The Truth About AI, SEO, and What Actually Drives Growth with Laurent Cohen

In this forward-thinking episode of Built for This, Carly Pepin sits down with Laurent Cohen, a serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience building and scaling businesses across multiple industries, to explore what truly drives growth in the age of AI. Laurent shares a candid perspective on entrepreneurship as a mindset rooted in creativity, risk-taking, and constant reinvention. At the center of the conversation is his latest venture, a voice-first AI platform, and a key realization that shifted his entire approach: the real value of the business is not the technology itself, but the trust it creates between companies and their customers. Carly and Laurent dive into how AI is reshaping business, while also reinforcing a fundamental truth: AI is just a tool. The real advantage comes from understanding customer behavior, leveraging data effectively, and creating meaningful interactions at scale. The conversation expands into SEO, product development, and growth strategy, with a strong emphasis on validating ideas through real customer conversations rather than building in isolation. Laurent also introduces the concept of playing the “infinite game” in business, focusing on long-term value instead of short-term wins. This episode offers a grounded yet strategic perspective on navigating a rapidly evolving landscape, showing that even as technology advances, the fundamentals remain unchanged: understand your customer, build trust, and execute with clarity.   Key Themes: Trust Over Technology: Why the real product behind AI solutions is the trust they create with customers. Data as the Advantage: How capturing and learning from user behavior drives better performance than technology alone. Validate Before You Build: Why real conversations with customers outperform assumptions and over-engineering.   Memorable Quotes: “The more you work with AI, the less you focus on AI.” “At the end of the day, you need to have customers. AI is not buying your service.” “We thought we were building voice AI… but what we’re really building is trust.”   About Laurent Cohen: Laurent Cohen is a serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience building and scaling companies across industries including environment, cosmetics, e-commerce, SaaS, and AI. He has founded and led multiple multi-million-dollar businesses in both France and the United States, managing international operations, complex regulatory environments, and global distribution across more than ten countries. Today, Laurent is the founder of GetOblic, a voice-first AI platform for local businesses, which he is building as a bootstrapped venture. His approach centers on leverage over capital, validating ideas before investment, designing profitable systems early, and building companies grounded in clarity, execution, and long-term value.   Connect with Laurent Cohen: https://getoblic.com/?ref=ilkvvwxqtyghnvwpthre