A buyer hears about your startup and, before replying to your email, asks ChatGPT or Google what it knows about you. An investor does the same before a first call. If the answer is vague, wrong or about someone else, you lose the conversation before it starts.
AI search tools do not invent their view of you. They draw on pages they can read and sources they trust, then summarise. So the work is the same work that makes people trust you: say clearly what you do, show evidence and get it repeated by publications your audience already reads.
Founder field note
Why I pay attention to this
Fundraising for startups and my work with NGOs brought me to journalists, publishers and podcast hosts. In fundraising I kept seeing the same pattern. Investors look at a founder’s visibility, and the right coverage makes the conversation easier.
Before that, my SEO years taught me how much a link from a trusted site is worth. AI search has made that lesson bigger. Many people now ask an AI tool for a first or second opinion before they search Google, and those answers lean on the publications the tools trust.
How AI assistants choose what to say about a startup
When someone asks an assistant about a company or a category, the tool looks for pages that answer the question directly, comes back with a few it trusts and writes a summary. Google says its AI features are built on the same ranking and quality systems as normal Search, and that no special markup is needed to appear in them (Google Search Central). Other assistants, such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, search the web too and cite their sources.
In practice that means three things decide whether you are mentioned: whether your own pages say clearly what you do, whether trusted third parties describe you the same way and whether there is evidence an assistant can quote. Researchers who tested this found that adding sources, statistics and quotations made pages noticeably more likely to be used in generated answers (Aggarwal et al., 2023).
Step 1: Ask the questions your buyers and investors ask
Write down five questions a real buyer or investor might type. For example: “What does [your startup] do?”, “Is [your startup] good for [use case]?” and “Which startups in [your category] work with [type of customer]?”. Ask each one in ChatGPT, Google and Perplexity, three times each, because answers change between runs.
Record what comes back: are you mentioned, is the description right and which sources are cited? The cited sources are your map. They show which pages and publications the tools trust for your topic.
Step 2: Say one plain sentence everywhere
Write one sentence that says who you help and with what, in the words your buyers use. Put it at the top of your home page and About page, in your LinkedIn company page, your founder profiles and every directory listing. When the same description appears in many trusted places, the tools repeat it. When five versions exist, they guess.
Check the basics while you are there: the pages load without needing heavy scripts, the About page names the founders and the company page shows a recent “Updated” date.
Step 3: Publish evidence an assistant can quote
Assistants prefer pages that answer a question in a few clear sentences and back the answer with something checkable. Turn what you know into short, specific pages: what changed for one customer, a number with its date and source, a question your buyers ask and your plain answer.
A careful note about eight customers is more useful than a claim that you are transforming an industry. It is also easier for a journalist, a reader and an AI tool to trust.
Step 4: Earn mentions in publications your audience trusts
This is where visibility and AI search meet. A story in a trade publication, a podcast episode with a published transcript or a founder interview on a respected site is read by people and learned from by AI tools. Look at the sources the assistants cited in Step 1 and aim for those first.
Pitch with a story a reader can learn from and evidence a journalist can check. The full method is in how to pitch a journalist with a story you can prove.
Step 5: Check again every month
Run the same questions once a month and compare. Track whether you are mentioned, whether the description is right and which sources are cited. One run is an anecdote. A change over three months is a signal.
Worksheet: your AI visibility check
Scroll across to compare every column.
| Question you asked | Tool | Mentioned? (runs out of 3) | Description right? | Sources cited | One fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What does [startup] do? | ChatGPT | 1 of 3 | Partly: calls us an agency | Old directory listing | Update the listing with our one sentence |
| Best [category] for [customer] | 0 of 3 | Not mentioned | Two trade articles | Pitch one of those publications a customer story | |
The first two rows are examples. Fill in your own five questions and repeat the check next month.
Questions you may have
Can I pay to appear in ChatGPT or Google AI answers?
No. You can pay for ads beside some answers, but the answers themselves draw on sources the tools trust. The reliable route is clear pages of your own and real coverage elsewhere.
Is this different from SEO?
It builds on it. Google says its AI features use its normal Search systems, so pages that are clear, useful and trustworthy for people are the foundation. AI search adds weight to how plainly you answer questions and how consistently others describe you.
How long does it take to be mentioned?
It depends on how often the sources the tools trust write about your space. Fixing your own pages can show up within weeks. Coverage in trusted publications usually takes a few months of steady work.
Do I need an llms.txt file?
It is optional. Google says no special files are needed for its AI features. Some other tools read it, so a short, accurate file does no harm, but it will not replace clear pages and real coverage.
Not sure what AI tools say about you?
Send me: “We help ___ with ___. When I asked ___, it said ___.” I’ll tell you where I would start, on your own pages or with coverage.
Read next: the story behind any coverage starts with a pitch you can prove.