Grit How Brands Stay Visible When AI Decides | Profound CEO James Cadwallader
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Dec 22, 2025 
James Cadwallader, co-founder and CEO of Profound, shares insights on how brands navigate AI-driven visibility challenges. He reveals how AI, especially ChatGPT, reshapes consumer discovery and highlights the urgency for brands to adapt. With a lighthearted take on rapid hiring rituals and office culture, he discusses scaling strategies. Ilya Fushman, a partner at Kleiner Perkins, offers an investor's view on market dynamics and talent shortages in the AI space, stressing the importance of building content for both machines and humans.
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Front Door Shift To Conversational AI
- The internet's front door has shifted from blue-link search to conversational AI agents like ChatGPT.
- Brands must control how AI perceives and references them because these agents now shape discovery and recommendations.
Hiring Photos Became Company Ritual
- Profound celebrates each hire with humorous LinkedIn photos that became a hiring ritual.
- The tradition began as a simple announcement and turned into a recurring cultural signal.
Billboard Trucks To Find Office Space
- To find office space in NYC, Profound hired billboard trucks to attract brokers.
- The stunt drew many broker messages and became a growth-hack for locating space.