A free AI-visibility checker built as the top of a two-product funnel: AI Rank demonstrates the problem in 30 seconds; ShelfSpace sells the $497 fix. Classic product-led growth applied to a brand-new category.
The insight
Every established marketing channel has a free "check your score" tool that drives the category: website graders, SEO audits, page-speed tests. They work because they make an invisible problem visible and personal. AI search visibility had no equivalent — so I built it.
Product decisions
- One input, instant value: enter a brand, get a visibility picture. No signup wall before the "aha" moment — friction before value kills free tools.
- Competitor framing: results are most motivating when a competitor scores higher. The output is designed to create urgency, not just information.
- Free by design: the tool is the marketing. Its job is to build awareness, earn shares, and hand warm, problem-aware traffic to the paid audit.
- Cost engineering: the production version runs within Vercel's free-tier execution limits — a real constraint I designed around by trimming the analysis pipeline for the live deployment.
Positioning
"SEMrush for AI search" is deliberate: it borrows the mental model of a tool marketers already trust, so the pitch lands in five words. Naming the category clearly matters more than explaining the technology.
Results
- Live, working product at ai-rank-azure.vercel.app.
- Functioning free → paid funnel with ShelfSpace as the monetization layer.
- ＋ Add: brands checked / unique users ＋ Add: free → audit conversion %
What this shows
Product-led growth thinking, funnel architecture across two products, positioning craft, and the ability to ship a working AI product under real infrastructure constraints.