Thrad, a Silicon Valley startup led by Chief Commercial Officer Roger Dunn, is building the ad infrastructure for large language models and answer engines globally (Retailgentic). The company operates both a supply side that helps retailers and chatbots monetize conversational surfaces and a self-serve buy side where brands can run ads across existing AI inventory globally, not just in the four countries where ChatGPT ads have launched (Retailgentic).
Thrad's platform supports new ad formats including sponsored messages, sponsored prompts, polling ads, and product carousels (Retailgentic). The company uses AI to turn URLs, briefs, or prompts into keyword, prompt, and dynamically generated persona targeting, with early ChatGPT ads showing CPCs roughly in the $1–$5 range (Retailgentic). For commerce practitioners, Dunn frames the shift as moving from "keyword jail"—where competitors fight over uniform search terms—to a "snowflake economy" of infinite unique prompts where challenger brands can finally own distinct positioning.
Dunn defines agentic commerce not as a robot making the final purchase, but as AI shaping every stage of the customer journey: discovery, comparison, price, and review synthesis (Retailgentic). He advises brands to start small—with budgets of $10–20K in a market—while exiting traditional keyword-based thinking and embracing prompt-native campaigns where creative elements like human faces outperform bare logos.