Chert GTM brain

category

market profile

• text: Consumer-facing teams want conversational interfaces that fit native messaging and calling workflows.
• text: Hosted iMessage API providers compete on line access, pricing, integration and channel fallback.

personas

• title: AI product engineer
  pains:

  • Building native messaging and calling infrastructure diverts effort from agent behavior.
  • Developers need message events, delivery status and fallback in their application.
• title: Customer experience leader
  pains:

  • Customers may abandon support when forced into a separate portal.
  • A conversation needs to preserve context when a human takes over.
• title: B2C startup founder
  pains:

  • Onboarding and appointment workflows require timely two-way conversations.
  • A dedicated infrastructure build is hard to justify before validating demand.

icp

• text: Consumer-facing startups and software teams building messaging or voice agents.
• text: Customer support, onboarding and property-related businesses that need conversational handoffs and appointment workflows.

message pillars

• text: Make an AI agent reachable through familiar channels.
• text: Automate native conversations while retaining human handoff context.
• text: Maintain reach when iMessage is unavailable.

objections

• objection: Some customers cannot receive iMessage.
  response: The site describes SMS or RCS fallback and channel visibility.
• objection: We need to understand production costs before committing.
  response: Start with the trial and compare shared and dedicated line limits, including separately billed provider usage.
• objection: Can our team integrate and maintain conversation context?
  response: Evaluate the REST API, webhooks and human handoff against a representative workflow.

competitors

• name: Sendblue
  why: Hosted iMessage API for business messaging.
• name: Blooio
  why: Offers shared and dedicated iMessage API lines.
• name: LoopMessage
  why: Offers messaging APIs across multiple channels including iMessage.

influencers

• name: Ian Fong
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianyfong
  why: Co-founder who posts about customer use cases and Chert.
• name: Gary Gao
  url: https://www.garyzgao.com/
  why: Co-founder and CEO writing about business messaging.

keywords

• iMessage API for AI agents
• FaceTime API agent
• business iMessage infrastructure
• iMessage SMS fallback API
• customer support messaging API
• AI agent phone number

voice

• Conversational and approachable
• Developer focused
• Trust oriented

signals

• text: A B2C company is adding conversational AI for onboarding or customer support.
• text: A developer is evaluating hosted iMessage APIs or moving notifications from SMS.

stack

• REST API
• webhooks
• LiveKit

pricing

motion

channels

• Hacker News
• LinkedIn
• SEO
• Discord

confidence

Founders

• name: Gary Gao
  title: Founder/CEO
  role: CEO
  bio: Hi, I'm Gary, co-founder and CEO at Chert. We're providing the infrastructure for businesses to build conversational interfaces in iMessage. Before moving to SF last month, I studied CS and Business at Penn and spent the past year researching ML model architectures, designing neuromorphic chips, and building projects with my co-founder Ian. Outside of this, I like flying planes, running marathons, and reading!
• name: Ian Fong
  title: Founder/CTO
  role: CTO
  bio: I study Mathematics at NYU and previously worked on algorithm research at Courant. Along the way, I’ve won 8 hackathons, including MIT, Harvard, Penn, and Princeton. fun fact: I've lived in a total of 16 cities in 20 years of my life.