3,000 Customers Tracked, €15k Spent: Everything We Did to Build Rankfender (With Free Resources)

Hey Product Hunt,

I'm Imed, founder of Rankfender.

We help brands track and improve how they appear in AI answers — across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and more. In 120+ languages.

We've now tracked over 3,000 brands, analyzed 75,000+ AI answers, and helped founders recover millions in lost revenue from AI errors.

Total marketing spend so far: €15k.

Here's everything we did — with free resources you can use.

1. Narrative: From Agency Pain to Product Solution

The story that worked for us: "We built this because we had to."

We were an agency watching client traffic drop. Rankings were fine. Clicks were down. Turns out — AI was answering questions directly. Clients were invisible.

No tool existed to track it. So we built one.

Why this worked: People trust founders who built for themselves first. It's not a hypothetical product. It's a scar.

Free resource: Your origin story is your best marketing asset. Write it down. Tell it everywhere.

2. Personal Network: The First 100 Users

Our first 100 users came from one place: former agency clients and colleagues.

I emailed everyone I'd ever worked with. Not a sales pitch — just:

"Hey, we built something that solves the problem we used to complain about. Want to try it for free? Just tell me if it's useful."

Conversion rate: 40% signed up. 100% gave feedback.

Free resource: Your network is not just LinkedIn connections. It's every client, colleague, and collaborator from the last 10 years. Make a list. Email them personally.

3. Product Hunt: The Launch That Changed Everything

We launched on Product Hunt 3 months ago. Day 1 was chaos. Day 2 was worse.

But then something happened: People started commenting. Really smart people. Founders building in AI, SaaS, dev tools.

One comment led to a DM. That DM led to a 2-hour call. That call led to our first enterprise customer.

The numbers from that launch:

Free resource: Don't just launch and leave. Reply to every comment. DM everyone who engages. The launch is the start, not the finish.

4. LinkedIn: Personal > Brand

We tried a company page. It got 12 followers in 3 months.

Then I started posting as myself.

What worked:

• Behind-the-scenes of building Rankfender

• Data drops from our analysis (43% error rate, 78% invisible)

• Threads like this one

One post that blew up: "I asked 50 founders to check their AI visibility. 43 found errors. Average cost: €28k." → 120k impressions, 400+ new signups.

Free resource: Post as a human. Share what you're learning in real time. People don't follow companies. They follow people.

5. Multi-Language: The Hidden Channel

Most competitors track AI in English only. We built for 120+ languages from day one.

Why: A German user asks in German. AI answers in German. If you're not in German content, you don't exist.

One example: A US SaaS with perfect German translation had zero German AI mentions. A local competitor with worse product but better local coverage won every German query.

The fix: We added per-market tracking so founders could see exactly where they were winning — and where they weren't.

Free resource: Search your brand in ChatGPT in French, German, Spanish, Japanese. If you don't appear, you have work to do.

6. Free Tools: Give Value First

We built three free tools that drove thousands of signups:

1. AI Visibility Checker → Enter your domain, get a free instant audit of your brand in ChatGPT

2. Error Rate Calculator → Estimate how much incorrect AI info might be costing you

3. Competitor Gap Analyzer → See who's winning in your category

Results: 5,000+ uses, 800+ new emails, 200+ converted to trials.

Free resource: What can you give away that costs you little but helps your audience? A checklist, a calculator, a quick audit tool.

7. Newsletters: Small Audiences, High Intent

We partnered with 8 AI and SaaS newsletters.

What we learned:

Smaller was better. High-intent audiences converted 10x better than mass reach.

8. Short Video: Show, Don't Tell

We started making 60-second videos showing:

• A founder discovering their brand was invisible

• The exact moment they found an AI error

• Before/after of fixing content and winning citations

One video hit 200k views on LinkedIn. It showed a founder typing their brand into ChatGPT — and getting nothing. The caption: "This is what €50k of invisibility looks like."

Free resource: Your phone is enough. Show a real dashboard. Show a real reaction. Authenticity beats production value.

9. Content Marketing: Data > Opinions

Every piece of content we publish is backed by data from Rankfender.

Our most-shared posts:

• "78% of SaaS brands are invisible in AI answers"

• "43% of visible brands have incorrect info"

• "The €10k mistake product owners make"

Why this works: Data can't be argued with. Opinions can. Data gets cited. Opinions get forgotten.

Free resource: What data can you pull from your product? Even a small dataset is powerful if it's original.

10. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

This is what we actually sell — but we also teach it for free.

The framework we share:

1. Audit → Check your brand across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini

2. Identify → Find errors, gaps, opportunities

3. Fix → Update content, add FAQ schema, create comparisons

4. Monitor → Track weekly for changes

11. Competitor Tracking: Win by Watching

We track 50+ competitors in Rankfender. Not to copy — to understand.

What we look for:

• Which keywords are they winning?

• What content gets them cited?

• Where are we beating them?

• Where are they beating us?

One insight: A competitor won a keyword we'd never considered. We created one comparison page. Within 30 days, we overtook them.

Free resource: Set up Google Alerts for your competitors. It's basic, but it works.

12. Analytics: One Dashboard to Rule Them All

With 3 channels, 5 content types, and 3,000 users, tracking manually is impossible.

We use:

• Dojo AI → Pulls all our metrics into one chat interface

• Google Analytics → Traffic sources and behavior

• Rankfender itself → AI mentions, citations, errors

One number I watch daily: New AI citations. If that number goes up, everything else follows.

Free resource: Pick one metric that matters. Watch it daily. Ignore the rest.

13. Free Trials, No Cards

This was controversial. Everyone told us: "Require a credit card or you'll get tire-kickers."

They were wrong.

We launched with no-card-required trials. Thousands signed up. Hundreds converted.

Why: People want to trust you before they pay you. Making them enter a card creates friction. Removing it creates goodwill.

Free resource: Offer a no-card trial for 14 days. You'll get more signups, more feedback, and more conversions than you expect.

14. Community: Product Hunt Comments

This thread is part of our strategy.

Every comment I reply to is a chance to learn, help, and connect. Some of those connections become customers. Some become collaborators. All become part of our story.

Free resource: Reply to every comment. Seriously. Every. Single. One.

15. What We'd Do Differently

If we started over tomorrow:

1. Launch earlier. We waited 6 months too long. The product was ready at month 3.

2. Charge earlier. Free trials are great. Free forever is not.

3. Focus on one channel. We tried everything at once. LinkedIn worked. We should have doubled down there sooner.

Final Thought

Building Rankfender taught me one thing:

AI visibility isn't a feature. It's a category.

And categories get defined by whoever shows up first.

We're showing up. Every day. In every language.

Hope this helps you do the same.

Imed Radhouani
Founder & CTO – Rankfender