Capitol AI 🏛️

Giving publishers their own Perplexity.

August 20, 2025

Spotlight

What if every publisher could offer a Perplexity-like experience directly on their own site?

Quick Pitch: Capitol builds custom AI research platforms for publishers, letting media brands deliver instant, personalized answers from their own content—while keeping direct customer relationships.

The Problem

  • Disintermediation: AI aggregators like Perplexity and Gemini pull readers away from publisher sites.

  • Revenue Risk: Less direct engagement threatens subscriptions and ad dollars.

  • Capability Gap: Most publishers lack resources to build their own advanced AI tools.

Snapshot

  • Industry: Media AI / Publishing infrastructure

  • Headquarters: Washington, DC

  • Year Founded: 2021 (YC S24)

  • Traction: Early traction with seven-figure revenue, flagship contracts with Politico and Dow Jones, and a strong growth forecast this year

Founder Profiles

  • Shaun Modi, Co-Founder, CEO: Early Airbnb employee, worked with Brian Chesky; ex-Google, NASA, White House advisor.

  • Thomas Hallaran, Co-Founder, CTO: Former Director of US AI Center of Excellence; ex-VP of Engineering at an acquired adtech startup; multiple AI patents.

Funding

Revenue Engine

  • Enterprise Sales: Direct deals with publishers and professional services firms.

  • API Platform: Extending to startups and SMBs for automated document generation.

What Users Love

  • Instant policy and regulatory reports from proprietary publisher data

  • Works within paywalls, preserving subscriptions

  • Turns exclusive content into AI-driven insights

  • No heavy technical build—plug-and-play

Playing Field

  • Perplexity/Gemini: General aggregators that bypass publishers.

  • OpenAI Enterprise / Azure OpenAI: Powerful but requires deep technical integration.

Capitol's Edge: Turnkey solutions specifically designed for publishers, preserving brand relationships while delivering AI capabilities.

Why It Matters

AI is reshaping media. Readers expect instant answers, while aggregators divert traffic and revenue. Publishers must adapt or risk losing their audiences.

What Sets Them Apart

  • Publisher-first: Works inside paywalls instead of bypassing them

  • Tools tailored for regulatory and policy analysis

  • Custom-built AI engine that combines search with content-grounded answers

  • Partnership model aligns incentives with publishers

Analysis

Bulls Case 📈 

  • A major Politico enterprise contract validates product-market fit

  • Addresses urgent existential threat to $16B+ market

  • Strong founding team with policy and AI expertise

  • Backed by top VCs with sector knowledge

Bears Case 📉 

  • Competing with well-funded AI giants

  • Publisher adoption may be cautious due to content concerns

  • Scaling requires more flagship publishers

  • Regulatory uncertainty could shift requirements

Verdict

Capitol sits at the crossroads of AI and publishing. Its early traction shows publishers are willing to test new models. The open question is whether the industry will standardize on shared AI infrastructure or fragment into publisher built solutions. The outcome will determine who owns reader relationships and revenue in the AI era.

Jobs @ Capitol

The Startup Pulse

  • Create — San Francisco AI startup raised $8.5M led by Bessemer with participation from Shopify’s Tobi Lütke. Its Anything AI tool, built by former Google leaders, now has 500K+ users building mobile and web apps.

  • Lovable — Vibe coding startup valued at $1.8B, adding $8M in ARR monthly and aiming for $250M ARR by year-end. Projected to hit $1B ARR within the next year.

  • Decart — Generative AI video company raised $100M at a $3.1B valuation. Serves 1M+ users and major cloud providers, with funding focused on R&D, infra, and hiring.

Written by Ashher

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