Take your partners by the (virtual) hand

It’s easy to talk about partnerships as a strategy... Harder to realise you’ve never actually shown up for the people you want to work with. 🙊

We all know relationships grow from familiarity and trust and yet, I’ve definitely been guilty of waiting until I need something to start showing up. And it always feels a little… late.

You get that horrible "icky" feeling where you don't want to be transactional, you want to be a human, yet it's pretty hard to avoid when your need is kind of urgent (#startuplyf).

Plus, starting a conversation at this stage usually doesn't end with the best outcome for anyone - because you haven't taken the time to truly understand what the other person does or sees value in.

This week’s 1% challenge is to fix that kind of gap before it opens up.

👀 Spend 15 minutes following 10 people your startup would genuinely benefit from knowing: potential collaborators, investors, creators, advocates. (Our poison platform of choice is LinkedIn, but if another social platform is a better fit for you - go for it!).

Not their company pages, but THEM.

Start paying quiet attention.

➡️ What are they writing about?

➡️ What do they care about?

➡️ Where does your work overlap?

And then, slowly, show up and add a thoughtful comment, share something relevant, or send a friendly DM when it makes sense.

You’ll get a feel for how they think. They’ll start to recognise your name. And over time, it becomes less of a cold intro and more of a warm continuation.

If you're running a partnership push or kicking off your raise with investors, consider building a shortlist and making this part of your outreach rhythm. Quiet engagement now makes the follow-up much easier later.

It’s about building quiet familiarity, so when the time does come to connect more directly, it feels natural, not opportunistic.

Because marketing isn’t just what you publish. It’s how (and with whom) you show up 🙌.