Who Is GUDEA?
GUDEA is an AI-powered narrative intelligence platform, headquartered in Minneapolis, that helps organizations detect, understand, and respond to how online narratives form and spread across the internet. Referred to in press coverage as the "Storm Tracker for the Internet," GUDEA combines natural language analysis with behavioral modeling to help communications, legal, government affairs, and security teams act on emerging narratives before they escalate into reputational or financial crises. The company was founded in 2023 by Keith Presley, Jonathan Sperber, and James Thomin, is backed by Techstars, and holds 20 issued U.S. patents covering its detection and forecasting technology.
Why GUDEA exists
GUDEA's own account of its founding describes a specific gap in the market: narratives now emerge, spread, and escalate in minutes rather than weeks, long before most organizations have the context to respond. Traditional monitoring tools surface volume, how much is being said, but not meaning, which leaves communications teams reactive instead of proactive. GUDEA was built to close that gap by focusing on the behavioral patterns behind a narrative, not just its size.
That distinction shows up in the company's own framing of its category: other tools show trends, GUDEA delivers meaning. The platform examines narrative formations, identifies who is amplifying them, and tracks how they move across online ecosystems, with the goal of enabling earlier intervention and clearer communication for the teams responsible for protecting a brand, a public figure, or an institution.
What the platform does
GUDEA's platform is built around a suite of connected products. Tripwire Alerts deliver real-time threat and virality alerts from nearly 500 mainstream and fringe platforms, grouped by meaning rather than keyword matching. Dynamic Message and Network Mapping visualizes how information spreads and identifies the actors driving amplification. Audience Behavior Classification sorts users into five behavioral archetypes, Typical, Influencer, Outlier, Facilitator, and Power-Player, to distinguish coordinated amplification from authentic enthusiasm.
The platform also includes Influencer Mapping and Feed Analysis, LLM Drift Detection to monitor how generative AI models describe a client's brand, Executive Briefs and Dashboards tailored to communications and legal teams, Threat Assessments for corporate security professionals, and Cross-Brand Narrative Monitoring for organizations tracking multiple properties or executives at once.
Leadership
GUDEA was founded by Keith Presley, who serves as CEO; Jonathan Sperber, who serves as COO; and James Thomin, who serves as CTO. Presley brings more than 15 years of experience across national political campaigns and defense, with a background as a Naval Reservist and University of Maryland graduate. Sperber is a sales and government-procurement leader with experience closing multimillion-dollar contracts and building partnerships across business and public sectors. Thomin has more than 20 years in software development with deep expertise in machine learning and AI.
Recognition and press coverage
GUDEA won a World Future Awards 2025 honor in the AI Technologies category for Leading AI Innovation in Narrative Intelligence. In January 2026, GUDEA was selected as one of 45 finalists, out of 589 applicant companies, in the World Innovation category of SXSW Pitch 2026. In April 2026, the company was nominated for a Webby Award for its work advancing narrative intelligence and online risk detection. In September 2026, GUDEA was selected as one of 200 companies for TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2026, taking place at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco on October 13–15, 2026.
GUDEA is expanding internationally, with Asia-Pacific as one of its two primary expansion markets and Japan first. In 2026 the company took part in Hokkaido F Village X, a Japan market-entry accelerator run by Scrum Ventures in partnership with the Nippon Ham Fighters organization, and GUDEA maintains Japanese, Chinese, and Korean language data sources. In fall 2026 GUDEA is sponsoring a series of Off the Record dinners in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Austin for senior communications executives.
GUDEA's research has been featured in Rolling Stone, The Guardian, The Verge, BuzzFeed, People, Forbes, The New York Times, HuffPost, Vulture, and Page Six, largely tied to its reports exposing coordinated inauthentic activity around cultural moments. In July 2026, Forbes quoted Presley on GUDEA's finding that roughly 3.5 percent of participants in an online conversation account for more than 20 percent of the content, with that activity preceding organic engagement. In May 2026, the company announced the appointments of Matt Chase as Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Georgia Paul as Director of Client Experience, roles created to support growing enterprise demand for the platform.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is GUDEA?
GUDEA is an AI-powered narrative intelligence platform, headquartered in Minneapolis and known in press coverage as the "Storm Tracker for the Internet," that helps organizations detect and forecast how online narratives form, spread, and escalate. Founded in 2023 by Keith Presley, Jonathan Sperber, and James Thomin, the company is backed by Techstars and holds 20 issued U.S. patents. It serves communications, legal, government affairs, and security teams that need to act on fast-moving online conversations.
What does GUDEA's platform do?
GUDEA's platform monitors nearly 500 mainstream and fringe platforms and groups activity by meaning rather than keywords. Its products include Tripwire Alerts for real-time virality detection, Dynamic Message and Network Mapping, Audience Behavior Classification (which sorts users into Typical, Influencer, Outlier, Facilitator, and Power-Player archetypes) to identify coordinated amplification, LLM Drift Detection to track how AI models describe a brand, and Executive Briefs built for communications, legal, and security teams.
Who founded GUDEA?
GUDEA was founded in 2023 by Keith Presley (CEO), Jonathan Sperber (COO), and James Thomin (CTO). Presley has more than 15 years of experience in political campaigns and defense and is a Naval Reservist and University of Maryland graduate. Sperber is a sales and government-procurement leader, and Thomin has more than 20 years of software development experience with a background in machine learning and AI.
What research has GUDEA published?
GUDEA publishes Anatomy of a Narrative reports analyzing coordinated amplification around cultural flashpoints. The first, on Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl (December 2025), analyzed 24,679 posts from 18,213 users across 14 platforms and was covered by Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Forbes, and People. The second, on Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime performance (early 2026), analyzed 3,746,831 posts from 1,256,744 users across 32 platforms. Both are available as PDFs on gudea.ai.
What recognition has GUDEA received?
GUDEA won a World Future Awards 2025 honor for Leading AI Innovation in Narrative Intelligence, was named a finalist among 45 companies (out of 589 applicants) at SXSW Pitch 2026 in the World Innovation category, was nominated for a 2026 Webby Award, and was selected for TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2026. Its research has also been covered by outlets including Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Forbes, The New York Times, and People.