Do you work with pre-product or stealth AI teams?

Yes, when the founder commits 90 minutes per week to the long-form layer. We need a launch trigger inside 90 days. The wedge is the Founder Funnel. We translate technical edge into founder authority before the product is public. Embedded NDA plus controlled review on every asset. Stealth teams get a private working track until the launch window opens.

What does outcome pricing look like for AI-native teams?

We anchor on five signals. Qualified inbound. Design-partner conversion. Hiring funnel inbound. AEO citation share across ChatGPT and Gemini. Category recall lift inside the AI orbit cluster. Per-impression and CPM models do not apply. AI Series A teams typically anchor on qualified inbound plus founder-led pipeline plus per-LLM citation count. All three report on a weekly audit-ledger receipt.

Do you work with open-source AI projects with no funding?

Selectively. The bar is shipping signal. Active repo, growing contributor base, real adoption metrics. Plus a clear path to commercial milestone in the next 90 days. The wedge is converting HN spikes into recurring builder signal. The 14-day clipping cycle plus DevRel handoff carries the load. We are not the right fit for pure research projects without a launch motion.

How fast does the engagement go live?

Application call first. Scope locked inside five business days. Engagement starts week two. First founder long-form moment scheduled by day 14. Distribution running by day 30. First measurable recall lift by day 60. Quarterly scale call on day 90. Round-readiness narrative loaded by day 75 if a raise window is inside the quarter.

For AI-Native Startups · By application · Selective on ICP

Marketing for AI startups thatcompounds the funnel.

FORKOFF for AI Startups is an AI-native marketing engagement. We deliver AEO citation across ChatGPT and Gemini, founder-led distribution, and an audit-ledger receipt per dollar. Builder recall compounds into hiring leverage. Buyer-LLM citation lands you in the shortlist before the demo call.

Talk to FORKOFF

See the system

$2-5k pilot floor · routes to marketing foundation + fractional CMO + AEO + founder funnelBy application · 5 engagements per quarterPre-Seed · Seed · Series A · Series B

3×Qualified inbound lift inside 60 days on a Pre-A AI infra install

14Days to first founder long-form moment in market

$5-50kEngagement band per quarter (pilot to embedded retainer)

5Engagements per quarter (selective on ICP)

AI shapes FORKOFF runs distribution for

AI infraAgentic appsModel providersLLM appsVector DBRAG toolingAI productivityAI dev-platformsEval rigorYC AI cohorta16z AI portfolioAI Engineer SummitAI infraAgentic appsModel providersLLM appsVector DBRAG toolingAI productivityAI dev-platformsEval rigorYC AI cohorta16z AI portfolioAI Engineer Summit

Pre-Seed → Series BYC + a16z orbitFounder cadence lockedAudit ledger per dollar

Pre-engagement diagnostic

Why most AI-native marketing
engagements stall.

Five patterns we see when an AI-native team shops for marketing help. The engagement reads as theatre inside the first quarter. Each row is the FORKOFF fix. Read it before you book the discovery call.

fk_audit · ai_startup_engagement_reject_log.csv

#Reject reasonAudit detailFORKOFF fix

Row 0101
Reject reasonBuilders know you. The market doesn't.
Audit detail
Technical edge is real. Repos star. Demos circulate inside the lab Discord. Hiring Slack channels reference the team. Outside the dev orbit the product reads as silence. Buyers, capital allocators, and category analysts cannot recall the company unprompted.
FORKOFF fix
Fix
Founder-led narrative plus clippable long-form moments turn technical edge into category recall. Builder reach compounds into buyer reach inside 60 days.
Row 0202
Reject reasonNo AEO citation in buyer LLMs
Audit detail
AI-native buyers run shortlist queries through ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude before the first call. The category answer cites incumbents, the lab paper, and a 2024 round-up post. Your team is not in the answer.
FORKOFF fix
Fix
AEO citation work plus schema graph plus answer-first long-form lands you inside buyer LLM responses for category queries inside 60 days. Tracked per-LLM on the audit ledger.
Row 0303
Reject reasonGeneric agency framing rejected by AI buyers
Audit detail
AI-native founders ignore agency outreach. The room reads agency-speak as low-signal. PR motion, sponsored newsletter buys, and gated whitepaper plays die on contact with the technical buyer.
FORKOFF fix
Fix
Culture-studio motion with YC plus a16z proof unlocks the room. FORKOFF operates inside the AI orbit, not adjacent to it. No press releases. No gated whitepapers. No last-touch attribution theatre.
Row 0404
Reject reasonHN launch spike then silence
Audit detail
Open-source repo or model release lands on Hacker News. Front page for six hours. Referral traffic decays inside two days. Contributor activity flatlines inside two weeks. The launch becomes a vanity peak. It is not the start of a recurring builder signal.
FORKOFF fix
Fix
14-day clipping cycle plus DevRel handoff plus founder Q&A series turn the launch spike into eight weeks of compounding builder activity. Audit ledger tracks contributor cadence plus recall lift.
Row 0505
Reject reasonFounder invisible outside YC orbit
Audit detail
Inside YC and the AI Engineer crowd the founder is recognised. Outside that orbit the founder reads as one of a thousand wrappers. Institutional buyers, Series B+ capital, lateral hires from FAANG, and vertical buyers all skip past. The next raise re-litigates the moat from zero.
FORKOFF fix
Fix
Founder funnel work compounds personal authority into the company narrative. LinkedIn for institutional credibility. X for technical-adopter recall. YouTube for receipts. Recall is the leading indicator of pipeline.

5 / 5 patterns auditedSource: FORKOFF AI engagement bankPre-application diagnostic

The 90-day operating system

From stealth model
to category-cited founder.

The engagement runs on a 90-day operating system. It anchors on the buyer journey, the AEO citation surface, and the audit-ledger receipt. Plan signed in week one. First founder long-form by day 14. Audit-ledger receipt in the founder inbox every Friday from week six. Pair the spine with Answer Engine Optimization from week two. Buyer-LLM citation compounds alongside.

01Days 0-14 · Diagnostic
02Days 14-30 · Spine
03Days 30-60 · Compound
04Days 60-90 · Scale

Audit.Foundation.Distribute.Settle.

FK · AI 90-day planLIVE

Day 0Application call

Day 5Scope signed

Day 14First long-form

Day 60Recall lift

Day 90Scale call

$500

Sandbox audit fee

AUDIT BEFORE THE RETAINER · 14 DAYS

Run the audit before any retainer.

14-day AI-startup diagnostic plus audit ledger. Surface the AEO citation gap, scope the AI orbit, lock the spine.

Audit fee credits to retainer if you continue past day 14.

Apply for the sandbox audit

The wedge

Builders know you.
The market doesn't.

Generic SaaS marketing agencies sell paid clicks, gated whitepapers, and sponsored newsletter slots. AI-native founders reject the motion. FORKOFF ships founder authority, AEO citation across ChatGPT and Gemini, and technical-arc clipping. The library stays discoverable next quarter and the one after.

14Days to first founder long-form

30+Cuts shipped per long-form arc

5Engagements per quarter (selective ICP)

Read the founder funnel wedge

LIVEAudit ledger · AI engagement bench

Three numbers that decideif an AI engagement compounds.

0 days

First founder long-form moment in market

From scope-signed to first published cut. Locked into every 30/60/90 plan.

AEO citation share plus sourced inbound attributable to operator-owned narrative. Reported on the audit ledger.

First measurable recall lift

0 days

Pilot floor $2-5k. Routes to marketing foundation, fractional CMO, AEO, founder funnel, or DevRel.

Engagement band

$0-00k/qtr

Application-only · selective on ICPPre-Seed · Seed · Series A · Series BAudit ledger receipt every FridayScale-up or scale-down call at quarter end

Proof · AI-startup engagements

Three AI campaigns.Three audit-ledger receipts.

Every AI-startup engagement compounds against a weekly receipt. Three short reads from infra, agent, and foundation lanes.

PRE-A AI INFRA

3× qualified inbound, 60 days

Pre-A AI infra. AEO citation across ChatGPT plus Gemini. Founder podcast circuit booked. Audit ledger weekly.

3×Inbound lift

AGENT APP

First AEO citation, 14 days

Series A agent app. Voice canon plus per-ICP messaging map. Featured circuit running by week two.

FOUNDATION MODEL

Builder recall lift, 90 days

Foundation-model partner. Long-form arc plus clip cadence. Builder recall lift on category queries.

What plugs into the AI-startup engagement

Four phases. Twenty
deliverables behind the seat.

PHASE 01[WEEK 1-2]

Strategy

Thesis locked, AI-cohort axis chosen, channels weighted.

Deliverables (5)

▸ICP doc + outcome claim signed
▸AI thesis pick (infra · agents · models · vertical)
▸AEO + per-LLM citation baseline
▸X primary · LinkedIn · YouTube channel mix
▸Founder voice extracted

PHASE 02[WEEK 3-6]

Production

Founder long-form, technical deep-dives, AEO content live.

Deliverables (5)

▸Founder podcast scoped + booked
▸Technical deep-dive series shipping
▸Demo days + builder Q&A recorded
▸AEO + schema graph + llms.txt live
▸ChatGPT + Gemini + Perplexity tracker

PHASE 03[WEEK 6-10]

Distribution

30+ assets per long-form, X-first technical reach.

Deliverables (5)

▸X buyer-cuts shipping daily
▸LinkedIn institutional cuts shipping
▸YouTube full demos as receipts
▸AI Engineer + YC orbit syndication
▸HN + r/MachineLearning amplification

PHASE 04[WEEK 10-13]

Settlement

Sourced inbound, hiring funnel, raise-ready narrative.

Deliverables (5)

▸Weekly audit-ledger receipt
▸Pipeline + hiring attributed to ledger
▸Buyer LLM citation share reported
▸Round-readiness narrative loaded
▸Scale-up or scale-down decision

What counts on the AI-startup ledger

What countson the weekly receipt.

An AI-startup engagement is only working when four signals hold every week. AEO citation logged on a category query. Builder recall lift inside the AI orbit. Pipeline traceable to a specific arc. A compounding asset library that pays forward. Impression volume without citation share or sourced inbound does not count. The audit ledger writes the four signals down on Friday. The operator signs it.

Active check · AEO CITATION

1 / 4Signals the audit ledger checks every Friday. AEO citation, builder recall, pipeline trace, compound asset.

01 AEO CITATION

Buyer-LLM citation logged on a category query inside 60 days.

AEO CITATION

ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude shortlist responses cite FORKOFF-managed assets on the category query. Tracked per-LLM, per-query, per-week on the audit ledger. Citation share is the leading indicator of pipeline.

fk_audit · qv_check_01

rule · Buyer-LLM citation logged on a category query inside 60 days.

BUILDER RECALL

Mention tracking on X, AI Engineer, r/MachineLearning, r/LocalLLaMA, and builder Discord servers. YC and a16z portfolio cross-pollination layered on top. Builder recall converts to hiring leverage and reference-customer pipeline ahead of the next raise.

fk_audit · qv_check_02

rule · Technical-adopter recall lift inside the AI orbit cluster.

PIPELINE TRACE

Demo requests, design-partner applications, hiring inbound, lateral senior referrals. Each one traces to a specific arc, asset, or AEO citation. Not last-touch noise. Reported every Friday on the audit ledger with the operator signature.

fk_audit · qv_check_03

rule · Sourced inbound attributable to the operator-owned narrative.

COMPOUND ASSET

Every asset shipped this quarter stays discoverable next quarter. AEO citations carry over. Technical deep-dives recompile into vertical arcs and round-readiness collateral. The library is yours to keep.

fk_audit · qv_check_04

rule · Owned long-form library plus AEO citations plus technical arcs that pay forward.

Counts on the receipt
Doesn't count

Outcomes the AI-startup engagement unlocks

Recall, citation,
and a real scale call.

Three AI campaigns across infra, agentic apps, and model-provider lanes. FORKOFF operators owned the spine and scoped the long-form layer. The weekly receipt was something the founder could read in two minutes. Read the longer write-ups inside our case-study hub.

3×

Qualified inbound lift inside 60 days on a Pre-Series-A AI infra install. Replaced a $40K monthly paid retainer with embedded FORKOFF execution.

8 wk

Open-source launch into recurring builder signal on an agentic app. HN launch plus 14-day clipping cycle plus DevRel handoff turned the spike into eight weeks of compounding contributor activity.

60

Days from kickoff to first AEO citation on a model-provider engagement.

OWNED

You keep raw footage, edits, masters, audience graph, and per-LLM citation tracker.

" " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " "

Operator note · AI startup founder

“

FORKOFF locked the AEO spine in week one. By week three the founder podcast was booking guests on its own and the audit ledger was the operator's Friday report.

Founder · NDA-cleared placeholder

Series A AI infra

14dFirst long-form to AEO citation

Comparison

FORKOFF AI engagement vs the alternatives.

Three routes to AI-native pipeline durability. Match the engagement to your stage, your capital structure, and your willingness to commit to outcome-priced reporting. Generic SaaS and Web2 agencies and DIY headcount both lose on AI-orbit fluency, speed-to-first-asset, and audit-ledger transparency.

Feature	FORKOFF AI engagementEmbedded · outcome-priced · founder authority + AEO citation	Generic SaaS / Web2 agencyHourly retainer · paid + gated content default	DIY in-house teamFull headcount · 6-month assembly	DIY founder marketingFounder writes part-time · no system · stop-start cadence
ICP fluency	Operates inside YC, a16z, Sequoia, and AI Engineer orbit. Treats AI as a culture, not a vertical	Treats AI as one vertical among many. Same playbook regardless of buyer	Depends on the AI-fluent senior hires you can land in 90 days	Founder voice is fluent. Only ships when the calendar permits. No second pair of hands
Pipeline driver	Founder authority, AEO citation, clipping ledger, builder-recall compounding	Paid clicks, gated whitepapers, sponsored newsletter slots	Hire 4-6 people. Build the playbook from scratch over 6+ months	One founder thread per week when traction allows. No compounding system
Buyer trust source	Founder long-form, technical deep-dives, AEO citation across ChatGPT and Gemini	Logo walls, gated reports, generic case-study PDFs	Tenure variance. Roadmap re-litigated every senior hire	Sporadic founder posts. No AEO surface. No audit ledger
Channel mix	X primary, LinkedIn institutional, YouTube long-form, founder podcast, AEO citation	LinkedIn ads, sponsored email, paid search, gated webinars	Whatever the new VP of Marketing prefers	X only. Depends on the week the founder has bandwidth
Engagement model	Embedded retainer. Outcome-priced on qualified inbound, recall lift, and citation share	Hourly retainer. Output-priced on impressions and last-touch credit	Salary, equity, benefits, ramp, tenure variance	Founder time only. Direct cost zero. Opportunity cost very high
Speed to first asset	First founder long-form in market by day 14	Week 8 first generic blog post live	Roughly 90-180 days. Gated on hiring closing	Whenever the founder finishes the next investor update first
Reporting surface	Weekly audit-ledger receipt on qualified views, sourced inbound, and AEO citation share	Monthly dashboard. Pixel-tracked impressions and last-touch credit	Quarterly board deck. Vanity metrics during ramp	Vibes. Founder remembers which thread popped two months ago

AI-startup engagement plans

Three routesfor AI-native startups.

Foundation, retainer, or executive seat. Match the engagement to the AI-native startup stage. By application, capped at 5 per quarter.

Marketing Foundation

Positioning + ICP grid + voice canon

$5-10k/project

Positioning statement
3-5 ICP grid
Voice canon doc
Channel-fit table
Notion deliverable

Apply for Foundation

Most picked

Fractional CMO

Embedded retainer · operator seat

$15-30k/qtr

Embedded operator
Audit ledger weekly
AEO + founder cadence
Quarterly scale call
Pipeline traceability

Apply for Fractional CMO

Founder Funnel

Personal-brand axis · founder-led sales

$10-20k/qtr

Founder authority arc
Long-form layer
AEO citation work
30/60/90 cadence
Friday receipt

Apply for Founder Funnel

Note ·Pilot floor $2-5k applies to the first cycle. Engagements scope-locked, not retainer guesswork.

AI-startup engagement fit diagnostic

Strong fit when 4+ are true.
Skip when any disqualifier fires.

Who you are

›Shipping an AI-native product (LLM app, model wrapper, agentic infra, generative tooling, AI productivity)
›Stage Pre-Seed through Series B (VC-funded a16z, Sequoia, Index, YC AI cohort, or revenue-funded equivalent)
›Founder willing to spend 90 minutes per week on the long-form layer
›Real product running with outcome stories from at least one design partner or paying user
›Commercial moment in the next 90 days (raise, GA, model release, partnership, AI Engineer talk)
›Cares about AEO citation share, builder recall, and hiring leverage. Not just impression counts

What FORKOFF delivers

›Embedded operator who owns the AI-native narrative spine and runs weekly cadence with the founder
›Founder long-form distribution plus technical-arc clipping plus AEO citation work plugged in behind the seat
›30/60/90 plan signed in week one. Audit-ledger baseline captured
›X-primary technical cuts. LinkedIn institutional cuts. YouTube full demos. Founder podcast
›Weekly audit-ledger receipt against qualified views, sourced inbound, and per-LLM citation share
›Routes to /services/marketing-foundation, /services/fractional-cmo, /services/answer-engine-optimization, /services/founder-funnel, /services/devrel based on AI-startup stage

Not the right fit

×Pure research projects with no funded path to first paying customer or design partner in 12 months
×Founders who will not commit 90 minutes per week to the long-form layer
×Pure paid acquisition mandates with no narrative or owned-distribution work
×Operators who treat marketing as MQL-volume engine. Not pipeline plus recall compounding
×D2C consumer apps, e-commerce, or heavily regulated industries outside AI-native software

Apply for the engagement

$2-5k pilot floor · routes to marketing foundation, fractional CMO, AEO, founder funnel, DevRel

FORKOFF runs the AI-startup engagement as an embedded retainer. The FORKOFF execution stack plugs in behind it. By application. Capped at 5 engagements per quarter. Selective on ICP. Pilot floor is $2,000 to $5,000 depending on the service stack chosen. Most AI-native teams route into a Marketing Foundation project, a Fractional CMO retainer, an AEO sandbox plus retainer, a Founder Funnel engagement, or a DevRel engagement after the diagnostic.

01Sandbox
02Engagement
03Compound

By application

Apply for the engagement

Markets we run this in

AI-startup engagements compound on the coasts. We anchor the founder cadence inside San Francisco for builder recall. We then route enterprise distribution through New York GTM when the procurement layer opens up.

Related lanes

Sister ICPsand routing services.

01 / 03Open

AI Agents

Sister ICP. Agent-first product axis.

02 / 03Open

SaaS Companies

Adjacent ICP. B2B SaaS marketing agency.

03 / 03Open

Founder Funnel service

Personal-brand layer for AI founders.

Frequently asked questions

FORKOFF is a culture studio for AI-native and Web3 brands. We operate inside the YC, a16z, and AI Engineer orbit. We work in the channels AI buyers actually use. X primary. LinkedIn institutional. AEO citation. We price on outcomes. A generic SaaS agency treats AI as one vertical. They run the same paid playbook for every buyer. AI-native founders reject that motion.

Engagements run $5,000 to $50,000 per quarter. Cost depends on the service stack chosen. Pilot floor is $2,000 to $5,000. Common shapes include a Marketing Foundation project ($5-10K fixed scope, 4-6 weeks). A Fractional CMO retainer ($5-8K per month, 90-day minimum). An AEO sandbox ($1.5-3K plus $4-7K monthly retainer). A Founder Funnel engagement ($4-7K per month). All by application. Capped at five engagements per quarter. Scaleable at quarter end.

Yes, with cuts tuned for each surface. Technical adopters on X want product mechanics, integration depth, eval rigor, and developer-grade demos. Institutional buyers and recruiting funnels on LinkedIn want outcome stories, AI thesis fit, named-customer proof, and Series A/B credibility. Same long-form. Different cuts. Different cadence. AI engagements anchor X-primary because that is where the technical buyer signs.

AEO citation work is a standard layer of the engagement. Schema graph, answer-first long-form copy, llms.txt publication, and per-LLM citation tracking on category queries live by day 21. Traditional SEO content production stays with the in-house team or a specialist. We coordinate the long-form spine. Podcast, demos, founder posts, and SEO landing pages reinforce one capability claim across every answer surface.

The brand line

Stop posting into the dev echo.
Compound the technical edge.

30/60/90 cadence. First founder long-form by day 14. AEO citation work running from week two. Audit-ledger receipt from week six. Built for AI-native startups that need durable pipeline and buyer-LLM citation. Not ad-spend dependence. Pair the seat with Marketing Foundation, Fractional CMO, Answer Engine Optimization, Founder Funnel, or DevRel depending on your AI-startup stage. Sister ICPs: AI Agent Products and SaaS Companies. Browse all FORKOFF ICPs if AI-native startup is not the closest fit.

Talk to FORKOFF

Browse all services

From the FORKOFF blog

Receipts, deep dives, and playbooks.

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By FORKOFF

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ETH NYC 2026 Activation Playbook: The 3-Week Motion

ETH NYC 2026 hits June 8 to 14 (ETHConf + ETHGlobal NY). The 3-week activation playbook that lifted sponsor day-30 dev activations 8.9x across 11 audited teams.

By FORKOFF

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Best AI Video Editor 2026: 9 Tools Ranked Honestly

Compare the 9 best AI video editors of 2026 on pricing, qualified-view economics, audit ledger, and ICP fit. Apply now to test the managed lane.

By Forkoff Team

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Pricing the qualified view

From stealth model
to category-cited founder.

Builders know you.
The market doesn't.

What countson the weekly receipt.

Feature

FORKOFF AI engagementEmbedded · outcome-priced · founder authority + AEO citation

Generic SaaS / Web2 agencyHourly retainer · paid + gated content default

DIY in-house teamFull headcount · 6-month assembly

DIY founder marketingFounder writes part-time · no system · stop-start cadence

ICP fluency

Operates inside YC, a16z, Sequoia, and AI Engineer orbit. Treats AI as a culture, not a vertical

Treats AI as one vertical among many. Same playbook regardless of buyer

Depends on the AI-fluent senior hires you can land in 90 days

Founder voice is fluent. Only ships when the calendar permits. No second pair of hands

Pipeline driver

Founder authority, AEO citation, clipping ledger, builder-recall compounding

Paid clicks, gated whitepapers, sponsored newsletter slots

Hire 4-6 people. Build the playbook from scratch over 6+ months

One founder thread per week when traction allows. No compounding system

Buyer trust source

Founder long-form, technical deep-dives, AEO citation across ChatGPT and Gemini

Logo walls, gated reports, generic case-study PDFs

Tenure variance. Roadmap re-litigated every senior hire

Sporadic founder posts. No AEO surface. No audit ledger

Channel mix

X primary, LinkedIn institutional, YouTube long-form, founder podcast, AEO citation

LinkedIn ads, sponsored email, paid search, gated webinars

Whatever the new VP of Marketing prefers

X only. Depends on the week the founder has bandwidth

Engagement model

Embedded retainer. Outcome-priced on qualified inbound, recall lift, and citation share

Hourly retainer. Output-priced on impressions and last-touch credit

Salary, equity, benefits, ramp, tenure variance

Founder time only. Direct cost zero. Opportunity cost very high

Speed to first asset

First founder long-form in market by day 14

Week 8 first generic blog post live

Roughly 90-180 days. Gated on hiring closing

Whenever the founder finishes the next investor update first

Reporting surface

Weekly audit-ledger receipt on qualified views, sourced inbound, and AEO citation share

Monthly dashboard. Pixel-tracked impressions and last-touch credit

Quarterly board deck. Vanity metrics during ramp

Vibes. Founder remembers which thread popped two months ago

Frequently asked questions

Stop posting into the dev echo.
Compound the technical edge.

Marketing for AI startups thatcompounds the funnel.

Why most AI-native marketingengagements stall.

From stealth modelto category-cited founder.

Audit.Foundation.Distribute.Settle.

Audit

Foundation

Distribute

Settle

Run the audit before any retainer.

Builders know you.The market doesn't.

Three numbers that decideif an AI engagement compounds.

Three AI campaigns.Three audit-ledger receipts.

3× qualified inbound, 60 days

First AEO citation, 14 days

Builder recall lift, 90 days

Four phases. Twentydeliverables behind the seat.

Deliverables (5)

Deliverables (5)

Deliverables (5)

Deliverables (5)

What countson the weekly receipt.

AEO CITATION

BUILDER RECALL

PIPELINE TRACE

COMPOUND ASSET

Recall, citation,and a real scale call.

3×

8 wk

60

OWNED

FORKOFF AI engagement vs the alternatives.

Three routesfor AI-native startups.

Marketing Foundation

Fractional CMO

Founder Funnel

Strong fit when 4+ are true.Skip when any disqualifier fires.

$2-5k pilot floor · routes to marketing foundation, fractional CMO, AEO, founder funnel, DevRel

Sister ICPsand routing services.

AI Agents

SaaS Companies

Founder Funnel service

Frequently asked questions

Stop posting into the dev echo.Compound the technical edge.

Receipts, deep dives, and playbooks.

Web3 Marketing Dubai 2026: The 5-Layer MENA GTM Stack

ETH NYC 2026 Activation Playbook: The 3-Week Motion

Best AI Video Editor 2026: 9 Tools Ranked Honestly

Marketing for AI startups thatcompounds the funnel.

Why most AI-native marketingengagements stall.

From stealth modelto category-cited founder.

Audit.Foundation.Distribute.Settle.

Audit

Foundation

Distribute

Settle

Run the audit before any retainer.

Builders know you.The market doesn't.

Three numbers that decideif an AI engagement compounds.

Three AI campaigns.Three audit-ledger receipts.

3× qualified inbound, 60 days

First AEO citation, 14 days

Builder recall lift, 90 days

Four phases. Twentydeliverables behind the seat.

Deliverables (5)

Deliverables (5)

Deliverables (5)

Deliverables (5)

What countson the weekly receipt.

AEO CITATION

BUILDER RECALL

PIPELINE TRACE

COMPOUND ASSET

Recall, citation,and a real scale call.

3×

8 wk

60

OWNED

FORKOFF AI engagement vs the alternatives.

Three routesfor AI-native startups.

Marketing Foundation

Why most AI-native marketing
engagements stall.

From stealth model
to category-cited founder.

Builders know you.
The market doesn't.

Four phases. Twenty
deliverables behind the seat.

Recall, citation,
and a real scale call.

Strong fit when 4+ are true.
Skip when any disqualifier fires.

Stop posting into the dev echo.
Compound the technical edge.

Why most AI-native marketing
engagements stall.

From stealth model
to category-cited founder.

Builders know you.
The market doesn't.

Four phases. Twenty
deliverables behind the seat.

Recall, citation,
and a real scale call.

Strong fit when 4+ are true.
Skip when any disqualifier fires.

Stop posting into the dev echo.
Compound the technical edge.