Jon Mest (ChatRank): AI Visibility, “SEO Isn’t Dead”, and Bootstrapping a New Search Channel

Episode notes

AI search is changing how buyers discover products. But most founders are either ignoring it, or getting sold misinformation. In this episode, Jon Mest ( and breaks down what actually drives “AI visibility” and how he’s building two bootstrapped companies in a market that’s shifting weekly. We get into the real execution behind: Why “pump out 1,000 blog posts” is bad strategy in AI search What AI models struggle with (and the on-page fixes that matter right now) The off-page signals that influence AI recommendations (reviews, Reddit, YouTube, real human sentiment) How Jon sells a $500/mo product without spray-and-pray outbound Partnerships vs affiliates, what worked and what completely failed (PartnerStack experiment) Why podcasts are underrated for both backlinks and AI citations Jon’s “rotate AI tools weekly” habit to stay sharp across models Why bootstrapping beats VC for most SaaS right now (and when he’d reconsider) If you’re a SaaS founder trying to understand what’s real in AI search, this one will save you time and mistakes. ️ The Arena The Arena is a private Skool community for SaaS founders who are actively building and selling.