LastPass
Password Management
Losing share to
1Password
1Password is named "best overall" across 2026 reviews; LastPass still carries reputational drag from its 2022 breach.
Dark Horse Strategies
Are Francisco Partners' Portfolio Companies Appearing on AI Shortlists?
70% of B2B software deals are being influenced by Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini before buyers ever talk to a human sales rep. Across the Francisco Partners portfolio, that shift is already creating winners and losers.
Dark Horse Strategies scores your portfolio companies' AI visibility across the 12 most influential LLM training surfaces, then builds the playbook they need to win the battle for AI-mediated deal flow.
The Landscape
Portfolio Companies With AI Visibility Gaps
Below is a sampling of companies that are actively losing AI-influenced deal flow to competitors. Dark Horse can run company and portfolio-level analysis and provide fast guidance to recapture revenue at risk.
New Relic
Observability / APM
Losing share to
Datadog + Dynatrace
Boxed in by the broadest-visibility player (Datadog) and the AI/root-cause leader (Dynatrace, 15-yr Gartner Leader).
Boomi
iPaaS / Integration
Losing share to
MuleSoft + Workato
MuleSoft owns the "market leader" label; Workato is rated higher on ease-of-use/ROI and winning the AI-feature narrative.
Veradigm
EHR / Revenue Cycle
Losing share to
Waystar + athenahealth
Concrete, provable gap: Veradigm trails Waystar on G2 (3.8 vs 4.5) and Capterra (4.1 vs 4.8).
Betterment
Robo-Advisory
Losing share to
Wealthfront
Both are real category leaders, but Wealthfront wins more 2026 head-to-head reviews on its more differentiated feature.
Accela
GovTech / Permitting
Losing share to
Tyler Technologies + OpenGov
Tyler dominates by contract volume (4,953 vs. 184); OpenGov is the named fastest-growing AI-native challenger.
Sumo Logic
Log Management / SIEM
Losing share to
Datadog + Dynatrace
Same structural gap as New Relic — a second portfolio company boxed in by the same two category leaders.
Black Duck
Software Composition Analysis
Losing share to
Snyk
Snyk is the more broadly cited name in developer-security conversations and dominates SCA search visibility.
BeyondTrust
Privileged Access Mgmt (PAM)
Losing share to
CyberArk
CyberArk is the default reference point used by competitors' own comparison content against PAM challengers.
Our Approach
01
Audit
Score the company across the top 12 AI-mediated surfaces and all top LLMs, producing an interactive scorecard.
02
Prioritize
Translate the gaps into a tiered, 90-day execution plan ranked by impact and effort.
03
Activate
Execute content, technical, and authority-signal fixes via sprint-based engagements built for fast-moving portfolio companies.
04
Prove it
Re-audit on a fixed cadence to show movement in AI-citation share — a board-ready metric most portfolio companies cannot currently report.
Suggested Engagement Path
A Path Built for Portfolio Scale
Five offerings sequenced for Francisco Partners portfolio operators — from cross-portfolio diagnosis, to sprint-based fixes, to ongoing support.
Most portfolio engagements start with the AI Mediation Playbook to benchmark each portfolio company's AI visibility across top LLMs and map short and long-term fixes. At-risk companies are then routed into Content Intelligence or Growth Sprints based on what the audit finds. From there, the Activation Retainer is available for companies ready to operationalize the work on an ongoing basis, and the Pipeline Dashboard is layered in to measure and prove that movement over time. Price ranges are set based on scope of services, with volume pricing available as Dark Horse moves through your portfolio brands.
AI Mediation Playbook
1–2 WKS INCLUDED FOR ALL CLIENTS
Cross-portfolio and company-specific AI visibility benchmarking, followed by an action-oriented workshop with company/marketing leadership to support fast fixes and longer-term strategy development.
Content Intelligence Sprint
2-3 WKS $15K - $25K
Audit, score, and unify your content for AI visibility. Build organizational rigor and automate for efficiency/ scale. Portfolio companies leave with a refreshed scoring methodology and AI-supported content automation approach.
Growth Sprint
4–6 WKS · $15K - $25K
Refined messaging + 3–5 AI-optimized content assets built for the channels and AI answers that matter most. Ongoing support per visibility channel is also available on request.
GTM Activation Retainer
From $15K/mo
Three tiers of ongoing execution and advisory support. Closes the gap between AI-visibility and predictable deal flow.
AI-Mediated Pipeline Dashboard
ADD-ON OR STANDALONE · $5K+ SETUP + $2.5K+/MO
Monthly AI visibility, share-of-voice, and pipeline attribution. Reporting is included with all monthly retainer programs.
About Dark Horse
Who We Are
Dark Horse Strategies is the AI-native GTM firm that helps B2B companies win AI-mediated buyers and unlock pipeline.
01
AI-native methodology
Built for how buyers actually buy today. Customized to your portfolio companies' distinct brand and GTM challenges.
02
Operator-built
Operators and technologists co-building from day one. No need to choose between software and services. We offer both.
03
Speed to impact
Clear pipeline lift within months — not quarters. Real metrics and measurement rigor to prove ROI,
04
Strategy + systems
Modern marketing strategy and AI-activation systems, built to your specifications, fast.
Buyers decide before sales ever shows up. We fix that.
Dark Horse engineers visibility and pipeline impact in the LLM layer that now controls buying decisions.
Core Differentiator
We operate in the AI research layer
We call it AI-mediated buying. The moment your prospect asks an AI model which vendors to consider, we make sure your name is the answer.
Core Differentiator
We partner to measure won deals
SEO and GEO agencies optimize for visibility metrics; we optimize for pipeline. We work with our clients to tie our efforts directly to reduced revenue risk and, where possible, map AI visibility to qualified opportunities sourced, cycles shortened, deals closed.
Proof Point
90-day impact schedules — not 6-month roadmaps
Enterprise consultants take 6–12 months to show results. We deliver measurable movement in 90 days through a sprint approach built for AI-era buyers.
Proof Point
Proprietary answers that makes you the authority
We build category-defining assets tuned to your market, your audience and the channels that matter most — the kind that LLMs cite, analysts reference, and buyers remember when shortlisting vendors.
Related Experience
About the Founder
Megan Kessler
Founder & CEO
Two decades of C-suite marketing and brand leadership across enterprise software, healthcare, and financial services — now applied to the AI-mediated buying problem facing PE-backed portfolio companies.
20-Year C-Suite Operator
End-to-end revenue ownership: net-new pipeline, expansion, and organic growth across sales, marketing, and demand generation organizations.
GTM Strategy & AI-Era Marketing
Integrated marketing leadership across brand awareness, AIO/GEO visibility, demand gen, and AI-enabled services.
Team Building & Org Leadership
Built and led high-performing, multi-disciplinary teams inside sales, marketing, and communications organizations.
Executive Visibility & Communications
C-suite advisor, executive speaking coach, external/internal comms, crisis communications, and IPO/M&A activities.