Building startups

You are not short on effort.

You are short on signal.

The usual cycle is dashboards, debates, and interviews that start at zero.

Roadmaps wobble. Messaging stalls. Confidence dips.

There is a calmer way. Start with what your market already says in public.

Turn open-web signals into patterns you can brief the team with.

Pair that with a simple monthly view of how competitors and language shift so decisions stop feeling like a guess.

That’s where I come in.

I run TrendLoom’s Market Radar, a high-touch insight system that gives Seed–Series A teams a continuous, structured read on customers, category, and competitors.

It uses only ethical, public data and an academically grounded framework that combines statistics, ML, and LLMs.

Interviews are not replaced. They are sharpened so you walk in with better hypotheses and leave with decisions you can defend.

I have advised 100+ founders on GTM, messaging, and discovery, and built Zaqlick from my Kellogg-WHU EMBA research into AI-assisted personas. I treat AI as an engine inside a method, not a magic trick.

I help with

• Open-web signals turned into clear patterns
• Competitive intelligence that tracks what changed vs last month
• Product discovery that starts deeper, not from zero
• Messaging that uses real customer language
• Decision protection for roadmap and GTM

Results

• Teams align faster because debates shift from opinions to signals
• Interviews get sharper, messaging tightens, and weak bets are dropped
• Leaders report a steadier sense of “what’s happening now” month to month

There are a few ways to work together:

Start with a 15-minute Signal Check. Bring one question. I will tell you if strong signals exist, what they suggest, and the next best move. If you want deeper support, we roll into Market Radar.

DM me the word “SIGNAL” to see if you are a fit and which path makes sense.

Elena Tsemirava

Growth Marketing @Sendcloud 🚀 | Ex-Founder | CXL & Reforge | B2B SaaS

Passionate about startups, scaleups, and growth. Fascinated by behavioral psychology, digital marketing trends, and technology.

With a diverse background, ranging from programming and data analysis to product development, and digital marketing, I deliver my best work in projects that enable me to exercise multiple areas.

Andrei I.

First 2 months at Omnia are a wrap!

Stepping into a first time Head of Growth role is everything I wished for, and more.

A lot of freedom and plenty of responsibility.

Yes, we’re in a v. crowded space, but with a super strong product team (one of the best I’ve seen), I know we’re building an AI visibility tool like no other.

The biggest challenge so far?

Picking what not to do.

One thing that’s quickly apparent is that there is no playbook for a category that didn’t exist a year ago.

There are perks of joining early though:

• You get to shape what marketing looks like, with no pre-defined rules or guardrails. Positioning, voice, marketing stack, and a lot more.

• No politics or hard rules of engagement.

• Career growth on steroids. After a year, you’ll have experience most other roles take 2-3 years to get. You'll also age faster while at it.

• You’re not stuck behind layers of management, and have direct access to founders to shape the product roadmap.

Some lessons after 2 months:

1. Search ads are great for capturing existing demand and usually a good idea in any company. But in a new category you hit a wall quickly, as users are still figuring out what they're trying to solve and search for.

2. AI can really turn you into a 10x marketer (more on this later).

3. PostHog is great for a tech-savvy team, and amazing at consolidating data from different sources (great analytics & CDP combo).

4. Focusing on competitors in such a crowded space is an easy way to get a mild panic attack, but it will push you to do your best work, like few other things will.

You’ll be hearing more from me and Omnia this year. Not as part of a new year’s resolution, but because our audience is here and we have some interesting things to share with the AEO/GEO community. But more on that later.

For now, bring on 2026, and a happy new year! 🥂

Andrei Iocin

Hiring growth advisors is probably one of the most underrated growth tactics there is.

As a first growth/marketing hire, you’re supposed to master positioning, tracking, paid, organic, social, community, AEO, CRO, CRM, and PLG, to name a few.

But working with advisors will stop you from doing the wrong things well from the get-go.

You don't hire them for "industry secrets", you hire them to debug and test your thinking quickly.

One of the first questions Daniel asked me when I joined Omnia was “what are the advisors we need to start working with to make progress faster?”

After a few dozen calls, I've learned:

· To not over-optimize a channel with diminishing returns, over‑segment tiny European markets, or waste time with enterprise‑style creatives.
· That "SEOs are almost as marketing-agnostic as devs are, so bring data, not pitches. Ads won’t work, but borrowed trust will, especially with little distribution at first.”
· That investing in SEO early in a new category has advantages as competition is far from fierce, even in a crowded space.
· That “listicles (both owned and earned) are some of the highest ROI things you can do for AEO.”

A growth team that is not using advisors, is most likely a growth team that is underperforming.

You can spend a lot of time and money to “learn by doing”, or you can rent someone else’s scar tissue and skip a few failure cycles instead.

Know any good advisors that are worth talking to?
Let me know in the comments below or send me a DM.

Google's AI Overviews are leaning on YouTube for AI answers more than ever before.

One of the reasons I joined Omnia was to dive deep into data like this, to learn and share how AI engines work.

So we looked at 12.5M citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, and:

• As the most cited domain in AI Overviews & Perplexity, it seems that 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗧𝘂𝗯𝗲/𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼 𝗶𝘀 quietly 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗜-𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀.

• Even though Perplexity's YouTube citation share is declining, it's still 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗔𝗜 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀. 3.5 times more often than 2nd placed Google.

• While 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗧𝘂𝗯𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗚𝗣𝗧'𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝟱𝟬 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 (with Wikipedia and Reddit leading the way there), brands without a video presence will leave a gap that AI can fill with someone else’s content. As Ethan Smith put it, 𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼𝘀 𝗼𝗻 “𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴” 𝗕𝟮𝗕 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗘𝗢, with almost to zero competition for long-tail terms.

As the graph shows, AI citation behavior is volatile so expect this to change again soon. 📈

But one thing’s for sure:

The fact that YouTube plays such a different role in ChatGPT vs Perplexity vs Google, your AI visibility strategy cannot rely on a single channel.

V. annoying, I know.

Curious if this will push marketing teams to repurpose more and more content into video over time.

Noticing a similar trend? Let me know in the comments below.👇

"What prompts should I track for AI visibility?"

Getting your brand in AI answers starts with finding and tracking the right prompts.

Here are 7 ways to find them:

1️⃣ 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮.

The best place to start is finding long-tail, question-heavy queries straight out of your Search Console.

Filter with a regex like this one to find queries with 5 words or more: ^(\S+\s+){5,}\S+ and turn those into prompts.

2️⃣ 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿’𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗱𝘀.

Search ads are aimed at high-intent, ready-to-buy keywords which reveal decision-stage language. Not to mention that your competitor is already putting their money on them.

Go to Google Ads Transparency Center → Take a screenshot of their best ads → Paste it into ChatGPT → Ask: “Turn my competitor's ad copy into questions customers ask AI”.

3️⃣ 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗔𝗱𝘀 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮.

Google Ads Search Terms are real keywords people type to find your ads.

Go to Campaigns → Insights and Reports → Search Term Report → Screenshot/Download your data → Upload into ChatGPT → Ask:

“Use my Google Ads Search Term report data to create real prompts users ask AI.”

4️⃣ 𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝗔𝗜.

It does a surprisingly good job at it. Start with a seed keyword:

"Turn [keyword] into prompts users would ask AI. Maximize LLM inclusion (AEO-style prompts). Use this formula [Best X] + [business size] + [constraint] + [use case / comparison]".

5️⃣ 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘆’𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

Ask a question related to your brand and look at the Perplexity related queries section at the end for prompt ideas.

6️⃣ 𝗗𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗚𝗣𝗧.

Not as obvious, but you can turn follow up questions like “should I tailor recommendations based on your budget?” into “What’s the best CRM for startups on a low budget?”.

7️⃣ 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝗔𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴.

Go to Reddit Answers and ask "what are common questions [audience] is having about [category]".

Read through for ideas, or screenshot the results and ask AI to turn them into prompts.

The related questions section is also great for ideation.

𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗼𝗯𝘃𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗽: Go through your sales calls and customer support transcripts to find the most common questions people ask, and turn those into prompts.

You now have a list of super relevant prompts that customers ask AI to find brands like yours.

Did you expect a shameless plug here with a tool that automates all this?
Well, you won't find one because there is no such tool. At least not yet.

How do you find and prioritize which prompts to track?

taplio

The Battle

Elena Tsemirava

Andrei I.

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreAndrei I.'s LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Elena Tsemirava

Andrei I.

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Andrei I.'s LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreAndrei I.'s LinkedIn Performance