What happens when Google stops sending traffic… and AI starts deciding who gets discovered?
Jochen Madler is betting that most companies are not ready for that shift.
He’s the co-founder and CEO of SiteFire, a YC W26 startup building marketing infrastructure for the agentic web. After a background in statistics and reinforcement learning, he left his PhD to build a company helping brands show up inside AI systems like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini—where discovery is already moving.
And the shift is not theoretical. Some companies are already seeing AI traffic grow fast, while others are losing distribution without knowing why.
In Today’s Episode We Discuss
- 00:01Introduction & SiteFire Overview
- 00:28Jochen’s Background in Statistics & Energy Systems
- 01:18Founding SiteFire & Early YC Journey
- 02:14Moving to San Francisco & Ecosystem Exposure
- 02:50YC Experience & Key Takeaways
- 04:00Advice for Founders Applying to YC
- 05:25From Reinforcement Learning to AI Marketing
- 06:20Identifying the AI Search Opportunity
- 07:35Google AI Overviews & Traffic Disruption
- 08:30Rise of AI as the New Interface
- 09:17Why AI Search Isn’t SEO 2.0
- 10:53Rational Search vs Human Behavior
- 12:29Marketing as a Math Problem
- 14:01AI Search vs Traditional Channels
- 15:26Websites Becoming Agent-Focused
- 16:33Human Traffic vs Agent Traffic Trends
- 17:46Adoption Gap & Real-World Usage
- 19:14Long-Term Evolution of Search & AI
- 21:01GEO vs AEO Debate
- 21:43Agent Experience as the New Frontier
- 22:02What Winning in AI Search Means
- 23:12Distribution Risk if Google Disappears
- 24:10OpenAI’s Role in Search Distribution
- 24:41GEO vs SEO Debate Revisited
- 25:11Markdown, Content Structure & AI Readability
- 25:58SiteFire Product: From Monitoring to Execution
- 28:47How AI Models Rank & Retrieve Content
- 31:00Early Product Traction & Breakthrough Results
- 32:12Content Strategy: Domain vs Platforms
- 34:00Product vs Services Approach
- 34:58Hardest Technical Challenges
- 36:31Misconceptions About AI Marketing
- 38:25Content Commoditization & Future of SEO
- 39:17Competition & Incumbent Risk
- 42:27Future of AI Agents Replacing Search
- 43:27AI Agents Executing Transactions
- 44:56Agent Reviews & API Ecosystems
- 45:47Where Value Accrues in AI Stack
- 48:15Vision for SiteFire & Agent Funnels
- 51:10Rapid Fire: Startup Lessons & Beliefs
Pull Quotes
“Websites will increasingly be visited by agents, not humans.”
“If your API is the one the agent finds and uses, there’s no reason to switch.”
Jochen started by modeling energy systems. Now he’s modeling something bigger: how attention flows when machines—not people—control discovery.
Because in a world where agents decide what gets seen, clicked, and bought…marketing doesn’t disappear. It just moves one layer deeper.
Follow Jochen Madler on LinkedIn: LinkedIn