Spot on RE paid search…categories have become a lot more crowded over the last decade and everyone is over-indexed on short-term campaigns like there is no tomorrow.
That means that everyone is targeting the same keywords, chasing the same signals, chasing the same audiences, which makes auctions and CPCs more expensive. We have seen this across the 50+ SaaS brand we work with.
That doesn’t mean paid search is dead, but it means trust is built before people go to search.
Content collabs, influencers, community, and employee led content are all focused on out-of-market buyers.
And the investments in building trust early make capture channels like search more efficient.
Elena, thanks for sharing these valuable insights. The trust-based moat thesis is spot on.
I'm curious about the mechanics of trust conversion that you've seen work effectively. How do you close the gap between the first WOW and the user’s "done” state for products like Lovable? I've been seeing users love the initial magic but then run parallel workflows (generate in the AI tool, finish elsewhere) because they’re not yet confident the output consistently meets their definition of "done." When does trust actually convert to subscription: after belief is established through founder visibility and transparent roadmaps, or after proving the magic is repeatable for their workflow?
Great points and concise article! I agree entirely with you. I've seen a lot of people saying some of these things about trust, but I like that you're not just saying trust, but quality. Not everyone has been saying that the new frontier of branding and products is returning to quality. This is a thought I've been working towards synthesizing right now. I subscribed! I'd love if you would check out my most recent post about the return to authenticity and quality of experience in brand strategy for three big brands: https://valueengine.substack.com/p/the-brand-of-the-future
Thank you for the really clear, accessible, and practical summary!
I read this last week and cannot stop thinking about it. Specifically I cannot stop thinking about how universal design is critical to building a strong trust and distribution moat. How do you build distribution if 16% of your potential market can't find, experience, or understand your brand? To be clear that's not a minor audience segment, that's 1.3 billion people globally living with disabilities, representing £274 billion in spending power in the UK alone. And as populations age, this percentage is only growing. Universal design (the practice of ensuring every brand touchpoint is usable by all people) isn't separate from distribution and trust. It's what makes both possible at scale.
This hits. The idea that trust and the product itself have to do the talking feels spot on, especially right now. Love how clearly this connects growth, retention, and product quality into one story instead of treating them as separate problems.
Great read! And so true, I personally always loved when actual builders talk to public, like engineers, designers, etc - I immediately thought that these guys don't have the annoying corporate buroucracy about staying silent for roadmaps and stuff, they are transparent and it started to generate trust
"With the total number of searches not growing, the cost of placing your ads on those searches skyrockets as competition increases"
There is a second layer to this dynamic - the number of surface areas for showing ads is finite, so is the number of hours per day someone can spend browsing online.
With both of these static, the only way for the publishers to demonstrate growth in their ads businesses is by stripping away control from advertisers and making paid campaigns black boxes (ex. Performance Max).
Costs artificially go up, the business demonstrates growth, and the advertisers can't do anything about it.
The prevalence of these black box campaigns have also eroded trust.
Love the idea! I was passionate about building community on my water polo teams and found that, inadvertently, this friendship pushed misaligned incentives(guys who want accreditation, to score, to act out) towards the shared incentive(best team performance).
Totally get the frustration here – SEO feels flooded with AI sludge, and the channels that used to be reliable now feel rigged against thoughtful work.
What seems to be happening is that search itself is shifting: instead of “10 blue links,” more people are getting answers directly from AI-driven engines (Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity, ChatGPT, etc.). That means the game is less about ranking pages and more about being *the* answer those systems trust.
Been digging into Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) lately – it reframes content around clear, structured answers and evidence of expertise, so AI systems are more likely to surface and cite it.
A free tool that helped wrap my head around this is https://aeoanalyzer.app – it analyzes a URL or text for AEO signals. Not perfect, but useful for stress‑testing content against this new reality.
I'm new to the operator side having been an investor previously. In the company I'm working with now, I've been tasked with rethinking and rebuilding our GTM and it's all about TRUST.
Ecosystems, partnerships. People, people, people. Even as an AI native product, there is a core part of humanity that cannot be automated or outsourced when it comes to many aspects of GTM.
Love this! I covered this topic ( from a different angle ) last week - check out my article - The Infrastructure of Belief 😍
Spot on RE paid search…categories have become a lot more crowded over the last decade and everyone is over-indexed on short-term campaigns like there is no tomorrow.
That means that everyone is targeting the same keywords, chasing the same signals, chasing the same audiences, which makes auctions and CPCs more expensive. We have seen this across the 50+ SaaS brand we work with.
That doesn’t mean paid search is dead, but it means trust is built before people go to search.
Content collabs, influencers, community, and employee led content are all focused on out-of-market buyers.
And the investments in building trust early make capture channels like search more efficient.
Amazing piece of content. Thanks for sharing it.
Elena, thanks for sharing these valuable insights. The trust-based moat thesis is spot on.
I'm curious about the mechanics of trust conversion that you've seen work effectively. How do you close the gap between the first WOW and the user’s "done” state for products like Lovable? I've been seeing users love the initial magic but then run parallel workflows (generate in the AI tool, finish elsewhere) because they’re not yet confident the output consistently meets their definition of "done." When does trust actually convert to subscription: after belief is established through founder visibility and transparent roadmaps, or after proving the magic is repeatable for their workflow?
Great points and concise article! I agree entirely with you. I've seen a lot of people saying some of these things about trust, but I like that you're not just saying trust, but quality. Not everyone has been saying that the new frontier of branding and products is returning to quality. This is a thought I've been working towards synthesizing right now. I subscribed! I'd love if you would check out my most recent post about the return to authenticity and quality of experience in brand strategy for three big brands: https://valueengine.substack.com/p/the-brand-of-the-future
Thank you for the really clear, accessible, and practical summary!
So well put, Elena! Thank you for sharing this. Indeed, trust is compounding little by little and so easy to lose in a blink of an eye.
What has been your high signal customer voice/feedback channel at Lovable? Is it support inbox, public reviews or something else?
“People buy from people they trust. Faces create that trust in ways corporate accounts never can.” Using humans to sell AI to humans. Poetic.
I read this last week and cannot stop thinking about it. Specifically I cannot stop thinking about how universal design is critical to building a strong trust and distribution moat. How do you build distribution if 16% of your potential market can't find, experience, or understand your brand? To be clear that's not a minor audience segment, that's 1.3 billion people globally living with disabilities, representing £274 billion in spending power in the UK alone. And as populations age, this percentage is only growing. Universal design (the practice of ensuring every brand touchpoint is usable by all people) isn't separate from distribution and trust. It's what makes both possible at scale.
This hits. The idea that trust and the product itself have to do the talking feels spot on, especially right now. Love how clearly this connects growth, retention, and product quality into one story instead of treating them as separate problems.
Trust-based growth approach is uncharted territory. So far we have only worked with performance marketing. This is scary but imperative.
Great read! And so true, I personally always loved when actual builders talk to public, like engineers, designers, etc - I immediately thought that these guys don't have the annoying corporate buroucracy about staying silent for roadmaps and stuff, they are transparent and it started to generate trust
"With the total number of searches not growing, the cost of placing your ads on those searches skyrockets as competition increases"
There is a second layer to this dynamic - the number of surface areas for showing ads is finite, so is the number of hours per day someone can spend browsing online.
With both of these static, the only way for the publishers to demonstrate growth in their ads businesses is by stripping away control from advertisers and making paid campaigns black boxes (ex. Performance Max).
Costs artificially go up, the business demonstrates growth, and the advertisers can't do anything about it.
The prevalence of these black box campaigns have also eroded trust.
Love the idea! I was passionate about building community on my water polo teams and found that, inadvertently, this friendship pushed misaligned incentives(guys who want accreditation, to score, to act out) towards the shared incentive(best team performance).
Totally get the frustration here – SEO feels flooded with AI sludge, and the channels that used to be reliable now feel rigged against thoughtful work.
What seems to be happening is that search itself is shifting: instead of “10 blue links,” more people are getting answers directly from AI-driven engines (Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity, ChatGPT, etc.). That means the game is less about ranking pages and more about being *the* answer those systems trust.
Been digging into Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) lately – it reframes content around clear, structured answers and evidence of expertise, so AI systems are more likely to surface and cite it.
A free tool that helped wrap my head around this is https://aeoanalyzer.app – it analyzes a URL or text for AEO signals. Not perfect, but useful for stress‑testing content against this new reality.
I’m seeing this in our sector - selling human intelligence- and changes how we sell.
I'm new to the operator side having been an investor previously. In the company I'm working with now, I've been tasked with rethinking and rebuilding our GTM and it's all about TRUST.
Ecosystems, partnerships. People, people, people. Even as an AI native product, there is a core part of humanity that cannot be automated or outsourced when it comes to many aspects of GTM.