The platform turning AI search into a measurable ROI

This article is a part of Startup Spotlight, a series that features young, up-and-coming startups.

Image credit: Timmy Loen

While engaging with founders, marketers, and content teams, Jonathan Liem noticed a gap in how businesses measure their visibility across modern search engines. Marketers were tracking basic traffic but lacked tools to understand why specific models cited certain brands.

To build accountability into this emerging discovery channel, he launched Inflect to help businesses actively optimize their AI search presence.

😟 Problem

Consumers and business buyers are abandoning traditional search links for direct answers from AI tools. This shift leaves companies that do well on traditional search invisible on platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.

Marketing and growth teams currently lack reliable methods to track whether these models recommend their brands. They are unable to identify which competitors appear instead or measure what content changes actually improve their AI visibility.

💡 Solution

Inflect provides a centralized platform for companies to measure and improve their visibility across major AI search engines, including: 

• Tracks brand mentions and prompts across major AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini.
• Measures brand share of voice against competitors to highlight missed recommendation opportunities.
• Identifies specific websites, articles, and citations that heavily influence AI-generated answers.
• Recommends clear structural or factual content changes to improve page citation likelihood.
• Attributes performance improvements to specific content updates over time.

Image credit: Inflect

🤝 Team

• Jonathan Liem. Founder. He previously built a data pipeline startup that scaled to US$20 million in pipeline in four months.
• Lucia Kim. Founding member of technical staff. She has experience in software engineering and AI product development.

🚀 Traction

• Reached over 400 users on its first day after presenting the minimum viable product at an industry event.
• Built the initial version in just three days and quickly generated inbound acquisition interest.
• Officially launched on June 25 after three months of focused development.
• Secured early design partners across media, crypto, SaaS, and consumer categories.

🏆 Competition

Inflect operates in the emerging AI search optimization space alongside platforms like Profound, Peec AI, Goodie AI, Athena, and Scrunch AI. Traditional SEO tools, such as Ahrefs and Semrush, are also key players.

The startup differentiates itself by prioritizing concrete outcomes over passive analytics. The platform identifies specific content gaps and measures whether recommended changes actually drive measurable improvements in AI recommendations.

💰 Financials

🚩 Risks