Thenuka Karunaratne (daydream) on Building SEO Moats with AI

Mar 11, 2025

Thenuka Karunaratne, Co-founder and CEO of daydream, shares his expertise in automating programmatic SEO. He discusses how businesses can create sustainable SEO advantages using proprietary data and strategic execution rather than just AI-generated content. Thenuka cautions against 'SEO on autopilot' but highlights impressive results from thoughtful AI integration. A compelling case study demonstrates that programmatically created content for Twingate attracted 50,000 monthly visits, showcasing the power of effective SEO tactics in a rapidly changing landscape.

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ANECDOTE

Early Ventures in SEO and Streaming

Thenuka Karunaratne's first business involved building affiliate websites like NetflixDNSCodes.com, capitalizing on SEO for specific search terms.
He later founded Flixed, a streaming lead generation business leveraging programmatic SEO to drive over 100,000 subscribers to major streaming platforms.

INSIGHT

The Long Tail Challenge in Streaming SEO

Streaming presents a unique SEO challenge due to the long-tail nature of search volume, with most queries focusing on specific shows and movies.
This necessitates a programmatic SEO approach to effectively target the vast number of long-tail keywords.

INSIGHT

Two Major Shifts in Search: AI Answers and Programmatic Content

The rise of AI answer engines and programmatic content creation are two major shifts in search.
Valuable middle- and bottom-funnel queries, often involving actions, are less likely to be replaced by AI answers.

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In this episode, Thenuka Karunaratne shares how companies can create sustainable competitive advantages ("moats") in SEO as AI transforms search. With extensive experience in programmatic SEO, Thenuka explains why simply using AI to generate content isn't enough — the real advantage comes from proprietary data and strategic implementation.

Despite warning against "SEO on autopilot," Thenuka demonstrates the remarkable results possible with thoughtful AI integration. His case study with Twingate shows how programmatically created content quickly generated 50,000 monthly visits, with 20% of their demo page traffic coming from this content.

About Our Guest: Thenuka Karunaratne

Thenuka Karunaratne is the co-founder and CEO of daydream, a platform that automates programmatic SEO. Founded in 2023 with $3.8M in seed funding, daydream builds on Thenuka's experience creating high-performance programmatic SEO systems.

Before daydream, he founded Flixed, a streaming industry lead generation business that leveraged programmatic SEO to send over 100,000 subscribers to services like HBO, Disney, and Hulu.

About This Season of the Animalz Podcast: AI & Content

Hello... is there anybody out there creating real value with AI?

The AI conversation in content marketing has become deafening — skeptics shouting from one side, shallow tips from enthusiasts on the other. But somewhere in this noise, there must be pioneers who've actually figured something out, right?

We've gone on a search for the real pioneers — the ones who've ventured beyond the hype to succeed (or fail) spectacularly. Through their hard-won insights, we'll discover if there's actually something of value hiding in the noise, or if we're all just shouting into the void.

Timestamps

00:00 Why most content teams lack visibility in AI-driven search

01:30 Thenuka’s background in SEO and streaming

03:30 From affiliate sites to building a programmatic SEO platform

06:00 The problem with manual approaches to long-tail SEO

08:30 Two major changes in search: AI answer engines and programmatic content

11:00 Tools for measuring brand visibility in AI answer engines

13:00 Why “SEO on autopilot” is a marketing myth

15:30 How AI can automate the strategic aspects of growth marketing

19:00 Why the future of SEO requires more technical expertise

21:00 Twingate case study: using data breaches to drive programmatic SEO

25:00 Why proprietary data becomes your competitive moat

27:30 How SEO is becoming a product function rather than marketing

29:00 The future of search when “computers talk to computers”

Mentioned Links & Resources

Unbroken (00:01:40): The biography of Olympian Louis Zamperini.

Flixed (00:03:00): Thenuka's previous programmatic SEO business.

ChatGPT and Perplexity (00:07:30): AI answer engines changing search behavior.

Zapier (00:09:10): Tool mentioned in the AI answer engine discussion.

Daydream Library (00:12:00): Where Thenuka announced their AI visibility tool.

Twingate (00:21:00): Featured in the 50,000-visit case study.

Coinbase, Airbnb, and Pinterest (00:26:30): Companies where SEO functions as a product capability.

Nexus (00:29:00): A book by Yuval Noah Harari mentioned in the post-interview discussion about finance and AI.

Follow Thenuka and daydream at at withdaydream.com or on LinkedIn or X.

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You can also follow us on X (https://x.com/AnimalzCo) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/animalz/).