Filipe Duarte wins Lisbon’s People’s Choice Award with Peekaboo – The Future of SEO for AI Engines
Oct 24, 2025
Lisbon’s Demo Night this week felt like a masterclass in creativity and courage. Among a buzzing café crowd and our first-ever “Speed Date” demo format, one founder’s story truly stood out. Filipe Duarte, co-founder of Peekaboo, took home the People’s Choice Award — a recognition voted for by his peers, fellow founders, and investors.
A New Kind of Demo Night
This month’s Demo Night was a Canopy experiment: instead of a stage, founders rotated around café tables in small groups, pitching their startups and fielding live feedback. The atmosphere was electric — more conversation than performance — and it brought out the best in every founder.
“It was a very relaxed environment,” Filipe said. “You could really connect with others, and the feedback was honest. When you’re in a smaller group, people are more open to sharing what they really think. It was refreshing and very helpful.”
That willingness to learn, adapt and engage captured exactly what Canopy’s global founder community is about: test, learn, grow — together.
Meet Peekaboo: SEO for the AI Era
Filipe and his co-founder John are building Peekaboo, a platform redefining SEO for AI engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Their mission? Helping brands understand and improve how visible they are when people ask AI for advice or product recommendations — because the way we search and buy is changing fast.
“In 2025, people don’t just ‘Google it’ anymore,” Filipe explained. “They ask ChatGPT. They ask AI for recommendations. We’re helping brands understand where they appear in those answers — and how to optimise for it.”
Peekaboo’s journey reads like a textbook case in lean startup thinking. Filipe and John met online through Reddit, validated their idea with a 120-person waitlist in a week, and pre-sold $1,500 of their product before writing a single line of code. A viral TikTok mentioning Peekaboo then drove 600 visitors and several enterprise leads in just three days — showing how quickly good ideas can travel in today’s digital ecosystem.
Only six months later, Peekaboo is working with 30+ companies and generating $3K in monthly recurring revenue (MRR). Not bad for two founders who’ve never met in person.
Community, Connection, and Critical Feedback
Filipe’s Demo Night win wasn’t just about the tech — it was about presence, storytelling and empathy. He shared openly about the problem first, before the product. His advice for future founders?
“Start with the problem. Don’t just sell features — tell the story. Make it relatable, make it real.”
That mindset — the blend of storytelling, clarity, and confidence — is what helped him connect so deeply with the Demo Night audience.
A True Canopy Moment
The Lisbon event was hosted at Nina’s Brunch Café, a local tech-friendly spot that’s fast becoming a Canopy favourite. “It was my first Canopy event,” Filipe said. “Everyone was so welcoming. It felt like being part of something that really supports founders.”
For Canopy, that’s exactly the goal — creating inclusive, collaborative spaces where early-stage founders can test ideas, get honest feedback, and find their next customer, investor or co-founder.
Connect with Filipe Duarte
If you’re a digital agency owner, marketeer, or founder looking to understand how your brand performs across AI search, reach out to Filipe Duarte on LinkedIn. Peekaboo is growing fast, and this is your chance to connect with one of the early pioneers of AI-driven SEO.
watch the full interview back https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrMrateB2yVVf3BrnWuVR9WYX1ExPw_Hq&si=YF0uKCCPLdMBvqZJ