The Trust-to-Territory Flywheel™ – How Real Partnerships Scale
Teaser from Unbuyable Distribution — Save This One for Maximum Buzz
The Trust-to-Territory Flywheel: How Real Partnerships Scale
From the book: Unbuyable Distribution
By Adrian Maharaj
We’ve been taught that partnerships start with alignment.
But here’s what I’ve learned from building ecosystems inside Google, Meta, and startups alike:
The best partnerships don’t start with alignment.
They start when someone inside the partner org feels safe to win.
Because partnerships don’t get blocked by logic—they get blocked by politics.
So I built a system I call the Trust-to-Territory Flywheel™, and it’s changed how I scale every meaningful partnership since.
STAGE 1: TRUST = CAREER SAFETY, NOT STRATEGIC FIT
Most BD teams think “trust” means agreement on goals or market synergy.
That’s cute. It’s also why 9 out of 10 partnerships stall after the first press release.
In reality, trust is personal.
You’re not earning trust from a company.
You’re earning trust from a person inside that company who:
Has political capital to spend
Wants a win
Doesn’t want to be blamed if it fails
Until someone inside feels safe to take your idea upstream, nothing moves.
Strategy ≠ safety. Trust = “I won’t lose my job for backing this.”
STAGE 2: TERRITORY = SOMEWHERE TO WIN QUIETLY
Once someone trusts you, don’t ask for scale.
Give them territory—a place to win without triggering antibodies.
Some examples:
A vertical no one cares about (but you can move revenue)
A geo market their GTM deprioritized
A product line adjacent to—but not overlapping—their golden goose
If they win in that territory, they don’t just validate you.
They own the success story—and suddenly, they’re your internal GTM champion.
STAGE 3: AMPLIFY = STORY, NOT STRATEGY
Once the win is real—amplify it.
Dashboards. Case studies. Team shoutouts. Executive updates.
Your champion now wants visibility. Why?
Because they’re no longer just experimenting. They’re proving out success.
And now the partnership isn’t yours.
It’s theirs.
That’s when everything changes.
You’re no longer selling. You’re scaling momentum.
FINAL FLYWHEEL
Trust → Territory → Amplify → Repeat.
That’s the flywheel. And it works.
Because it’s not about how aligned you are—it’s about how safe you make your partner feel, and how strategically insulated you make early wins.
Stop chasing GTM launches. Start creating safe wins.
Want the rest? Unbuyable Distribution includes 12+ field-tested partnership systems like this one.
[Pre-order now]
[Follow the Formare Podcast for breakdowns of real operator wins]
