Navigating AI’s role in shaping the future of SEO with Joe Walsh @Prerender

saas.unbound is a podcast for and about founders who are working on scaling inspiring products that people love, brought to you by https://saas.group/, a serial acquirer of B2B SaaS companies.

In episode #8 of season 5, Anna Nadeina talks with Joe Walsh, GM @Prerender,  your solution to JavaScript SEO challenges.

In episode #8 of season 5 of the saas.unbound podcast, Anna Nadeina sits down with Joe Walsh, the General Manager of Prerender, a pioneering solution addressing the challenges of JavaScript SEO. Prerender is one of the first acquisitions by saas.group and has been a key player in helping dynamic websites become more discoverable in organic search results.

From Rhetoric to Tech: Joe Walsh’s Unconventional Path

Joe’s background is anything but typical for a tech leader. Originally educated in rhetoric, he made a bold move in 2008 by driving for Uber in the Bay Area with a clear mission: to meet someone who could get him into the tech industry. Within weeks, Joe transitioned from office admin to IT admin, then business analyst, and eventually into growth and SaaS leadership roles spanning multiple industries.

“I was living in the Bay Area in 2008 and decided I’d drive Uber until I met someone who could give me a tech job. That happened in about three weeks.” – Joe Walsh

What is Prerender? Solving JavaScript SEO Challenges

Prerender was created over a decade ago to solve a critical SEO problem for JavaScript-heavy websites. Many modern websites use dynamic content and single-page applications that search engine bots, like Google’s crawler, struggle to index effectively because they don’t process JavaScript the way humans do.

Prerender addresses this by rendering static versions of dynamic pages. When search engine bots visit, they receive a pre-rendered, static HTML snapshot of the page, enabling faster and more complete indexing. This improves organic search visibility by optimizing the website’s “crawl budget” — the amount of a site that search engines can efficiently crawl and index.

Post-Acquisition Transformation: Efficiency, Growth, and Culture

After joining SaaS Group, Prerender underwent significant operational changes aimed at scaling the business sustainably. Joe highlights the example of cutting AWS costs by over $800,000 annually by migrating to a more cost-effective infrastructure setup. This shift not only reduced expenses but also enhanced scalability and profitability.

Beyond infrastructure, building a strong team and culture became a priority. Prerender expanded its engineering, product, marketing, sales, and customer success teams. The company transitioned from a product-led, developer-focused startup to a mature scale-up with refined messaging, customer engagement, and sales practices.

“We went from a very product-led growth developer-focused tool to something with more rigor around messaging, positioning, and customer interaction.” – Joe Walsh

Joe also praises the support from saas.group’s central teams in marketing, product design, HR, and finance, which allows Prerender’s team to focus on their core mission while leveraging centralized expertise in foundational business functions.

Building a Culture of Autonomy and Accountability

One of the cultural pillars Joe emphasizes is hiring “nice wolves” — team members who are independent, take ownership, and drive results while fitting well within a collaborative environment. Empowerment, strategic thinking, and initiative are highly valued.

However, as the team grew, maintaining focus became a challenge. The natural tendency to help across domains sometimes diluted individual ownership. Joe and his team have been working on defining clear roles and responsibilities to balance collaboration with domain specialization, which is essential for scaling effectively.

The Future of Discoverability: Beyond Traditional SEO

Looking ahead, Joe and Prerender are reimagining what discoverability means in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. Traditional SEO once focused on “gaming” search algorithms with keywords and tags. Today, the goal is broader: ensuring businesses are organically discoverable across diverse platforms including search engines, answer engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity, online communities such as Reddit, and digital marketplaces.

Joe stresses the importance of organic visibility over paid ads or influencer marketing, noting that users trust genuine, organic content more than promotional material.

“If everything you see in search results is an ad, you’re less likely to trust or engage with it. Organic discoverability is key.” – Joe Walsh

Understanding AI’s Impact on SEO and Digital Content

AI’s role in SEO and discoverability is a major focus for Prerender. Joe candidly discusses the current confusion around AI definitions and the hype cycle surrounding it. He uses a memorable analogy:

“AI right now is like teenage sex — everyone thinks they know what it is but no one wants to admit they don’t.” – Joe Walsh

Prerender aims to lead the conversation by improving AI literacy, defining what AI really means in the context of search, and exploring how AI can be a genuine value-add rather than just buzzwords or formulaic content generation.

Joe warns against the rise of generic AI-generated content flooding platforms like LinkedIn, which often lacks authenticity and fails to engage audiences meaningfully.

Human + Computer: The Winning Formula

Joe emphasizes that neither humans nor AI alone are the best option; rather, the future lies in combining human creativity and judgment with AI’s capabilities as a force multiplier. For example, their engineering team uses AI tools to automate repetitive coding tasks, freeing them to focus on creative problem-solving.

This balanced approach extends to customer communication and product strategy, with a roadmap being developed to integrate AI thoughtfully across all teams at Prerender.

The Future of Websites and Content

With an increasing portion of web traffic coming from bots—many AI-powered—Joe poses challenging questions about the future nature of websites. If two-thirds of traffic is bots reading AI-generated content, what does that mean for human engagement online? Prerender is exploring these questions in a speculative but deliberate way, aiming to help customers create valuable, resonant content for real people.

Implementing Processes and Embracing Mistakes

As a self-proclaimed “process monster,” Joe introduced Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) at Prerender shortly after joining. While not every goal was achieved in the first quarter, the practice has helped the team focus, set clear priorities, and learn from shortcomings.

Joe also promotes a culture where mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities rather than failures, fostering continuous improvement and resilience.

Joe’s Advice for Founders and Product Leaders

Drawing on insights from “The Innovator’s Dilemma” and Steve Jobs, Joe advises founders to balance listening to customers with anticipating their unspoken needs. Successful product strategy involves walking the fine line between building what customers ask for and innovating what they truly require.

“It’s not up to customers to decide what they want — it’s up to you to understand and deliver what they need.” – Joe Walsh