Surfaced Podcast

AI agents are starting to research, compare, and buy on behalf of customers. So how do you build a go-to-market engine when the next buyer might not be human?

In this episode, host Todd Sawicki, Co-founder and CEO at Gumshoe, sits down with Mark Roberge, Co-founder of Stage 2 Capital.

Mark was the founding CRO at HubSpot, where he helped scale the company's sales organization through its early growth, and he is the author of The Sales Acceleration Formula and The Science of Scaling. Today he invests in and advises go-to-market leaders at startups navigating the AI shift.

Todd and Mark discuss whether AI search is the next inbound marketing, why agent-to-agent buying could be the real breakthrough of the AI era, and whether companies are over-investing in AEO / GEO too early.

Mark explains why leaders must separate first principles from outdated best practices, how AI is reversing role specialization in sales and R&D, and why experimentation budgets need to grow dramatically.

He also shares the "design big, start small" lesson from Amazon's early days, the one sales metric AI can transform right now, and how to break through when AI-generated outreach floods every inbox.

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

0:27 Is AI search the next inbound marketing?

1:10 Agents buying from agents

2:38 How Gumshoe uses AI personas and synthetic users

5:00 Are companies over-investing in AEO / GEO?

8:31 Why no one has the AI playbook yet

8:53 Lessons from HubSpot: start with first principles

12:04 AI is reversing role specialization in GTM

13:27 Building lean go-to-market teams with AI

16:03 Why experimentation budgets need to triple

17:51 Design big, start small: the Amazon lesson

20:49 Sales metrics for the AI era

22:43 Selling time: the metric companies aren't measuring

24:51 Breaking through infinite noise and AI slop

27:18 Wrap-up

#AEO #GEO #AISearch #AgenticCommerce #AIAgents #GenerativeEngineOptimization #AnswerEngineOptimization #GoToMarket #SalesStrategy #AIMarketing #StartupGrowth #GumshoeAI

AI is becoming the first place customers discover brands. So what happens when a chatbot, not your website, is the one telling your story?

In this episode, host Stan Chang, Head of Product at Gumshoe AI, sits down with Steven Moy, Founder and CEO of the agency Only Pretty People. Steven brings more than 30 years of experience across engineering, digital, and agency leadership, including roles as CEO of Isobar UK, the first US CTO of R/GA, and global CEO of Barbarian. Today he advises startups, independent agencies, and AI platforms.

Stan and Steven discuss why an AEO / GEO strategy is now as essential as having a mobile app once was, how agency roles are changing as AI becomes part of every function, and how synthetic panels and AI personas are changing customer intelligence. Steven also previews his Advertising Week session on big splash campaigns versus always-on marketing, and he shares how agencies can still prove their value when clients say, "I'll just ask ChatGPT."

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

0:26 Meet Steven Moy

2:24 Taking startups from unknown to discovered with AEO / GEO

7:01 How agency roles are evolving with AI

9:59 Personas and personalized content

13:28 What is a synthetic panel?

17:04 Advertising Week preview: big splash vs. always-on

22:51 Agency value when clients can "just ask ChatGPT"

27:34 Zero-click marketing and AI as your new salesperson

29:24 Predictions for 2027

#AEO #GEO #AISearch #GenerativeEngineOptimization #AnswerEngineOptimization #AIMarketing #BrandDiscovery #AgencyLife #MarketingStrategy #AdvertisingWeek #GumshoeAI