The Trust Layer: Pete Blackshaw and the Future of BrandRank
Long before AI started answering questions for consumers, Pete Blackshaw was thinking about what those answers should actually say.
Pete’s journey to founding BrandRank didn’t emerge from a single insight. It’s the throughline of a career spent at the intersection of brands, consumers, and accountability. From early entrepreneurial experiments to leading digital strategy inside global companies, Pete has consistently been drawn to one idea: trust isn’t claimed, it’s earned. And increasingly, it’s measured.
Where It Started: Selling Avocados
Pete’s entrepreneurial instincts showed up early.
At 14, he realized (quite literally) that money could grow on trees. His family had avocado trees on their property, and what started as a one-time $100 offer to harvest them turned into a small business. He got the trees inspected, brought the fruit to market, and sold avocados throughout high school and college.
But it wasn’t just about selling. It was about understanding value. What people trust, what they choose, and why.
That instinct followed him to University of California, Santa Cruz, where he unintentionally created one of the most iconic college brand symbols: the Banana Slug. What started as a counterculture, anti-mascot became a lasting identity and eventually showed up everywhere from campus merchandise to pop culture.
Even then, Pete wasn’t just building things. He was shaping how people connected to them.
Learning from the Inside: When Brands Meet Reality
Pete’s career took him deep inside some of the world’s largest companies including Procter & Gamble and Nestlé.
At P&G, he helped launch early interactive marketing efforts just as the internet began reshaping consumer behavior. At Nestlé, he led digital initiatives during a time when brands were no longer in control of their own narratives, consumers were. He saw firsthand the shift from polished messaging to public accountability.
Later, he founded PlanetFeedback, a platform built around a simple idea: give consumers a voice, and they’ll use it. That experience reinforced what he had been seeing all along, that brands weren’t just built by companies anymore. They were shaped by the people interacting with them.
The Moment Everything Changed
The idea for BrandRank didn’t come from a whiteboard, but rather a prompt.
When Pete first experimented with AI tools like ChatGPT, he asked simple questions:
Can this brand be trusted?
Is this product actually good?
The answers were direct, honest, and sometimes uncomfortably so. That’s when it clicked.
AI wasn’t just another channel. It was becoming the place where decisions get made, and for the first time, brands wouldn’t control the narrative. The answers would.
Pete saw a gap here. Everyone else was focused on visibility and whether a brand shows up. What really mattered though was something deeper:
When you show up, are you credible?
Building the “GPS for Trust”
BrandRank was built around that idea.
Instead of helping companies game visibility, it helps them understand their vulnerability — where trust breaks down, where messaging doesn’t hold up, and where AI exposes gaps between what a brand says and what’s actually true.
As Pete says, “Visibility gets you seen. Vulnerability gets you remembered.”
The platform analyzes how brands appear across AI systems by measuring credibility, surfacing risks, and helping companies respond in a world where answers (not ads) define perception.
That focus has resonated, especially in industries where trust is everything. Today, a significant portion of BrandRank’s work is in health and wellness where consumers are asking harder questions and expecting better answers.
Leading with Perspective (and a Bit of Rebellion)
Pete is quick to admit he’s not trying to be everything.
He leans into what he does best like marketing, storytelling, and understanding consumer behavior, and builds teams around him to execute. It’s a mindset shaped over time: knowing your strengths and being honest about what you’re not.
His leadership style reflects that same philosophy. Give credit freely and let the people closest to the work lead. Stay humble, even when you’re right.
And perhaps most importantly, stay connected. Pete makes it a habit to personally thank people in his network every week. A small but intentional way to build trust at scale.
Looking Ahead: The Answer Economy
Pete believes we’re entering a new era where AI doesn’t just influence decisions, but becomes the decision layer itself.
It’s a theme he first explored in his book Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000, and one he expands in his forthcoming book, The Answer Economy: How AI Agents Will Decide Your Brand’s Future.
Search is evolving. Marketing is evolving. We’re moving into an “answer economy,” where a brand is only as strong as the answers people receive about it.
BrandRankAI exists to help companies navigate that shift with clarity and honesty. Because in a world where AI increasingly reflects reality, or something close to it, the only sustainable strategy is to earn trust.
Pete’s Founder Equation
We asked Pete what drives success:
“People + Opportunity + Timing”
The right team. The right moment. The right problem. And the discipline to put it all together.
Everything else is just execution.
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