Date: 2026-09-23 Source: Email thread starting from Stripe marketing email, forwarded by Michael to Blake Stewart (blake@foundingjourney.com) Thread: “FOX Sports Mexico grew revenue 20%“
Signal
Blake Stewart met with a Stripe contact who pitched Lore for AEO advertising purposes. During the meeting, Stripe’s contact confirmed that the Founding Journey (FJ) website is a top AI backlink result for “startups” and “entrepreneurship” keywords. This validates Lore’s AEO positioning.
Michael’s reaction: interested specifically in WHY FJ is surfacing, and flagged this as both a strategic signal and a potential monetization opportunity (advertisers wanting AEO placement on FJ content).
Blake followed up: the Stripe contact was not highly engaged on the deal but will try again next week. Stripe has 3 products they are pushing (Atlas, Radar, and one under NDA). Blake plans to loop Michael in on a follow-up call.
Rebrand Signal
Blake raised whether the “startups” / “entrepreneurship” AI visibility would be lost in a rebrand of Founding Journey. Michael’s conclusion (Sep 23): “Seems like it won’t impact the decision actually. Potential short term hit but will rebound with the new name within a few months. It’s the archive that’s unique in terms of how these systems work, not the domain name itself.”
Business Facts
- FJ is surfacing in AI results for “startups” and “entrepreneurship” - a competitive AEO moat
- Michael’s rebrand conviction holds: archive content matters more than domain name for AEO
- Stripe is an AEO advertising prospect for Lore; deal is early/soft but Blake is pursuing
- Monetization angle: brands wanting AEO placement via FJ/Lore audience/archive
Watch
- Blake’s follow-up call with Stripe contact next week; loop Michael in
- Quantify which specific FJ URLs are surfacing in LLM results and for which queries
- Rebrand timeline: if FJ becomes Lore (or another brand), monitor AEO visibility during transition