Our Vision
AI visibility monitoring should be a commodity, not a luxury.
The emerging market for "AI search optimization" is full of inflated pricing, opaque methodologies, and venture-funded startups burning cash. We think there's a better way.
The market is broken
A wave of VC-funded startups has flooded the "AI Engine Optimization" space, charging premium prices for what amounts to running queries against LLM APIs and tracking the results. Many of these companies will fail — not because the problem isn't real, but because their cost structures require enterprise pricing for commodity work.
There's also a real possibility that LLM providers themselves start offering brand visibility data directly. When that happens, many of these platforms lose their reason to exist. We're building with that future in mind — if providers open up, we'll shift to aggregating their data rather than collecting our own.
Meanwhile, the AEO space is rife with misinformation. Consultants sell "optimization" services based on flawed assumptions about how LLMs work. Rankings are presented as deterministic when they're probabilistic. Correlation is sold as causation. We believe this hurts everyone.
Small, sustainable, built to last
Elmo is bootstrapped. We don't have investors demanding hyper-growth or a board pushing us toward enterprise-only pricing. That means we need far less to be a success — and far less to stick around long-term.
We believe AI visibility data should be cost-effective to access. The underlying operations — querying LLMs, parsing responses, tracking results over time — aren't expensive to run. The pricing should reflect that reality, not the fundraising ambitions of the company providing them.
How we fund Elmo
Open Source Core
Self-host for free with open source code, forever. We use affiliate links for some data providers.
White Label
Agencies and platforms pay us toembed Elmo under their own brand for their clients.
Cloud Hosting
In the near future, we will offer a managed version for teams that don't want to self-host.
Transparent by default
Too much of the AEO industry operates like a black box. Vendors show you scores and rankings without explaining how they're calculated, then charge you to improve numbers you can't independently verify.
We take the opposite approach. Elmo is open source — you can read every line of code that generates your data. Our methodology is documented. When we don't know something, we say so. When a metric has limitations, we explain what they are.
This isn't just an ethical position. It's practical. If you understand how the data is collected and what it means, you'll make better decisions with it. Opaque tools create dependency. Transparent ones create capability.
Understanding how LLMs see the web
We're not in the business of "optimizing" your content for AI. We're focused on a more fundamental question: how do large language models use and interpret the web? How do they decide which brands to mention, which sources to cite, and what information to present?
That framing matters. "Optimization" implies you can game the system. Understanding implies you can make informed decisions. We're building tools for the latter.
Diagnose problems
Why isn't your brand appearing in AI responses? Is it a content gap, a citation issue, or something else entirely? Find out what's actually going on.
Find opportunities
Where are LLMs already talking about your space? What questions are being asked? Where are competitors showing up that you're not?
Track changes over time
LLM responses shift as models are updated and retrained. Monitor how your brand's presence evolves across providers and model versions.
Understand, don't manipulate
We give you data and context. What you do with it is up to you. We won't pretend there's a magic button.
Join us in building this differently
Elmo is open source, cost-effective, and built for the long haul. If that resonates, we'd love to have you.