YC founders obsess over AEO: engineering what ChatGPT says about your brand
Scobleizer · x · 2026-09-30
Robert Scoble says Tony Zhieh let him talk to every team except SEO, calling AI-era message control "the bleeding edge" and "a dirty business." A quoted thread shows YC founders scrambling to figure out AEO (Answer Engine Optimization): identify the exact prompts your ICP types into ChatGPT/Claude and the sources AI cites, then track your brand's presence.
The DIY playbook: self-host the open-source Elmo tool and run prompts through real ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Mode and AI Overviews interfaces via DataForSEO (not via API), skipping expensive agencies.
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