Kai Forsyth is the founder of Hall, a platform that monitors and optimizes how businesses appear in AI search results across ChatGPT, Claude, and other conversational AI platforms. After working as a product designer at Atlassian, Intercom, and Dovetail, Kai recognized that traditional SEO was being disrupted by AI-powered search. His team made a critical pivot from building community visibility tools to focusing entirely on AI visibility - a decision that transformed their trajectory and time-to-value from months to minutes.

When Google traffic to Kinde suddenly vanished, Dave assumed it was an algorithm change. Turns out, the entire game had shifted - people were searching through ChatGPT instead. In this episode, Kai Forsyth reveals how his team pivoted from building community tools to helping businesses survive the AI search revolution.

He explains:
⬛ Why Reddit and Wikipedia matter more than your company blog for AI visibility
⬛ How to get from idea to paying customers in 2 months with a team of 3
⬛ Why building a "sticky" product in 6 months is impossible
⬛ The counterintuitive approach to support - use engineers
⬛ How engineering can drive growth beyond just building core features
⬛ Why comparison content and listicles are "cringe but crucial" for AI discovery

00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:35 - SEO is dead, AI visibility is everything
00:01:34 - How AI search is disrupting traditional SEO
00:04:44 - Reddit suddenly controls your visibility
00:07:13 - The Reddit moderation nightmare for founders
00:10:14 - From community platform to AI visibility: the pivot story
00:12:15 - Why reviews and comparison pages drive AI citations
00:16:10 - Building the MVP in 2 months with 2 engineers
00:20:00 - The agency model: 1 customer becomes 20
00:24:10 - Time to value: from months to minutes
00:27:59 - First customers through targeted LinkedIn outreach
00:31:45 - 20% reply rate: the simple offer that works
00:35:39 - Why no product is sticky if built in 6 months
00:42:47 - Engineering velocity beats product differentiation
00:47:20 - Build free tools for distribution, not just features
00:53:20 - Staying sane in the AI hype cycle
00:58:57 - Balancing founder-led content with product building
01:02:07 - Your baseline AI visibility strategy
01:05:28 - Bonobo and the perfect focus music
01:13:44 - Connect with Kai and try Hall

Follow Kai Forsyth
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaiforsyth/
Website: https://usehall.com/

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Stephen Dale was handed a "fire warden jacket" and a broken spreadsheet at a UAE startup, tasked with managing vendors spending nearly $1 million annually. Instead of accepting expensive enterprise solutions, he built his own and discovered the massive gap between what startups need and what the market offers.

Stephen is the co-founder of Vendor App, a vendor management platform designed specifically for startups and SMBs. After experiencing firsthand the pain of managing vendors through spreadsheets while working at a rapidly growing startup in the UAE, he identified a clear market need: enterprise vendor management systems were too complex and expensive (some costing $1M+ annually), while startups were stuck with broken spreadsheets and missed renewals. Vendor App solves this with one-click compliance checks, automated contract management, and pricing that actually makes sense for growing companies. Currently bootstrapping from the Philippines, Stephen and his team are building the vendor management tool that startups actually want to use.

He explains:
⬛ Why bootstrapping forced better decisions:
⬛ The hidden cost of vendor mismanagement:
⬛ How to know when to stop adding features
⬛ Why grit is more important than education for founders
⬛ The unexpected places founder insights come from

Follow Stephen Dale
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-dale-3a819840/
Website: https://www.vendorapp.co/

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LinkedIn: /more-founders-show
YouTube: @morefoundersshow
Website: https://morefounders.show

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LinkedIn: /daveberner
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YouTube: @daveordead
Website: https://daveberner.me

Sponsors
Kinde: https://kinde.com

Ikum Kandola wanted to quit just a few months ago. After his first startup Teachify hit the brutal reality of the education market's resistance to AI, he pivoted hard into consulting, a space where AI actually drives revenue. Now TheAx.ai is helping smaller consultancies compete with the Big Four by productizing their knowledge through AI.

Ikum is co-founder of TheAx.ai, an AI-powered consulting platform that turns traditional time-based consultancies into outcome-based businesses. A computer science graduate who worked at PwC while launching his first venture at university, Ikum brings both technical depth and hard-won startup experience. TheAx has grown to 15 customers and £4k MRR after bootstrapping their MVP from a two-week pilot project that proved the concept.

He explains:
⬛ Why "build it and they will come" is complete BS (even with a great product)
⬛ How a two-week consulting gig became the foundation for a platform play
⬛ Why he does 10 hours of dev work per week max (hint: sales is everything)
⬛ The data-backed presentation that saved his startup from co-founder conflict
⬛ How to leverage your co-founders' networks instead of cold outreach
⬛ Why building public gets you builders, not customers

Follow Ikum Kandola
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ikum
Website: https://theax.ai

More Founders Show
LinkedIn: /more-founders-show
YouTube: @morefoundersshow
Website: https://morefounders.show

Follow Dave
LinkedIn: /daveberner
X: @dave_or_dead
YouTube: @daveordead
Website: https://daveberner.me

Sponsors
Kinde: https://kinde.com