Good morning 👋
Sometimes I wish I had a calculator built into my computer to tell me how many keys I hit in a day because I was putting up numbers yesterday.
For anybody who has observed internet search patterns over the past few years, it’s pretty clear that they way people find information has changed.
Google no longer has control of search, and AI search is driving more and more qualified traffic to businesses.
Mercury’s CEO shared some data on what he’s seeing, and we break that down in today’s piece.
Today’s highlights
Companies are winning (and optimizing) traffic from AI search
The job title paradigm shift
Why DeepSeek hasn't raised yet
TOP
the new search arena 🔍
The established way to earn online traffic was simple. You could either:
Earn it. Create organic content, establish domain authority around topics, and earn pageviews through SEO.
Pay for it. Bid on keywords, pay for clicks.
Then ChatGPT came along, and enough time has passed that now we’re seeing the results of changing internet usage patterns.
The founder of Mercury posted this yesterday to show where their traffic comes from. As you can see from the image, a growing percentage of their overall traffic is coming from LLMs with ChatGPT driving a larger percentage of new signups compared to Perplexity and others (this could be due to ChatGPT giving a single response compared to others who output a list).
TWEET
HEADLINES
Aligned Climate Capital raises $85M Fund 2 (Axios)
DeepSeek isn’t taking VC money yet — here are 3 reasons why (TechCrunch)
Insight VC explains the biggest mistake that keeps founders from raising a big round (TechCrunch)
Moveworks Delivers Big Exit For Early VCs (Crunchbase)
MEMOS
Chima: Interoperability for AI agents
Superpower: The all-in-one health membership for elite performers
Documenso: The DocuSign killer
LINKS
📋 IPO Preparation Guide: OnlyCFO shares this guide to make sure your company is prepared and set up properly
↕️ Vertical Software Is Having A Moment: By focusing on specific industry needs, companies can offer tailored solutions, deeper customer relationships, and higher retention rates
👀 Why Specialists Will Win the Next Decade of Venture: Venture Pulse suggest that specialists, rather than generalists, will have the biggest returns by looking where others aren’t
🦄 I Interviewed the VP of Business at Perplexity, Ryan Foully: Guillermo Flor talks with Ryan about how to spot unicorns, how to find and grow unicorns, and how Perplexity grew to +20M queries
📈 How Much Is A Venture Firm Worth?: Tomasz Tunguz thinks the evolution of the venture capital industry might mirror private equity, with an asset class that has grown to many hundreds of billions
MEME
BOARDROOM
Get a FREE audit of your business 🆓
Honest take: I’ve made hundreds thousands of mistakes building this business.
GTM mistakes that slow down sales
Marketing / paid advertising mistakes that literally light money on fire
Ignoring platforms or not learning how different algorithms work that results in not getting enough attention
Not delegating or using automation that cost me hundreds of hours of my time
And a thousand others
But after making tweaks for 5+ years, you start to learn what works and what doesn’t.
Lucky for me, 99% of this knowledge of what works is now stored in my head.
Unlucky for you, most of this can’t be shared online, and it has to be applied to specific situations.
That’s why I’m doing FREE business audits for any reader who owns a business and is looking to grow.
You talk, I listen, I come up with a game plan after the call, and you decide what you want to do with that information.
Fair enough?
Apply below to book some time with me.
Thanks for reading this far and giving us a little bit of your attention this week.
Feel free to unsubscribe whenever this stops becoming valuable to you.
- Clay
(Founder @ Confluence.VC | GP @ Outlaw)
