Rohan Bhargava

I grew up backstage in the speaking business. My father, Rohit Bhargava, is a #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author who has keynoted for NASA, Disney, and hundreds of audiences around the world. Growing up in a speaking family, I know exactly what one booking is worth.

I’ve stood on the other side of the stage too. At nineteen I spoke on a CES panel about how brands reach Gen Z, in front of 250+ people. One stage, found by the right people, changes everything that comes after. That lesson stuck.

Then, in early 2026, I noticed the thing this company is built on: event planners had stopped Googling speakers and started asking AI.

So I ran the test on my own dad. I tracked the real questions planners ask, every day, across the AI tools they use. The results surprised both of us. AI knew exactly who he was. It almost never recommended him. A speaker with ten books was missing from most of the answers that matter.

That is when I understood how this works now: AI does not recommend the best speaker. It recommends the one it can read.

Shortlist exists to make sure that speaker is you. One score, measured on the real questions planners ask, and the exact fixes that move it.

The short version

Founder of Shortlist, the AI search visibility studio for professional speakers, in Washington, DC. Growth & AI at Versus Equity, the DC hospitality, marketing, and venture group. Two George Washington University degrees by 21: a B.S. in Marketing and an M.S. in International Business. Baer Award for Individual Excellence in the GW Community, 2026 Excellence in Student Life Awards. Founded GW’s chapter of Pi Sigma Epsilon, the professional business fraternity: 65 members, chartered faster than any chapter in the organization’s national history. CES panelist at nineteen, “Speak Gen Z.” Before all of that: marketing and AI at Freddie Mac, consulting at Finn Partners, and a first startup internship at fifteen.

Why me

Because this discipline is barely three years old, nobody on earth has twenty years of experience in it. What matters is measurement discipline and knowing the speaking business from the inside, and I have both: a career spent exactly where marketing meets AI, and a lifetime watching how bookings actually happen. Every number Shortlist reports traces to a logged, dated answer, so you never have to take my word for anything. That is the whole point.

What we hold to

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  Accurate. Every number we report traces to a logged, dated AI answer or a named public source. If it isn’t logged, it doesn’t go in.
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  Clear. We say what we find in plain language, and we measure what we can prove. We never promise bookings, because no honest firm can.
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  Actionable. You never get homework without a path. Every finding comes with the fix, written so your web person can make it. If you’d rather hand it off, we work with them directly.
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  One client per category. We never work both sides of the same recommendation.