Dylan Babbs

building @profound with my bud @thejamescad

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

Excited to share @profound has raised a $180M Series D, co-led by @sequoia and @kleinerperkins.

Winning in AI Search requires an inhuman amount of work. That is why we are building the AI platform for marketers, underpinned by two things:

1/ Your AI Marketer, a marketing expert that proactively investigates your data, identifies opportunities, and then does the work while you stay in the loop.

2/ Context Manager, a living synthesis of your meetings, email threads, and brand data powering this new teammate. As your brand evolves, so does your AI Marketer.

AI labs are pushing the frontier in fields like engineering, law, and finance. But marketing, one of the economy's most complex and consequential applications, has received far less attention.

That’s why we’re expanding our applied AI research team. We’re bringing together research scientists, engineers, and IOI medalists to advance AI for marketing. Their focus: post-training models for marketing workflows, and building the world's first AI benchmark for real-world tasks in the field.

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

https://t.co/0w1TkOandT

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

One of my favorites, our composer

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

https://t.co/maI7hHkuHy

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

https://t.co/xhf19vL3au

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

Video player

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

I’m looking for designers and engineers to join us at @profound to contribute here

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

https://t.co/5WY8jIFAmn

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

Video player

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

https://t.co/maI7hHkuHy

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

https://t.co/OyWribJZKO

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

One of my favorites, our composer

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

https://t.co/maI7hHkuHy

[Jason @webmaster]

The reports of design system deaths have been greatly exaggerated

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

It was a pleasure returning to @spc NYC, right where @profound started, to talk about our story, particularly how design plays such an important part.

Thanks for the excellent conversation, @soleio!

Part 2 of my interview with @firstofkind comes Thursday.

[First of Kind @firstofkind]

Dylan Babbs tried 12 to 15 ideas before Profound. The one that worked took three days.

Season 3, Episode 4, Part 1 is here:
LIVE from SPC – @dbabbs joins @soleio before a live audience at @spc, where @profound got its start. Now available on 𝕏, YouTube, and Instagram

Part 2 drops Thursday.

Powered by @framer @noondesign @bot @tryramp @vercel @meetgranola @profound

Hosted by @soleio and coproduced with @Room3NYC

[South Park Commons @spc]

Profound was started right here at SPC NYC.

[First of Kind @firstofkind]

Dylan Babbs tried 12 to 15 ideas before Profound. The one that worked took three days.

Season 3, Episode 4, Part 1 is here:
LIVE from SPC – @dbabbs joins @soleio before a live audience at @spc, where @profound got its start. Now available on 𝕏, YouTube, and Instagram

Part 2 drops Thursday.

Powered by @framer @noondesign @bot @tryramp @vercel @meetgranola @profound

Hosted by @soleio and coproduced with @Room3NYC

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

@profound Watch the sessions at Zero Click Singapore Unlocked. https://t.co/1FGH4wrxyR

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

Zero Click Singapore is now Unlocked! 400+ marketers joined us for Zero Click by @profound Singapore, and sessions are now available to watch on demand.

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

This is real in the app btw

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

Saturdays at @profound

[Claire Zau @clairejyz]

LIVE AT @profound ZERO CLICK LONDON - THE AI MARKETING GATHERING OF THE YEAR

@sach_pat and I had a blast attending Profound’s second Zero Click in London. Over 1,000 marketers showed up (with another 1,000 on the waitlist and a line around the block!). At the end of the day - as the crew were literally breaking down the stage behind us, we grabbed CEO @thejamescad for a few min to talk about what’s next.

A few takeaways from the day:

1. Agents are becoming a new customer.
1 in 5 AI conversations now has commercial intent, and 60% of shoppers start without a brand in mind. Gartner predicts agents will carry out 1 in 5 online transactions by 2030. James thinks that could happen by 2028.

2. Your own website matters more, not less. 51% of ChatGPT’s citations come from brands’ own sites, and shoppers are 9x more likely to go to a brand’s site on their own than to click AI’s link. Sites also have to work for bots.

3. Every model shops differently. In August, ChatGPT roughly doubled the research it does before deciding what to cite, and its sources moved toward first-party facts (product pages up 35%, docs and specs up 81%, social down 91%). Claude still favors comparison pages and listicles. Personal agents like Muse go further: they write a task brief that can name specific brands before they ever search the web.

4. Context is what makes AI marketing work. AI is inherently generic, and good marketing has to be differentiated. As James put it: “Today in 2026, it would be absurd for a software engineer to write their code by hand. But why is that not true for a marketer?”

5. New launches across AIM (a marketing agent that runs in the background and knows your brand), Slides (presentations built inside Profound), Creative Studio (on-brand visuals inside Profound), a mobile app (start agents from your phone), and off-platform agents (work with AIM through email, Slack and Teams), and more.

NEXT STOP: ZERO CLICK NEW YORK - SPRING 2027
@profound @lightspeedvp

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

@webmaster @thearchitsakri 😂

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

@profound Huge month for the team. More coming in November!

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

Some of my favorite October ships in @profound!

[Dylan Babbs @dbabbs]

@profound 6/ Context Manager: Find and fill the gaps in the brand context powering your AI Marketer with Context Manager