24h Inside a Silicon Valley Startup Launching an Autonomous SEO Agent

In this episode, I go behind the scenes with Thenuka Karunaratne and Shravan Rajinikanth, the founders of sunbeam, a startup building a fully autonomous SEO agent. sunbeam is designed to manage an entire SEO function end-to-end, from technical audits and competitor research through to content planning and execution. But sunbeam didn't appear overnight. Before launching sunbeam, Thenuka and Shravan spent three years building daydream, an AI-native SEO agency that works with companies like Notion, Clay, and Hims & Hers. They recently raised a $15M Series A led by WndrCo alongside First Round Capital and Basis Set Ventures, bringing their total funding to $21M. The original vision behind daydream was always to build an autonomous SEO agent. The problem was that the technology wasn't capable enough yet. So, while serving clients through daydream, they documented workflows, refined systems, and built a deep understanding of what great SEO actually looks like in practice. In the background, they continued developing an autonomous agent using the expertise they had built through daydream. Three years later, they’ve launched sunbeam, aimed at founders and small teams who need distribution but don't yet have dedicated SEO expertise in-house. Rather than acting as another marketing tool, sunbeam is designed to proactively manage an entire SEO function in the background. Inside this episode: • Why Thenuka and Shravan originally started daydream • How Sunbeam works and what an autonomous SEO agent actually does • Why the team is prioritising quality over cost in the early stages • How daydream's agency experience shaped the development of sunbeam • The challenge of launching a new product and building a new brand • The role AI agents could play in the future of search If tools like sunbeam make expert-level capabilities available to far more people, does expertise become democratized, or does expert human judgment become even more valuable? It's a question that extends far beyond SEO, and one that a lot of industries may be forced to answer over the next few years. Check out sunbeam: https://linktwin.co/ikGbUp Check out daydream: https://linktwin.co/KLFEEp Join my founder newsletter: https://linktw.in/UakLVC Let's connect: X: https://x.com/willsclips_ Instagram:   / williamthomasp   LinkedIn:   / will-phillips-3b9a25191   This episode was produced in partnership with Daydream.