THE DISTRIBUTION MAP
Categories
Every brand gets found a different way. This is the map of the six shapes — read it as an atlas of the whole database, not a menu.
THE SHAPE OF DISTRIBUTION
Twelve brands, six ways of getting found.
AI and SaaS pull the most traffic; Content and Marketplace prove a single well-shaped page can rank. The mix below is the thesis: distribution isn’t one playbook — it’s six.
- SaaS 3
- Dev Tools 3
- AI 2
- Content 2
- Marketplace 1
- Creator 1
- SaaS
- 3 teardowns, 25% of the database
- Dev Tools
- 3 teardowns, 25% of the database
- AI
- 2 teardowns, 17% of the database
- Content
- 2 teardowns, 17% of the database
- Marketplace
- 1 teardowns, 8% of the database
- Creator
- 1 teardowns, 8% of the database
SaaS
3 teardownsProduct-led growth, free tiers, and the SEO surfaces SaaS companies quietly build.
Tally · Linear · Notion
BROWSE BY CATEGORY
Dev Tools
Open source, GitHub, docs, and distribution that runs on developers.
Raycast · Cal.com · Framer
latest: Raycast · updated weekly
AI
GEO, answer-engine citations, and community-driven AI products.
Midjourney · Perplexity
latest: Midjourney · updated weekly
Content
Editorial engines, comparison SEO, and minimalism that ranks.
PostHog · Bear Blog
latest: PostHog · updated weekly
Marketplace
Catalog-as-content and programmatic product SEO.
Gumroad
latest: Gumroad · updated weekly
Creator
UGC, newsletters, and network-effect distribution loops.
beehiiv
latest: beehiiv · updated weekly
FRESHEST IN EACH SHAPE
Tally — free tier as a growth loop
A forms tool that gives away so much the free plan itself becomes the marketing. Where the loop closes, and where it leaks.
Raycast — a store that does the SEO for you
The extension store is the growth engine: thousands of community pages, each targeting a tool people already search for.
Midjourney — a community that is the distribution
No website to speak of, no SEO, and explosive growth. What happens when the product lives inside a community feed.
PostHog — content that ranks and converts
The analytics company that out-blogs everyone in dev tools. An anatomy of a genuinely great content engine.
Gumroad — built for creators, found by Google
Gumroad barely blogs, yet it ranks for a startling amount of commercial-intent search. The trick isn't content marketing — it's turning the product itself into the SEO surface. Here's the move you can copy this week.
beehiiv — newsletters that market the platform
Every newsletter published on beehiiv is a backlink and a billboard. How the product creates its own distribution.
A new shape, torn down every week.
Members get the full teardown archive across all six categories, plus the leaks section.
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