Vibe Your SaaS North America Tour

My Seattle Tech Week talk had an incredible turnout. I want to thank all the attendees, the AI House for hosting, and, of course, the volunteers.

Next up:

Aug 8: I will be in NYC for the Coinbase Code:NYC Hackathon.

Oct 6: Paul and I will be producing an event in Toronto around Elevate.

Oct 28: I am co-hosting a mixer with Arjun for TC Disrupt. Insane guest list.

Yes, it’s a lot of travel.

But it’s an enormous privilege to go to so many great places. And it’s fun.

How AI Startups "Think Different" About Marketing

On the attendee survey for my Seattle Tech Week talk, I scored 4.5 out of 5. Cool. But one person asked for more examples of what AI companies were doing.

This was excellent feedback.

And it got me thinking. Are AI startups doing marketing differently?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized the answer was, “yes.”

The AI gold rush isn't being won by the companies with the best technology. The companies that are winning it are the ones brave enough to pick the biggest fights.

Here’s how they “Think Different” about marketing.

Anthropic's Research-First Credibility Play: While everyone else was building flashy demos, Anthropic decided to become the AI industry's hall monitor. Publishing dozens of safety research papers and inventing "Constitutional AI" while competitors were just winging it. They positioned themselves as the responsible choice by actually studying alignment problems instead of hoping for the best.

Hugging Face's Open Source Trojan Horse: Hugging Face cracked the code on freemium: they gave away the entire store for free, watched developers get hopelessly addicted to having every AI model at their fingertips, then casually mention that enterprise support and private repos cost money. By the time companies realized they needed the premium stuff, they were already locked in.

Stability AI's PR Makeover: Under new CEO Prem Akkaraju, Stability AI pulled off a superb brand makeover, transforming them from "a lawsuit-magnet AI startup" to "artist-forward innovation partner" by adding to their board entertainment legend James Cameron and securing global ad agency WPP as an investor, shifting the entire away from technical confusion to ethics, creativity, and enterprise readiness.

Midjourney's Secret Club on Discord: While every other AI company was building polished websites, Midjourney said, "let's launch on a gaming chat app" and created a beautiful disaster. Users had to learn Discord commands, deal with public channels, and navigate complete chaos. But that insider knowledge made you feel like part of a secret club. Sometimes, the best strategy is to make people work to get in.

Lovable's Hackathon as a Spectacle: Lovable staged a live showdown where a designer armed with Webflow challenged a vibecoder using Lovable’s AI design copilot to build the best landing page. The head-to-head challenge with "vibe coders" who literally can't write code, perfectly demonstrated the core value proposition of a vibe tool to an audience who understands what it takes to write code that can compile.

Character AI’s Synthetic Conversation Strategy: Everyone claims to crave "authentic connections." But users sent over 2 billion messages to AI celebrities and fictional characters, proving many prefer synthetic relationships. They built a billion-dollar business by giving people the fantasy versions of every relationship—controllable conversations with agreeable celebrities, and perfect advice from AI Einstein.

Cluely's Viral Sensationalism Strategy: Cluely figured out that outrage beats being polite in social media marketing by promoting a "cheat on everything" tool and then leaning into the controversy. The launch ad was a massive viral sensation, and they have now hired 50+ interns to pump out 200+ videos daily, with founder Roy Lee's benchmark being "if half the audience doesn't hate it, it's not viral enough."

Runway's Hollywood Case Studies: Runway didn’t waste time trying to convince the world AI was the future of film. They just partnered with the people making it. Lionsgate trained custom models on their footage. AMC plugged Runway into TV development and campaign workflows. These aren’t hypotheticals. They’re what your marketing team would call case studies.

Perplexity's "Google Killer" Positioning: Perplexity looked at Google's monopoly and said, "Hold up, what if search actually gave you answers instead of ten blue links and a mess of ads?" Then they called themselves an "answer engine" while Google was still a link-peddling middleman. By reframing Google as outdated rather than a search leader, they made "traditional search" sound as antiquated, while they look cutting edge.

OpenAI's DOPE Super Bowl Commercial: OpenAI dropped $14 million on a 60-second Super Bowl spot, but ditched user testimonials for animated black-and-white dots that morph from caveman fire to ChatGPT. Basically, they bet their marketing budget that 130 million viewers would buy into AI as humanity's next big leap. Spoiler alert: your startup can’t afford to do this.

Startups Can't Win a Feature War, But They Can Win a Narrative War

While tactics change, channels change, and tastes change, the core element of a successful startup marketing strategy remains the same.

Storytelling matters most.

Every AI company on this list understood one thing:

Having a better product isn't enough. You also need a better story about why the current way is broken.

Anthropic built safer AI systems, Hugging Face genuinely democratized model access, and Perplexity gives better search results. And Cluely… well, they tapped into the underlying frustration many young people feel about a world that seems rigged to them.

They all carefully crafted a narrative that made it impossible for the world to ignore why their approach is superior.

The strategic directive is clear: Build something genuinely better, then pick a fight with the status quo to make sure people notice. Whether it's positioning Google as an outdated middleman or making other AI companies look reckless on safety, each company used narrative warfare to amplify their actual product advantages.

AI Startups Need Both: Better Product AND a Story that Makes the Old Way Look Broken

The companies that win aren't just the ones with the best capabilities. They're the ones who can make people care about them.

I know some of this might seem contradictory:

• Anthropic is praised for restraint (research papers, safety-first).

• Cluely is praised for outrage bait and controversy.

But assure you it’s not. These tactics work because they’re aligned with the company’s core story. What matters is clarity and boldness, not uniformity.

Having the best product is table stakes.

Making people notice? That's the real competitive advantage.

008 The Gregory and Paul Show - GPT5 is Coming, Facebook's AI Manifesto, Figma IPO

On the Gregory and Paul Show, we break down the latest in startups, SaaS, AI, and whatever the internet is debating this week.

On this episode, Gregory wraps his Seattle SaaS takeover, Paul dreams of deepfake-proof memes, and the duo digs into the ripple effects of GPT-5, the Figma IPO boom, and the fate of AI tools pivoting to services. Plus: sovereign AI, voice cloning V3s, and Zuckerberg’s AI moonshot memo.

Watch episode 008 on YouTube →

Free Vibe Your SaaS Resources

• NEW From Zero to 1M in ARR - How to Market Your Startup: the slides from the most popular talk at Seattle Tech Week. Get the free presentations →

• How to Monetize Your Climate Startup: Strategies for transforming environmental breakthroughs into businesses. Get the free presentations →

• The Vibe Marketer's Guide to Reddit: Unlock Reddit's massive marketing potential with this guide. Get the free presentation →

• 100 Reasons Customers Say “No” (And How to Make Them Say “Yes”): A Comprehensive Google Sheet breaks down 100 fixes. Get the free tool →

• "Every marketing channel sucks right now": 19 unconventional Vibe Marketing ideas that Founders can harness. Get the free presentation →

• 30-Day SaaS Growth Plan Template: Designed for technical founders who’d rather be building. Get the free eBook →

• How to get your first 1,000 followers on 𝕏: Building a large following on 𝕏 in 2025 is still possible. Get the free eBook →

• VC Pitch Deck Templates for Founders: Based on the legendary Sequoia deck, built for real fundraising. Get the free templates →

Founders, Stop Struggling to Get Customers

I know you’ve gotten 9 emails and 17 LinkedIn messages this week claiming someone “tripled pipeline in 60 days.” Skeptical? Well, you should be.

Here’s my anti-pitch:

• I help founders get their sales and marketing sh*t together.

• Sometimes the pipeline grows fast. Sometimes it doesn’t.

• But every time we stop posting LinkedIn broems (poems for bros).

With Vibe Your SaaS:

• I get you to say what you do without sounding like a lame TEDx talk.

• Keep you accountable so you get ‘all the things' done.

• Help you learn founder-led sales & marketing and stay true to your vibe.

I simplified my pricing.

It’s founder-friendly at $1,500/month.

No contracts. No commitements. No BS. Quit anytime. (Eveyone renews. But why get locked in? What I learned is that founders hate that and love flexibility.)

Book a consultation now.

One month will cost you less than you will spend on a (3rd?) failed ad campaign.

About Me

I'm Gregory Kennedy, former creative director, 3X head of marketing, and founder of Vibe Your SaaS. I help early-stage startups build real momentum with strategic clarity, AI-driven execution, and zero BS.

Greogry Kennedy // Vibe Your SaaS // www.vbmrktr.com

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