ChatGPT answers, unedited

For an investor-facing demo, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first. It requires no signup and checks your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, and Google AI Overviews, then shows mentions, topics, and cited sources. Ahrefs

ahrefs.com

A good investor demo setup

1. Run your company through Ahrefs. Capture the baseline: mentions, platforms where you're absent, and which sites AI cites instead.
2. Run 3–5 actual buyer questions, e.g.:

• “Best [category] tools for startups”
• “[category] alternatives to [major competitor]”
• “Best [category] for a company with 10–50 employees”
• Show the competitor gap, rather than just a proprietary “AI score.” That makes the risk tangible: “When a prospective customer asks AI for recommendations, we're absent while competitors appear.”
• For a second opinion, Rank.ai is useful because its free checker runs the same prompt through ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini and shows mentions/citations side-by-side. Rank.ai

rank.ai

One caveat for investors: don't present a single AI-visibility score as an objective probability of lost revenue. These tools sample prompts and models; the stronger evidence is the actual buyer questions, which competitors appear, and which sources AI relies on.

If you give me your startup URL + what you sell + 2–3 competitors, I can also suggest the exact 5 prompts I'd put on an investor slide.

For an investor conversation, I’d optimize for credibility + a screenshot/report you can forward, not just a vanity score. These are the free tools I’d consider:

Best free options for a startup investor “AI visibility risk” demo

1. ahrefs.com — best executive-friendly baseline

• Checks how your brand appears across AI experiences including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI surfaces. Ahrefs
• Good investor framing:

“Here is our current discoverability gap: when buyers ask AI for solutions in our category, we are/aren’t appearing.”

• Useful outputs: mentions, platforms where you appear, cited domains/pages. Ahrefs
• semrush.com — best if investors know SEO metrics

• Gives an AI visibility score, mentions, platform breakdowns, cited pages, and prompts/topics where your brand appears. Semrush
• The language maps well to existing marketing metrics: share of voice, competitive gap, content authority.
• rank.ai — best for a live “watch this happen” demo

• Lets you run a buyer-style prompt and compare whether AI assistants mention your brand and cite your site. Rank.ai
• Good for a board/investor meeting because the output is easy to understand.
• backlinko.com — good for competitive positioning

• Lets you compare your brand, category, and competitors to see where AI answers surface other companies instead. Backlinko

How I’d present it to investors

Don’t present “our AI score is 37.” Present the business risk:

Slide title: “AI discovery risk: buyers increasingly get recommendations from AI before visiting websites”

Show:

1. Three buyer prompts

• “What are the best [category] tools for a startup?”
• “Compare [competitor A] vs [competitor B] vs [us]”
• “What solutions exist for [pain point]?”
• Current result

• Are we mentioned?
• Are competitors mentioned?
• Which sources does AI rely on?
• Risk

• “If AI assistants become a discovery layer, brands absent from answers may lose consideration before a buyer reaches search or a sales conversation.”
• Mitigation plan

• Build authoritative third-party mentions
• Create comparison/use-case content
• Improve documentation and structured website content
• Track AI visibility monthly

For a fundraising deck, I’d probably run Ahrefs + one live Rank.ai-style prompt test: one gives a polished metric view, the other makes the risk tangible. Ahrefs Rank.ai

If the goal is to demonstrate AI-discovery risk to investors, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first.

• ahrefs.com — best for an investor demo. It’s free, requires no signup, and checks your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. It gives you mentions by platform, topics where you appear, and the domains/pages AI cites. Ahrefs
• semrush.com — best if you want a simple score. It provides an AI Visibility Score, mentions, cited pages, topics/prompts, and estimated audience reach. The free checker can be used three times per day without registration. Semrush

How I'd frame it to investors

Don't say "our AI visibility is 23%" based on one free checker. AI responses vary, so these free tools are better treated as a diagnostic/snapshot, not a precise market-share measurement. Spottlo

Instead, show a slide like:

AI Search Risk: We're not consistently present when customers ask AI for solutions in our category.

• Brand mentioned: X / Y tested AI surfaces
• Competitor A: X / Y
• Competitor B: X / Y
• Key buying questions where we're absent: [3 examples]
• Sources AI relies on instead: [competitor/review/media sites]

Implication: As AI becomes part of product discovery, competitors can capture consideration before prospects ever reach our website.

My pick: Ahrefs for the live demo, Semrush as a second data point. Having two independent tools show roughly the same visibility gap makes the investor story considerably stronger.

If the goal is “show investors that our startup is at risk of being invisible in AI-driven discovery”, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first.

• Best investor demo: ahrefs.com — free, no signup, and checks your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode. It gives you mentions, top topics, cited domains/pages, and competitor context. Ahrefs
• Best for a live “ouch” demo: rank.ai — enter one actual buyer question and your domain; it runs the same prompt through ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini and shows the answers side-by-side. Rank.ai
• Best if you want a simple score: semrush.com — produces a 0–100 AI Visibility Score plus mentions, platforms, topics, and cited pages; currently free up to three checks/day without registration. Semrush

How I'd present it to investors

Don't just show “our score is 23/100.” That's easy to dismiss as a proprietary metric.

Instead, run 5–10 questions that represent actual purchase-intent searches, such as:

“What are the best [category] tools for a 50-person startup?”

Then show:

Prompt → AI answer → competitors recommended → our company missing → sources AI trusted

That's a much stronger risk demonstration because you're showing that a prospective customer can ask an AI assistant for recommendations and your company doesn't make the consideration set.

If you tell me your startup's category and 2–3 competitors, I can also give you a tight set of investor-demo prompts that will make the gap particularly concrete.

If your goal is “show investors that we have an AI-search visibility risk”, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first. It’s credible, recognizable, and produces a straightforward baseline across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI results—with no signup required. Ahrefs

My picks

1. Best for an investor demo: ahrefs.com

• Free, no signup.
• Shows total AI mentions, platforms, topics, and cited domains/pages.
• Particularly useful for showing “competitors are being surfaced while we aren't.” Ahrefs
• Best for a more dramatic competitive-risk demo: citedspy.com

• Free/no signup.
• Gives a visibility score, competitor share-of-voice, prompt-level rankings, sentiment, and cited sources. CitedSpy
• Best for a website/technical risk audit: ad-lab.ai

• Free audit with 50+ criteria.
• More useful if you want to demonstrate “AI engines can't effectively understand/cite our website” rather than simply “we aren't mentioned.” Ad-Lab GEO Intelligence

The investor demo I'd actually do

Don't just show them a score. Run 5–10 buyer-intent questions such as:

• “What are the best [your category] platforms for a startup?”
• “What are the alternatives to [your biggest competitor]?”
• “What should a company use for [specific problem you solve]?”
• “Compare [competitor A] vs [competitor B] vs [your company].”
• “Which [category] vendors are best for a company of our size?”

Then screenshot the results showing who gets recommended, who gets cited, and where you disappear.

That's a much stronger investor narrative than “our AI visibility score is 37.” The underlying issue is increasingly relevant because AI-generated answers are becoming another discovery channel, and current AI-visibility tools explicitly measure brand mentions and citations across these systems. Ahrefs Vogue

If you give me your startup's website + 2–3 competitors, I can also design the exact 10-prompt “AI visibility risk test” I'd put in an investor deck.

If your goal is “show investors that our startup is at risk of being invisible in AI answers”, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first.

ahrefs.com

Why I’d pick it

• Free, no signup required.
• Checks visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode. Ahrefs
• Gives you brand mentions, platforms where you appear/don’t appear, top topics, and the domains/pages AI cites.
• You can check your startup and competitors, which makes the investor story much stronger.
• Its underlying dataset uses real search-backed prompts rather than purely invented test questions, which is a useful credibility point when presenting the results. Ahrefs Ahrefs

The investor demo I'd run

Don't just show them a generic “AI visibility score.” Run 10–20 buyer-intent questions such as:

• “What are the best [category] platforms for startups?”
• “What is the best [category] software for a 20-person company?”
• “[Category] alternatives to [major competitor]”
• “What should a startup use for [problem you solve]?”
• “Best [category] tools in 2026”
• “Which [category] companies are best for [specific use case]?”

Then compare your company vs. 3–5 competitors.

The compelling slide is something like:

“When our target customers ask AI for recommendations, our competitors are being mentioned—but we aren't.”

Then show the actual AI responses/citations underneath. That's much more persuasive to investors than claiming that an opaque “AI score” is bad.

One important caveat

Treat the result as a risk indicator, not a measurement of actual customer exposure. Ahrefs itself describes metrics such as AI Share of Voice and estimated impressions as visibility signals rather than measured audience reach. Ahrefs help.ahrefs.com

If you tell me what your startup sells + 2–3 competitors, I can give you a 10-question investor-demo prompt set designed specifically to expose the AI visibility gap.

For an investor demo, you want something that produces a simple, defensible “here is our AI discoverability gap vs. competitors” artifact — not just an SEO score.

My shortlist:

Best free options for a startup investor slide

1. ahrefs.com — best overall for credibility

• Good for: “When buyers ask AI assistants for solutions like ours, do we appear?”
• Checks visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI results. Ahrefs
• Investor-friendly outputs: - brand mentions
• competitor comparisons
• cited sources
• where you are missing
• semrush.com — best if investors know SEO metrics

• Good for teams already using marketing analytics.
• Gives an AI visibility score, mentions, platform breakdowns, citations, and prompts where you appear. Semrush
• rank.ai — best for a quick “live proof” demo

• Good for showing: “Here is the exact question a customer would ask, and here is whether AI recommends us.”
• Runs prompts across multiple AI models and shows mentions/citations side by side. Rank.ai
• backlinko.com — best for a marketer-friendly report

• Useful if you want a cleaner narrative around: - how often you appear
• where competitors win
• what to fix next Backlinko

How I’d package it for investors

Don’t present “our AI visibility score is 37.” Instead, create a slide like:

“AI search is becoming a new distribution channel — today we are underrepresented.”

Example:

Then add:

• Current AI visibility baseline
• Top 3 competitors appearing instead
• Estimated upside from improving citations/content/PR

For an investor audience, I’d run Ahrefs + a few manually chosen high-intent prompts. The combination gives you both a quantified metric and a compelling “we are missing from the buying conversation” story. Ahrefs

If you tell me your startup category (SaaS, fintech, healthcare, marketplace, etc.), I can suggest the exact investor-grade prompts to run.

If the goal is “show investors that our startup has an AI-search visibility risk”, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first.

• Best investor demo: ahrefs.com — free, no signup, and checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode. It gives you mentions by platform, topics where you appear, and the domains/pages AI cites. Ahrefs
• Best for a dramatic competitor comparison: rankbits.com — gives a share-of-voice view, competitor mentions, mentions vs. citations, and a shareable report. RankBits RankBits
• Best if you want to demonstrate the actual answers: rank.ai — runs the same prompt across ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini and shows whether your brand and site are mentioned/cited. Rank.ai
• Another strong option: semrush.com — provides an AI Visibility Score, mentions, cited pages, topics/prompts, and estimated audience reach. Semrush

The investor demo I'd actually run

Don't just enter your company name. Use 5–10 buyer-intent questions, for example:

1. “What are the best [category] platforms for a startup?”
2. “What are the best alternatives to [major competitor]?”
3. “Which [category] companies are best for [specific use case]?”
4. “What should a company use if it needs [pain point you solve]?”
5. “Compare [your company] vs. [competitor].”

Then show investors:

“When a prospective customer asks AI for a recommendation, our company is absent / rarely mentioned, while competitors appear repeatedly.”

That's a much stronger risk narrative than simply saying “our AI visibility score is 23.” AI visibility is increasingly being treated as a distinct marketing metric because consumers are using AI systems for product research and recommendations. Vogue

My pick: Start with Ahrefs for the cleanest investor-friendly baseline, then manually run 5–10 high-intent prompts in ChatGPT/Perplexity to capture screenshots of the actual answers.

If your goal is “show investors that our startup has an AI-discoverability risk”, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first. It’s the cleanest investor-friendly option because it checks your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode, and reports mentions, topics, cited domains/pages, and competitors. No signup is required for the free check. Ahrefs

ahrefs.com

What I'd actually do for an investor demo

Run 3–5 category/buyer-intent prompts, not just “What is [Startup]?”

For example:

• “What are the best [category] platforms for a startup?”
• “What tools should a [target customer] use for [problem]?”
• “Best alternatives to [major competitor]”
• “[Category] companies worth considering in 2026”
• “Compare [your startup] vs [competitor]”

Then capture:

Prompt → AI answer → Were you mentioned? → Which competitors appeared? → Which sources were cited?

That makes the risk tangible: “When prospective customers ask AI for a solution in our category, we're absent while competitors are being recommended.”

Two good free alternatives

• rank.ai — particularly good for a live demo because it runs the same prompt across ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini and shows mentions/citations side-by-side. Rank.ai
• semrush.com — useful if you want a more marketing/SEO-oriented report with an overall visibility score, mentions, citations, topics, and estimated audience reach. Semrush

My pick: Ahrefs for the investor slide; Rank.ai for a compelling live demonstration.

One important caveat: don't present a single AI visibility score as an objective “market share” metric. AI answers vary by prompt, location, model, and time. Present it as a snapshot of discoverability risk, ideally with the actual prompts and competitor answers alongside the score.

My pick: Ahrefs for the investor slide; Rank.ai for a compelling live demonstration.

If your goal is “show investors that AI search is already a distribution risk for our company”, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first.

ahrefs.com

My picks

1. Ahrefs — best for an investor demo

• Free, no signup.
• Checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode.
• Shows mentions, topics, cited domains/pages, and gives you a concrete baseline. Ahrefs
• The breadth makes a screenshot/slide much more credible than saying “I asked ChatGPT once.”
• Semrush — best second opinion

• Free, reportedly 3 checks/day without registration.
• Gives an AI visibility score, mentions, platforms, prompts/topics and cited pages.
• Uses a large database of AI-search prompts/responses rather than just one live query. Semrush

semrush.com

3. Rank.ai — best for a very simple live demo

• Free/no registration.
• Runs the same prompt across ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini and shows mentions/citations side-by-side. Rank.ai

rank.ai

The investor slide I'd build

Don't just show a generic “AI visibility score.” Run 5–10 actual buyer-intent questions, e.g.:

“What are the best [category] platforms for a 50-person startup?”

Then record:

The compelling investor message becomes:

“Our customers are increasingly using AI to decide what products to consider. Today, when they ask AI about our category, competitors appear and we don't. That's an emerging acquisition/distribution risk we can measure and improve.”

One caveat: free checkers are generally snapshots, not definitive market-share measurements. Cituna So I'd present the result as evidence of a measurable risk, not claim “X% of customers will never find us.”

If you tell me what your startup sells + your top 2–3 competitors, I can give you the exact 10 prompts I'd run to make the investor demo particularly painful/convincing.

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, and lets you compare the result with competitors. Ahrefs

ahrefs.com

How I’d demonstrate the risk to investors

Run 5–10 high-intent category questions, rather than simply asking “What is [Startup]?” For example:

• “What are the best [category] platforms for a startup?”
• “Best alternatives to [major competitor]”
• “[category] software for companies with 50–200 employees”
• “Compare [your company] vs [competitor]”
• “What should a company look for when choosing [category] software?”

Then show investors:

“When a potential customer asks AI for recommendations, are we actually in the consideration set?”

The strongest slide is something like:

AI visibility gap: 0/10 buyer-intent prompts mention us, while competitors appear in 7/10.

That makes the risk much more tangible than an abstract “GEO score.”

Two good alternatives

• Semrush AI Visibility Checker — particularly useful for a polished marketing/investor presentation; it provides an AI visibility score, mentions, platforms, cited pages, topics, and estimated audience reach. semrush.com

semrush.com

• Rank.ai — excellent for a quick live demo because you can run the same prompt through ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini and see mentions/citations side-by-side. rank.ai

rank.ai

My pick: use Ahrefs for the investor slide, then manually reproduce 2–3 of the most striking queries directly in ChatGPT/Perplexity so investors can see the problem happening in real time.

If you tell me what your startup does + 2–3 competitors, I can give you a tight 10-prompt investor demo script designed to expose the AI visibility risk.

For an investor-facing “here’s the risk” demo, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first. It’s particularly good because it checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews, and gives you mentions, topics, cited domains/pages, and a baseline without requiring signup. Ahrefs

ahrefs.com

My shortlist

• Best investor demo: Ahrefs — broad platform coverage and a clean, credible report. Great for showing “we're invisible when buyers ask AI about our category.” Ahrefs
• Best for a dramatic before/after: Rank.ai — enter one buyer prompt and your domain; it runs the same prompt across ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini and shows mentions/citations side-by-side. Rank.ai
• Best simple score: Semrush — gives an AI Visibility Score, mentions, platforms, citations, prompts/topics, and estimated audience reach. Semrush
• Best if you want competitor comparison: Yogoo — produces a 0–100 score and shows which brands AI cites instead of you, which is a compelling investor story. Yogoo

semrush.com

How I'd present it to investors

Don't lead with “our AI score is 37/100.” Scores are proprietary and can feel arbitrary.

Instead, run 5–10 high-intent prompts such as:

“What are the best [category] platforms for a startup?”
“What [category] tools should a 50-person company consider?”
“[Competitor] alternatives”
“Best [category] for [specific use case]”

Then show a simple table:

That demonstrates the actual business risk: AI-mediated discovery can put competitors into the consideration set while your company isn't there.

If you tell me your startup's category + 2–3 competitors, I can also give you a tight set of investor-demo prompts designed to make the visibility gap measurable rather than just showing a generic score.

If the goal is a free, investor-friendly demo of “AI visibility risk,” I’d use Ahrefs’ Free AI Visibility Checker.

ahrefs.com

Why I’d pick it

• Free and no signup required. Ahrefs
• Checks visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews. Ahrefs
• Shows mentions, competing brands, topics, and cited domains/pages, which makes the result much more compelling than simply saying “AI can't find us.” Ahrefs
• The underlying methodology is based on real search-backed prompts, rather than a handful of arbitrary questions. Ahrefs

For an investor pitch, I'd turn it into a simple slide:

“When customers ask AI who they should buy from, are we in the answer?”

Then run 5–10 high-intent prompts such as:

• “Best [category] for a startup”
• “[category] alternatives to [market leader]”
• “Best [category] for [target customer]”
• “[problem] software recommendations”
• “[competitor] vs [your company]”

Record your brand's mentions vs. competitors' mentions, plus which sites AI cites instead. That's a much stronger demonstration of market risk than an abstract “AI score.”

One caveat: Ahrefs' free checker is a limited preview, not continuous monitoring. Ahrefs If you're specifically trying to demonstrate that your website is technically inaccessible to AI crawlers, rather than that your brand isn't being recommended, isvisible.ai is another useful free/no-signup check. isvisible.ai

If you tell me what your startup sells + 2–3 competitors, I can give you a tight set of 10 investor-demo prompts that should expose the risk quickly.

If your goal is “show investors that AI search is a real distribution risk, with a credible screenshot/report”, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first.

My picks

• Best investor demo: ahrefs.com — free, no signup, and checks your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. It gives you mentions, topics, cited domains/pages, and platform breakdowns. That breadth makes the result particularly persuasive in an investor deck. Ahrefs
• Best for a very simple “we're invisible” demo: semrush.com — gives an overall visibility score, mentions, citations, prompts/topics, and estimated audience reach. Semrush
• Best for a live, buyer-query demonstration: gtm-labs.co — particularly useful if you're a startup because you specify your product/category and see whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity actually recommend you versus competitors. GTM Labs
• Best if you want competitor evidence: citedspy.com — reports a visibility score, competitor share of voice, prompt-by-prompt ranking, sentiment and cited sources. CitedSpy

What I'd actually show investors

Don't just screenshot a generic “AI visibility score.” Run 5–10 questions a prospective customer would genuinely ask, such as:

“What are the best [category] tools for a 50-person startup?”
“What should a startup use for [problem you solve]?”
“[Category] alternatives to [major competitor]”

Then capture:

Your company → mentioned/not mentioned → position → competitor named instead → source cited

That turns “AI visibility might matter” into a concrete lost-discovery / competitive-risk story.

One caveat: these free checkers are generally point-in-time snapshots, and AI answers vary between runs. Don't present a single score as a precise market-share statistic; present it as evidence of discoverability risk. Cituna

If you tell me what your startup does + your top 2–3 competitors, I can also give you the 5 investor-grade prompts I'd run to make the risk obvious.

For an investor-facing demo, I’d optimize for credibility + a clear “risk story”, not just a score. You want to show: “When buyers ask AI assistants for solutions in our category, we are missing from the shortlist (or competitors are winning).”

My recommended free stack:

1. Best single demo: ahrefs.com

Use this first.

Why it works for investors:

• Checks multiple AI surfaces (including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI experiences). Ahrefs
• Produces tangible evidence: mentions, cited domains/pages, and where competitors appear. Ahrefs
• No signup required for the initial check. Ahrefs

Investor slide example:

“AI recommendation engines are becoming a discovery channel. Today, our brand appears in X% of relevant AI answers while competitors appear more frequently.”

2. Add a second opinion: semrush.com

Good for a marketing/board audience because it frames the issue as a measurable visibility gap:

• AI visibility score
• Mentions across AI platforms
• Pages driving citations
• Topics/prompts where you appear Semrush

3. Add perception risk: HubSpot’s AEO Grader

Useful if your concern is not only “are we mentioned?” but:

• Are we described correctly?
• Are we perceived as a category leader?
• Is sentiment favorable? Cituna

The investor demo I would run (15 minutes)

1. Pick 10 buyer questions:

• “Best [category] software for startups”
• “Alternatives to [competitor]”
• “Who are the leaders in [category]?”
• “Best tools for [use case]”
• Run:

• Your company
• 3–5 competitors
• Capture:

• % of prompts where you appear
• Who gets recommended instead
• Which sources AI cites
• Turn it into a risk statement:

“Traditional SEO tells us where we rank on Google. AI visibility tells us whether we are included when buyers ask for recommendations. Right now, competitors have a distribution advantage in this emerging channel.”

One caution for investors: don’t present a single AI score as “market share.” AI outputs vary. Present it as a leading indicator of discovery risk and a baseline you’ll track monthly. spottlo.com

If you tell me your startup category (e.g., fintech, dev tools, SaaS, healthcare), I can suggest the exact prompts that will create the strongest investor demo.

If your goal is “show investors that we have an AI-search visibility risk”, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first.

My pick: Ahrefs

ahrefs.com

It’s particularly good for an investor demo because it checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, and gives you a concrete baseline: mentions, platforms, topics, cited domains/pages, etc. It also says the free check requires no signup. Ahrefs

The investor story I'd demonstrate:

1. Put in your startup.
2. Run the visibility check.
3. Put in 2–3 competitors.
4. Show “we are absent / competitors are present.”
5. Drill into the questions/topics where competitors appear.
6. Show which third-party sources AI is relying on instead of your company.

That turns “AI visibility is important” into a tangible competitive risk.

Two good alternatives

• Semrush AI Visibility Tool — semrush.com — gives an AI Visibility Score, mentions, platform breakdown, citations, topics/prompts and estimated audience reached. Semrush
• Rank.ai — rank.ai — particularly nice for a quick live demo because you can give it one buyer question and compare how ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini treat your brand side-by-side. Rank.ai

One important caveat for investors: don't present a single AI-visibility score as a hard market metric. AI answers can change substantially between runs. I'd frame it as “a measurable emerging distribution risk” and show the underlying prompts/answers and competitor comparisons rather than just saying “our score is 37.”

If you tell me what your startup does + 2 competitors, I can give you a 5-minute investor-demo script with the exact prompts I'd run.

If the goal is “show investors that our startup has an AI-search visibility risk”, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first.

• Best investor-friendly: ahrefs.com — no signup, and it checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. It gives you mentions, platforms, topics, cited domains/pages, and—crucially—lets you see whether competitors are getting visibility where you aren't. Ahrefs
• Best for a technical “we may be invisible to AI crawlers” story: isvisible.ai — gives a 0–100 score and shows whether crawlers such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot can access your site. isvisible.ai
• Best quick startup audit: juma.ai — checks crawler access, schema, citability, authority and brand presence, with a prioritized action plan and shareable report. Juma
• Another good “show me the risk” option: aitracking.io — gives a 0–100 score across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI and identifies which competitors AI recommends instead. AITracking.io

What I'd put in an investor slide

Don't just show “AI Visibility Score: 42/100.” That's a somewhat arbitrary vendor metric.

Instead, run ~10–20 high-intent prompts such as:

• “Best [category] for [use case]”
• “[Category] alternatives to [incumbent]”
• “Best startups/tools for [problem]”
• “[Your category] companies worth considering”
• “[Your product] vs [competitor]”

Then show:

AI visibility gap: When buyers ask AI for recommendations in our category, competitors are mentioned/cited while we are absent in X of Y queries.

That is much more compelling to investors because it translates the technical GEO/AEO issue into a potential customer-acquisition risk.

If you give me your startup + category + 2–3 competitors, I can also give you a 10-prompt investor-grade AI visibility test you can run in ~15 minutes.

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

ahrefs.com

Why I’d pick it

• Free, no signup required.
• Checks visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode. Ahrefs
• Gives you a concrete baseline: AI mentions, platforms where you're mentioned, topics, cited domains, and cited pages. Ahrefs
• You can check your startup and competitors, which makes the investor story much stronger.
• The underlying dataset uses real search-backed prompts rather than purely invented test questions, according to Ahrefs. Ahrefs

The investor demo I'd run

Don't just show “we have an AI visibility score.” Build a before/after competitive gap:

1. Enter your startup.
2. Enter 3–5 competitors.
3. Look at AI mentions and which platforms mention each company.
4. Look at the topics where competitors appear but you don't.
5. Show which third-party sites AI systems are citing instead of your company.
6. Take screenshots of the results.

Then your slide can say something like:

“When prospective customers ask AI which companies solve [problem], our competitors are being surfaced while we are largely absent.”

That's much more compelling to an investor than a generic claim that “AI search is important.”

One caveat: AI visibility isn't the same thing as actual customer reach or revenue impact. Ahrefs itself describes these as visibility signals, so I'd frame the result as a measurable discoverability risk, not proof that you're losing customers. Ahrefs help.ahrefs.com

If you tell me what your startup does + 2–3 competitors, I can also give you a 10-prompt investor demo script designed to expose the visibility gap.

For an investor-facing demo, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker as the default.

• Best overall: ahrefs.com — free, no signup, and checks your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews. It also shows mentions, topics, cited domains/pages, and gives you a concrete baseline. Ahrefs
• Best for a quick “wow, we’re invisible” demo: rank.ai — enter a buying prompt and your domain; it compares ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini side-by-side. Rank.ai
• Best if you want a more investor-friendly scorecard: citedspy.com — gives a 0–100 score, competitor share of voice, prompt-level ranking, sentiment, and cited sources. CitedSpy
• Best for a startup-specific diagnostic: startupbuffer.com — less about live rankings and more about whether AI systems can clearly understand, categorize, and cite your startup. Startup Buffer

How I'd demonstrate the risk to investors

Don't just enter your company name. Use 5–10 questions a prospective customer might actually ask AI, such as:

“What are the best [category] tools for [target customer]?”
“What alternatives to [major competitor] should a [target customer] consider?”
“Which [category] companies are best for [specific use case]?”

Then record:

Company mentioned? → Position/recommendation → Competitors mentioned → Your site cited?

That turns “AI visibility” from a vague marketing concept into a very tangible consideration-set risk: when a buyer delegates vendor discovery to AI, are we one of the companies it recommends—or are competitors capturing that demand?

For an investor deck, I'd show one screenshot of the actual AI answer + a simple competitor visibility table, rather than leading with an abstract AI score. That is much harder to dismiss.

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

If the goal is “show investors that we have an AI-search visibility risk”, I’d use Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker first.

• Best overall: ahrefs.com — free, no signup, and checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode. It gives you mentions, topics, and the domains/pages being cited. That makes a pretty compelling investor slide. Ahrefs
• Best for a simple “before/after” demo: rank.ai — runs the same prompt through ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini and shows mentions/citations side by side. Rank.ai
• Best if you want a clean score: semrush.com — gives an AI Visibility Score plus mentions, platforms, cited pages, topics, and estimated audience reach. Semrush
• Good lightweight alternative: edenrank.com — tests one buyer prompt across eight AI surfaces and produces a 0–100 score plus the actual answers/citations. EdenRank

How I'd demonstrate the risk to investors

Don't just show “our score is 27/100.” That's easy to dismiss as a proprietary metric.

Instead, run 5–10 questions that a prospective customer might actually ask:

“What are the best [category] tools for a [target customer]?”
“What are alternatives to [competitor]?”
“Which [category] startups are best for [use case]?”

Then capture:

You → competitors → who gets recommended → which sources AI cites.

If your company is absent while competitors are repeatedly recommended, that's a much more tangible statement:

“A buyer asking an AI assistant for a solution in our category may never encounter us, despite our existing SEO/brand investment.”

For an investor deck, I'd probably make the slide “The AI Discovery Gap” and show 3–5 real prompts with your brand highlighted in green/red versus competitors.

If you give me your startup + category + 2–3 competitors, I can also suggest the exact prompts I'd use to make the demonstration as investor-friendly as possible.

For an investor-facing demonstration, I’d use Ahrefs’ Free AI Visibility Checker first. It’s free, requires no signup, and checks your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews. It also shows mentions, topics, and the domains/pages being cited alongside your brand. Ahrefs

ahrefs.com

My shortlist

• Ahrefs — best for an investor demo. Broad engine coverage and recognizable brand credibility. Good for showing, “Here is how often AI systems surface us versus the market.” Ahrefs
• Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker — good alternative if your investors are familiar with Semrush. It reports an AI visibility score, mentions, platforms, cited pages, and topics/prompts. Semrush
• Rank.ai — particularly useful for a live before/after demonstration because you supply one actual buyer prompt and it runs that prompt across ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Rank.ai
• EdenRank — strongest if you want to make the demo visually compelling: one prompt across 8 AI engines, with answers, citations, and a shareable 0–100 score. EdenRank

How I'd demonstrate the risk to investors

Don't just show a generic “AI visibility score.” Use 3–5 high-intent prompts that correspond to your actual buying journey, for example:

“What are the best [category] tools for a startup?”
“What are alternatives to [competitor]?”
“What [category] software should a 50-person company use?”
“Compare [your company] vs [competitor].”

Then capture:

Prompt → AI answer → Were we mentioned? → Which competitor was mentioned? → Who got cited?

That makes the argument much stronger: “A potential buyer can ask AI for a recommendation today, and our company may not even enter the consideration set.”

One caveat for investors: a free checker is a snapshot, not proof of market-wide AI visibility. Different runs can produce different answers, so I'd present it as evidence of an emerging distribution risk, rather than claiming the score represents a precise percentage of lost customers. cituna.com

If you give me your startup + category + 2–3 competitors, I can suggest the exact 5 prompts I'd use for the investor demo.

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

ahrefs.com — it’s free, requires no signup, and checks your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode. It gives you mentions, platforms, topics, and the domains/pages AI is citing. Ahrefs

For an investor demo, I'd do this

1. Run your startup through Ahrefs.
2. Run 2–3 competitors through the same checker.
3. Use real buyer prompts such as: - “Best [category] startups for [use case]”
4. “[Category] companies investors should know about”
5. “Alternatives to [major incumbent]”
6. “Best tools for [specific customer problem]”
7. Screenshot the results showing you absent while competitors appear.
8. Frame the risk as: “AI is becoming a discovery layer, and today our brand isn't consistently represented in the answers our buyers may be using.”

That is much more compelling to an investor than a generic “GEO score.”

Two good alternatives

• Rank.ai — particularly good for a live demo because it runs the same prompt across ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini and shows mentions/citations side-by-side. Rank.ai rank.ai
• EdenRank — useful if you want a broader screenshot: it says its free check covers 8 AI engines, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Copilot and Google AI surfaces. EdenRank edenrank.com

My pick: Ahrefs for credibility + Rank.ai for the punchy live demo.

One caveat for investors: don't present a single AI visibility score as an objective “market share” metric. AI answers can vary between runs. Present mention rate, competitor presence, citations, and repeated buyer-intent prompts as the evidence.

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.