Cowboys, Ropes, and Reveals: AI Startups Use Eye-Catching Stunts to Stand Out in a Competitive Landscape

When Lunos, a groundbreaking AI startup based in New York City, was preparing for its launch, founder and CEO Duncan Barrigan and his team were determined to make a memorable impact. They decided to invest $3,500 in an unconventional marketing strategy: hiring a horse and a cowboy to physically lasso the iconic Wall Street bull, aiming to capture attention in a unique way.

The event took place on a sweltering evening in late September, where the cowboy galloped towards the famous bull statue located in lower Manhattan. Adorned in ranch attire and a western hat emblazoned with the Lunos logo, he managed to lasso the bull’s horns while intrigued onlookers and guests observed the spectacle. He and his horse proceeded to trot around the statue, distributing cowboy hats and branded stress balls to attendees.

The primary objective of this publicity stunt was direct: to vividly convey Lunos’s mission of “taming the wild west” of accounts receivables. The startup utilizes AI technology to automate billing processes, manage outstanding balances, and facilitate timely payment follow-ups.

“In a sea of similar startups, we were trying to find a way to distinguish ourselves and present Lunos as a notable contender,” remarked Alex Mann, Lunos’s head of growth.

With over 90,000 AI startups operating globally as per recent counts, many companies struggle to carve out a unique niche based solely on their products. The AI sector, especially those targeting businesses, has leaned heavily on hype-driven promotions through traditional mediums like trade shows, white papers, billboards, and online advertising. In contrast, the live performance in front of the Wall Street bull represents an unexpected, audacious choice that diverges from the typical approach to back-office software.

This stunt highlights a broader trend where AI firms are increasingly resorting to provocative marketing strategies to stand out in a crowded, well-funded marketplace. In 2025, AI startups amassed approximately $202.3 billion in funding globally, a significant rise from the $114 billion recorded the previous year, based on data from Crunchbase. Additionally, expenditure on digital advertising for generative AI applications exceeded $200 million in the second quarter of 2025, according to SensorTower.

As claims of enhanced productivity and speed become increasingly indistinguishable, many startups are pivoting from formal corporate messaging to more entertaining and eye-catching presentations. Although these stunts seem effective, marketing experts suggest that this evolution indicates an industry facing intensifying pressures.

Provoking startups

Companies like Artisan AI, Cluely, and Friend have faced backlash for advertising approaches that imply their tools could replace human jobs, assist in dishonest interview tactics or substitute genuine human connections. Critics describe these tactics as distasteful, aimed at inciting outrage among audiences.

In light of similar concerns, AI startups focused on business applications tend to explore less contentious promotional methods for several reasons.

For example, Virio capitalized on viral content. During the HubSpot Inbound marketing conference in September, the AI marketing startup sent cowboys to lead two horses around San Francisco’s Moscone Center. From 8 AM to 11 AM, co-founder Emmett Chen-Ran walked alongside the horses while holding a Virio banner that read “Content that drives pipeline.”

They aimed to attract the founders and C-suite executives at firms with a workforce of 50 or more employees, who comprise Virio’s target market. Chen-Ran mentioned that such dramatic tactics are rare in the B2B landscape, wherein transactions typically occur between companies rather than directly with consumers, making this stunt distinctly novel. Ultimately, the team hoped attendees would snap photos and share them on LinkedIn, thus amplifying online engagement central to Virio’s marketing strategy.

“The stunt isn’t for the sake of the stunt; it’s about the LinkedIn posts and the content generated from it,” Chen-Ran stated.

While Virio leaned into the dramatic, Personal AI, a smaller language model startup, used a provocative performance to symbolize its core principles.

At the HubSpot AI Summit in June, Personal AI’s CEO, Suman Kanuganti, appeared onstage shirtless except for gym shorts, introducing the phrase “LLMs are naked,” projected behind him. He expressed that the large language models that underpin tools like ChatGPT and Gemini can leave users feeling “exposed” and “vulnerable.” Personal AI enables companies to create tailored AI models trained on their own documents, which he described as the “missing gear.”

As he gradually dressed, each piece of clothing, from his Arc’teryx jacket to Salomon shoes, represented a layer of trusted protection. The goal was to illustrate that, akin to selecting clothing brands, businesses should be able to access AI solutions defined by transparent protections such as privacy, safety, and reliability.

Trapped in ‘land grab mentality’

Marketing professionals assert that the emergence of these tactics is indicative of the pressure that enterprise AI startups are under within a rapidly growing industry.

Emily Heyward, co-founder and CEO of Red Antler, a startup marketing agency, shared that founders often feel ensnared in a “land grab mentality,” racing to attract attention before competitors do, even while their own products are still in development. Investors are funneling billions into AI ventures.

“Almost none of these companies can truly realize their long-term vision,” Heyward explained. “The focus is on creating enough buzz that clients will try them instead of competitors, which hopefully will lead to customer loyalty as the technology develops.”

Tom Goodwin, co-founder of All We Have Is Now, a business consultancy, expresses a more cynical view. He argues that there is an “urgency and desperation” propelling many of these promotional stunts. “AI is subversive,” he notes, allowing for marketing efforts that are provocative and attention-grabbing.

“These companies are afraid of being overlooked,” Goodwin emphasizes, suggesting that there’s a troubling moral dimension in some AI offerings, including issues like intellectual property breaches, job loss, and undervaluing human experience. Within today’s fragmented media sphere characterized by social platforms and heightened political tensions, fear has become a potent marketing weapon. Organizations tapping into this anxiety are pursuing one of the few dependable means of reclaiming attention.

Despite claims that these strategies are thoughtfully executed and effective, Virio, Personal AI, and Lunos maintain that inciting negative dialogue just for attention contradicts their core principles.

The more refined and controlled approach to stunt marketing appears to yield varying results, though.

For instance, Virio’s execution did not go as intended; pedestrian traffic was low, and the horses moved too swiftly for people to capture ideal photographs. Nonetheless, Chen-Ran reported that the company effectively generated its own LinkedIn content from the day, resulting in more than 300 qualified website visits, while raising its profile after numerous conference attendees recognized the team, leading to calls with potential customers.

Meanwhile, Kanugati from Personal AI mentioned that his unique stage presentation played a pivotal role in defining the company’s position within the market and helped secure additional conference appearances that culminated in several small client deals.

For Lunos, the impact was both immediate and substantial. Mann noted an influx of website visitors, LinkedIn posts about the bull stunt garnered hundreds of likes and shares, and word-of-mouth recognition surged within CFO Slack channels. Within three months of the launch, Mann noted that qualified prospects significantly filled their sales pipeline. Additionally, the publicity instigated a wave of job applications, including from former McKinsey consultants seeking leadership roles in business operations.

Lunos has successfully attracted paying customers, and the team is optimistic that the quality and volume of incoming inquiries will facilitate further conversions of early-stage leads into clients.

As Mann stated, the stunt “opened the door for us to think creatively about how we want to design future activation campaigns,” indicating that the drive to stand out in the marketplace is likely to persist.