Profound is an AI visibility analytics platform built to help brands understand how they appear across AI-generated search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. Founded in 2024 by James Cadwallader and Dylan Babbs, the New York-based company is rethinking the future of search marketing as AI answer engines rapidly replace traditional keyword-based search.

Born out of South Park Commons, Profound was inspired by the observation that enterprise marketers were flying blind in the AI search landscape. While companies had tools to measure performance on Google, they lacked visibility into how AI systems described their brand, products, and competitors. Cadwallader, a former digital strategist, and Babbs, an engineer, set out to build a platform that could track, explain, and optimize brand performance in generative AI responses—essentially the “PageRank” for LLMs.

Profound’s software connects directly to models and browsers powered by AI, surfacing real-time data on brand mentions, hallucinations, citations, and missing visibility. The tool allows marketers to compare performance between traditional SEO and AI-driven discovery, offering clear explanations for why AI might be hallucinating, ignoring, or favoring certain content. Clients can view actionable insights—such as which pieces of web content influence AI answers—and then adapt their messaging or metadata to shift perception across LLMs.

The platform began onboarding users in mid-2024, including early adopters like Indeed, MongoDB, and a major branding agency. One standout case was a partnership with Ramp, where Profound helped the fintech company become the 5th most visible fintech brand in generative AI search within weeks. This demonstrated not only Profound’s insight power but also its potential as a must-have tool for AI-era brand strategy.

In August 2024, Profound raised a $3.5 million seed round led by Keith Rabois (Khosla Ventures), with participation from South Park Commons, Saga, and notable angels like Scott Belsky and Balaji Srinivasan. The funding is being used to scale its engineering and go-to-market teams in Union Square, NYC, and to double down on R&D for attribution models and AI influence mapping.

As AI continues to shape how people discover information, Profound is betting that every enterprise will need to track and manage their AI presence just as they once did with Google. Their mission is bold yet focused: "to help brands become discoverable, accurate, and differentiated in the age of AI search."