partnerships
The Partnership Pitch Is the Problem
Founders burning through paid ads and cold outreach are turning to partnerships, and bringing the same extractive mindset with them. That is exactly why it fails.
Latest
partnerships
You Are About to Spend More on Partnerships You Cannot Measure
Sixty-nine percent of B2B companies are increasing partnership investment in 2026. Only forty-two percent can measure whether any of it is working. That gap is the problem nobody is naming.
partnerships
The Partnership Announcement Is the Product
59% of founders fear their company won't survive the next 12 months. In that climate, the partnership announcement has become a specific coping mechanism — one that produces the feeling of momentum without any of the infrastructure momentum actually demands.
partnerships
Why Founders Who Are Great at Networking Still Fail at Partnerships (They're Not the Same Thing)
Most founders spend years collecting contacts and building goodwill while their partnership pipeline stays empty and their competitors quietly scale around them.
partnerships
The 9 Types of Business Partnerships (And the One Your Competitors Are Using to Outgrow You)
Nine distinct partnership models exist, and your competitors are using the right one while you are still waiting for the right introduction to materialize.
partnerships
The Psychology of Trust in Business Partnerships: Why 70% Fail Before They Generate Revenue
Most partnerships fail before they produce a dollar, and the reason is almost never the partner, the product, or the market timing.
partnerships
What HubSpot's 10x Lead Growth From onSpark Actually Means for Founder Distribution Strategy
HubSpot outgrew its competitors through a partner ecosystem rather than ad spend, and the distribution model it built applies to founders at any stage.
partnerships
The Real Reason Your Partnership Pipeline Is Empty (And It Has Nothing to Do With Your Network)
Most founders have the contacts they need, but without a conversion process, every relationship stays exactly what it was at the first handshake.
Fraud
MoviePass: The Partnership That Promised to Revolutionize Cinema and Burned $1.5 Billion
MoviePass had real demand and real theater partnerships, but the business model required its own customers to use the product less than they ever would.
Fraud
Enron: The Off-Balance-Sheet Partnership Fraud That Destroyed $74 Billion and Changed Corporate Law Forever
Enron used off-balance-sheet partnership structures to manufacture the appearance of profitability, and every professional who could have stopped it had reasons to let it continue.
Fraud
Bernie Madoff's $65 Billion Ponzi: The Friendship-Based Partnership Model That Fooled Wall Street for 17 Years
Madoff built the largest fraud in history on trust rather than technology, and the relationship itself became the reason due diligence stopped.
Fraud
Wirecard: How a $25 Billion German Fintech Built Its Fraud on Banking Partnerships That Didn't Exist
Wirecard built its $25 billion valuation on banking partnerships that no bank could verify, and the fraud ran for a decade because verification never happened.