Robbie Kellman Baxter

Owning your narrative is leadership. Last week in San Francisco, we gathered with AAF SF Bay Area to talk about positioning in competitive markets. Three themes emerged: Be memorable. Be clear. Be consistent. The market doesn’t reward talent. It rewards clarity. Grateful to everyone who showed up thoughtfully. #personalbrand #careergrowth #leadership

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AI search is emerging as a meaningful new lead channel. India-founded startup Gushwork recently raised $9 million in a seed round led by Susquehanna International Group and Lightspeed Venture Partners to help businesses surface inside AI-driven discovery platforms such as OpenAI, Perplexity AI, and Google. The company reports more than 300 paying customers and approximately $1.5 million in annualized recurring revenue a few months after launching its AI-search-focused product, with strong recent growth and a substantial waitlist. According to its internal data, around 20% of customer traffic comes from AI-driven search and chat platforms, generating a disproportionately higher share of inbound leads. What’s unfolding is less hype and more structural evolution. Search behavior is expanding beyond traditional results pages into AI summaries, conversational interfaces, and AI-assisted browsing. Buyers are increasingly asking models direct, decision-oriented questions, which shifts visibility from keyword ranking toward being cited inside generated answers. That requires brands to build machine-readable authority through structured content, credible references, and consistent topical depth rather than relying solely on conventional SEO tactics. For marketing and tech leaders, the implication is pragmatic. Traffic volume may matter less than intent quality, as AI-driven discovery appears to capture users further along in the buying journey. Execution-heavy optimization work is becoming more automatable through AI agents, while human teams focus more on positioning and differentiation. High-consideration B2B sectors may feel the impact earlier, given their research-driven purchasing processes. The broader takeaway is simple: as AI systems increasingly mediate discovery, brand visibility will depend not only on ranking in search engines but on being recognized and surfaced by large language models when buyers ask who to trust. https://lnkd.in/egvj4PnM

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Culture, Not Capital, Kills Mergers - this is a raw but true fact! EQ BEAM (Behavioural Emotional Intelligence AI Model) is one of the most exciting things I have heard and read about recently. This is a new approach that redefines how companies can handle and reduce people-related risk, both in due diligence and post-integration, combining EQ and AI. I have written about this several times, the skills needed in the time of AI is not necessarily tech skills (even though you need to understand AI), but skills like empathy and active listening, creative thinking, leadership and so on (read more in my newsletter “Key Skills to Thrive in the Age of AI”. BEAM do what we all should figure out - combining AI with skills that are uniquely human. Congratulations to EQ Europe and Jenny Westergård 🌟 #AI #EQ #Leadership #MergersAndAcquisitions #FutureOfWork #EmotionalIntelligence #DigitalTransformation #OrganisationalCulture #Innovation #BusinessStrategy #PeopleStrategy

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A really interesting work by Grove Ventures and their Head of Human Capital Einat Drutin to help founders identify strengths and blind-spots that will help them match their potential Co-Founders Take this quiz to discover your strengths and blind spots as a startup founder, and what you should look for in your startup co-founder: https://lnkd.in/eC7tUSg8 When choosing a Co-Founder there are many visible gaps but there are more invisible gaps around values, vision, skills and even personal intrinsic motivation that you need to dig deep, very deep to find. Here are some of the questions Einat offers founders to explore: - Do we want to build the same kind of company? - How do you define “success”? - What have you done that shows you can build things from scratch? - Can you disagree and still maintain a strong working relationship? - What would make you walk away from this venture? #VentureCapital #Startups #Entrepreneurship #Founders

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Inside the "One Big Beautiful Bill" are various, critical proposals that would reshape energy and technology policy. Buried within are two provisions that could radically impact our Ai development trajectory and global competitive advantage. Scope3's Aya Saed Director of Ai Policy & Strategy breaks it down in her latest substack (link in comments). "The reconciliation bill has become an inadvertent test of whether American policymakers understand what it actually takes to lead in the AI age. So far, the answer appears to be no." #scope3 #sustainablegrowth #ai

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Tech doesn’t have to be lonely. SMBs are expected to scale like startups and secure like enterprises—often with a fraction of the resources. That’s why mentorship and real-world guidance matter just as much as the tech stack itself. This San Francisco Business Times piece echoes what we see every day: tools are just one piece of the puzzle. What really drives growth? Clarity, community, and making intentional tech decisions that actually serve the business. Because strong tech foundations aren’t a luxury. They’re what keep your momentum moving forward. https://lnkd.in/epGKeQrE  #SmallBusiness #TechStrategy #SMBsupport 

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🔴 LIVE | Maya Severns of LION Charter School shares their fundraising best practices for focusing on what matters most and finding sustainability without burning out.

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"Revenue leaders report that org-wide, AI-powered account intelligence and tailored POVs help accelerate revenue growth, scale sales excellence across their GTM team, and drive efficiencies to reduce the cost of sales." Read more about why tailored POVs are critical for your sellers today and existential for your AI agents tomorrow in this Selling Power post by Poggio Co-founder & CEO Matt Slotnick.

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A clever reminder from Julius Caesar’s downfall: leaders must navigate a complex web of stakeholders—customers, analysts, employees, suppliers, boards, and the media—while rapidly building trust and connection across all of them during business transformation. https://lnkd.in/eZntNkaR

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