Unicorn founders committed to delivering the complete infrastructure for the next evolution of search and discovery

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Search Party, a new startup in the generative engine optimization (GEO) space, has launched out of stealth with a $3.5 million funding round led by Fuse, a leading early-stage VC firm known for backing category-defining SaaS and AI companies.

The launch comes as nearly half of consumers have already turned to AI over Google for search and discovery. Search Party offers brands the opportunity to reclaim their voice in large language models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity by offering complete visibility and unprecedented control over how they appear in AI-generated answers.

Unlike early GEO tools that stop at visibility tracking, Search Party reveals where AI sources its answers, then activates autonomous workflows that generate strategies and content to influence those sources.

“AI models respond to the signals we feed them,” said Ryan Brown, CTO and co-founder. “We give brands the technical visibility to see which sources shape those signals and the tools to influence them. Because if you don’t write the story, someone else will.”

Search Party also digs deep into prompt-level analytics. Users can store and analyze unlimited queries related to their brand and products, benchmark competitors, and transform insights into actions that improve how large language models describe them.

“You aren’t just marketing to people anymore,” said Brandon Brown, CEO and Co-Founder. “You’re marketing to AI, and AI is marketing to people. That means you need to show up in the places AI trusts, and present your content in a way that it understands. That’s what Search Party is built for.”

Brandon and Ryan Brown were previously two of the co-founders of GRIN, the world’s leading creator management platform and Sacramento’s first tech unicorn.

Under Brandon’s leadership as CEO, GRIN grew from $0 to $1 billion in valuation, raised $145 million across seven funding rounds, and scaled from two to 480 employees before his exit in 2024. Ryan led engineering and technical strategy as GRIN became the undisputed category leader for influencer marketing software.

“Brandon and Ryan have already proven their ability to build category-defining companies, and we believe Search Party is poised to do the same in the new era of generative search,” said Brendan Wales, General Partner at Fuse VC. “As AI rapidly reshapes how people discover and trust information, brands need purpose-built solutions to understand and influence how they appear. Fuse is excited to back the team and their vision for putting companies in control of their AI visibility.”

Brandon and Ryan each bring two decades of leadership experience to a new frontier: GEO and AI-powered visibility.

“By this time next year, AI will be the dominant discovery channel, yet most brands won’t even know how they show up,” said Brandon Brown, CEO and co-founder of Search Party. “We built Search Party to help brands take back control.”

Search Party is now accepting early users into its beta program. Brands can try Search Party for free today and start building visibility in the new era of search and discovery.

About Search Party

Search Party helps brands track and control how they appear in answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. As LLMs become the new front door to the internet, it’s more critical than ever to show up accurately and with authority.

The platform analyzes how models perceive your brand, identifies the sources shaping that perception, and delivers personalized workflows to grow and improve it. The end goal: to make you the definitive answer in the prompts that matter most to your brand.

Search Party is now accepting early users into its beta program. Brands can visit the website to apply for access and start building visibility in the next frontier of search.

SOURCE Search Party

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