At a time when the internet is undergoing one of its most significant transformations, the very idea of search is being redefined. It is no longer limited to keywords and rankings; it is becoming conversational, intent-driven, and increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.
Amid this shift, SEORCE is building not just a product, but a new way of thinking about visibility in the digital world.
In a conversation with Indian Startup Times, Founder Sudhir Vashist, Tech Lead Anurag Kamboj, and Product & Strategy Lead Kulraj Singh Sabharwal shared how they are building an AI-native search intelligence platform from Bharat, designed to compete on a global stage.
The Moment the Old Playbook Broke
The origins of SEORCE lie in a growing realization that the existing growth playbook for brands was fundamentally incomplete. In the post-COVID boom, D2C brands rapidly scaled using performance marketing. Platforms like Meta became central to customer acquisition, offering immediate and measurable results. Yet, as Sudhir Vashist reflects, the model had an inherent limitation.
“You spend some money today so that you can get some sales, but what is it that is going to happen tomorrow, in a month, two months, six months?” he says. “The costs are going to go high.”
While organic search was always seen as a powerful channel, most brands struggled to execute it effectively. The problem wasn’t awareness; it was the gap between knowledge and implementation.
“Everybody wanted SEO,” Sudhir explains, “but nobody knew how to go about it completely.”
This gap became the foundation of SEORCE. The goal was not just to provide insights, but to standardise best practices and automate execution so that brands could build sustainable visibility over time.
Building for a Search Landscape That No Longer Exists
As the team began developing SEORCE, they were also witnessing a fundamental shift in how users interact with information. Anurag Kamboj points out that traditional SEO tools were built in a time when Google was the primary gateway to the internet. But in the last few years, that behavior has changed significantly.
“Any question we have, any comparison we want to do, any product review, we just go to AI and ask that question,” he says. “The conversation is so good with that.”
This shift has exposed the limitations of legacy tools. While they excel at tracking rankings on search engines, they fail to capture how brands appear within AI-generated responses.
“Traditional SEO tools answer one question very well: where do you rank on Google?” Anurag explains. “But today, a big part of discovery is happening on AI platforms.”
SEORCE addresses this gap by tracking brand visibility across multiple AI systems and analyzing how different forms of content, websites, videos, and external sources contribute to those outputs. In doing so, it expands the definition of search visibility into a more dynamic and complex ecosystem.
From Keywords to Intent: Reimagining Discovery
For Kulraj Singh Sabharwal, the evolution of search is not just a technological shift, but a conceptual one.
“We understand that search is moving from links to answers,” he says. “Instead of giving you a list, AI is summarizing that list.”
This transition fundamentally changes how users engage with information. Instead of navigating through multiple pages, they receive direct, contextual responses that are shaped by intent rather than keywords.
“We are moving from keywords to intent,” Kulraj adds. “You can just talk your question now, and even expand beyond that particular question.”
As discovery becomes more conversational, it also becomes more distributed. It is no longer confined to a single platform but spans across multiple AI systems and interfaces. Looking ahead, Kulraj believes this shift will extend beyond search into transactions and daily interactions. “You will directly buy from these LLMs, you will directly rely on them for your day-to-day queries,” he notes.
In this evolving landscape, SEORCE positions itself as a foundational layer, helping brands understand how AI systems interpret their presence and how they can align with these new discovery mechanisms.
Why Bharat is Not a Limitation, But Leverage
One of the most striking aspects of SEORCE’s journey is its strong belief in building from Bharat. Challenging the conventional notion that startups must be based in metro cities, Sudhir Vashist emphasizes that infrastructure and opportunity are no longer restricted by geography.
“If I have to run this business today out of my village, I would still be able to do it,” he says. “Because of the availability of great infrastructure.”
Beyond connectivity, he highlights the practical advantages of tier-2 environments, from ease of movement to better time utilization. “In a metro, you might spend an hour travelling. Here, it takes 15–20 minutes. That impacts your day more than you realize.”
More importantly, there is a psychological advantage.
“Being in a tier-2 city, I look at it as more freedom,” Sudhir explains. “You have more time and energy to devote to the product.”
The company’s distributed team further reinforces this approach, with contributors working from different parts of India and even internationally. For SEORCE, talent is not defined by location, but by capability.
Speed, Not Scale, is the New Differentiator
If there is one theme that defines the current AI era, it is the unprecedented speed of innovation. Sudhir describes the pace as almost unimaginable. “Every two weeks, you see a massive product being launched,” he says. “The capabilities are so huge that you could not think this would take less than two or three years to build.”
This acceleration has transformed how startups operate. What once required months of effort can now be achieved in days.
Sharing a personal example, Sudhir recalls building a company website in just three days with minimal technical expertise. “It took us three nights,” he says. “Earlier, it would have taken two months and a lot of money.”
Anurag echoes this shift from a development perspective. “What used to take us 15 days to complete a feature now takes one night,” he explains. “Sometimes I start at 11 p.m., and I’m done by 4 a.m.”
While this speed creates new opportunities, it also brings constant change. The team acknowledges the overwhelming influx of tools and innovations but remains focused on filtering what truly matters.
Learning Before Building: The Service-to-Product Evolution
Before evolving into a product-driven company, SEORCE spent significant time working closely with users through services. This phase allowed the team to deeply understand the challenges faced by businesses in executing SEO strategies. Kulraj highlights the importance of this experience. “You can’t build things just on your own,” he says. “You need to have a user’s perspective and a feedback cycle involved.”
By engaging directly with users, the team was able to identify gaps, refine workflows, and build a solution that addresses real-world problems rather than theoretical ones.
This foundation is now reflected in SEORCE’s product, which combines AI-powered insights, real-time tracking, and automation into a system designed for clarity and usability.
The Road Ahead: Building for an Unwritten Future
Looking ahead, SEORCE is preparing to transition into a product-led growth model, allowing users to independently explore and adopt the platform. At the same time, the team remains focused on a larger vision, building for a future that is still unfolding.
Sudhir emphasizes that the role of AI is not to replace existing systems, but to enhance them. “It’s not a threat to anyone,” he says. “It’s only an opportunity to optimize your resources and bring better results.”
As search continues to evolve, the need for clarity, efficiency, and adaptability will only grow stronger. SEORCE aims to be at the centre of this transformation, helping brands navigate a landscape where visibility is no longer guaranteed but strategically built.
Rewriting the Narrative
The story of SEORCE is not just about technology; it is about perspective. It challenges the idea that innovation must come from metros, that global products require global locations, and that traditional methods can sustain future growth.
Instead, it presents a new narrative, one where Bharat is not just participating in the global startup ecosystem but actively shaping it.
As the nature of search continues to evolve, companies like SEORCE are quietly building the systems that will define how brands are discovered in an AI-first world.
And they are doing it not from the obvious centres of innovation, but from where focus, intent, and clarity converge.
-Interview Conducted by Vanshika Tayal & Edited by Shivani.
