Case study: Gumlet turned ChatGPT mentions into 20% of inbound revenue. Read it →
Built for Series A B2B SaaS · $1M to $5M ARR
If you're Series A and AI search isn't on your roadmap, your category lead has 18 months.
DerivateX is the SEO and GEO agency built for Series A B2B SaaS. We help you stake the AI citations your category is locking in this year, so Series B looks like the inevitable next step, not the next fundraise you scramble for.
$1M to $5M
Series A ARR range where the playbook fits
18 months
Median runway from Series A close to Series B raise
20 to 30%
Typical marketing budget as % of ARR at Series A
The Series A Reality
You have 18 months to make the next round look obvious.
Series A money is for scaling what works, not finding what works. Boards expect channel clarity by month 12. The marketing investments that compound between now and your Series B pitch deck are the ones that decide the valuation. AI search is the only one that compounds without proportional spend.
0
months runway
Series A → Series B
The Most Expensive Mistake at Series A
Channel sprawl. Five channels half-built, none repeatable.
Most agencies pitch a Series B-shaped scope at Series A. SEO and paid and ABM and partnerships and community, all at once. The board sees a red flag, not a green one.
The wrong bet
Channel sprawl
Five things going at once, no signal on which one is the one. Board asks "what's the repeatable channel" and you point at five.
Half-builtGoogle SEO
Burning cashPaid social
0 pipelineABM motion
StalledPartnerships
Side projectCommunity
The wedge
The right bet
One channel that compounds
AI search citations that build month over month while your competitors are still hiring their second SEO writer.
AI search visibility
One channel. One compounding asset. Board-defensible math.
- Compounds without proportional spend
- Citation lock-in before competitors notice
- Peer-stage proof from Series A SaaS
- One pipeline metric, not five
The Curve That Decides Series B
Paid spend flatlines. AI citations compound.
This is the chart your board wants to see in the Series B pitch. Linear paid effort vs compounding AI citation share, on the 18-month runway you have right now.
Paid + traditional SEO — linear, fades when spend stops
AI search citations — compound, hold without proportional spend
Month 3
/llm-info/ + category claim staked. AI shortlist accuracy starts climbing.
Month 9
Operator newsletter citations land. AI shortlist inclusion stabilizes.
Month 18
Board-defensible channel story. "We own the AI citation share in our category."
First 90 Days
Four phases. One channel. Board-defensible by week 12.
No five-channel sprawl. No agency-bloat scope. Just the AI-search wedge, instrumented so your next board update writes itself.
01
Weeks 1 to 3
Diagnostic & category claim
AI visibility audit across 4 LLMs. Category claim staked with the founder. Pipeline-attribution wiring agreed.
02
Weeks 4 to 6
/llm-info/ + comparison core
Canonical /llm-info/ page lives. First comparison cluster against your peer-stage competitors ships.
03
Weeks 7 to 9
Founder-bylined content
Your voice, our structure. Operator-credible posts that LLMs cite. Newsletter outreach prep begins.
04
Weeks 10 to 12
Citation amplification
Placements on the operator newsletters your buyer reads. Board update on AI shortlist movement, ready.
Pricing Engineered for Series A
Cheaper than a senior content hire. 10x the leverage.
The pilot pricing is designed around real Series A budgets. Compare it to what you'd otherwise spend, and the math defends itself in the next board update.
Series A pilot · monthly
Starts from
$0 / mo
The Series A Wedge
A 90-day pilot focused on the AI-search wedge. Scope and depth are shaped around your category, your stage, and the velocity you want. No long contract, no bloat.
- AI visibility audit and competitive baseline across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini
- Strategic positioning and content strategy
- Content writing across founder bylines, comparisons, and migrations
- GEO technical foundation: schema, structured data, content architecture
- Query and citation tracking across leading LLMs
- Third-party content distribution
- Ongoing reporting and board-ready insights
Alternative · Senior content hire
~$120K / year
Plus equity. 6-9 months ramp. Single point of failure if they leave at month 11.
Alternative · Traditional SEO agency
$8K to $20K / month
Built for Series B scope. AI search is bolted on, not the wedge. Long contracts.
Alternative · Fractional CMO
$5K to $15K / month
Strategy only. You still need to ship the work. AI search is not the typical fractional skill.
Why this fits Series A
A 90-day pilot starting at $3,500/mo is a board-defensible bet. If month-12 numbers do not move, the pilot did not work and you change course. That is the only honest pricing model at this stage.
Peer-stage proof · SMB founder-led SaaS
REsimpli
+54% ChatGPT-referred sessions in 90 days. Three ChatGPT #1 placements.
REsimpli is a founder-led SaaS with short evaluation cycles and a Series A-shaped motion. Same scrappy go-to-market profile, same need for one compounding channel. The 90-day pilot framework on this page is exactly what shipped wins there. The playbook is direct, not analogical.
Read the full REsimpli case+54%
ChatGPT-referred sessions · 90 days
3
ChatGPT #1 placements
90 days
To measurable lift
Founder
Bylined content, our structure
Honest Answers
Four things every Series A founder says first.
You raised, you have runway, and you are protective of every dollar. Here is how we earn the pilot.
We just raised. We have time.
AI search compounds over 6 to 9 months. Starting in month 1 of your Series A versus month 9 is the difference between a Series B pitch with an AI-search story and one without one. Category windows close in this market on the order of quarters, not years.
We can't afford an agency yet.
The pilot starts at $3,500 a month. Cheaper than a senior content hire ($120K/yr loaded). Cheaper than a traditional SEO agency retainer. Cheaper than the cost of waiting another quarter while a peer-stage competitor stakes the AI citations you wanted to own.
AI search is too new. We'll wait.
The Series A SaaS waiting now is the Series B SaaS losing the room in 18 months. AI citation share locks in the way Google SERP share locked in around 2010 to 2014. The companies that stake the category claim in the first wave do not get displaced in the second.
We need to hire a VP Marketing first.
We work with founders pre-VP Marketing all the time. The pilot is structured so a VP Marketing can take it over cleanly when you hire. We hand off the playbook, the assets, the citation report, and the relationships. You do not have to choose between us and the hire.
Built for Series A B2B SaaS
Your Series B pitch is 18 months away. Decide what compounds toward it.
Book a 30-minute call with Apoorv. We will tell you which AI citations are still open in your category, what 90 days of work would change, and whether the pilot is the right move for where you sit on the runway.