Startups & Accelerators

AI is becoming the primary discovery channel for customers, investors, and journalists. When someone asks ChatGPT about your category, you are either in the answer or you do not exist. Unlike SEO, which requires months of authority building, AEO infrastructure can be deployed in a single afternoon - llms.txt, schema, robots.txt, FAQ. Two hours of work on launch day puts you ahead of 90% of funded startups.

Above 55 puts you in the top 15% of YC startups. Above 65 puts you in the top 5%. The average across 2,500+ audited YC startups is 38. Getting to 55-60 requires only the five quick wins: llms.txt, Organization schema, robots.txt AI directives, FAQ page, and Q&A headings. All achievable in a single sprint.

We have audited over 2,500 startups across 12 YC batches (W22 through W26). Average score: 38/100. Only 2% score above 70. Recent batches trend slightly higher as awareness grows, but the majority of funded startups remain invisible to AI engines. The biggest gaps: no llms.txt (80%+), no FAQ content (75%+), and default robots.txt with no AI crawler rules (70%+).

Especially. B2B buyers use AI assistants for vendor research, feature comparison, and shortlisting. "What are the best API testing tools?" and "How does [your product] compare to [competitor]?" are real queries running through ChatGPT and Perplexity daily. If your product page and FAQ are not structured for AI extraction, you lose these buyers before they ever visit your site.

AEO first. SEO requires domain authority built over 6-12 months - backlinks, content volume, accumulated trust. AEO requires technical infrastructure built in 2-3 hours - metadata, schema, crawler access. For an early-stage startup with zero authority, AEO delivers faster returns. And the infrastructure you build for AEO (schema, FAQ, structured content) also improves your SEO foundation.

Yes. VCs increasingly use ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude to evaluate markets, compare competitors, and validate startup claims. A startup with strong AI visibility appears in these research queries. Your AEO score is becoming a proxy for technical sophistication - founders who set up llms.txt and schema on day one signal they understand modern distribution.

We offer every startup a free comprehensive AEO audit plus 50% off all services for 6 months. The program includes batch leaderboard tracking, visibility reports, and priority queue for audit processing. Any startup pre-seed through Series A is eligible - not just YC companies. Apply at aeocontent.ai/startups/program.

That is exactly what AEO does. The 22 AEO criteria - structured data, llms.txt, Q&A content, entity authority, AI crawler access - are the signals AI engines use to decide what to cite. We have tracked this across 2,500+ startup audits: startups scoring above 55 appear in AI answers at significantly higher rates than those below 35. Structure determines visibility.

Visit aeocontent.ai/startups/yc and navigate to your batch. Every batch has a leaderboard sorted by AEO score, showing your position relative to batch mates. Click your domain for the full audit report. If your startup has not been audited yet, request a free audit and you will appear in the leaderboard once processing completes.

Five specific changes that consistently produce a 25-30 point lift: (1) Create llms.txt at your domain root - 20 minutes, 8-12 point impact. (2) Add Organization + WebSite JSON-LD - 15 minutes, 5-8 points. (3) Update robots.txt with AI crawler allows - 5 minutes, 3-5 points. (4) Build a 15-item FAQ with FAQPage schema - 60 minutes, 5-8 points. (5) Rewrite top-page headings as questions - 30 minutes, 4-6 points. Total: under 3 hours.