Sunny Ray sits down with Caleb, founder of 79 Development, a creative and strategy agency he started in 2012, named after gold's atomic number to reflect the value created from a blank page. Caleb traces his path from a childhood split between rural Ontario nature and an emerging digital world, through an early fascination with macro photography that led him into filmmaking and storytelling. He recounts an unexpected mentor, a man he met while volunteering at a Winnipeg shelter, whose instinct for photography shaped how Caleb thinks about creative resonance. Before scaling 79 Development, Caleb spent time inside an early AI company called Kiwi, later acquired by Sentience, giving him a decade long head start on machine learning. The conversation turns to how large language models are becoming a new trusted source for recommendations, replacing some of the role friends and family once played, and why brands need consistent TXT records, metadata, and content built to answer the exact questions people ask AI tools. Caleb argues this is a blue ocean opportunity most companies are ignoring, and explains why intentional branding matters enormously during mergers and acquisitions.
79 Development's founder Caleb explains why trusted AI recommendations are the new word of mouth, and how brands can earn them.
Can you give a couple sentences on the company you're building, 79 Development?
79 comes from gold's atomic number because we felt we create value out of a blank sheet of paper, whether that's creative direction or strategy. We started in 2012 heavy on creative, then around 2015 to 2017 built out the funnel side, pixels, tags, and codes. Now we're focused on distilling signal from noise as AI tools flood the market, helping clients gain intention and clarity.
Were you always the creative type, or did that come later?
It wasn't immediate. My older brother was more creative and I watched him, but I didn't pick up a camera until around 2005 or 2006 with my parents' digital camera. Shooting macro shots of water drops on flowers, I noticed my breathing change and realized something was happening in that flow state. From there it grew into filming, storytelling, and eventually the AI tools I use today.
You describe yourself as someone who just likes to make stuff. Where does that come from?
It traces back to an early interest in philosophy and theology and wanting to change the world. I believe we're created in the image of God with this creative nature to imagine and act. The most exciting space is where creativity, entrepreneurial drive, and solving a meaningful problem intersect, that combination is what drives the people I find most interesting to be around.
Before 79 Development, didn't you work at a company called Sentience?
Not exactly. In the mid 2010s I joined a company called Kiwi that was doing early AI work, decoding signals from devices like Fitbits and making that data intelligently interface with other systems. I spent about 18 months alongside the founders learning that world around 2015 to 2017. Kiwi was later acquired by Sentience, which was my real introduction to AI about ten years ago.
Was there a mentor, project, or failure early on that set the foundation for the work you do now?
My older brother was a creative catalyst just by example. But the person who really shaped my eye was a man I met volunteering at a shelter in Winnipeg around 2007 and 2008. He lived on the streets but loved photography, and he'd show me prints and talk about how the light resonated with him. That taught me creative work often speaks to something we don't consciously understand.
When did you first realize AI was fundamentally changing how brands get discovered?
It was relatively recent. The lightbulb moment was realizing the best referrals have always come from a trusted source, friends and family we categorize by expertise. I noticed we're doing the same thing with language models, asking them for restaurant or roofer recommendations the way we'd ask a trusted friend. Once founders see that they're not getting cited by these models, they can't unsee it.
How is this different from traditional SEO? What's the blue ocean opportunity?
SEO isn't dead, but the mindset shifts. You need your website copy, metadata, and a TXT record all consistent with your value proposition. Then reverse engineer the actual questions people ask AI tools and produce content answering those variations weekly. Even content with just a few page views is being indexed by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, so every piece is still valuable groundwork for showing up in AI answers.
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