Operating Thesis
Relationship-Led Distribution
I treat real-world relationship building as a distribution channel.
The work often starts at an event, in a direct conversation, or through a thoughtful follow-up. Those interactions create context. Context makes content, product feedback, introductions, and partnerships more useful.
The loop
- 01
Events
Meet people in environments where shared context already exists.
- 02
Conversations
Listen for actual problems, priorities, and language.
- 03
Context
Record what matters so future follow-up is relevant.
- 04
Follow-Up
Send a useful message tied to the conversation.
- 05
Content
Turn recurring patterns into public writing and product storytelling.
- 06
Introductions
Connect people when there is a clear reason.
- 07
Partnerships
Build small forms of collaboration before asking for large commitments.
- 08
Distribution
Trust and context improve the likelihood that people share, respond, participate, or refer.
Distribution feeds back into the next event, and the loop runs again.
What this looks like in practice
- A 300+ person relationship graph, maintained and updated
- 20+ founder and creator events
- Washington, DC, New York City, and Toronto
- Founder events and creator events
- Travel Trends AI Summit
- Toronto Tech Week
- Direct follow-ups tied to what was actually discussed
- Relationship mapping across companies, roles, and interests
- Public writing that turns patterns into shared context
- Event-based GTM, including Checkout
Why it works
Cold channels ask a stranger for attention. Relationship-led distribution starts from a conversation that already happened, which means the follow-up carries context, the content answers a real question, and the partnership ask is small enough to say yes to.
The compounding is slow at first. Checkout is the clearest example of what it looks like after a couple of years of showing up: registrations, partners, judges, and prizes that mostly trace back to people I have actually met or written something useful for.