compound.

Even though this might be true for competitive niches, not being a part of the conversation when your ICP is making decisions and creating shortlists is going to cost you in the long-term.

SEO as a growth channel has turned from 10 blue links to demand capture and narrative control as a whole.

The demand capture aspect is that you can compete for the #1 recommendation spot in AI search engines while also competing in organic Google.

The narrative control aspect is that, in the long run, you're going to be the go-to option when someone is searching for an alternative to your competitors or a solution like yours.

Being invisible is not expensive, but it can cost you in the long run when your competitors have an established presence while you're still in the situation of putting money into getting money out with paid ads, conferences, etc.

Below is an excellent case study of one of the companies we work with, Warmly, which invested in SEO and AEO early and is now seeing it as one of its most efficient channels from an ROI perspective.

The ROI comes from them appearing for their main category keywords when people search for them, and also from the fact that Warmly is also in the recommendation options for most of their direct competitors.

Sharing the image below from maximus greenwald post

If you’re a B2B SaaS company, there’s one thing you can do that will improve your visibility in AI search and increase conversions from paid ads

That move is building category landing pages mapped to specific ICPs and use cases.

Most SaaS companies stop at a single category page.

Project management software. CRM. Analytics platform.

That’s no longer enough.

Instead, break the category down by context.

For example, instead of one generic project management software page, create pages like:

 Project management software for real estate
 Project management software for finance
 Project management software for education

Now you are not just targeting a category keyword.

You are mapping that category to a clear buyer and use case.

You can take this one step further.

Beyond industry pages, create pages based on how the product is actually used:

 Project management software for offline teams
 Project management software for managing client projects
 Project management software for cross-functional collaboration

This helps in two ways.

First, for AI search and AEO.

These pages send clear signals about where your product fits. Long-tail, intent-driven pages are much easier for LLMs to surface than a generic homepage.

Second, for paid ads and conversion.

If you are bidding on these keywords but sending traffic to a generalized page, you are leaking revenue.

When someone clicks an ad and lands on a page that exactly matches their intent, friction drops and conversion improves.

Right now, we are testing this ourselves at House of Growth - AEO Agency

 We are building dedicated landing pages for each ICP and use case.
 We are also testing the same strategy using list-style content.

The goal is to see which format drives better AI search visibility and stronger conversion.

One thing is already clear.

If you are paying for traffic and not mapping it to specific ICP pages, you are not just missing the AEO upside.

You are leaving money on the table.

Everyone is obsessing over being visible in AI search.

But that’s only half the battle.

The real question is:

 👉 Is AI representing your product the way you would in a sales call?
Here’s the uncomfortable truth.

 AI doesn’t invent opinions out of thin air.

 It summarizes what already exists on the internet.

So if the internet has outdated, incomplete, or flat-out wrong information about you,

AI will confidently repeat it.

What I’d do instead 👇

1️⃣ Take 20 to 30 high-intent prompts you care about
 (for example “best X software,” “X alternatives,” “tools for Y teams”).
2️⃣ Run those prompts through an AI search analysis tool.
3️⃣ Look at which domains influence the answers.

Most of the time, it’s:

“Alternatives to” blog posts

Category listicles

Third-party reviews written one to three years ago

4️⃣ Ask one simple question:

 Are we mentioned there, and is the information accurate?

What you’ll usually find:

Old positioning
Wrong ICP
Outdated pricing
Missing features you launched years ago

“Competitor alternative” posts that no longer reflect reality

This is where the real work starts.

You have to:

Reach out to those publishers
Point out factual inaccuracies
Provide updated, verifiable information

Make sure AI isn’t selling the wrong version of your product on your behalf.

Because if AI is your new first sales touchpoint, you want it telling your story, not a 2022 version of it.

Why you don’t show up in AI search?

Here’s the simplest answer:

You have no content.

And nobody knows, mentions, or talks about your brand.

That’s it.

AI systems don’t “discover” brands magically.

They reflect what already exists on the internet.

Once you accept this, everything else makes sense.

Only then do details start to matter:

Entity optimization
Query fan-outs
Topical authority etc..

Is AI search describing the product you sell today, or the one you sold two years ago?

Most Series A SaaS teams think:

“Great, AI already knows about us.” - but this is just the beginning of the battle 

You can show up in AI answers all day long, but if that information is coming from competitors, outdated blog posts, or inaccurate third-party sources, you’re still losing.

So how do you fix it?

1️⃣ Own the narrative

Start by writing about:
Your product (clearly and repeatedly)
Your positioning vs. competitors
The exact questions buyers ask AI today

Host this content on your blog so AI has fresh, authoritative sources to pull from.

2️⃣ Fix the ecosystem

Next, audit where AI is getting information about your product:

Old reviews
Comparison articles
Blog posts from 2022–2023
Third-party publishers with outdated takes

Then reach out and say:

“This information about our product is no longer accurate. Here’s what we do today.”

This is exactly what we’re doing right now for a Series B SaaS company:

They already have AI visibility

But AI is describing a 2023 version of their product

So we’re publishing updated owned content and correcting misinformation across third-party sources

Winning is not just about visibility, it's also about controlling the narrative

Sometimes I take sales calls even when I know the person is not qualified.

Before you think that’s dumb, let me explain.

I don’t do this all the time.

I only do it when I have spare time and when I genuinely believe I can add value.

Why?

Because I’ve been in their shoes.

Ten years ago, I didn’t know anything about SaaS marketing or marketing in general. I just wanted to talk to people, learn, and get guidance. But the response was often:

“You can’t talk to me unless you can afford it.”

And I couldn’t.

I remember how bad that felt.

Even worse, I remember being sold services I didn’t need by people who just wanted to close a deal. I spent money I couldn’t afford, followed advice that wasn’t right for my stage, and it set me back.

That experience stayed with me.

So today, when someone books a call and I know my service isn’t right for them, I sometimes still take the call.

Not to sell.

But to tell them not to buy.

This happens more often than you’d think.

People want to work with me because they like my content or profile, and I tell them:

“You don’t need us.
 You don’t need any agency at this stage.
 You need to do something different.”

Could I take their money? Yes.
 Do I need to? No.

I’m fortunate. My businesses are doing well. I have healthy cash flow. I don’t need a few thousand dollars from someone if I know it won’t help them.
Instead, I spend 20 to 30 minutes guiding them in the right direction.

I don’t make money from that call.

But I gain trust.

And very often, that call becomes the start of a real relationship.

Years later, I’ve had people come back and say:

“You helped me when you didn’t have to.
 We just raised 50M and now I want to work with you.”

Not everything is transactional.

It’s easier to say this when you’re in a comfortable position, but still:

Don’t be a predator.

Don’t sell to people who don’t understand marketing just to make quick money.

They’ll churn.

And they’ll remember you for the wrong reasons.

Play the long game.

ChatGPT ads are coming. Paid search just entered the chat.

Ads are reportedly coming to ChatGPT’s free tier and $ 8-per-month tier, appearing as sponsored placements at the bottom of search results.

Testing is expected to start in the US as early as next week.

What’s most interesting to me isn’t the ads themselves, but the shift in perception:

How will users interpret AI responses when ads are present?

Where does trust begin and end when answers and ads live in the same interface?

Does this blur the line between assistance and influence?

At House of Growth - AI Led Growth Agency, we’re already thinking about how brands can leverage GEM to capture full demand inside ChatGPT before this becomes as competitive and expensive as Google Search.

Really curious to see how this reshapes organic search as we know it.

👉 Link to the announcement in the comments.

You don’t find message–market fit from 30 days of LinkedIn posts

Some people are claiming you can find message–market fit by posting on 

LinkedIn for 30 days and running a few events.

I strongly disagree.

Here’s why 👇

First, you don’t control distribution on LinkedIn.

You don’t choose who sees your message. That alone makes it a weak environment for validating whether a specific market resonates with a specific message.

Second, likes are not validation.

Getting 20–25 likes on a post doesn’t mean people resonate with the problem you’re solving—let alone the product you’re selling. Engagement ≠ intent.

Message–market fit requires scale and signal, not vanity metrics.

This is why I prefer email for message testing:

I control who receives the message

I can test fast
I can test at scale
I typically send a message to 1,000 targeted contacts.

 If there’s a strong response there, then we might be onto message–market fit.
There’s also a bias problem people don’t talk about.

When you validate ideas on LinkedIn—especially with a warm audience—people want to be polite.

 They know you. They don’t want to shut you down. So they say, “Yeah, this is interesting,” even when they wouldn’t buy.

A cold reply from someone who doesn’t know you?
That signal matters far more.

So yes—post on LinkedIn. Build authority. Start conversations.
 
Just don’t confuse content engagement with message–market fit.
They are not the same thing.

If you are a B2B SaaS company and you are still using clicks as your primary search KPI, you are measuring the wrong thing.

That approach is old school, and search has moved on.

Search today, especially in the AI era, is less about clicks and more about visibility and influence.

Here is how we think about it in the House of Growth - AEO Agency

1️⃣ Visibility on high intent prompts

We start by identifying the bottom of the funnel, high-intent prompts. These are the prompts that actually matter for revenue.

For each prompt, we track a simple but powerful signal.

Is our brand mentioned, yes or no?

If you are not visible when buyers are actively evaluating solutions, clicks do not matter anyway.

2️⃣ Position in the response

Not all visibility is created equal.
The next question is whether we are mentioned at the top, in the middle, or at the bottom of the answer.
Being listed first dramatically increases exposure. This is very similar to ranking first in a top tools listicle, where the brands at the top receive the most attention.

3️⃣ Citations and narrative control

This is the most overlooked metric.

We track whether AI is citing our content when mentioning us, or whether the narrative is coming from third party sources like G2 reviews, old Reddit threads, or competitor blogs.

Citations matter because they determine who feeds AI the source of truth about your brand.

You do not want a situation where you have visibility, but the story about your product is written by everyone except you.

The takeaway

Modern search KPIs for B2B SaaS are no longer about traffic volume.
They are about being present in the right prompts, being visible at the top of answers, and being the primary source that AI trusts for information about your brand.

Clicks are a lagging indicator.

Visibility is how demand is captured today.

Stop letting your competitors control the narratives inside ChatGPT

👇

ChatGPT isn’t "hallucinating" about your SaaS. It’s improvising because your website is a ghost town. You are not training AI with your own story.

Here’s the harsh reality:

LLMs are prediction engines. When you leave gaps in your digital footprint, the models fill them with whatever they can find: competitor comparison pages, angry Reddit threads, or 3-year-old press releases.

If you want to control the narrative in the age of AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), you need to spoon-feed the models.

You need to move beyond marketing fluff and build a "Source of Truth" architecture.

Here are the 3 types of pages I would build today:

- About us: Make sure that it's very clear on what your company is doing, who is your ideal ICP etc. Avoid using fancy language to impress your investors.

- Comparison pages: Control the narrative by owning the comparison-related queries. If you don't do this, someone else will do it, and AI will spit out the wrong information about your company.

- Integrations page: People don't just search "best project management software anymore; they search " best project management software with integrations to x". It's time to surface your integration docs and make them visible to search

If you don't provide the language, the model will generate its own. And I guarantee you won't like the version it writes.

Hey there 👋

I'm George, and here's the (super) short version of my story:

- Built a 7-figure content marketing agency for SaaS companies
- Worked with 50+ leading SaaS companies such as ServiceTitan, Toggl, Docebo, Sitecore, Guru, and NordVPN
- Helped portfolio companies of renowned investors such as Sequoia, Accel, and Bessemer Ventures
- Built and managed a team of 20-25 people
- Built a newsletter on B2B growth with 5,000+ readers
- Spoke at leading physical events in 9 different countries
- Featured in 50+ media outlets such as ProductLed, Growth Unhinged, Reforge, and Superpath
- Angel invested in 1 SaaS startup

What will you get by following me?

- Behind the scenes of running my companies
- Actionable tips on how to grow a successful B2B company
- No-fluff advice that's based on experiments and things I try out myself

How to work with me?

1) AEO Agency: Visit minuttia.com/lets-talk and submit a form request
2) Newsletter: Visit growthwaves.com and sign up for free
3) Speaking and Angel Investment Requests: Visit georgechasiotis.com and submit a form request

George Chasiotis

Good morning to everyone except the people who use AI to write comments.

Founder at Minuttia // B2B SaaS Growth // Views are my own

In my career, I’ve met two types of in-house marketing leaders:

1 — Marketing Leader

They care about their team. They want them to succeed, and they’ll stand up for them when performance slips or leadership pushes back. They have strong opinions—because they know what they’re doing. And often, that puts them in the position of having to fight for the right things with senior leadership. They’re hands-on and closely monitor trends, but they don’t make rushed decisions. They treat service providers like part of the team, and show their appreciation. They have a measured appetite for risk, and want to discover new things and innovate. 

In short, they’re not afraid to get fired. They know their worth, and they know they are competitive in the marketplace.

2 — “marketing leader”

They exist to please senior management and the board, if there is one. They couldn’t care less about their team, and they treat anyone doing well as a threat. They’ll never stand up for anyone but themselves. Their opinions blow with the wind—whatever their favorite influencer said that week. They’re not hands-on. They hide behind vague responsibilities, and don’t get any real work done. They treat service providers like shit, and rarely show appreciation. They avoid risk. Safe and easy is their default setting.

In short: these are “marketing leaders” afraid to get fired. They know they got the job through politics—not merit. And deep down, they know they won’t land the next one as easily.

If you’re the first kind, you’re my kind of marketing leader.

There are a few people who get an instant like from me. I’ll like their post first, then read it. Sometimes, I won’t even read it. These are people I support, and they support me the same way. There’s no secret deal between us. Just a real offline relationship, built on mutual respect and support for each other’s work.

I recently heard a VC say, “AEO is where the opportunity is,” and that “SEO tools are no longer interesting” from an investment standpoint.

I agree with the latter. SEO is a mature category. Tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush lead the space, with a long tail of competitors fighting for share. Depending on whom you ask, it’s still a growth category, but it’s clearly volatile and highly fragmented. So yes, SEO isn’t a category investors should be excited about.

What I don’t agree with is the idea that “AEO is where the opportunity is.” At Minuttia - AEO Agency, we recently ran a study on this emerging software category. When we looked at the origins of tools offering AI search tracking, here’s what we found:

- AEO-native: 176 tools (73.3%)
- SEO: 42 tools (17.5%)
- Adjacent (everything else): 22 tools (9.2%)

That’s 176 tools entering the arms race in less than two years (and more are coming).

In terms of the funding status, our team discovered:

- Bootstrapped: 40 tools (22.7%)
- Has Raised: 39 tools (22.2%)
- Unknown / Not classified: 97 tools (55.1%)

The 39 funded tools have raised a combined $257.9M, an average of ~$8.3M and a median of $2.5M.

A quarter of a billion dollars has already been poured into a new and unproven category. While the ceiling is still unclear, we can draw useful lessons from the more established SEO space.

SEO remains competitive (but not cutthroat) with a few incumbents and a long tail of niche players. I believe that something similar will happen to the AI search tracking category.

Here are a few things I’d like to point out based on our data and my intuition regarding the future of the category:

1 — AI search tracking—the core use case for most tools in this category—is already commoditized. They’ll need to differentiate or face a slow fade-out.
2 — Since the core use case is commoditized—and most tools lack the experience, discipline, or innovation to stand out—they’ll default to dropping their prices.
3 — Many (if not most) of these tools will go out of business, consolidate, or pivot.
4 — A handful of leaders will likely emerge, but under investor pressure to grow faster, better, and more efficiently.
5 — I doubt the opportunity here is big enough to justify IPOs. Investor interest in secondaries will likely be low, leaving acquisitions as the only realistic path to liquidity.
6 — With that in mind, I wouldn’t be surprised if some AEO leaders are acquired by traditional SEO incumbents like Ahrefs.
7 — Expect headwinds ahead—especially around quality-of-results volatility, as Kevin predicted in his 2026 outlook.

What does this mean for you as an investor?

Founders will pitch this as “the future you don’t want to miss,” but the data tells a different story: the category is already crowded.

That would be true if this were an already established category. It’s not, and there will be volatility ahead. Invest wisely.

I was looking at the results for one of Minuttia - AEO Agency’s SaaS clients. I sorted pages by conversion count and noticed something interesting.

Some of the highest-converting pages weren’t generic. They covered a use case for a specific audience. Here’s the framework we used:

Step 1 — Identify a core use case for your product
Step 2 — Find the best modifiers (e.g., tools, software, apps) and pick the most prominent one
Step 3 — Break down your target audiences for that use case
Step 4 — Create a dedicated page for each target audience + use case combination

Let’s look at an example:

1. Use case: time racking
2. Modifier: software
3. Target audiences: consultants, agencies, lawyers

There are two ways to approach the URL structure:

Option A: Topic Cluster

time-tracking-software/for-consultants/
time-tracking-software/for-agencies/
time-tracking-software/for-laywers/

Option B: Blog Post

blog/time-tracking-software-for-consultants/

Option A is harder to implement—you’ll likely need dev support—but it’s cleaner and scales better.

Option B is easier, but the slug structure is less clean—you’ll repeat keywords instead of grouping pages into folders.

Tying use cases to specific audiences is one of the simplest ways to drive qualified pipeline.

A few big business lessons for me from last year:

1 — Going brand-first instead of business-first: the logo, the website, the color palette. Get customers, serve them well, and build a couple of case studies. Then you have a business. After that, you can build a brand on top of it. Always go business first.

2 — “You don’t want the ones who don’t want to be there.” (h/t Nigel) This year, I had to part ways with certain people. Even though I was frustrated—and honestly, embittered—at first, once I stepped back, I realized that when someone wants to go (or has to), you should let them. Keeping them around isn’t good for anyone.

3 — On the other hand, the people who want to stay—and are worth it beyond personal or emotional attachments—are the ones you should keep close and reward. That’s why I offered Zacharias Xiroudakis the role of Managing Director at Minuttia - AEO Agency.

4 — Mindset and headspace are the most critical aspects of running a business. That’s something I want to work on much more this year.

5 — Ultimately, what you do becomes who you are. Choosing the right career path—whether in-house, freelance, or founder—depends on who you are as a person. (h/t Vaios) Many of my decisions were driven by the wrong reasons (often survival). I want to start doing things that are aligned with who I am at my core—and that go beyond mere survival.

Not doing this for engagement—I'm genuinely curious to learn what your biggest lessons were from last year. Share it even in private if you’d like.

Something I hear a lot these days: Companies want “visibility in chatgpt” but aren’t interested in investing in traditional SEO. I think this comes down to two main reasons:

1 — Perception Hangover

SEO’s bad reputation from the past 3 years (okay, maybe the past 25) still lingers, and it affects how companies make marketing investment decisions. I don’t think SEO professionals have done a good enough job communicating the positive impact organic search can *still* have for many companies.

2 — SEO x AEO

The relationship between SEO and AEO hasn’t been clearly communicated, especially to marketing leaders who are far from ground truth and mostly influenced by peer chatter and influencer takes. There’s real (but often overlooked) overlap between the two, and the marketing industry needs better education around it.

Visibility in AI search matters—especially for digital-first businesses with audiences using chatbots to find information and products. The truth is that good old SEO is a prerequisite for getting there. (We can argue about how much overlap there is, but there is overlap.)

Search marketers need to do a better job of communicating this, without overcomplicating it. SEO never stopped working. And if AI search adoption continues to grow, the opportunity is too big to ignore. It’d be a shame for companies to miss it and for the SEO industry to miss the opportunity to benefit from it.

“You look calmer and more composed,” my sister told me. Amazing what a few days off can do for you.

Professional athletes understand the importance of rest and recovery. So why do so many of us digital folks neglect it? Pushing ourselves to the limit rarely gets us closer to our goals. But it can bring us to the brink of collapse. (I don’t know about you, but that’s certainly been true for me.)

So why are we so stubborn about accepting a simple truth? Rest is one of the best performance boosters we have. For me, it always came down to guilt and weakness.

Letting go and going off the grid felt like weakness. Like I shouldn’t need that. Needless to say, that mindset hasn’t served me particularly well. And then there’s guilt. The guilt of even having the luxury to relax and forget about work for a while.

Look, running a business is tough. It can absolutely wear you down. Because it’s not just the hours you log, it’s the work outside of work that’s mentally exhausting. The endless hours thinking about work, the sleepless nights, the unproductive conversations... now toss in a well-deserved vacation, and somehow, you’ve still got a mess in your head.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, for high achievers, it shouldn’t. I took some time off over the holidays—ironically, forced into it by a bad flu—and when I came back on January 2nd, I was, as my sister put it, calmer and more composed. And I’d add: happier, too.

I won’t give you the “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” line because honestly, I don’t think it’s either. It’s a long series of sprints, and between each one, we need time to recharge for the next. That’s the real long game. Winning it isn’t just about how fast you run, but how well you rest and come back stronger for the next one.

In the last 6 years, I’ve worked with 50+ SaaS companies. Everything from early-stage to scale-ups, unicorns, and public SaaS. Here are 8 things I’ve learned about SaaS marketing:

1. If you’re selling marketing services to a SaaS with ~50 employees, and you're speaking directly with the CEO—because there’s no marketing leader—move away. You’ll be micromanaged, second-guessed, and follow someone else’s plan instead of leading.

2. Most marketing isn’t evidence-based. Instead, it’s based on influencer and peer opinions or the digital echo chamber that is the internet. Great if you’re shaping opinions (rare), not so great if you’re absorbing them (common).

3. There’s a lot of ego in SaaS. Everyone knows everything and thus has strong opinions about things. Very few teams have the humility to accept that they don’t know what they don’t know, seek help, and actually let someone help them.

4. Most SaaS companies treat marketing as a business activity, not as the company’s identity. This makes all the difference when it comes to how marketing is approached, teams are built, and budgets are allocated.

5. The basics still work (exceptions apply). More often than not, SaaS companies chase silver bullets and hacks, while neglecting the fundamentals. This partly stems from #2 and creates a myopic view that causes companies to miss growth opportunities based on hearsay.

6. SaaS marketing ISN’T the opportunity it used to be. If you’re selling services and think that adding ‘B2B SaaS Marketing’ to your profile will drive business because SaaS is hot, you’re in for a surprise. SaaS was hot when I started Minuttia - AEO Agency back in 2020; it’s not anymore.

7. SaaS marketing looks very different for a vertical SaaS, technical SaaS, marketplace, or a SaaS company with a PLG motion, versus one with an SLG motion. Some things are common, but the nuances make all the difference.

8. It’s far easier to join a SaaS company as an employee than as a service provider. Having said that, after you get the case studies and validation, entering SaaS companies as a service provider can become easier.

I could go on and on with this post. But I’ll save the rest of the list for another post.

Am not doing this for engagement. If you’ve worked with SaaS companies, do you agree or disagree with what I shared?

The way people search for solutions has changed. We’ve gone from a simple, linear journey (Point A to Point B) to a fractured and unpredictable one.

AI search (e.g., ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity) is only a part of this journey. This corner of the internet is still in its infancy. And it will get more complicated as agents perform tasks on behalf of all of us. They’ll become the web’s second user. (We’re the first.)

A while ago, we got a lead from ChatGPT. When we asked what drove them to our website, they responded:

“We were looking for SaaS agencies with a Greek founder, and your name came up first.”

That search surprised me, and opened my eyes to a bigger truth: unless we ask (e.g., through self-reported attribution) or dig into the ‘why’ behind key actions, we’re just guessing. And most assumptions about the customer journey are wrong.

That’s why it’s critical to get closer to the real questions people ask when they search, evaluate, and explore software.

The problem with most visibility tracking is that it’s overly focused on commercially oriented questions. That’s only one part of the equation. Many of our clients at Minuttia - AEO Agency gain visibility and referral traffic from information-seeking queries.

Right when the marketing echo chamber cancelled information-focused content, AI search brought it back to the surface through citations and referral traffic data. But how do you go about building an understanding of the new customer journey that translates into relevant prompts and product evaluations? Here’s how I think about it:

Step 1 — Topics
Step 2 — Topical Prompts
Step 3 — Product Evaluation Attributes
Step 4 — Product Evaluation Prompts

I know some of this may sound abstract, so here’s a quick example:

Say you’re a search-as-a-service company offering embedded, user-facing search for websites or apps. Then, here’s how this would look:

Topic:
Vector and Hybrid Search

Topical Prompt:
What are the challenges and potential solutions when scaling a vector search index for millions of documents?

Product Evaluation Attribute:
Vector Datatype and Indexing Support

Evaluation Prompt:
Evaluate {your company} on the platform's capability to ingest, index, and efficiently retrieve various vector embedding formats with high dimensionality

Steps 1–2 help track visibility and citations; Steps 3–4 give you sentiment data.

Apply this process across every topic you want to rank for. It’s the closest you’ll get to ground truth in the AI search layer of the customer journey. It’s not going to be 100% accurate, but it’s far better than shooting in the dark or making assumptions that won’t lead you anywhere.

I want to share a few things about one of our clients at Minuttia - AEO Agency. They’re a vertical SaaS in a cutthroat category, yet they’ve become a category leader with 9-figure ARR.

Their content program is massive—it covers everything you can imagine, and then some. It’s also mature at this point. At least when it comes to organic and AI search, they’ve covered most of the ground. (If you’ve done marketing for a vertical SaaS, you know getting there isn’t as tough as it sounds.)

At this stage, most companies would shift to maintenance mode—doing plumbing work as their content inventory grows. But that’s not what they’re doing as they’re hungrier than ever. That’s why I’m sharing this with you. You might find something useful, or at least get inspired to raise your own bar.

So, here’s what they’re doing:

1 — Mapped every keyword under the sun in a project they called ‘keyword universe’
2 — Added every single missing keyword into the human content creation pipeline
3 — Developing a signal-based update system for their existing content inventory*
5 — Running content updates with a human in the loop for specific content types
6 — Adding content updates for all other content types to a human content creation pipeline
7 — Exploring opportunities for AI content (w/ human in the loop) outside their ‘keyword universe’
8 — Identifying opportunities for video creation based on existing content (repurposing)
9 — Identifying opportunities for video creation based on non-existing content (net new)
10 — Identifying and acting on social listening (e.g., Reddit) opportunities

*This system is built on AirOps

To be clear, I’m not saying you should do all of this. That’s a massive brand with unlimited resources, after all. But the fact that a company like this stays hungry, despite already covering so much ground, should be a lesson to every brand that’s still catching up.

There are, and always will be, unleveraged opportunities, low-hanging fruit, and out-of-the-box initiatives for those who can’t stop growing.

One of Minuttia’s client blogs grew 4x in 2025. Here’s the context, what we did, and how that growth translates into business impact.

Context: 

- Technical B2B SaaS
- Dual growth motion (PLG + SLG)
- Mature, competitive category
- Strong brand built through a large open-source community

The advantage of working with a product like this is that the established brand lifts almost everything we do—content, SEO, and AEO included.

On the input side… 

- 50 new content pieces
- 6 content updates

… these led to:

- ~250 organic clicks on weekdays from Minuttia-produced content
- 4M+ organic impressions since the start of the engagement
- Many targeting commercial intent terms (e.g., alternatives, tools, reviews)
- #2 Visibility Score in AI search for product-related topics
- #2 Share of Voice in AI search for the same topics
- #1 for Citations, with most citations coming from Minuttia-created pages
- New accounts created (PLG) directly attributed to Minuttia’s work
- Attribution from both Google search and AI search traffic

We track all this using two proprietary reports:

1 — a Looker Studio dashboard covering Minuttia-produced content
2 — internal software for tracking AI search visibility

Building a successful content strategy for a technical audience isn’t easy. Software engineers—our target audience in this engagement—are highly analytical and have no patience for sales-y, shallow content. Add in the need for code snippets and technical accuracy, and things get even more complex.

Minuttia - AEO Agency’s team is doing an outstanding job, and the client is very happy with the results so far. Now, we’re focused on expanding our top performers and uncovering new opportunities to grow both organic and AI search visibility. Huge shoutout to Milica, Adrian, and the rest of the team involved in this engagement—well done.

Building in public is still one of the most reliable channels marketers have. But there are cases where it just doesn’t work, or where you’ll have to pull back:

1 — You’ve raised money, and your investors don’t like LinkedIn revenue charts

This one’s common. Most VC-backed companies are cautious about what they share publicly, especially revenue-related data. Bootstrapped companies, on the other hand, have more freedom (and less to lose) when building in public.

2 — You’re IPO-bound, and legal wants everything tight

Even though IPOs are rare these days, companies heading that way tend to lock everything down. Once public, you’ll face serious restrictions on what can be shared, especially anything financial.

3 — You don’t want to feed your competitors

Totally fair. The more you share, the more intel you give away. But in most cases, the upside of visibility and trust outweighs the risk of being copied.

4 — You’re in a heavily regulated industry

If you’re in biotech, healthtech, or finance, you know the drill—building in public comes with legal landmines. This doesn’t apply to something like a project management tool, but if you’re regulated, be cautious.

5 — You’re in big corp mode

Big companies optimize for downside protection. Smaller companies chase upside. Unless you get executive buy-in, building in public probably won’t fly, and might even get you in trouble.

Companies like lemlist, Tally, VEED.IO, and RB2B have seen massive growth through building in public. Each plays the game differently, but the common thread is consistency and transparency.

From what I’ve seen, building in public accelerates growth. It’s one of the first things I ask about when evaluating angel investments or when talking to prospects for Minuttia - AEO Agency. You don’t have to do it, but if you can, and do it right, it works.

Since it’s the beginning of the year, I thought it might be helpful to share how I structure my annual goals. Take what’s useful and ignore the rest.

I live by a simple personal vision statement:

Be healthier, happier, wealthier, wiser while having fun and helping others.

That’s the foundation for my daily activities and the goals I set each year. Each of these buckets…

- Health
- Happiness
- Wealth
- Wisdom
- Having fun
- Helping others

…has measurable goals. I set the bar high, which means I don’t always hit every target, and that’s fine. It’s part of the process.

One of my Happiness goals, for example, is swimming a certain number of days each year. You might say that swimming belongs under Health, but for me, it’s more about feeling happy than being fit.

Ultimately, every goal should ladder up to an overarching pillar from your personal vision statement. The way I see it: your personal vision is who you are; your goals are how you become that person.

One thing to keep in mind: all goals should be measurable. “Be healthier this year” doesn’t mean anything unless you define what that looks like. Set goals that hold you accountable at the end of the year, or whatever review cycle you follow.

A framework like this makes everything simpler and more focused. It becomes your compass—your center of gravity—keeping you aligned with who you want to be and how to get there.

taplio

The Battle

John Ozuysal

George Chasiotis

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreJohn Ozuysal's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreGeorge Chasiotis's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

John Ozuysal

George Chasiotis

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}John Ozuysal's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreGeorge Chasiotis's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJohn Ozuysal's LinkedIn Performance