The New Startup Helps Brands Understand and Leverage How They Appear in AI-Driven Searches
The rapidly changing landscape of online search is driving brands to adapt to new methods of maintaining visibility. With AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude becoming popular tools for searching, Profound, an innovative AI startup, has emerged to help brands monitor and influence their presence in AI-driven search environments. Founded by James Cadwallader and Dylan Babbs, Profound has recently announced a successful $3.5 million seed funding round, attracting investments from notable figures like Keith Rabois of Khosla Ventures, Scott Belsky, and Balaji Srinivasan.
Profound’s technology offers brands a dynamic platform to understand and optimize how they appear in AI searches. The platform tracks and analyzes thousands, sometimes millions, of search queries related to brands, synthesizing data to provide a comprehensive snapshot of how AI systems portray them. This includes insights into competitive attributes, such as product features and customer service, by analyzing how AI platforms like ChatGPT present comparative data on these topics.
Co-founder and CEO James Cadwallader emphasized the urgency of the situation, stating,
How visible and favorable [brands] are in these AI systems is about to become every brand’s hair-on-fire problem. Our platform shows every company in the world how they show up in this new AI environment, which is where the next billion eyeballs are.”
Profound’s approach allows brands to influence AI-generated results by partnering with key websites and creating content on their own channels. This helps shape consumer perceptions and drive purchasing decisions. The company is already working with nearly 20 Fortune 500 brands and a major agency within one of the holding groups, offering monthly subscription plans based on the volume of queries brands wish to run.
Profound’s inception was fueled by the founders’ fascination with AI’s impact on online search, as Cadwallader explained, “In this new world of AI answers, how does Nike understand and control how they show up? If I’m asking ChatGPT for a running sneaker, it will give me four or five suggestions. Nike spends $4 billion a year on marketing, and hundreds of millions of people are using these AI answers to research products and brands daily. How do we show up in the new world?”
As AI search continues to evolve, Profound’s platform adapts, allowing brands to track changes and adjust their strategies accordingly. This adaptability is crucial as AI search becomes increasingly significant, with nearly 13 million U.S. adults using AI-powered tools as their primary search method last year, a number projected to rise to over 90 million by 2027.
Ben Braverman, a co-founder and managing partner at Saga, expressed his enthusiasm for Profound’s vision, stating, “As soon as you start talking to [Cadwallader] about what he is building, the energy is dripping off this guy. The more time I spent with him, a delightful human being, talking about where the puck was moving in AI, it was a lightbulb moment, I have to spend more time with this person.”
Despite its early stage, Profound is already gaining traction in the market, demonstrating its potential to become an essential tool for brands navigating the complexities of AI search. The company’s innovative approach and strong backing position it well to meet the growing demand for insights into AI-generated brand visibility. As Cadwallader succinctly put it, “In this new world, every company, every business across every industry is going to want to know how they show up in AI answers. Profound will be the solution that every company in the world uses every day to understand how these AI systems are talking about them.”
