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Balfour: Companies relying exclusively on SEO loops face serious existential trouble today

Brian Balfour · Why ChatGPT will be the next big growth channel (and how to capitalize on it) | Brian Balfour · Aug 17, 2025 · at 27:01

Brian Balfour, founder of Reforge and former VP of Growth at HubSpot, compares current SEO vulnerability to previous platform shifts like Facebook and Apple's App Store.

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“So many companies got completely killed during you know, the crash of the Facebook social platform. Apple's 30% tax, you know, basically destroyed a bunch of types of types of applications and business models because it just, you couldn't, you feel like it was just wasn't like margin effective, like all, so many companies built on, you know, SEO loops, right? That are in serious, serious trouble right now, if that's their only channel.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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