Win distribution inside ChatGPT apps

It’s never been easier to start a B2B SaaS.

But it’s getting harder to be found.

If you’re a Seed to Series A founder who owns growth, you’ve probably felt the new flavor of anxiety: your buyers are asking ChatGPT, not Google, and your best content is getting summarized instead of visited.

So the question becomes the same one I learned the hard way in a previous startup: You’ve built it. Now how do you get anyone to find it?

This week’s answer looks different than it did a year ago.

OpenAI just introduced apps inside ChatGPT and a preview Apps SDK, turning ChatGPT into a real distribution surface, not just a “referrer” you hope links back to you. The first pilot partners include Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Expedia, Figma, Spotify, and Zillow, all usable right inside a conversation. OpenAI’s announcement is here.

I’m not saying this replaces your existing channels overnight. The platform is still early, and the rules will change. But as a new surface area for discovery, it’s too big to ignore.

A 10-minute AI readiness audit

Before you think about building anything, do a quick audit of what ChatGPT will “learn” from today.

Positioning clarity: Could a new buyer understand what you do in 15 seconds on your homepage?
One canonical truth: Do you have a single page that stays current for pricing, security, and product limits?
Docs entry point: Is there a “start here” doc that a model can reliably point people to?
Examples: Do you have 3 to 5 real use cases written in plain language, not marketing slogans?
Update cadence: Who on your team owns keeping these pages accurate monthly?

If two or more of those are missing, you don’t have a “traffic problem.” You have an inputs problem.

What ChatGPT apps are, in plain English

A ChatGPT app is an interactive experience that runs inside the chat.

Instead of “here’s a link, go to a website,” the user can browse, click, and take action without leaving the conversation. OpenAI describes apps as blending “interactive interfaces” with natural language, and surfacing when relevant or when a user calls them by name.

If you’re still thinking “plugins,” that’s the wrong mental model.

ChatGPT plugins were basically tool calls with some UI.
ChatGPT apps are a product surface: discoverable, permissioned, and designed to be used repeatedly.

This matters because distribution shifts from ranking in search to being present at the exact moment someone asks.

The ChatGPT app store is coming, and that changes the game

OpenAI also says it will open app submissions “later this year” and launch a dedicated directory where users can browse and search. Call it the ChatGPT app store if you want. The name will stick either way.

For early teams, a directory is more than a nice-to-have.

It becomes:

A new place your product can be discovered
A new category battleground (keywords, reviews, featured placements)
A new growth loop (people use it in-chat, then share it)

If you’ve been worrying about “traffic leakage,” this is the flip side.

Yes, fewer clicks.

But also, a new front door.

Apps SDK: why founders should care even if they’re not building it

You might not personally touch the Apps SDK, and that’s fine.

You still need to understand what it changes operationally.

According to OpenAI, the Apps SDK is available in preview and is built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), extending it so developers can define both the app’s logic and interface, and connect to their backend.

That line, “connect to their backend,” is the quiet part that matters.

It implies:

Apps are not just demos, they can be real workflows
Authentication and paid features can exist in-chat
Your “content” is no longer only articles, it’s interactive answers

For B2B SaaS, that’s a new version of product-led growth.

ChatGPT integrations are now a distribution channel

Most startups have treated chatgpt integrations as a nice side project.

A quick Zapier connector, a couple of prompts, maybe a “ChatGPT can summarize our docs” hope.

ChatGPT apps makes integrations a go-to-market channel.

If ChatGPT is where your buyer starts their research, then:

Your integration is the first hands-on product experience
Your help content becomes the source material for what gets repeated about you
Your pricing and positioning need to be understandable in 30 seconds

I think of it as moving from “content marketing” to “in-chat sales enablement.”

How to win distribution inside ChatGPT apps

This is the part most founders miss.

You don’t win by being “listed.” You win by being the easiest thing to use when ChatGPT suggests an app.

Here’s the playbook I’d use if I were running growth on a lean team.

1) Build for the moment, not the demo

Ask: What would a buyer ask ChatGPT right before they would have Googled you?

Examples:

“Compare SOC 2 vendors for a 20-person SaaS”
“Draft a first security questionnaire response set”
“Turn these call notes into a rollout plan”

Your app should feel like the next step after that question.

If your first experience is a login wall and a confusing empty state, you’ll get tried once and forgotten.

2) Pick one wedge use case, then earn the right to expand

Early-stage apps that try to do everything feel like a chatbot with a logo.

Start with one workflow you can do better than a generic model because you have:

Proprietary product logic
Proprietary data (even just structured defaults)
A clear opinion on the “right” output

Then expand.

3) Treat your in-chat UI like a landing page

Founders obsess over the web landing page, but ignore the in-product UI.

In a ChatGPT app, the interface you render is the landing page.

It needs:

A one-sentence promise
A clear first action
A fast “aha” in under 60 seconds
A graceful path to sign in only when needed

4) Instrument outcomes, not clicks

Traffic is a vanity metric here.

The right question is: what did this chat session produce?

Track:

First successful output (time-to-value)
Activation events (saved artifact, export, created project)
Follow-on actions (invite teammate, schedule demo, connect data)

And if you still need attribution, build “hand-off” moments.

“Email this to me” with a tracked link
“Export to Notion” with a tagged callback
“Book a call” with a prefilled context field

That’s how you turn a chat session into a measurable funnel.

5) Package your content for AI surfaces

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: your best distribution might happen without a click.

So your job is to make sure the model and the app have the right material to work with.

Create a small set of “AI-ready” pages.

If you’re short on time, this is the order I’d do it in:

Positioning page: what you do, who it’s for, what makes you different
Pricing explainer: plain-English, with real boundaries and “not a fit” cases
Security and trust page: the stuff buyers and IT teams ask about
Integrations page: what connects, what’s possible, what’s not
Docs start here: the canonical onboarding path

These pages should be:

Clear and skimmable
Updated often
Written like a human, not like SEO sludge

Because they are no longer just for humans. They are inputs.

What to publish if you want ChatGPT to recommend you

I’m not going to pretend we know exactly how featuring and suggestion ranking will work yet.

OpenAI says apps can be surfaced when relevant, and that apps meeting higher design and functionality standards may be featured more prominently in the directory and in conversations.

But the pattern is familiar.

Recommendation systems like things that are:

Easy to understand
Predictably useful
Trusted (reviews, engagement, retention)

So publish content that reduces ambiguity.

Build a use case library around real prompts

Write 10 to 20 pages that each answer:

Who is this for?
What input do I need?
What output will you get?
What should you do next with it?

These pages double as:

SEO assets
App onboarding material
Sales enablement for humans

Publish comparison and switching pages

If you’re early, people will ask: “Is this like X?”

Write the page so ChatGPT can quote it.

“Us vs hiring a specialist”
“Our product vs doing it manually in Notion”
“When you should not use us” (this builds trust fast)

Maintain a canonical facts page

If you’ve ever watched the internet misquote your pricing, you know why this matters.

Keep one URL that is always current:

Pricing tiers
Security posture
Data retention
Integrations
Product limits

It’s boring. It also prevents a lot of confusion.

Risks and unknowns worth planning for

If you bet on a platform early, you inherit some uncertainty.

A few things I’d plan around:

Ranking criteria will change. Directory placement and in-chat suggestions will evolve.
Bias can creep in. If your category is noisy, the model can over-recommend a few brands.
Attribution will be messy. You will not get perfect “source, medium, campaign” reporting.

None of that is a reason to wait. It’s a reason to keep your approach simple, measured, and easy to iterate.

The operational problem: keeping pages updated without a content team

This is where the real pain hits for Seed to Series A.

You can do the strategy work.

You can even write the first version.

But then:

The product changes
The positioning evolves
The app UX shifts
The docs drift

And suddenly the pages you wanted ChatGPT to learn from are outdated.

That’s the part that used to kill us.

Not the first draft.

The second, third, and tenth.

In a model-mediated world, accuracy is not a nice-to-have. It’s trust.

Where Elevor fits

This is exactly why we built Elevor.

We’re not trying to be another generic writing tool. We’re building a teammate for early teams who need to show up and be trusted without hiring a content team.

Elevor helps you:

Generate content in your brand voice
Run automated editorial review and quality checks
Publish with a workflow that feels more like shipping code than copying docs around
Keep “AI-ready” pages refreshed as your product changes

If ChatGPT apps become a new top-of-funnel surface, your content system can’t be “whenever we have time.”

It has to be consistent.

Because distribution is shifting toward the interfaces where your buyers already are.

And right now, that interface is ChatGPT.

The bet I’d make as a founder

I don’t think clicks are coming back.

I think we’re entering a world where the best startups win by being:

The answer
The workflow
The trusted source

Sometimes all three.

ChatGPT apps and the Apps SDK are OpenAI’s clearest move yet toward a platform.

If you’re a founder who owns growth, you don’t need a massive team to ride this.

You need a wedge use case, clean packaging, and a way to keep your pages accurate.

That’s how you stop shouting into an empty room, and start showing up where your buyers already look.