Founder Shares $9M Seed Pitch Deck
Gushwork cofounder Nayrhit B is sharing the exact pitch deck that secured a $9M seed round from Susquehanna, Lightspeed, and B Capital. Post-raise, the company is aggressively scaling, hiring a Sales Director with a BMW incentive amid $500K-$800K monthly ARR growth.
The $9M seed round for Gushwork, co-founded by Nayrhit Bhattacharya and Adithya Venkatesh in 2023, gives the company a post-money valuation of $33 million. This brings the startup's total funding to $11 million, following a $2.1 million pre-seed round in July 2023. Key investors in the latest round include Susquehanna International Group, Lightspeed, B Capital, Seaborne Capital, Beenext, Sparrow Capital, and 2.2 Capital. Gushwork is pioneering what it calls "Answer Engine Optimization" (AEO), a strategy designed for a world where users get answers from AI chatbots instead of traditional search engines. The platform uses a swarm of AI agents to create and optimize content, build backlinks, and track leads to ensure its clients are visible on platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. This approach aims to make their clients the recommended vendor when potential buyers use AI for research. The company pivoted to this specific search-led marketing focus after initially starting with a broader model of outsourcing business workflows with a mix of AI and human support. The founders noticed a strong pull from customers for better online visibility, prompting the strategic shift. Gushwork has already gained significant traction, with over 300 paying customers, approximately 95% of whom are based in the United States. The company reports an annualized recurring revenue (ARR) of about $1.5 million and is targeting $3 million to $3.5 million in ARR within the next few months. Subscription plans for their service start at $800 per month. The startup's internal data shows that while AI-driven search and chat platforms account for about 20% of their clients' website traffic, they are generating nearly 40% of inbound leads. This indicates higher intent and better conversion potential from leads acquired through AI platforms. Gushwork primarily targets high-value B2B service providers, industrial distributors, and contract manufacturers in the U.S. With a waitlist of over 800 businesses, the new funding is earmarked for expanding the engineering team, improving the accuracy of its AI models, and scaling its go-to-market operations.
