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

SEO and AEO agencies are dead

I replaced my $15k/mo agency with Claude Code.

Here is what my agent does:

- Creates content strategy around topics such as "ultimate guide to xyz" or "what is xyz" - zero defendability for AI search 

- Optimizes each post with [some made-up name] framework

- Found my ICP in 5 seconds, even though I couldn't figure it out for a year 

[screenshot of the flow] - I have no idea what any of this does. Neither does the person who built it.

We used this agent for 6 months, and below are the results from the AI search

[screenshot of Google Search Console]

And yes, we are tracking AI search from GSC, so all the AEO tools are unnecessary

I spoke with a CMO of Series B B2B SaaS last week about their AEO

He was furious.

"ChatGPT is telling people we're too expensive for small teams." - not correct at all

We pulled up the sources AI was citing.

Competitor blog posts. Reddit threads from 2021. A review site that hadn't been updated in 18 months.

His first instinct?

"We need more PR. More brand mentions. More visibility."

No. You don't.

That's not your problem.

Your problem is you never created content that answers the questions buyers are actually asking.

Best tools in your category. Alternatives. Comparisons. Use cases by company size.

You left that to competitors and review sites.

So now they're the source. Not you.

You're not invisible. You just handed the microphone to everyone else.

Early-stage companies have the opposite problem.

AI genuinely doesn't know they exist yet.

PR and brand mentions actually matter there.

But for you?

Create the content that answers buyer questions.

Become the source AI cites.

Stop letting competitors control your narrative.

TLDR: Assess your current situation before you invest in any AEO-related activity

---

If you want us to build a free AEO roadmap for you, apply from the link on my profile

Your buyers trust ChatGPT more than your sales team.

That's not an insult. That's just how people make decisions now.

They ask AI for recommendations. They get a shortlist. They do follow-up questions. By the time they land on your site, they've already decided whether you're a contender.

But here's the problem:

Most B2B SaaS companies have zero control over what AI says about them.
AI is citing outdated competitor blog posts. Old Reddit threads. Review sites that haven't been updated in over a year. And it's confidently presenting that information as if it's current.

I've seen AI tell buyers a product is "too expensive for small teams" based entirely on a competitor's comparison post from 2022. Completely inaccurate. But that's what the buyer heard.

So how do you take back control?

You become the source.

Step 1: Identify the 20-30 buying questions your ICP is asking AI right now. Turn your paid search keywords into questions.

Step 2: Ask those questions yourself. Look at what AI cites. What source types? Who gets mentioned?

Step 3: Fill the gaps. If AI cites a listicle, get on that listicle or create a competing one. If it cites a forum thread, go give a real, transparent answer. If it cites a video, make one.

Step 4: Optimize your help center so it answers every specific feature, integration, and use case question a buyer could ask in a follow-up.

Do this consistently for 6 weeks, and you'll see the shift.

The brands that control their AI narrative now will own their category later.

I think AI search visibility trackers are useless 

Why? 

Because I keep seeing AEO case studies with screenshots of the search console

I guess we are all missing something because my GSC is not giving me AI search visibility data 🤣 

Sad thing is, some of these posts are getting 500 comments

We are running an AI search sprint free for 3 SaaS companies

👇

We're opening up 3 free pilot slots to show you exactly where you stand on AI search and what to do about it.

Here's what you'll get:

- A full AI search audit of your brand vs your top competitors

- Your 30-day AI search content strategy + the brand mentions you need to build

- Your first revenue-focused content — written and ready to publish

We hand-pick the companies. We're not looking for volume. We're looking for fit.

That means Series A B2B SaaS. $1M+ ARR. A category worth owning. And a team that will actually execute on what we hand them — because we're not interested in doing great work that sits in a Google Doc.

Q2 2026 cohort has 3 spots.

If you think you're the right fit, apply from here: https://tally.so/r/442j4A

I haven't been to a graveyard in years.

Turns out I didn't need to, I just needed to open LinkedIn.

People here love the Kill Channels:

RIP Email. 

RIP Agencies. 

RIP Content. 

RIP Thought Leadership. 

RIP Ads.

At this point, everything's been declared dead at least 100 times.

And yet... somehow they all keep showing up to work on Monday.

Haven't invested in AEO yet? 

Don't start with content 👇

Start with a diagnosis.

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.

We just increased AI search visibility for a B2B SaaS client by 100% in 30 days.

Want to see how we did it?

You can't. The case study doesn't exist. I made it up.

But you'd have believed it, right? Because you've seen 15 posts this month saying almost exactly that.

Here's the problem: a lot of people claiming to grow AI search visibility are backing it up with Google Search Console screenshots.

It does not tell you how often your brand appears in AI-generated responses. 

It does not tell you what AI systems say about you. It does not measure anything that would reasonably be called "AI search visibility."

Posting a GSC screenshot as proof of AEO results is either a misunderstanding of how this works or a deliberate misdirection aimed at people who don't know the difference.

If someone is showing you clean dashboards and confident attribution, ask them which tool produced it and how it works.

If the answer is a Google Search Console screenshot, walk away.

4 types of competitor-focused content I use to generate pipeline for SaaS

👇

1. Competitor vs You

You must own this story. If a prospect types “[competitor] alternative” into Google and only sees their page, you already lose. Create clean “You vs Competitor” pages that talk in revenue, churn, onboarding time, not vague feature lists. Show how you reduce risk, cut time-to-value, or lift expansion revenue.

2. Competitor alternatives

These people are in market now. They already pay for a tool. They just hate something about it. Create list posts like “7 alternatives to [competitor] for remote CS teams” and rank for those terms. Include your product in the list, show screenshots, add simple pricing context, and link to a focused trial or demo page. This brings high-intent trials fast.

3. Competitor comparisons

Big brands fund your pipeline. Use their demand. People search “[competitor A] vs [competitor B]” every day. Write posts and pages like “[A] vs [B] vs [You]” and speak to a specific ICP: “best for product-led teams”, “best for agencies”, “best for low-ACV SaaS”. You ride their brand search while positioning your product as the right fit for a clear segment.

4. Competitor use case content

Show how to do a key job in competitor tools, then show the simpler version in your product. “How to build a QBR dashboard in [competitor]” → then you show it takes 9 steps there and 3 in your app. If a competitor cannot support that use case, say it clearly and own the gap. This is where many of your best switch deals come from.

----

If you want us to generate a free AEO report, check the link on my bio !

Your competitors keep showing up in ChatGPT.

You don't.

Here's what nobody in the "AI SEO" space is saying clearly enough:

The AI doesn't care that your landing page ranks #1 on Google.

When someone asks "What's the best [your category] tool?" — ChatGPT isn't reading one page and picking a winner. You can be a source, but this is not the same as being "visible."

It's pulling from everywhere. Forums. Video platforms. Review sites. 

Knowledge bases. Third-party articles.

Then it stitches all of that together into a single answer.

Your competitor shows up in a roundup article. They're recommended in a forum thread. Someone made a walkthrough video about them. 

Their knowledge base answers a niche feature question.

That's 4 mentions across 4 different source types.

This is the game now. You have to build citation layers, stacking your brand's presence across the source types that AI models actually pull from.

Here's how to start:

- Take your best converting-value paid search keywords or highest converting organic keywords, or even better, ask your customers how they searched for you.

- Ask Claude to turn this into buyer prompts. For each prompt, check what is being cited, and what kind of sources? Whose mentioned?

- Then build your owned content and earned content strategy based on this information.

- If the AI is pulling from a listicle comparing your competitors, go create your own listicle and also get included in that one. 

- If it's citing a forum thread where someone asks about your category, go give a real, helpful answer from your actual team. If it's referencing a video walkthrough, make one.

Match the source type that's already winning the citation. Don't guess. Mirror what's working.

Treat it like a proper experiment. Pick 10questions to intervene on. Leave 10 untouched. Track the results over 6 weeks.

This is exactly how we run AEO experiments at House of Growth - AI Led Growth Agency

Companies running this playbook are seeing AI-referred traffic convert at dramatically higher rates than traditional search. 

And most of your competitors still think this is "too early" to worry about.

I see people bragging about creating blog posts with Claude code for AEO

Sad thing is, they are still creating blog posts such as:

- What is [topic]

- Ultimate guide to [topic]

You clearly have no idea how AEO works, otherwise you wouldn't create these and call them "AEO" focused posts

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..

Your Go-To for Senior Software Talent | CEO at Don't Panic IT Recruiting Agency | Content Enthusiast

It's easy to sell on LinkedIn; all you have to do is put out relevant content, grow your network, and engage in conversations.

The only problem is it's a full-time job. 

- Coming up with ideas for posts
- Writing those ideas as posts
- Adding the right people to your network
- Finding posts to comment on
- Write meaningful comments 

Not many people have the luxury of doing that every day. 

We do that for you.

-You get a full done-for-you LinkedIn branding, ghostwriting, and lead generation service. 
-We research your niche, and your competitors, and develop a custom strategy to reach your goals with the resources you have.
-We gauge your tone by interviewing you weekly or biweekly. 
-We learn about your business's intricacies from you and your employees to present it in the best light.
-We create demand generation-style content for your company's profiles. 

Even if you had the time to do it yourself, you won't find the right people. 
We grow and develop them with our in-house program.

Save time testing strategies. 
Save time finding topics your audience cares about.
Save time recruiting a team.
Save time building outreach tactics.
  
I'm Alex. I learned all this while my co-founder Eugene and I were building our first business, a recruiting agency. We were no-names, and nobody knew about us. 
We built our client base from scratch by consistently creating content. 
When I told my friends, who were also founders, how we were getting clients, they asked us to do the same for them. 
So we did. 
Slowly, we grew that experiment from five people to a full-scale agency of 25, with departments, freelancers, and other resources. 

In the past four years, we have built brands for eight prominent software companies in iGaming, Healthcare, Computer Vision, and Banking. 
  
With our custom demand generation strategy, you can start getting clients as soon as the first two weeks. That is our record so far, but normally it takes a few months. It depends on where you start; if you have a couple of hundred connections, it may take up to a year.

Think of us as an outsourced LinkedIn content marketing agency. 
  
Just like you take care of your clients' software development, we take care of your LinkedIn. 
  
Before building our recruitment agency, I was in sales at an outsourcing company. In my first year, I sold one million dollars' worth of software development. That's when I realized I had what it takes to build my own agency to help more companies sell their services. 

I would love to do the same for you, let's talk.

Alex Hermann

My wife has told me 200 times which kitchen towel is for plates and which is for hands.

I still grab the wrong one.

So “we already posted about that” is not a valid argument.

Your audience is worse than me:

-Some people are new in your network
-Some don't check LinkedIn every day
-Some didn't get it the first time

Post it again. 

Just change the angle.

Win iGaming clients for B2B providers (platforms, games, traffic) | Ghostwriting for iGaming C-level | Co-founder @Content Chameleon

LinkedIn tip:

Don’t treat posting like a search for validation.

Treat it like publishing a report.

Reactions do not always reflect the value of your content.

When you write a report for work, your goal is not approval.

Your goal is to provide useful information.

If you happen to be in the room when someone reads it, you might see their reaction.

Usually, you do not.

LinkedIn is similar.

A lot of the impact is invisible at first.

You only know some posts worked when the right people start reaching out to buy your services.

And that does not always happen immediately.

So I would not judge a post too fast just because it did not collect many reactions.

What’s the dumbest post you’ve published that unexpectedly popped off?

I’ll go first.

Two days ago I wrote about my wife telling me (for the 200th time) which kitchen towel is for plates and which one is for hands.

Nothing heroic. No “3 B2B lessons from dishwashing.”
Just me being consistently wrong in my own kitchen.
(It was a decent analogy though)

But it got 24,000 impressions, 269 reactions, 7 saves and 4 sends!

So yeah… maybe people don’t hate personal stories.
They hate the forced “and here’s what this taught me about leadership” part.

Now your turn: what’s the dumbest post you’ve published that unexpectedly popped off?

Bro, it's literally in my header 

Drop the lamest “totally not pitching you” opener you’ve gotten.

3 lies you’ve been told about “good content”:

Lie #1: Valuable content means saying something new.
As in: information nobody has shared before.
Reality: Most people who reach out to me for a consultation ask the same questions. What's obvious to you is not obvious to your audience. 

Lie #2: If it exists online, it’s not worth posting.
It can exist in 10 places and still be useful coming from you.
Because people don’t just need information, they need judgment.

Lie #3: Repeating common ideas makes you look unoriginal.
What makes it original is your path to the conclusion:
Your “I tried this and it failed because…” context. 
People need your interpretation of information already available.

If you're still not convinced - think of my wife, who rushes to a new doctor every time she thinks there's something wrong with our baby only to hear the same thing she heard from all other doctors and that the baby is fine.

Don't treat iGaming conferences like a 3-day sales window.

Treat them like the final step of a 6-8 week campaign.

We booked 85 meetings for a client because the conference work started long before the conference.

Start by:

• building the target list early (with real people, not just logos)
• sorting by role, so your message matches the person
• warming up visibility on LinkedIn before outreach starts
• giving people a reason to recognize your name before your DM lands
• filling the calendar in stages, not in a panic sprint

By the time others were sending “Hey, are you attending?” messages, our client had already been showing up in the right people’s feed for weeks.

That changes the whole dynamic.

If your next conference is important, start before it feels urgent.

Did you also notice how people stopped complaining about the algorithm?

In iGaming B2B, getting a “yes” on the pitch is a great goal.

Just don’t confuse “yes” with “yes now.”

Most of the time, “yes” actually means:

- “We like it.”
- “We want it.”
- “We’ll do it… when we can breathe.” 

I've seen this play with our clients (traffic, platforms, games) 
They do the pitch.

The operator loves it.

Sometimes it moves fast.

Sometimes it goes quiet for a while.

Not because they changed their mind.

Because they’re drowning in priorities, and integration is always competing with a backlog of integrations they already said yes to.

Then, weeks or months later, they get the message:
“We’re ready to integrate.”

So they ask, “Why now?”

And the operator says, “We kept seeing your posts.” 

That’s what posting is for.
(among many other things)

iGaming providers usually come to us with 1 of 4 LinkedIn growth problems.

1) You want operator clients from a specific slice of the market.
You already sell across iGaming, but now you want a tighter target: specific regions, specific operator size, crypto vs fiat, sportsbook-heavy vs casino-heavy, etc.
The job here is to make your positioning and content instantly legible to that operator type.

2) You have a few strong operator accounts and want to expand while things are going well.
Revenue is healthy, delivery is proven, but growth is concentrated in a small number of relationships.
The job here is to build steady awareness in the operator segment you want, using proof, clear use-cases, and consistent distribution.

3) You’re profitable across multiple industries and want more iGaming revenue.
You already know how to sell, but you want iGaming to become a bigger percentage of the pie.
The job here is to narrow your message to iGaming buying triggers and turn LinkedIn into a repeatable demand channel instead of a nice-to-have.

4) You have marketing activity, but bizdev outreach isn’t a system.
You might have ABM, SEO, founder posting, maybe even decent content. But your SDRs or bizdevs aren’t running consistent outbound from their own profiles.
The job here is to operationalize outreach: lists, targeting, daily activity, messaging, follow-ups, and a process your team can repeat.

Most teams try to solve all four with “post more” or "more outreach".

That usually creates activity, but not a reliable flow of operator conversations.

Your strategy depends on which bucket you’re in.

This made my day 🫶
Bailey relaxing on Sharon's desk, and my post casually sitting on the laptop screen in the background.

Managing Director @ Digital Footprints | iGaming Marketing Agency

It was a busy week at Digital Footprints, all hands/paws on deck (well for most of us)! 

Glad Bailey had time to relax……🙄😂🐾

#dogsatwork #agencylife #digitalagency

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The Battle

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