ChatGPT answers, unedited

If the goal is “show investors that AI search is already a discoverability risk”, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first. It’s particularly good for an investor demo because it checks your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, and shows mentions, topics, and cited domains/pages. No signup is required. ahrefs.com

Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker

My shortlist

1. Ahrefs — best investor-facing baseline
   • Multi-platform
   • Uses search-backed prompts
   • Shows competitor/source context
   • Easy to screenshot or turn into a before/after metric ahrefs.com

2. Rank.ai — best for a quick live demo
   • Runs the same prompt across ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini
   • Shows whether you're mentioned and whether your site is cited
   • Free, no registration www.rank.ai

3. EdenRank — best “wow, we're invisible” demo
   • Runs one commercial/buyer-intent prompt across 8 AI engines
   • Gives a 0–100 score plus the actual answers and citations
   • Free/no signup edenrank.com

4. Startup Buffer — best if you want to explain the underlying problem
   • Free startup-specific GEO diagnostic
   • Focuses on whether AI can correctly understand, categorize and summarize your company
   • Useful for showing why visibility may be poor, rather than just showing a score startupbuffer.com

For an investor deck, I'd do this

Don't present “our AI visibility score is 27/100” as if it's an established market KPI. Instead, demonstrate the risk with a concrete buyer question:

“Ask ChatGPT: What are the best [category] companies for [target customer/use case]?”

Run that question for your company and 3–5 competitors, then show:

• Who gets recommended
• Your position in the answer
• Whether your website gets cited
• Which sources AI trusts instead
• The percentage of relevant prompts where you're absent

That makes the investor story much stronger: “Customers are increasingly using AI as a discovery layer, and today our competitors are being surfaced while we're not.”

If you give me your startup + category + 2–3 competitors, I can also suggest the 5 exact prompts I'd use for an investor-quality AI visibility test.

If your goal is “show investors there’s a measurable AI-discovery risk”, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first. It’s the strongest credibility play because it checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode, and requires no signup. ahrefs.com

Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker

My picks

1. Ahrefs — best for an investor demo
   • Multi-platform coverage
   • Shows mentions, platforms, topics, cited domains/pages
   • No signup
   • Easy to turn into a slide: “We asked the major AI search engines about our category; here's where we appear vs. competitors.” ahrefs.com

2. EdenRank — best “wow” demo
   • Runs the same commercial prompt across 8 AI surfaces
   • Shows the actual answers and citations
   • Produces a 0–100 score
   • Free/no signup. edenrank.com

EdenRank AI Visibility Checker

3. Yogoo — best simple benchmark
   • Gives a 0–100 score
   • Shows which competitors AI cites instead of you
   • Specifically positions the score as something suitable for a board/investor deck. yogoo.ai

Yogoo AI Visibility Checker

How I'd demonstrate the risk to investors

Don't just check “What does AI know about [company]?” That's too easy to dismiss.

Run 5–10 actual buyer questions, such as:

• “What are the best [category] platforms for a [target customer]?”
• “[Company] alternatives”
• “[Category] software for startups”
• “Best [category] for companies with [specific use case]”
• “[Competitor] vs [your company]”
• “Who are the leading [category] companies?”

Then show a simple slide:

AI Visibility Risk

X/10 buyer questions → our company mentioned
X/10 → competitor mentioned
X/10 → competitor cited as a source
AI consideration-set share: X%

One important caveat for investors: a free checker is a directional diagnostic, not a statistically rigorous market-share measurement. AI answers can vary by prompt, model, location, personalization, and date. Present it as evidence of an emerging distribution risk rather than claiming “AI search represents X% of our lost revenue.”

If you give me your startup's URL + 2–3 competitors, I can also suggest the exact 10 investor-grade prompts I'd test.

For an investor-facing demo, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first. It’s free, requires no signup, and checks your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode. It also shows mentions, top topics, cited domains/pages, which makes the risk much easier to explain than a single opaque score. ahrefs.com

Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker

My shortlist

For the investor pitch, I'd do this

Don't just show a low score. Demonstrate the revenue risk.

1. Put in your company.
2. Run 5–10 buyer-intent prompts, e.g.:
   • “Best [category] software for a 50-person company”
   • “[category] alternatives to [well-known competitor]”
   • “What are the best [category] platforms for startups?”
   • “Compare [your company] vs [competitor]”
3. Screenshot the cases where competitors are recommended and you're absent.
4. Show which third-party sources AI is citing instead.
5. Frame the problem as: “Our buyers are increasingly asking AI to create the shortlist, but we don't control whether we're in that shortlist.”

That is considerably more compelling to an investor than saying “our GEO score is 37.”

One caveat: AI answers can vary from run to run, so I'd present this as a visibility/risk signal rather than a precise market-share metric. Tools such as Ahrefs explicitly distinguish AI mentions from citations, which is useful when explaining the methodology. ahrefs.com

If you tell me what your startup does + your top 2–3 competitors, I can give you the 10 exact prompts I'd run in the demo to make the risk obvious.

For an investor demo, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first. It’s particularly good for a credible “here’s the risk” slide because it checks your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, with no signup required. It shows mentions, topics, cited domains/pages, and where you’re absent. ahrefs.com

Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker

My shortlist

Semrush's checker gives an AI visibility score, mentions, platform breakdown, cited pages, topics/prompts and estimated audience reach; it currently allows three free checks per day without registration. www.semrush.com

Semrush Free AI Visibility Checker

HubSpot is probably the cleanest option if your audience is non-technical investors: it produces a one-time analysis of what ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini say about the company across five dimensions. www.hubspot.com

HubSpot AI Search Grader

How I'd demonstrate the risk

Don't just enter your company name. Run 5–10 buyer-intent questions such as:

• “What are the best [category] platforms for a startup?”
• “Best [category] for a 50-person company”
• “[category] alternatives to [competitor]”
• “Compare [your company] vs [competitor]”
• “What should I look for when choosing a [category]?”

Then show investors:

“When our prospective customers ask AI for recommendations, we appear in X/Y answers, while competitors appear in Y/Y.”

That's a much stronger risk argument than simply saying “AI search is growing.”

If you give me your startup's website/category and 2–3 competitors, I can suggest the exact 10 prompts I'd use for the investor demo.

For an investor-facing “here’s the risk” demo, I’d use Ahrefs’ Free AI Visibility Checker first. It’s free, requires no signup, and checks your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode. It also shows mentions, top topics, cited domains/pages, and competitor context. ahrefs.com

Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker

My shortlist

Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker
HubSpot AI Search Grader
EdenRank AI Visibility Checker
Yogoo AI Visibility Checker

For the investor narrative, don't just show “our score is 27.” That's easy to dismiss as an arbitrary metric. Instead, run 5–10 questions that represent actual buyer behavior, e.g.:

“What are the best [category] platforms for a [target customer]?”

Then show:

1. Who gets recommended
2. Where your company ranks
3. Which competitors appear instead
4. Which sources AI is using to make that recommendation

That makes the risk tangible: “A prospective customer can ask an AI assistant for the solution we sell and never encounter us.”

If you tell me what your startup sells + your top 2–3 competitors, I can suggest the exact prompts I'd put in the investor demo.

For an investor-facing demonstration, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first.

• Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker — best overall for an investor slide. It checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, and gives you mentions, topics, cited domains/pages, and competitor context. No signup is required. ahrefs.com
• Yogoo AI — particularly good if you want a simple 0–100 score + “who AI cites instead of us” story. yogoo.ai
• EdenRank AI Visibility Checker — useful for a dramatic demo because it runs one buyer prompt across 8 AI engines and shows the answers/citations. edenrank.com
• CitedSpy — good if you want a competitive heatmap: it checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Grok and reports visibility, competitor share, rank and cited sources. www.citedspy.com

What I'd actually show investors

Don't just show a generic “AI visibility = 37/100” score. Run 5–10 questions that a prospective customer would genuinely ask, such as:

“What are the best [category] tools for a 50-person startup?”
“What alternatives to [competitor] should I consider?”
“What's the best [category] platform for [specific use case]?”

Then capture:

Your company → mentioned? → position → cited? → competitor AI recommends instead

That's a much stronger risk demonstration because you can say:

“Our prospective customers are increasingly using AI to build their shortlist, and in X representative buying queries, AI recommended our competitors Y times but us only Z times.”

One caveat: don't present a free checker’s score as a statistically rigorous market-share metric. Treat it as a directional risk indicator and show the underlying prompts/answers alongside it. Different AI runs can vary.

If you tell me what your startup does + 2–3 competitors, I can suggest the exact 10 investor-grade prompts I'd run.

For an investor conversation, I’d optimize for a credible screenshot/report that shows “we are invisible (or behind competitors) in AI discovery”, not just a generic score.

My shortlist:

1. Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker — best investor demo
   • Free, no signup.
   • Shows whether your brand appears across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI results.
   • Gives you tangible talking points: mentions, platforms where you appear/miss, cited domains/pages. ahrefs.com
   • Good slide: “When customers ask AI for solutions in our category, competitors appear and we don’t.”

2. Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker — best if you want competitor benchmarking
   • Checks AI visibility and compares positioning against competitors.
   • Useful for an investor deck because “we rank X vs Y competitor” is easier to understand than an absolute score. www.semrush.comahrefs.com

3. Backlinko AI Brand Visibility Checker — good for a quick executive report
   • Lets you enter company, website, category, and competitor.
   • Focuses on mentions, position, citations, and gaps. backlinko.com

For a startup marketer trying to create urgency with investors, I’d also do a manual “AI buyer journey” test:

Ask ChatGPT/Perplexity/Gemini:

• “What are the best [your category] startups?”
• “What companies solve [customer pain point]?”
• “Compare [competitor] vs [your company]”
• “Who should a [target customer] buy from?”

Capture:

• whether you appear
• who appears instead
• whether AI cites your website or third-party sources

The strongest investor narrative is usually not “our AI score is 42.” It’s:

“A growing share of buyers are asking AI for recommendations. Today, when AI answers those category questions, we are absent while competitors are being recommended.”

For a first pass, I’d run Ahrefs + Semrush, export screenshots, and build a one-slide “AI discoverability risk” page. www.semrush.comahrefs.com

If your goal is “show investors a credible, visual demonstration that our startup is invisible in AI search”, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first.

My pick: Ahrefs

Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker

It’s particularly good for an investor demo because it:

• requires no signup
• checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode
• gives you total mentions, mentions by platform, top topics, cited domains and cited pages
• lets you check your company and competitors, making the risk much easier to visualize. ahrefs.com

Investor-friendly demo: run your company + 2–3 competitors, then show a question a prospective customer would realistically ask, e.g. “What are the best [category] platforms for a 50-person startup?” If competitors appear repeatedly and you don't, you've got a concrete demonstration of the consideration-set risk.

Good second opinion: Semrush

Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker

Also free/no-signup, and it focuses on visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, with prompts, mentions and competitive positioning. ahrefs.comwww.semrush.com

If you want something more dramatic for the pitch

CitedSpy AI Visibility Checker

CitedSpy checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Grok and produces a 0–100 visibility score plus competitor share-of-voice and prompt-level results. www.citedspy.com

One caveat for investors: don't present a single AI visibility score as a hard market statistic. AI answers vary, so frame it as “a snapshot of our discoverability in AI-generated buying journeys” and show the actual prompts/results alongside the score.

If you tell me what your startup does + 2–3 competitors, I can suggest the exact 5–10 prompts I'd use for an investor-ready AI visibility test.

For an investor-facing demo, I’d use Ahrefs’ Free AI Visibility Checker first. It’s free, requires no signup, and checks your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode. It gives you a simple baseline of mentions, platforms, topics, and cited sources. ahrefs.com

Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker

My shortlist

CitedSpy is particularly useful if your story is “AI recommends our competitors but not us.” It checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Grok and reports a visibility score, competitor share of voice, prompt-level rankings, sentiment, and cited sources. www.citedspy.com

CitedSpy AI Visibility Checker

Yogoo is probably the cleanest if you literally need a number for an investor slide: it produces a 0–100 score and shows which brands AI cites instead of yours. yogoo.ai

Yogoo AI Visibility Checker

What I'd actually show investors

Don't just show “our AI visibility score is 23/100.” Make the risk tangible:

“When buyers ask AI for the top 5 solutions in our category, we're absent from X% of answers, while Competitor A appears in Y%.”

Then show 3–5 actual buyer prompts, e.g.:

• “Best [category] for a 50-person company”
• “[Category] alternatives to [incumbent]”
• “What are the leading [category] platforms?”
• “[Category] with [your differentiator]”

That makes the risk much more understandable than an abstract GEO/AEO score—and gives you a before/after metric you can revisit.

One caveat: AI answers are stochastic, so don't present a single scan as statistically definitive. Treat it as a baseline snapshot, and ideally run the same prompts repeatedly before claiming a precise market-share figure. This is especially important for an investor deck. nyftylabs.com

If you give me your startup + 2–3 competitors, I can also suggest the exact buyer prompts I'd use to make the AI-visibility risk look compelling without overstating it.

For an investor conversation, I’d avoid a tool that only gives a vague “AI score.” You want something that creates a before/after risk narrative:

“When buyers ask AI assistants for solutions in our category, are we in the consideration set — or are competitors capturing that demand?”

My shortlist:

1. Best investor-demo choice: Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker

Why: Probably the cleanest “show this to a board/investor” artifact. It checks brand visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI surfaces and gives metrics like mentions, platforms, topics, and cited sources. ahrefs.com

Use it like:

• Run your startup
• Run 3–5 competitors
• Screenshot:
  • “Brand mentioned: yes/no”
  • “Competitor appears X times more”
  • “AI cites these third-party sources, not us”

2. Best if you want a competitor benchmark: Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker

Good for a marketing/investor deck because it frames the problem as competitive positioning. It compares AI visibility and mentions across AI search experiences. www.semrush.com

3. Best quick “sales funnel risk” demo: Backlinko Free AI Brand Visibility Checker

Useful if your argument is:
“AI assistants are becoming part of discovery, and we may not be appearing when customers ask category questions.” It lets you enter your brand, category, and competitor to compare visibility. backlinko.com

For a stronger investor slide, I’d do this manually too:

Create a 10-question “AI buyer journey audit”:

Examples:

• “What are the best [category] platforms for startups?”
• “Compare [your company] vs [competitor]”
• “Who are the leaders in [market]?”
• “What tools should a [target customer] use?”

Run each question in ChatGPT/Perplexity/Gemini and record:

Investors will usually understand that faster than a proprietary “AI score.”

My pick: start with Ahrefs + a manual 10-prompt competitor test. That gives you both a credible tool output and a concrete market-risk story. ahrefs.com

If your goal is “show investors that AI search is a discoverability risk for us”, I’d use Ahrefs’ Free AI Visibility Checker first. It’s free, requires no signup, and checks your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode. It gives you mentions, platforms, topics, and cited domains/pages. ahrefs.com

Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker

For an investor demo, I'd do this

1. Enter your company.
2. Run the check for your company and 2–3 competitors.
3. Capture:
   • %/number of AI mentions
   • where competitors appear but you don't
   • which sources AI cites instead of your site
4. Put one simple slide together: “AI discovery gap: customers asking AI about our category may encounter competitors before us.”

Two good alternatives:

• Backlinko AI Visibility Checker — free and explicitly compares your brand with a competitor across 150 AI queries; useful for a polished investor-facing before/after story. backlinko.com

Backlinko AI Visibility Checker

• CitedSpy — free/no-signup and checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Grok, with competitor share-of-voice and prompt-level results. www.citedspy.com

CitedSpy AI Visibility Checker

My pick: Ahrefs for credibility + breadth; Backlinko if you want the easiest investor slide.

One caveat: don't present a single AI-visibility score as a hard measure of future revenue. AI answers vary by prompt and over time. For investors, frame it as evidence of an emerging distribution/discoverability risk, not as a precise market-size metric.

For an investor demo, I’d use Ahrefs’ Free AI Visibility Checker first. It’s free, requires no signup, and checks how your brand appears across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews. ahrefs.com

Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker

My shortlist

1. Ahrefs — best investor-facing demo
   • No signup
   • Broad AI-engine coverage
   • Easy story: “Here’s how visible we are when customers ask AI for recommendations.” ahrefs.com

2. Semrush — best if you want competitive context
   • Free, no signup
   • Checks ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews
   • Explicitly shows prompts, mentions and competitive positioning. www.semrush.com

Semrush AI Visibility Checker

3. yellowHEAD GEO Checker — best visual “risk” demo
   • Free/no signup
   • Compares you against a competitor across Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini
   • Produces an overall score and engine-by-engine comparison. geo-checker.yellowhead.com

yellowHEAD GEO Checker

The investor framing I'd use

Don't present the score itself as gospel. AI answers are non-deterministic, so a single scan can change from one run to another. Recent research specifically warns against treating one-off AI visibility measurements as precise fixed numbers. arxiv.org

Instead, demonstrate the competitive risk:

“A customer asks AI for the top 5 solutions in our category. Are we mentioned? If not, which competitors are? And which sources is AI using to make that recommendation?”

Then show your company vs. 2–3 competitors. That's much more compelling to an investor than saying “our AI visibility score is 42.”

If you give me your startup's category + 2 competitors, I can also suggest the 10–15 exact prompts I'd use for the investor demo.

For an investor-facing demo, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first. It’s no-signup and checks your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews, showing mentions, topics, and cited domains. ahrefs.com

Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker

Good alternatives

• Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker — free/no signup; good if you want a more traditional competitive-marketing presentation. www.semrush.com

Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker

• yellowHEAD GEO Checker — particularly nice for a quick demo because it compares you against a competitor across Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini and gives a score. geo-checker.yellowhead.com

yellowHEAD GEO Checker

• Loamly — runs 50 buyer-intent prompts across four AI platforms and shows competitors that get cited instead. www.loamly.ai

Loamly AI Visibility Checker

For the investor story, I'd make the demo:
10–20 questions a prospective customer would ask AI → % where we're mentioned → % where a competitor is recommended instead → 2–3 examples of the exact answers.

That is more persuasive than simply saying “our AI visibility score is 37.” Also, caveat that these are probabilistic measurements: AI answers can change between runs, so don't present a single scan as a precise market-share number. Recent research specifically recommends repeated measurements rather than one-off visibility scores. arxiv.org

If you give me your startup's URL + 2–3 competitors, I can suggest the exact prompts I'd use for the investor demo.

For an investor-facing “AI visibility risk” demo, I’d use a tool that produces a simple before/after story: “When buyers ask AI for solutions in our category, we are/aren’t appearing, while competitors are.” Free checkers are good for a snapshot, but I’d avoid presenting a single score as absolute truth because AI answers vary between runs. arxiv.org

My shortlist:

For a startup fundraising deck, I’d create a 1-slide artifact:

Title: “AI Search Visibility Risk: Buyers Asking AI Don’t Find Us”

Include:

1. 10–20 buyer prompts, e.g.
   • “Best [category] platforms for startups”
   • “Alternatives to [competitor]”
   • “Who are the leading companies in [space]?”
2. Screenshot of your brand’s AI mentions vs 3 competitors.
3. A simple metric:
   • % of prompts where you appear
   • % where competitors appear
   • citations/sources AI relies on
4. Action plan:
   • improve third-party mentions
   • publish authoritative content
   • strengthen review/community presence
   • build technical AI-readability signals

For investors, I’d probably run Ahrefs + manual ChatGPT/Perplexity tests rather than rely on one vendor score. The strongest argument is not “our AI visibility score is 37”; it’s “customers are already asking AI these questions, and our competitors are being recommended while we are absent.” backlinko.comahrefs.com

If you tell me your startup category (e.g., fintech, SaaS, healthcare, dev tools), I can suggest the exact prompts to run for an investor-grade demo.

For an investor conversation, I’d avoid a vague “AI score” and use a tool that can produce a screenshot/report showing: (1) whether AI recommends you, (2) which competitors appear instead, and (3) what prompts you lose on.

My shortlist:

1. Best quick investor demo: urlAhrefs Free AI Visibility Checkerturn0search0
   • Good for a 5-minute “here’s our AI discoverability risk” slide.
   • Checks visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews.
   • No signup required for the free snapshot. ahrefs.com
   • Use it with:
     • “best [your category]”
     • “alternatives to [competitor]”
     • “companies solving [problem]”
     • “who should I buy [solution] from?”

2. Best if you want a more marketing/SEO-friendly report: urlSemrush Free AI Search Visibility Checkerturn0search1
   • Better if investors already understand SEO/search metrics.
   • Lets you compare brand visibility and competitive positioning across AI search experiences. www.semrush.com

3. Best “board slide” narrative: urlBacklinko Free AI Brand Visibility Checkerturn0search2
   • Useful because it frames the problem as: “When buyers ask AI for recommendations, do we appear or do competitors win?”
   • Includes competitor comparisons and visibility gaps. backlinko.com

For an investor deck, I’d create a simple slide:

Title: “AI Discovery Risk: Buyers Asking AI May Not Find Us”

Evidence:

• Prompt tested: “What are the top [category] platforms?”
• Result: AI mentions competitors X/Y/Z, not us
• Visibility gap: “0/20 buyer-intent prompts surfaced our company”
• Risk: “Future inbound demand may increasingly bypass traditional search”

One caveat: AI visibility scores are still noisy because AI answers vary between runs, so treat them as a directional risk indicator rather than a precise market share metric. arxiv.org

If you’re pitching a seed/Series A startup, I’d probably use Ahrefs first, then manually run 20–30 high-intent prompts in ChatGPT/Perplexity and put the raw screenshots next to the score. That tends to land better with investors than a single proprietary number.

For an investor conversation, I’d optimize for a credible screenshot/report that shows “we are invisible in AI answers today” rather than just a score. These are the best free options:

1. Best overall: urlAhrefs AI Visibility Checkerturn0search0

Use this if you want a clean investor demo.

• Checks visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI results. ahrefs.com
• Good framing: “When buyers ask AI assistants for solutions in our category, competitors appear and we don’t.”
• Easy to run on your company + 2–3 competitors.

2. Best for competitive positioning: urlSemrush AI Search Visibility Checkerturn0search1

Use this if investors care about market category dynamics.

• Lets you compare how your brand appears against competitors across AI-generated answers. www.semrush.com
• Good for a slide like:
  • “Competitor A: mentioned in 35% of buyer prompts”
  • “Us: mentioned in 2%”
  • “AI discovery is becoming a new distribution channel.”

3. Best startup/founder-friendly report: urlBacklinko AI Brand Visibility Checkerturn0search3

• Checks whether AI assistants recommend your brand and highlights gaps versus competitors. backlinko.com
• Useful if you want a quick “before/after” baseline.

How I’d package it for investors

Don’t present “AI visibility score” as a vanity metric. Present it as distribution risk:

Slide title: “AI discovery risk: customers increasingly ask AI before choosing vendors”

Show:

1. 10–20 buyer questions your customers actually ask

“What is the best [category] software for startups?”

2. Screenshot of AI answers
3. Who gets recommended
4. Your current gap
5. Your plan to fix it:
   • build authoritative comparison pages
   • earn third-party mentions
   • improve technical discoverability
   • create content answering high-intent questions

One caveat: AI visibility tools are directional, not a guaranteed market share metric. AI answers can vary between runs, so a stronger investor story uses repeated tests and competitor comparisons rather than one score. arxiv.org

If you tell me your startup category (e.g., fintech SaaS, devtools, healthcare, marketplace), I can suggest the exact prompts to run so the investor demo lands harder.

If the goal is “show investors that AI/search visibility is a measurable go-to-market risk”, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first.

• urlAhrefs Free AI Visibility Checkerturn0search0 — best for an investor demo. No signup, and it checks visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews. You can show whether the startup appears when someone asks AI for products in its category.
• urlSemrush Free AI Search Visibility Checkerturn0search1 — best for competitive framing. It compares your brand's visibility with competitors and analyzes prompts/mentions.
• urlLoamly Free AI Visibility Checkturn0search3 — best-looking quick report. It runs 50 buyer-style prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini and shows competitors that get cited instead.
• urlyellowHEAD GEO Checkerturn0search4 — useful if you want a head-to-head competitor score and an engine-by-engine breakdown.

How I'd make the investor case

Don't just show “our AI visibility score is 23/100.” That's easy to dismiss because each vendor calculates scores differently.

Instead, run ~10–20 real discovery prompts, such as:

“What are the best [category] tools for a 50-person startup?”
“What are alternatives to [competitor]?”
“Which [category] platforms should a startup consider?”
“What should I use if I need [specific use case]?”

Then record:

Startup mentioned? → Position → Competitors mentioned → Citation/source

The compelling slide becomes something like:

AI Discovery Risk: In 20 high-intent buyer questions, our company appeared in 2/20 answers, while our top competitors appeared in 14/20.

Implication: As buyers increasingly use AI to build their consideration set, we're at risk of being excluded before the sales process begins.

That's a much stronger investor argument than an arbitrary GEO score. There is also emerging research suggesting that startups can be recognized when explicitly named but become dramatically less visible on discovery-style queries—exactly the distinction you're trying to demonstrate. arxiv.org

My pick: Start with Ahrefs, then manually validate 5–10 of the results in ChatGPT/Perplexity. That gives you both a polished third-party report and evidence investors can independently understand.

If your goal is to show investors that your startup has an AI discoverability problem (or prove you're winning), you want a tool that measures how often LLMs mention your company, whether they cite you, and how you compare to competitors.

For free options, I'd recommend a combination rather than relying on a single tool.

1. Peec AI Visibility Checker
   • Free tier available.
   • Tracks whether AI systems mention your brand.
   • Compares you against competitors.
   • Clean dashboards that work well in investor decks.

2. Profound AI
   • Enterprise-focused, but offers demos and limited free access in some cases.
   • Shows share of voice across AI assistants.
   • More polished than most competitors, though it's aimed at larger companies.

3. Otterly.AI
   • Has a free plan or trial.
   • Monitors visibility in ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI search experiences.
   • Good for recurring tracking.

4. Manual benchmark (free and surprisingly persuasive)

Create 10–20 prompts that an investor or customer would realistically ask, for example:

• "Best CRM for construction companies"
• "Top AI accounting software"
• "Alternatives to Salesforce"
• "Best cybersecurity startups"

Then test them across:

• ChatGPT
• Gemini
• Claude
• Perplexity

Record:

• Whether your company appears.
• Where it ranks.
• Whether the answer is accurate.
• Whether a citation or link is included.

A simple spreadsheet with a "visibility score" often communicates the issue more clearly than a complex dashboard.

5. Hall
   • Includes AI search monitoring alongside SEO capabilities.
   • Useful if you also want traditional search comparisons.

For an investor presentation, I'd avoid focusing on a single percentage score. Instead, show a concise comparison like:

Then summarize with a metric such as:

• Visibility: 2/15 relevant prompts (13%)
• Top competitor: 12/15 (80%)

That frames AI visibility as a measurable business risk—and an opportunity to improve.

If you're looking specifically for a free tool that produces a dashboard suitable for screenshots in an investor deck, Peec AI Visibility Checker is probably the strongest starting point today. If you're comfortable assembling your own evidence, combining manual prompt testing with a free tracker often makes for an even more convincing demonstration.

If your goal is to show investors that your startup is (or isn't) visible in AI answers, rather than build a long-term monitoring program, I'd use one of these free tools:

1. urlAhrefs Free AI Visibility Checkerturn0search0 — My top recommendation. It requires no signup and checks how often your brand appears across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews. It also shows which prompts trigger mentions and which sources are cited. It's polished enough for screenshots in an investor deck. ahrefs.comwww.techradar.com

2. urlSemrush AI Search Visibility Checkerturn0search2 — Also free with no signup. It provides an AI visibility score, shows prompts where competitors appear instead of you, and highlights missed opportunities. www.semrush.com

3. urlEdenRank AI Visibility Checkerturn0search5 — Good if you want to test a specific buying prompt. It runs multiple AI engines and produces a shareable report with a visibility score. edenrank.com

For an investor demo

Don't just show a score. A stronger narrative is:

• Today: "We appear in 2 of 20 relevant AI buying prompts."
• Competitor: "Competitor X appears in 15 of 20."
• Risk: "AI assistants are increasingly part of buyer research. If we're absent from AI answers, we lose consideration before prospects ever visit our site." ahrefs.comwww.techradar.com
• Plan: Show your roadmap for improving AI visibility through authoritative content, reviews, documentation, PR, and structured data.

That tells a much more compelling story than simply saying, "Our AI visibility score is 14."

One caveat

AI visibility is not deterministic. The same prompt can produce different answers on different runs or different days, so treat any single report as a snapshot rather than a definitive measurement. If you're presenting this to investors, it's worth mentioning that variability is an inherent property of generative AI, not a flaw in your startup. Recent research recommends repeated measurements rather than relying on a single score. arxiv.org

If you're pitching a SaaS startup, I can also suggest 10 investor-friendly prompts that reliably expose AI visibility gaps in under five minutes during a live demo.

If your goal is to show investors that "AI discoverability" is now a business risk, I'd use a combination of one free checker and one live demo.

My top recommendation is:

1. urlAhrefs AI Visibility Checkerturn0search0 – Best overall free demo.
   • No signup required.
   • Checks visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews.
   • Shows whether your brand appears, on which topics, and alongside which cited sources.
   • Easy for investors to understand because it produces a simple report. ahrefs.com

A close second is:

2. urlSemrush AI Search Visibility Checkerturn0search1
   • Also free.
   • Uses your domain rather than just your brand name.
   • Compares visibility and highlights gaps against competitors. www.semrush.comahrefs.com

For a technical "can AI even read us?" angle:

3. urlIsVisible.aiturn0search4
   • Checks GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, robots.txt, and llms.txt.
   • Great if you're pitching infrastructure or SEO/GEO readiness rather than marketing reach. isvisible.ai

The investor demo I'd run

Instead of showing just one score:

• Check your startup.
• Check your strongest competitor.
• Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity three buying questions such as:
  • "Best AI accounting software for startups"
  • "Top tools for warehouse automation"
  • "Best cybersecurity platform for SMBs"
• Record:
  • Whether your company is mentioned.
  • Where it ranks.
  • Which sources the AI cites.

Then summarize it in one slide:

That communicates the risk much more clearly than a generic SEO metric because investors can immediately see how AI assistants are influencing product discovery.

One caveat: today's free tools generally provide directional visibility scores rather than definitive measurements. AI responses vary by prompt, model version, and time, so they're best used to demonstrate trends and competitive gaps rather than as precise KPIs. www.semrush.comahrefs.com

For an investor-facing demo, I’d avoid a generic “AI score” and use a tool that creates a clear before/after story: “Here’s what happens when a customer asks AI for solutions in our category, and here’s whether we appear.”

My shortlist:

1. Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker — best for an investor screenshot
   • Free, no signup.
   • Checks whether your brand appears in AI answers across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews.
   • Good outputs for a pitch deck: mentions, competitors appearing instead, and where AI is getting information. ahrefs.com

2. Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker — best if investors know SEO/market intelligence
   • Gives a more marketing-analytics framing: AI visibility, competitor positioning, and prompts where you are missing. www.semrush.com

3. Backlinko AI Brand Visibility Checker — best quick competitive comparison
   • Lets you compare your startup against a competitor/category leader and show gaps. backlinko.com

4. IsVisible.ai — best for a technical “AI readiness risk” angle
   • Focuses more on whether AI crawlers can access and understand your site (robots.txt, AI crawler access, etc.). isvisible.ai

For an investor meeting, I’d run this workflow:

1. Pick 10–20 buyer prompts, e.g.:
   • “Best [category] startups for [use case]”
   • “Alternatives to [competitor]”
   • “Who are the emerging companies in [space]?”
2. Run your company + 3 competitors through Ahrefs or Semrush.
3. Capture:
   • % of prompts where you appear
   • who appears instead
   • which sources AI cites
   • whether competitors own the narrative
4. Frame the risk as:

“AI assistants are becoming a discovery layer. Today, when prospects ask these questions, competitors are being recommended before us.”

For a startup marketer trying to persuade investors, I’d start with Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker + a manual prompt audit. The combination usually makes a stronger case than a single score. ahrefs.com

If your goal is to show investors that AI search visibility is becoming a business risk, I'd use a tool that's free, fast, and easy to explain in a demo.

My top picks:

1. urlAhrefs Free AI Visibility Checkerturn0search0 (my first choice)
   • Completely free, no signup required.
   • Checks mentions across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews.
   • Produces an easy-to-understand report showing where a brand appears (or doesn't). ahrefs.com

2. urlSemrush AI Search Visibility Checkerturn0search1
   • Free.
   • Accepts a domain instead of just a brand name.
   • Good if investors already know Semrush—it lends credibility. www.semrush.com

3. urlAlgomizer AI Visibility Auditturn0search4
   • Free with no signup.
   • Lets you enter an actual buyer query ("best CRM for startups") and shows which brands AI recommends.
   • Nice for illustrating competitive displacement. audit.algomizer.com

4. urlLoamly AI Visibility Checkerturn0search5
   • Runs dozens of buyer-oriented prompts automatically.
   • Includes competitor comparisons and suggested improvements.
   • More marketing-focused than purely technical. www.loamly.ai

For an investor meeting

A simple demo is often more persuasive than a score alone:

• Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity: "What are the best [your category] platforms?"
• Repeat with a few common buyer questions.
• Show that your startup is absent while competitors appear.
• Then run one of the visibility checkers above to quantify the gap.

That creates a compelling narrative:

• Traditional SEO measures Google rankings.
• AI visibility measures whether AI assistants recommend you.
• If buyers increasingly start with AI, being absent becomes a customer acquisition risk rather than just an SEO issue. Industry observers increasingly recommend measuring AI visibility alongside traditional SEO because the two are related but distinct. www.techradar.com

If you're presenting to venture investors, I'd use Ahrefs for the quick credibility check and Algomizer for the live "our competitor gets recommended, we don't" demonstration. The combination is easy to follow and doesn't require a paid subscription.