Is traditional SEO dead, what should an early-stage startup actually do?

No, but it has mutated: Google still drives far more volume than all AI assistants combined, while AI answers eat top-of-funnel clicks (up to a 58% CTR drop when an AI Overview appears). Google itself says there is no separate AI index, so helpful, well-structured, crawlable content is the same ticket for rankings and for AI citations. An early-stage startup should run lean, bottom-of-funnel SEO and layer AEO on top, rather than picking one and abandoning the other.

A quick orientation. The real value is below: resources worth your time, from people who've actually done it.