a founder got half his signups from chatgpt last quarter. zero ad spend.
found this breakdown on reddit and it reframed how i think about distribution:
he noticed a weird signup back in march. traced it to chatgpt. someone had asked for a free alternative to scoreapp and the model recommended his tool.
the reason?
one comparison blog post he'd written. chatgpt pulled from it to build the recommendation.
so he leaned in. more comparison posts. use case pages. content that answered the exact things people type into an ai:
- "free typeform alternative for scoring"
- "quiz tool for lead qualification"
- "how to qualify leads before a call"
3 months later chatgpt drives ~half his signups. 131 users, 15 countries, still zero ad spend.
here's the part that stuck with me:
this is not seo. google rewards keywords and backlinks. chatgpt rewards clear answers to specific questions.
a line like "X is the free alternative to Y because it has scoring, unlimited responses and badge virality at $0" hands the model exactly what it needs to recommend you.
most builders still treat ai recommendations as a black box. it's not. you just have to write the answer.