AI Mode Slowed Google's Search Ad Growth. What Founders Should Do
Alphabet's Q3 search ad revenue grew 12% to $63.3 billion, but AI Mode monetises less and queries are three times longer. What founders should change.
Blog · Tag
#growth
22 posts
How to Block AI Crawlers Without Vanishing From AI Search
Disallow GPTBot, ClaudeBot and Google-Extended for training while keeping OAI-SearchBot and Claude-SearchBot. Per-bot robots.txt rules plus the new shared token.
One robots.txt Line Now Opts You Out of AI Training (Almost)
OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic will honour one shared robots.txt token for AI training preferences. What the signal does and does not do.
Agents Now Start 40% of GitHub PRs. What Indie Devs Should Do
GitHub's Octoverse 2026 says agents started more than 40% of pull requests in September. What that shift means for bootstrapped developers and small teams.
Reddit Is Going Logged-In. Your Search Traffic Lesson
Reddit is moving to a logged-in experience as search referrals fall. What the shift means for founders who depend on search and community traffic.
Experts Followed Their AI Agent's Coin-Flip Lean 86% of the Time
Anthropic's trial found expert analysts followed their AI agent's coin-flip lean 86% of the time. What that means for founders who delegate decisions.
Gemini 4 Carbon Tops the Index. You Cannot Build On It Yet
Gemini 4 Carbon ranks first at 59 but is gated to cyber defenders, with an introductory price that later doubles. What founders should build on instead.
Google Is Selling Ads Inside AI Answers. Rethink Your Distribution
Google is scaling sponsored placements inside AI Mode to ten more countries and adding multi-turn ads. Here is what that means for bootstrapped distribution.
MCP Tasks in Claude Code: Slow Tools Finally Work
MCP Tasks let Claude Code hand off slow tools, poll for results and ask users questions. Here is what MCP server makers should build now.
How to Build an AI Product That Survives the Next Model Launch
Build an AI product that lasts by owning the workflow, the data, the distribution and the trust, not the model that can be repriced overnight.
HubSpot Put Caps on AI Bills. Copy the Playbook for Your SaaS
HubSpot turned AI spend controls on by default, let customers swap seats for credits and moved agents to outcome pricing. Here is how to copy it.
Bootstrapped SaaS Examples: Five Companies Compared
Five bootstrapped SaaS examples, from Basecamp to Plausible, and the practical patterns behind them: narrow focus, early revenue and controlled growth.
Bootstrapping vs Venture Capital: How to Choose
Bootstrapping vs venture capital compared on control, pace, risk and return. A practical decision guide for indie founders choosing how to fund a SaaS product.
How to Get Backlinks for a New Startup
Get backlinks for a new startup without buying links or spamming inboxes: create citable assets, target relevant pages, pitch specifically and track referrals.
How to Get Testimonials and Reviews for SaaS
Get SaaS testimonials and reviews by asking after a real result, asking specifically, and publishing customer words with context, permission and disclosure.
How to Optimize for AI Search Answers (GEO)
Optimize for AI search answers with direct answers, clear headings, quotable definitions, sources, structured data and crawlable pages that machines can cite.
SaaS Status Page Checklist: What to Publish Before an Outage
A SaaS status page checklist for solo makers: components, incident states, maintenance, subscribers and postmortems, plus hosted and open-source options.
Founder-Led Sales Strategy: A First-Customer Playbook for Bootstrapped SaaS
A founder-led sales strategy for bootstrapped SaaS: qualify accounts, find prospects, run calls and demos, follow up, price, and stay inside PECR and CAN-SPAM.
How to Market an API to Developers Without a Large Audience
Learn how to market an API with problem-led positioning, useful docs, a fast first successful call, clear limits, examples and permitted developer channels.
How to Reduce SaaS Churn Before Buying More Traffic
Learn how to reduce SaaS churn by separating customer and revenue loss, fixing failed payments, improving activation and testing honest retention options.
SaaS Product Roadmap Template for a Bootstrapped Team
Use this SaaS product roadmap template to connect customer evidence, product outcomes, capacity, dependencies and review dates without promising every feature.
How to Get Your First 100 Users for a Bootstrapped Product
Get your first 100 users for a bootstrapped product: recruit ten by hand, learn from them, then add community, launch, and content channels.