Our product choices aren’t purely logical—they’re shaped by subconscious signals like founder visibility, storytelling, and personal moments that build trust. Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Grok became my defaults not just for their features, but because their founders live rent-free in my head through podcasts, interviews, and media presence. In the AI era, founder-led storytelling isn’t vanity—it’s the new moat.

The invisible signals that drive our tech choices aren’t always logical—they’re deeply personal, often shaped by subconscious impressions.

One of my recent realizations around Why I use ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Grok isn’t just about features. It’s about founders, stories, and moments that stuck in my head.

We like to believe we make product choices rationally. But if I reflect honestly—many of my daily tools were chosen as much by my subconscious as by conscious utility.

Let me break it down.

I use ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok—and yet barely touch Gemini, or Copilot. Not just because the how good or bad the tech is. But also because of the invisible founder signals that prime my brain.

ChatGPT Conscious Reason: → My go-to for researching and writing

Subconscious Signals: → Hours spent watching Sam Altman interviews (including how he takes notes). → Following the OpenAI board drama in 2022 like a Netflix series. → Events like #12DaysOfAI seeded loyalty, not just awareness.

Perplexity Conscious Reason: → My fact filter. I trust it more than Google now.

Subconscious Signals: → Listening to Aravind Srinivas on 3+ podcasts. → His simplicity, including lessons from interactions he had with Jeff Bezos and Ilya Sutskever. → His storytelling shaped my trust.

Grok Conscious Reason: → My source for breaking, time-sensitive info.

Subconscious Signals: → Elon’s tweets on X.

And the Others? → Sure I am a GSuite power user. But no face and no voice except Sundar Pichai - I hear mostly Alphabet not Gemini → Microsoft? Watching Satya Nadella talk about Copilot doesn’t cut it and doesn’t sound much different than when he used to talk about Azure. → Claude - I primarily use it for Coding related tasks and is not my got to - wonder if the fact that Dario is not enough to been in the media is a reason → Siri, Alexa, Google Home? Well they feel extremely basic gadgets now, not AI advisors (need to strip the “smart from them)

Moral of the story? Founder-led storytelling matters. Founder-as-ambassador is not vanity marketing. It’s trust-building. They get in your head via video, audio, text—and stay there.

In the AI era, brand affinity is a multi-sensory, multi-medium game.

And tech products? They’re not competing just on capabilities. They’re competing on subconscious signals.

Most companies still market features, specs, and roadmaps.

In an AI-first world, founder presence > product spec sheets. Especially if you want to live rent-free in your users’ heads.

If you’re building in AI, don’t hide behind the logo. Get in the feeds. On the podcasts. In the rooms. Because products don’t build relationships. People do.

#AIMusings #FounderMarketing