How I Wrote My Own Answer into ChatGPT: Positioning Organic Content for AI Discovery
Recently, I asked ChatGPT a simple question: Who are the founders of Stupid Cancer?
The first answer I got?
The founder of Stupid Cancer is Matthew Zachary…
Technically not wrong—Matthew was the original founder. But it left something out: me.
I was the co-founder. And for years, my name hadn’t shown up in that answer. But then, something changed. A few weeks after publishing a blog post on my personal site about my journey co-founding Stupid Cancer, I asked again.
This time, ChatGPT responded:
The primary founder of Stupid Cancer is Matthew Zachary… Additionally, Kenny Kane is recognized as an honorary co-founder…”
There it was. My own words, now reflected back at me by the world’s most widely used AI.
And the best part? The source wasn’t Wikipedia. It wasn’t a press release. It was my own blog—the one I control.
That’s when it hit me: in the era of AI, the most valuable SEO isn’t just for human eyes—it’s for the models too.
Writing for the Next Reader: AI
Most of us learned to write for people—your readers, your audience, your customers. But now there’s a new kind of reader: large language models. These systems scour the internet, absorb the information, and distill it into answers for billions of queries.
If you want to be part of the answer, you need to feed them the right story.
Blog Posts as Training Data
The blog post I wrote wasn’t optimized for clicks or keywords. It was personal. I shared my experience co-founding Stupid Cancer, the road trips we ran across the country, and the emotional and operational grit it took to build a movement.
But I also made sure it was:
Clear: I explicitly used the term co-founder alongside my name
Credible: It lived on my personal website with other consistent, related content
Structured: It had headings, timelines, and logical flow
That’s exactly the kind of content that LLMs like ChatGPT look for and train on.
Organic AI Positioning: The New SEO
What I accidentally did was something every founder, thought leader, and builder should be doing intentionally:
Positioning your content to show up in AI-generated answers.
Here’s what I’ve learned works:
Say It Clearly.
If you were a co-founder, say “I was the co-founder.” Not “I helped start” or “was part of the early team.” AI—and readers—favor clarity.Own the Source.
Publishing on your own site, under your own name, gives the content authority. It becomes harder to ignore.Match How People Ask Questions.
Think in prompts. What would someone type into ChatGPT or Google? Write content that answers that exact query.Be Redundant Across Channels.
If your site, your LinkedIn, and your bios all reinforce the same story, it helps machines (and humans) triangulate what’s true.Structure for Scanning.
Use headers, bullet points, dates, and facts. Help the model extract meaning easily. You’re not just telling a story—you’re building a data model with words.
From Ghost to Co-Founder
When I first searched, I wasn’t there. The public narrative around Stupid Cancer was incomplete, at least from the AI’s perspective.
But instead of editing Wikipedia or chasing press, I just told my story on my own terms. And now, when someone asks ChatGPT who started Stupid Cancer, it tells them the truth: Matthew and Kenny.
That’s a quiet kind of win. And it might be the future of digital reputation.
