For Three Years, Only Companies With Big Budgets Could Work With Me. Today That Changes
1. Key Themes
Theme: Distribution is the scarcest asset at seed, and it is priced out of reach for the companies that need it most
The budget paradox of startup attention
The author frames a structural mismatch: the startups with the best products and backers often can't afford the audiences that would accelerate them.
"The companies that need attention the most are the ones that can afford it the least."
"But the seed-stage founder with a better product, a top-tier investor and eighteen months of runway has been locked out of the exact same audience, for one reason: the budget."
Year-one attention compounds into hiring, fundraising, sales and partnerships
The pitch is that early earned attention is a flywheel across four functions, not a marketing vanity metric.
"At Series B, a company can buy attention with a marketing team. At seed, attention compounds from whatever you earn in year one, and it feeds everything"
"Investors move faster when they've already seen you in their feed. Momentum you can point to beats momentum you have to explain."
"Bigger companies say yes to startups their own teams have already heard of."
Theme: Equity-for-distribution is emerging as a new media business model (media-as-investor)
Swapping cash sponsorship for a SAFE aligns incentives
The author converts a pay-to-play sponsorship model into an investor-partner model, where the media owner's returns depend on the startup's success.
"A cash sponsor buys a placement. A partner gets an investor."
"When I own a piece of your company, your next round is my next round... that's how my SAFE becomes worth something. Every incentive in this program points the same direction as yours."
Tiered, scarce, price-anchored packages
The program is productized into three tiers with hard supply limits, creating scarcity and a clear ladder.
"Launch Week · $20K... Partner Month · $50K... Partner Track · $100K"
"I write every Deep Dive myself, and I won't hand a partner's story to anyone else. That sets a hard ceiling: two new partners a month, and three Partner Track seats a quarter."
Structure: one SAFE, delivery dates contractually fixed
"Every program is one SAFE, signed before the first placement goes live, converting at the terms of your last round. Delivery dates go into the agreement."
Theme: Long-form "understanding" content outperforms simple placements for conversion
Deep Dives vs. ads
The author argues depth, not reach, converts readers into customers, hires and investors, and backs it with campaign data.
"A placement gets you seen. A Deep Dive gets you understood, and understood is what turns a reader into a customer, a hire or an investor."
"Papermark ran one Deep Dive: 60,000 people read it and more than 1,000 clicked through. Granola's three-month campaign passed 700,000 views, and the Deep Dive was its best-performing piece."
2. Contrarian Perspectives
Pay startups' distribution bills in equity, not cash, because cash is for engineers
Conventional wisdom treats marketing spend as a cash line item; the author argues seed-stage cash should be preserved for product and substitutes equity, while also positioning himself as a more aligned partner than a cash-based sponsor. (Note: this is a self-interested position from a seller of the service, and the cost, $20K-$100K of equity-priced value, is not trivial for seed companies.)
"Cash is the scarcest thing you have at seed, so it should go to engineers. A SAFE lets you keep it there and still get the launch the company deserves."
"A cash sponsor buys a placement. A partner gets an investor."
Selectivity makes media more credible, not less profitable
Rather than maximizing sell-through, the author caps supply and filters on quality, arguing the filter itself is the product's value.
"Every Deep Dive explains why I invested, and that sentence only works if it's true. I'll only take companies I'd back with my own money."
"Backed by a top-tier fund or accelerator, such as Y Combinator or a16z"
Budget should not be the gating criterion for attention
The author claims to flip the traditional pay-to-play ordering of ad-driven media.
"For two years, the only question that decided who got this audience was budget. From today, it's the company."
3. Companies Identified
- Description: Productivity/workspace software company.
- Why mentioned: Cash-paying partner and proof of reach.
- Quotes: "Notion can pay for a post that reaches 422,000 people." Also listed: "Notion · the AI Founder's Kit: 422K impressions, 1.8K comments"
- Description: Enterprise software and cloud company.
- Why mentioned: Cash-paying partner; post on AI agent memory.
- Quotes: "Oracle can pay for one that reaches 410,000." / "Oracle · memory for AI agents: 410K impressions"
- Description: Compliance automation platform.
- Why mentioned: Repeat customer showing retention.
- Quotes: "Vanta has renewed with me for two years straight."
- Description: CRM and marketing software company.
- Why mentioned: Paying partner across LinkedIn and newsletter.
- Quotes: "HubSpot · the LinkedIn growth playbook: 48K impressions"
- Description: Modern CRM startup.
- Why mentioned: Cash-paying newsletter partner.
- Quotes: "Attio in The AI Layoff Trap"
- Description: AI meeting notes startup.
- Why mentioned: Primary case study of a multi-month campaign.
- Quotes: "Granola's three-month campaign passed 700,000 views, and the Deep Dive was its best-performing piece." / "Granola's Growth Playbook... noted as the piece with the best click-through rate of Granola's whole campaign."
- Description: Startup (document sharing/data room tool) that ran a Deep Dive.
- Why mentioned: Concrete conversion data from a single Deep Dive.
- Quotes: "Papermark ran one Deep Dive: 60,000 people read it and more than 1,000 clicked through."
- Description: AI app-building startup.
- Why mentioned: Subject of a Deep Dive on hypergrowth.
- Quotes: "How Lovable hit $400M ARR in 14 months"
- Description: AI search company.
- Why mentioned: Deep Dive example.
- Quotes: "Perplexity: hybrid compute, cloud plus local AI"
Ant International
- Description: Global digital payments/fintech firm.
- Why mentioned: Deep Dive example on AI-native payments.
- Quotes: "Ant International: AMP, Know Your Agent and its AI-native payments stack"
- Description: Global HR/payroll platform.
- Why mentioned: LinkedIn and newsletter partner.
- Quotes: "Deel · The Pitch: 84K impressions" / "Deel in 25 Claude Skills for Startup Marketing"
- Description: Global payments/fintech company.
- Why mentioned: Example of the "Launch Week" format around a funding announcement.
- Quotes: "Airwallex · its $320M Series H announcement: 72K impressions" / "That Airwallex post is the Launch Week format exactly: one raise, one moment, told to the people who care about it."
- Description: Cloud infrastructure provider.
- Why mentioned: Newsletter placement partner.
- Quotes: "DigitalOcean in the SpaceX and Cursor breakdown"
Jack and Jill
- Description: AI recruiting startup.
- Why mentioned: Newsletter placement partner.
- Quotes: "Jack and Jill in the Jensen Huang profile"
Y Combinator / a16z
- Description: Leading accelerator / venture firm.
- Why mentioned: Named as examples of qualifying backers for program eligibility.
- Quotes: "Backed by a top-tier fund or accelerator, such as Y Combinator or a16z"
4. People Identified
Ruben Dominguez
- Description: Author; operator of The VC Corner, The AI Corner and a 340K-follower LinkedIn account; angel investor.
- Why mentioned: Launching the Corner Partner Program.
- Quotes: "I'm opening my platform to early-stage startups. I'll take equity instead of cash, put skin in the game, and give you the same distribution the biggest brands in tech pay for."
Jensen Huang
- Description: CEO of NVIDIA.
- Why mentioned: Subject of a profile that served as a placement vehicle for a partner.
- Quotes: "Jack and Jill in the Jensen Huang profile"
Boris Cherny
- Description: Creator of Claude Code.
- Why mentioned: Subject of a playbook that carried a partner placement.
- Quotes: "Granola in the Boris Cherny Claude Code playbook"
Yang Zhilin
- Description: Founder of Moonshot AI (Kimi).
- Why mentioned: Subject of a playbook that carried a partner placement.
- Quotes: "Granola in the Kimi and Yang Zhilin playbook"
5. Operating Insights
Treat year-one attention as a compounding asset, and time it to your next 90 days
The program is explicitly designed around imminent catalysts (launch, raise, hiring push).
"If you're raising, launching or hiring in the next 90 days, the timing of your application matters as much as the application itself."
Use a single concentrated "moment" for launches
Cluster placements across channels in the same week around one event, such as a raise announcement.
"Built for one moment: a launch or a raise announcement. One placement in each newsletter, one LinkedIn post, one X post, all in the same week."
Invest in one deep narrative piece rather than only repeated mentions
Founders should prioritize a full-story asset (why you exist, why investors backed you) over scattered impressions.
"A full story, written by someone they already read, changes that conversation." (on buyers who "google you before the second call")
6. Overlooked Insights
Disclosure is positioned as a trust asset, not a cost
Every equity-paid placement is labeled the same as a cash sponsorship, and the author frames the audience's trust as the thing being sold.
"Every partner placement carries a disclosure, exactly like cash sponsorships. Readers trust this audience because I'm upfront about who I work with, and that trust is what you're getting access to."
The SAFE converts at the terms of the startup's last round, which makes the media owner a pricing-neutral investor
Pricing the equity at the last round's terms avoids a new valuation negotiation and treats the author as just another participant in the existing cap table.
"The SAFE converts on the same terms as your most recent round, so you pay in equity priced the way your investors priced it. Your lawyer will recognize the structure in a minute."