The Papermark founders in front of a $3M ARR sign

SaaS

56% of AI citations

Papermark is the open-source document-sharing and data-room platform. AI assistants answer its buyers’ questions by citing Reddit — so we seeded the threads the answers are built from. Across 476 citations tracked in three weeks, 56% point at content we put there.

Industry: Document sharing software
Date: 2025–2026
Website: papermark.com

Client Stats

266

AI answer citations of our content in three weeks

56%

of all Reddit citations in those answers are ours

24 of 58

Reddit threads the engines cite are ours

2 days

from publishing to a position-1 citation

The situation

Software buying has moved into the answer box. When a founder types “best virtual data room” into Google or asks ChatGPT for a DocSend alternative, they get a finished answer with a short list of citations — and Reddit threads dominate those citations. Whoever wrote the threads wrote the answer.

Papermark, the open-source document-sharing and data-room platform, competes with DocSend and the enterprise VDRs for exactly those questions. So over the past year we seeded the threads the questions resolve to: comparison round-ups, pricing breakdowns, security explainers and honest question threads across r/datarooms, r/sysadmin, r/ExperiencedFounders, r/selfhosted and the DocSend subreddit — 85 posts and 45 comments, live and indexed.

Then we pointed a citation monitor at the money queries. Over three weeks in August, Google’s AI Mode, AI Overviews and ChatGPT cited Reddit 476 times while answering them. 266 of those citations — 56% — point at content we put there. Of the 58 distinct Reddit threads the engines pulled from, 24 are ours.

What we did

Write the threads the answer engines read from

The challenge

Our approach

You cannot buy a citation. The engines cite whichever thread already reads like the definitive answer to the buyer’s question.

Wrote the definitive answers: VDR round-ups, data room security deep-dives, DocSend pricing breakdowns, Drive-vs-data-room comparisons.

The category’s demand splinters across intents — pricing, security, GDPR, DocSend alternatives, self-hosting — each resolving to different threads.

Seeded 85 posts and 45 comments across r/datarooms, r/sysadmin, r/ExperiencedFounders, r/selfhosted and the DocSend subreddit, so every intent finds our version.

Three engines with three different citation habits: Google AI Mode, AI Overviews and ChatGPT.

Tracked all three per query. Our content now carries 141 of AI Mode’s 262 Reddit citations, 108 of AI Overviews’ 188, and 17 of ChatGPT’s 26.

Fresh content normally waits months to earn search trust.

The loop is warm: a GDPR data-room post published on August 19 was cited at position 1 by AI answers two days later.

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Ask an AI which data room to use.

The answer box is the new page one. The category’s single most-cited thread — our deep-dive on what actually makes a data room secure — sits at position 1 in 24 of its 44 citations. Our virtual data room round-up is right behind it, cited 47 times across all three engines.

The Papermark founders celebrating $3M ARR

Unlike ads, citations compound: every thread keeps earning placements week after week, and the loop is warm enough that a GDPR data-room post published on August 19 was being cited at position 1 two days later. Meanwhile the Papermark team got to pose in front of a different number entirely.

Ready?

What this looks like for you

All the upsides of having a working Reddit marketing strategy

If your category's subreddit moderates you out...

that is not the end of the strategy. It is the start of it.

The room where your buyers already are...

is usually one door over from the room with your industry's name on it.

Every thread we publish in a sub...

you own stays indexed. You stop paying us, it keeps ranking.

Get started today

Testimonial

Iuliia ShnaiAug 19, 2026

Papermark

Reddit is doing so much for us in search. Papermark is now the top recommendation on Reddit in our category, and that matters.

Imran

@isb

Paul picks a CPM number and then creates a reddit campaign to hit that. Like Chappelle writes jokes.

Aug 20, 2026

134 referrals

to MessageDesk from Reddit in 90 days. The same volume ChatGPT sent them.

166K views

from a single organic post for a rug brand. 67 upvotes, 52 comments.

HanafiJul 27, 2026

Inflow

Great results so far. The subreddit AEO work especially attracts the leads we love: qualified, not problematic, and with money.

KyleMay 19, 2026

MessageDesk

Love it, this is great. More I say. Real, traceable Reddit users became leads and booked meetings.

“Most agencies do a bit of everything for everyone. Paul picked the hardest channel on the internet and built real credibility on it. That's why I advise Spacestation.”

Gregory Kennedy

VibeYourSaaS

JamesAug 18, 2026

Ethos

Love it. Our AI citations have been rising steadily since June and the growth curve looks good. Even in negative threads about us there's now organic fightback.

JeremyMay 29, 2026

EcomCPA

Amazing, great job. We now hold multiple first-page Google spots for the exact terms our buyers search, from international tax to Shopify accountant.

The top Reddit recommendation in its category, and climbing search because of it.

ShivamMay 18, 2026

Founder, Floqer

Reddit is looking good. I'm impressed by the work these guys have been doing. My only question was how we could press even harder.

J.P. MohlerAug 5, 2026

CPO & Co-founder, General Legal

We told Paul we only care about one thing: General Legal coming up when someone searches AI law firm. Now the top cited source in those AI answers is a Reddit thread his team made.

John Wright

@johnwrightai

Thanks Paul, launched it at an affiliate conference today day 1 and the response is overwhelming.

May 19, 2026

Miguel Castillo-ClarkMay 27, 2026

1v1Me

The AMA they ran with our pro player crushed my expectations. Ads, our subreddit, AI citations, they handle all of it.

Grant WalkerMar 5, 2026

Argo IQ

Super impressed with what they've built. A very cool project.

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Free playbook

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The exact Reddit AMA process this case study ran: how to pick the subreddit, pitch angles the community upvotes, and turn one thread into page-one Google real estate.