Gudea leverages AI to help organizations prevent social media crises before they erupt

Gudea, a startup describing itself as a storm tracker for the internet, is leveraging artificial intelligence to help organizations spot online trouble before it develops into a public controversy. Unlike traditional social listening tools that focus solely on metrics like mentions, hashtags, and impressions, Gudea uses AI to analyze behavior, relationships, and information pathways across more than 500 mainstream and fringe platforms, including X, Reddit, and TikTok. The company aims to provide context on who is driving a conversation and how fast a story is gaining traction. Founded in 2023 by Keith Presley, Jonathan Sperber, and James Thomin, Gudea emerged from the George Washington Initiative, a nonprofit that applied intelligence community strategies to domestic information campaigns. Gudea currently has nearly 40 clients, including a Fortune 50 telecommunications company, a Fortune 50 retailer, a major AI lab, public relations agencies, and government entities. According to CEO Keith Presley, generative AI has significantly increased the prevalence of inauthentic activity in online narratives, with nine out of ten evaluated items now showing such activity. To address this, Gudea plans to introduce city-block-level geolocation for narratives next year. The company recently announced $7 million in seed funding in a round co-led by Mudita Venture Partners and Silicon Road Ventures, bringing its total funding to approximately $15 million.