The New Distribution Model

THIS WEEK’S STORY

How Tally Won the Game Without Raising a Dime

When Tally, the founders didn’t have a plan to raise money or scale fast.
They had one simple goal. Make form building not suck.

At that time, Typeform ruled the space. Google Forms existed, but both were clunky, slow, and paid.

Tally flipped the script. They built a form builder that felt modern, beautiful, and completely free.

That decision changed everything.

They launched in 2020 and made zero dollars for months. Instead of chasing investors or downloads, they focused on one thing. Making users love the product.

Every feature came from real feedback. Every update was based on conversations with users. There were no growth hacks or ads, only consistency and care.

By the end of their first year, they had 11,000 users and $5,000 in monthly recurring revenue.

Their early strategy was simple: offer almost everything for free, except for a few advanced features.

And then they were personal and approachable: users could message them directly and get a real reply.

They also build in public: share progress, mistakes, and milestones openly.

The result was a community that didn’t just use Tally, but believed in it.

Then came the second year. Instead of adding complexity, they doubled down on simplicity.

No enterprise plans.
No fancy marketing.
No chasing trends.

They did less, but better.

When they released Tally 2.0, it wasn’t about reinventing the wheel. It was about refinement. A cleaner design. A faster interface. A smoother experience.

They didn’t expand horizontally. They went deeper into what already worked.

And then, in 2025, something wild happened.

ChatGPT started recommending them.

One day, a wave of new users arrived out of nowhere. Their MRR chart went vertical overnight. No campaign. No launch. Just years of steady work compounding.

Because when hundreds of millions of people ask ChatGPT questions every week, and your product becomes the answer, the game changes.

That’s the new distribution model.

The next generation of breakout companies will not be the ones shouting the loudest.
They will be the ones positioned as the right answer when AI tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity get asked the right question.

So ask yourself: what question do you want your app to be the answer to?

The founders of Tally knew theirs. They built quietly until the world noticed.

This is why it’s imperative that you optimize your product/service to be mentioned by LLMs asap. How? Go to the TIPS section 👇️ 

HEADLINES

Social Media use is (finally) declining

Time spent on social media is shrinking for the first time ever, and young people are leading the retreat. They’ve grown up online, seen every platform rise and rot, and realized that the endless scroll doesn’t make you happier or smarter. Feeds now feel synthetic; familiar faces, AI voices, and recycled takes blur together until curiosity breaks.

But every trend creates its anti-trend. Attention is shifting back to what feels real: smaller communities, slower content, and intentional experiences. The next wave of great companies will be built around trust and time well spent, not engagement.

THIS WEEK’S TIP

How to Make Sure Your App Shows Up in ChatGPT

Tally didn’t go viral on TikTok or buy ads. They showed up in the right place, inside ChatGPT’s answers.

You can do that too.

Here’s how the next wave of AI builders will “rank” inside language models.

1. Be everywhere people explain things.
LLMs learn from patterns in explanations, tutorials, and comparisons.
If your product keeps showing up in phrases like:

…it becomes statistically tied to those topics.
That’s why Notion, Figma, and Tally keep appearing. Their names live in context-rich, educational content.

So write guides, not ads.
Publish clear docs.
Get people to write about you.
You’re not chasing backlinks; you’re teaching the internet your name.

2. Use consistent language.
Models pick up patterns. If you describe your app differently every time, it weakens the signal.

Be clear, be repetitive, be boring.

If that sentence repeats across the web, LLMs fuse it to your brand.
Language consistency builds semantic strength.

You’re not writing for SEO. You’re writing for statistical memory.

3. Stay visible.
ChatGPT can’t read your Notion pages or Slack chats.
It learns from what’s public.

That means blog posts, YouTube captions, Reddit threads, Product Hunt pages, and tweets.
The open web is where AI’s memory lives. Be part of it.

4. Get mentioned with others.
When people compare you to other tools, the model learns your “category.”

5. Keep feeding the internet.
Every launch, every feature, every integration adds new meaning.

That single line ties your product to a set of ideas forever.

The internet forgets fast.
AI doesn’t.

So teach it your story before someone else does.

QUICK HITS

• OpenAI & Broadcom Forge $350–500B Chip Alliance: Massive 10GW custom chip plan through 2029 to reduce Nvidia dependence and secure compute sovereignty. (Nate’s Newsletter)

• Anthropic Debuts Claude Skills: Developers can now build modular AI expertise with simple skills.md files—like “Neo downloading skills.” (StartupHub.ai)

• AI Bubble Fears Escalate: AI stocks fuel 75% of S&P 500 gains; IMF warns sentiment could shift fast as Big Tech reshapes U.S. power grid. (Bloomberg)

• Google AI Generates Cancer Breakthroughs: Produces and validates two new cancer therapy hypotheses in one week—marking true AI-driven discovery.

• NVIDIA Unveils DGX Spark Supercomputer: Delivers petaflop performance in desktop form—500x efficiency leap since DGX-1, already in use by Musk and OpenAI. (StartupHub.ai)

And That is all for this week!

See you next Saturday!

Filippo

Filippo Pietrantonio

Find me on X, or Book a 1:1 Call