Dhruv Tayal

A SaaS founder came to us with 8,000 monthly visitors and a 0.4% conversion rate.

Traffic wasn't the problem.

Here's what we found — and what changed:

Their product was genuinely good. The problem was that no one outside their website had ever mentioned them.

Zero community presence.

Zero third-party coverage.

Zero AI mentions.

When buyers searched Google — results. When they asked ChatGPT — silence. When they checked Reddit — nothing.

To a buyer, invisible = risky.

We spent 90 days fixing the trust layer:

→ Got them mentioned in 12 relevant Reddit threads (authentically, by answering questions)

→ Built content that answered the exact questions their buyers were asking AI

→ Secured 3 third-party reviews that described them in buyer language

The result after 90 days:

Same traffic. Conversion rate went from 0.4% to 1.9%.

No ad spend. No redesign. No new features.

Just trust signals that didn't exist before.

The biggest growth lever most SaaS founders ignore isn't traffic.

It's what happens when someone who's already found you tries to verify you're real.

What does that verification process look like for your product?

I tested 50 SaaS products by asking ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity to recommend them.

Only 6 showed up.

Here's what those 6 had in common — and why the other 44 were invisible:

The 6 that showed up weren't the most funded.

They weren't the most feature-rich.

They weren't even the most reviewed.

They were the most talked about in the right places.

AI doesn't crawl your website like Google does.

It learns about your product from:

→ Forum discussions (Reddit, Quora, Hacker News)

→ Third-party articles and reviews

→ Community mentions and comparisons

→ Answers to questions your buyers actually ask

This is AEO — Answer Engine Optimization.

The question isn't "how do I rank on Google?"

The question is "when a buyer asks AI for a recommendation — does my product get named?"

If your SaaS isn't in those conversations, you don't exist to that buyer.

The founders winning in AI search right now did 3 things:

1. They created content that directly answers buyer questions (not just SEO keywords)

2. They got their product mentioned in community discussions organically

3. They made sure third-party sources described them consistently and clearly

Most SaaS founders still think SEO = marketing.

AI has changed the game entirely.

Is your product visible to AI buyers?

Drop your product below — I'll tell you one specific thing that's missing from your AI search presence.

SaaS founders obsess over getting more traffic.

But the real question is: when a buyer asks AI "what's the best tool for [your category]" — does your product even show up?

Most don't.

Not because they're bad products. Because AI has never been properly introduced to them.

Here's what AI looks for before recommending a product:

→ Is it mentioned in communities where buyers ask questions?

→ Do third-party sources describe what it does clearly?

→ Is the category positioning consistent everywhere?

→ Does it answer the exact questions buyers are searching for?

This is AEO — Answer Engine Optimization.

It's not SEO. It's not ads. It's making sure AI knows your product well enough to recommend it confidently.

The founders winning right now aren't the ones with the biggest ad budget.

They're the ones whose products AI trusts enough to name-drop.

Is your SaaS visible to AI buyers?

Drop your product below — I'll tell you honestly what's missing.

Most SaaS founders think SEO is dead.

It's not. But the game completely changed.

Your buyer no longer Googles "best [tool category]."

They ask ChatGPT.

They ask Perplexity.

They ask Claude.

And if you're not in the answer — you don't exist.

The question isn't "how do I rank on page 1?"

The question is: "Does AI know enough about my product to recommend it?"

If the answer is no, here's what's usually missing:

→ You're not mentioned in communities where your buyers ask questions

→ You're not cited in third-party content AI trains on

→ Your category positioning isn't consistent across the web

This is fixable.

But most founders are still playing the 2019 SEO game.

Which AI tools are your buyers using to research your category?

I asked ChatGPT to recommend the best tools for SaaS growth.

It gave me 6 names.

None of them were my clients.

All of them had one thing in common: they were cited consistently across forums, review sites, and expert content — the exact sources AI trains on.

This is the new battleground.

Not Google rankings.

Not ad impressions.

Not follower counts.

It's whether AI models can find you, trust you, and recommend you when a buyer asks.

Here's what determines if your SaaS gets cited by AI:

→ Are you mentioned in communities your buyers live in?

→ Do third-party sources describe what you do clearly?

→ Is your category positioning consistent everywhere?

→ Do you answer the exact questions your buyers are asking?

Most SaaS founders are building great products but invisible to AI.

Not because they lack credibility.

Because they never structured their presence for how AI learns.

AEO and GEO aren't future strategies.

They're the gap between the founders winning deals today and the ones wondering why their pipeline dried up.

What's your AI visibility score right now?

Drop your product below — I'll tell you honestly if AI can find and recommend you.

Most SaaS founders are optimizing for Google.

But their buyers have already moved on.

Here's what I'm seeing after working with multiple SaaS products:

When a decision-maker wants to evaluate a tool today, they don't search Google first.

They ask ChatGPT. They ask Perplexity. They ask Claude.

And if your brand isn't showing up in those answers — you're invisible to a growing segment of high-intent buyers.

This is the AEO problem.

Answer Engine Optimization isn't SEO 2.0.

It's a fundamentally different game:

→ Google rewards backlinks. AI answers reward trust signals.

→ Google ranks pages. AI cites brands.

→ Google measures clicks. AI measures credibility.

The SaaS founders winning right now are the ones building:

- Deep topical authority in their category

- Content that directly answers buyer questions

- Brand presence in the communities AI learns from

- Consistent positioning that AI can recognize and repeat

If ChatGPT can't describe what you do clearly, your buyers can't either.

And no amount of ad spend fixes a positioning problem.

Building a SaaS and want to know if you're visible in AI search?

Drop your product below. I'll take a look for free.

Your SaaS has a trust problem — not a traffic problem.

Most founders I talk to here are obsessed with getting more signups.

But here's what I've seen after working with multiple SaaS products:

→ Traffic comes in, but conversions are low

→ Trials start, but users don't upgrade

→ People visit, read, and leave without buying

The real issue? Nobody trusts you enough yet.

When you're a new SaaS, you're asking strangers to pay you money and give you access to their workflow. That's a high-trust ask.

And most SaaS brands have almost zero trust signals:

- Generic messaging that sounds like every competitor

- No clear proof of results

- No strong brand voice

- No reputation in the community

I run Trusted AEO. We help SaaS brands become the most TRUSTED name in their category.

Not through hacks. Through positioning, content, and community-led growth.

If you're a SaaS founder here and you're struggling with:

- Low trial-to-paid conversion

- High churn in early months

- Traffic but no traction

Drop a comment or DM me. Happy to take a look at your product for free and give you honest feedback.

"We need more traffic."

That's what most founders think.

But after talking to the founders of StepGenie, we realized traffic wasn't the biggest problem.

Understanding the customer was.

StepGenie is a USMLE question bank helping medical students prepare for their exams.

Before doing any marketing, we spoke with the founders and their users.

We wanted to understand:

• Why students chose StepGenie

• What they loved most

• What stopped them from paying

• Where they spent their time online

The answer?

→ Instagram

→ Reddit

→ YouTube

So we built our strategy around those platforms.

On Instagram, we launched a USMLE meme page and scaled educational content using an AI educator persona.

The result: millions of views.

On Reddit, we consistently participated in USMLE communities, answered questions, shared resources, and helped students solve problems.

Over time, StepGenie became a familiar name across discussions and recommendations.

On YouTube, we turned the most common student questions into educational videos, using customer conversations to drive content.

The results:

• Conversion rate: 2.5% → 6%

• 2,500+ new users in the first month

• 20,000+ users acquired over time

• $7,000+ additional MRR generated

The biggest lesson?

Growth didn't come from marketing hacks.

It came from understanding customers.

Once you know where your users spend time, what they consume, and why they buy, the marketing becomes obvious.

(I wanted to add more value, but the post length is limited)

Building a SaaS?

DM me.

I'll take a look at your product, and if I like the concept and think we can help, let's talk

"We need more traffic."

That's what most founders think.

But after talking to the founders of StepGenie, we realized traffic wasn't the biggest problem.

Understanding the customer was.

StepGenie is a USMLE question bank helping medical students prepare for their exams.

Before doing any marketing, we spoke with the founders and their users.

We wanted to understand:

• Why students chose StepGenie

• What they loved most

• What stopped them from paying

• Where they spent their time online

The answer?

→ Instagram

→ Reddit

→ YouTube

So we built our strategy around those platforms.

On Instagram, we launched a USMLE meme page and scaled educational content using an AI educator persona.

The result: millions of views.

On Reddit, we consistently participated in USMLE communities, answered questions, shared resources, and helped students solve problems.

Over time, StepGenie became a familiar name across discussions and recommendations.

On YouTube, we turned the most common student questions into educational videos, using customer conversations to drive content.

The results:

• Conversion rate: 2.5% → 6%

• 2,500+ new users in the first month

• 20,000+ users acquired over time

• $7,000+ additional MRR generated

The biggest lesson?

Growth didn't come from marketing hacks.

It came from understanding customers.

Once you know where your users spend time, what they consume, and why they buy, the marketing becomes obvious.

(I wanted to add more value, but the post length is limited)

Building a SaaS?

DM me.

I'll take a look at your product, and if I like the concept and think we can help, let's talk

Class 8: Started a clothing reselling business.

College: Built Seminar Solution, grew it into a profitable business, and eventually handed it over to other students so they could learn and earn from it.

Then I started taking fitness seriously.

Built my fitness coaching business from scratch.

Created content consistently.

Helped people transform their lives.

Grew a community of 37,000+ followers.

Today, I'm building Trusted AEO with my partners, helping brands become visible in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI platforms.

Looking back, the biggest lesson wasn't how to make money.

It was learning how to build.

Because businesses can fail.

Markets can change.

Algorithms can change.

But if you know how to build, you can start again.

And again.

And again.

Most people want to get rich once.

I want to become the kind of person who can create value repeatedly, no matter the industry, no matter the circumstances.

That's the real asset.

Not the business.

Not the followers.

Not the money.

The ability to build.

Strivle asked me, "What did you ship?"

We shipped results

Recently, we worked with an EdTech SaaS and helped them grow from 3K MRR to 10K MRR in a few months

The strategy wasn't complicated

We treated Reddit, YouTube, and Instagram as our marketing channels before marketing channels

We spoke to existing paying users, understood where they spent time online, what content they consumed, and what problems they actually cared about.

Then we built distribution around those insights:

• Instagram for discovery

• Reddit for validation and conversations

• YouTube for education and trust

Most growth problems are distribution problems

The answers are usually already hidden inside your existing customers

f you’re looking for growth or want your company to become a default answer inside ChatGPT and other LLMs through AEO, feel free to comment below or DM me

Strivle asked me, "What did you ship?"

We shipped results

Recently, we worked with an EdTech SaaS and helped them grow from 3K MRR to 10K MRR in a few months

The strategy wasn't complicated

We treated Reddit, YouTube, and Instagram as our marketing channels before marketing channels

We spoke to existing paying users, understood where they spent time online, what content they consumed, and what problems they actually cared about.

Then we built distribution around those insights:

• Instagram for discovery

• Reddit for validation and conversations

• YouTube for education and trust

Most growth problems are distribution problems

The answers are usually already hidden inside your existing customers

f you’re looking for growth or want your company to become a default answer inside ChatGPT and other LLMs through AEO, feel free to comment below or DM me