How to Get Your Startup Recommended by ChatGPT
ChatGPT left your startup out? Ask what your customer asks, open the pages it cites, get onto them and write one page for that exact question.
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You asked ChatGPT for the best tool in your category, and your startup wasn't there.
You can fix that. Ask what your customer asks, open the sources it cites, get onto those pages, and write one page that answers that exact question.
Every week you're missing from those pages, the assistant sends your customers to whoever is on them. It doesn't know you, it repeats what other sites say.
Book a free 15-min audit.
Pick a time →For: founders whose customers ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Perplexity before they buy.
Copy this for your agent
Paste it into Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or any agent that can search the web. It asks before anything paid and posts or sends nothing.
Help me get my startup recommended by ChatGPT and other AI assistants. My website: [your website]. First read it and write the 5 questions my customers would type into ChatGPT when they need what I sell, in their words. Then for each question, search the web and list the pages an AI assistant would most likely cite, like lists, review sites, comparison posts, Reddit threads and newsletters. For each page give me the link, whether my company is on it, and the honest way to get on it. Never suggest fake reviews or fake accounts. Then check if my robots.txt blocks OAI-SearchBot. Then draft one page for my website that answers the most important question in the first two sentences, with the question as the headline. Ask before using any paid API or tool. Do not post, submit or send anything, only draft.
By Eshaan Kansal, founder of Ekos Labs in Germany: 4 years in marketing, outreach and inbound, 7 figures in 9 months with tech companies, 35M+ organic views.
Two places that show how it works
- Tally: the bootstrapped form builder wrote in June 2025 that ChatGPT had become its number one referral source, with more than 2,000 new users from AI tools that they could track. Their theory: the assistant reads forums, Reddit posts and blog mentions, and they had spent years answering questions there. Source
- Reddit: in May 2024 OpenAI and Reddit announced a deal that gives OpenAI access to Reddit's data, so ChatGPT can show Reddit content better. One reason threads keep showing up in the sources. Source
The assistant recommends what the internet already says about you. So work on what the internet says.
01Ask what your customer asks
Not your brand name. The question a stranger types when they have your problem and don't know you exist, like "best invoice app for freelancers".
Where to find their exact words:
- Your sales call notes and the first line of inbound emails
- Reviews of tools in your category, the 3-star ones especially
- Reddit and forum threads where people ask for a recommendation
Ask each one in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, in a fresh chat every time.
Do this today: your five questions
| # | The question, in their words | ChatGPT names you? | Claude? | Gemini? | Perplexity? | Who it names instead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | ||||||
| 3 | ||||||
| 4 | ||||||
| 5 |
- Write five questions, each copied from a real customer, not invented
- Run all five in a fresh chat on each assistant and fill the row
02Open every page it cites
When ChatGPT searches the web, the answer links to its sources. Click Sources under the reply (in some versions it sits under the three dots) and you see what it read.
That list is the whole game. It doesn't know you, it repeats what these pages say.
Sort every cited page into one of five types:
| Type | Looks like | How hard to get on |
|---|---|---|
| List or roundup | "The 10 best X for Y in 2026" | Medium, one email to the author |
| Review site | A category page with ratings | Easy to list, reviews take real customers |
| Reddit or forum thread | "What do you use for X?" | Easy to answer, has to be genuinely helpful |
| Comparison post | "X vs Y", "alternatives to X" | Medium, the author decides |
| Newsletter or blog | A founder or creator writing about tools | Medium, a relationship, not a form |
One check on your own site first. OpenAI says any public website can show up in ChatGPT search, but only if it doesn't block its crawler, OAI-SearchBot, in robots.txt. Open yoursite.com/robots.txt and look.
Do this today: your source list
| Question # | Page cited (link) | Type | You on it? | Who runs it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||
| 1 | ||||
| 2 |
- Log every source for all five questions
- Mark the pages that show up for two or more questions. Those come first
- Check your robots.txt for OAI-SearchBot
03Get on those pages
Go down your list, starting with the pages that show up most. One honest move per page.
Email the author. Give them a reason to update the post, not a pitch.
Hi [name], your post "[title]" came up when I asked ChatGPT "[the question]". I'm the founder of [company], we [one line, in the reader's words]. If you ever update it, I'd love for you to try it. Here's a free account for you, no strings: [link]. And if it's not a fit, a line on why would help me a lot.Claim your free profile, fill every field, then ask real customers for a review right after a good moment, like a solved ticket.
Hey [first name], glad that worked. If you have two minutes, an honest review on [site] helps other [their role]s find us: [link]. Good or bad, both help.Never buy or fake reviews. The US FTC banned fake reviews and testimonials in 2024, including AI-written ones.
Answer the question first. Say you're the founder. Read the community's rules on self-promotion before you post.
[Two or three lines that actually answer their question, with the trade-offs.]
Full disclosure, I'm the founder of [company], which does [one line]. It's good for [who], not great for [who it's not for].Do this today: three pages
- Pick the three pages that show up most in your source list
- Send one email, claim one profile, answer one thread
- Log the date next to each page so you know when to follow up
04One page for one question
The assistant also reads your website. Give it one page that answers that exact question, so it has something clear to quote.
Google says the same for its AI Overviews: no special tricks, the page has to be indexed and useful, and normal SEO basics still apply.
The page, part by part:
| Part | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Headline | The question, word for word, like "Best invoice app for freelancers" |
| First two sentences | The direct answer, who it's for, the price |
| Who it's not for | One honest line. It makes the rest believable |
| How it compares | A plain table against the usual options, facts only, no trash talk |
| Proof | Real customer quotes and numbers you can show |
| FAQ | The follow-up questions from your calls, answered in one or two lines |
[Company] is a [category] for [who], which helps them [result in their words] without [the old pain]. It costs [price], and it's best for [who] and not built for [who].Do this today: write the page
- Write the page for your question #1, headline first
- Link it from your homepage so it gets found
05Check it every two weeks
This takes weeks, not days. Authors update lists on their own schedule, reviews come in one customer at a time, and new pages need time to be found.
Nobody can guarantee a recommendation. The assistant picks sources for every question, and the answer can change between chats. What you control is how many good pages say the right thing about you.
What to measure: ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to links it sends, so you can see those visits in your analytics. Also add "Where did you hear about us?" to your signup.
| Every 2 weeks | Questions where you're named | Pages you're now on | Visits from AI assistants | Signups saying "ChatGPT" |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 2 | ||||
| Week 4 | ||||
| Week 6 | ||||
| Week 8 |
Do this today: set the check
- Put a 30-minute check in your calendar every second Friday
- Add "Where did you hear about us?" to signup, with ChatGPT and Perplexity as options
06Get on their page, by founder type
Many of the lists, reviews and newsletters the assistant cites are written by founders. The ask has to fit who they are.
Where: a "tools we use" post, a comparison on their company blog, or a thread on X or LinkedIn.
Wants: their own time, and not looking silly in front of their audience.
Hey [first name], your post on [topic] came up when I asked ChatGPT "[the question]". We built [company] for exactly [their use case]. Happy to set you up free if you ever want to test it for the next update.Hey [first name], no pressure at all. If it's useful, here's a 2-minute video of it doing [their use case]: [link].Now an operator, advisor, angel or writing a newsletter. Gets pitched a lot.
Where: their newsletter, Substack or LinkedIn articles.
Wants: to be right, and to be asked for their opinion.
Hey [first name], your roundup on [topic] is one of the pages ChatGPT cites for "[the question]". I'm building [company] for [who]. Would you tell me honestly what you'd need to see before you'd mention a tool like ours?Hey [first name], I took your point on [what they said] and changed [what you changed]. Thanks for that, it helped.Builds in public on YouTube, Instagram, X or TikTok and reviews tools on camera.
Where: their review videos and the comments under them.
Wants: their audience, and something to post.
Hey [first name], people under your video on [topic] keep asking about [question]. That's exactly what [company] does. Want a free account to test it on camera? No script, say what you really think.Hey [first name], here's a short answer to that comment question in case you want to pin it anyway: [two lines]. Offer stays open.Ask what your customer asks, open every page it cites, get on those pages the honest way, and write one page for that exact question. It takes weeks and nobody can guarantee it, but every good page that names you raises your odds.
What's next
Want customers found for you while the AI catches up? That's what we do.
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The pages that recommend your category this month are being written and updated right now.
Book 15 minutes and we'll go through your five questions and your source list together. I only take a few calls a week.
Sources
- Tally, "From 2 to $3M ARR: How We Bootstrapped Tally With a Tiny Team" (June 2025)
- OpenAI and Reddit partnership (May 2024)
- OpenAI, Introducing ChatGPT search: answers link to sources
- Search Engine Roundtable on the Sources button moving under the three dots in a test (Aug 2026)
- OpenAI Publishers and Developers FAQ: any public site can appear, don't block OAI-SearchBot, utm_source=chatgpt.com
- Google Search Central, AI features and your website: no extra requirements for AI Overviews
- FTC final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials (Aug 2024)
