One Tactic to Start Now: The Intermediary Play

How to Run Operations Like a 10x Bigger Budget

What It Means in Marketing

The classic version is simple: instead of paying to reach your audience, you find a larger body that already has that audience, and whose brand actually benefits from associating with you. They showcase you for free, because your presence validates their relevance.

Take a sobriety lifestyle app. On its own, it might struggle to reach people in recovery or those wrestling with addiction triggers. But pair it with a psychiatric association that already specializes in addiction-focused members, and suddenly you don’t just have distribution—you have trust. The association gets to look modern and connected to cutting-edge recovery tools. The app gets reach into a primed, high-credibility audience without buying ads. That’s not a transaction. That’s alignment.

Or consider a pitch practice AI app. Alone, it’s just another startup screaming into the noise of LinkedIn. But plug it into a coworking space that wants their members to thrive (so they keep paying for membership), and now the AI app isn’t just software—it’s an embedded service. The coworking space markets it, because your tool makes them look like they invest in member success. The startup gets distribution without a marketing budget, and the coworking space gets stickier retention. Both win.

That’s the Intermediary Play in its traditional form: marketing by proxy, with bigger players doing the work for you.

What It Means in Operations

Now, here’s the pivot: the exact same move can be applied to operations. Instead of thinking of intermediaries as only amplifiers of your message, think of them as suppliers of your infrastructure.

Take the ATDC venue example. Two founders talking about their own struggles only creates a room full of waterlogged stories—everyone’s drowning, and they’re just describing the waves. But when you bring role players who are already part of your product—designers, developers, marketers—you don’t just fill seats. You give ATDC a story to showcase: we’re the place where founders and builders connect. Their brand wins. In exchange, you get a premium venue, AV setup, food, and drinks—all free. You’re not paying for logistics; you’re being subsidized by an institution that needs you.

Or think about an AI app that automates outreach for screening job candidates. Alone, you’d burn cash trying to reach hiring managers one by one. But give it to employment agencies—entities that live or die on funneling candidates efficiently—and suddenly, they recruit for you. They push your product into circulation, because your app directly strengthens their core offering. They foot the bill in labor, credibility, and distribution, while you capture adoption.

Why This Works So Well

The beauty of the Intermediary Play is that it makes larger bodies move on your behalf without money changing hands. It takes their incentive (brand cachet, retention, credibility, differentiation) and ties it directly to your need. You stop looking like a scrappy founder begging for scraps, and start operating like a founder who can marshal institutions.

The deeper truth: most startups fail because they’re trying to trade in money they don’t have. The Intermediary Play teaches you to trade in alignment. You win because you solve someone else’s relevance problem.

And when you do that consistently, you scale not just marketing, but operations. You gain distribution, infrastructure, and credibility—running as if your budget is 10x what’s in the bank.

That’s why the Intermediary Play isn’t just a tactic—it’s a way of operating. You stop waiting for permission, and you stop burning money you don’t have. Instead, you start building momentum by aligning yourself with institutions that need you as much as you need them.

And once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Every unmet need in your startup becomes an opportunity to plug into a bigger body, stretch your reach, and accelerate without capital. That’s the founder’s edge—running lean while looking large, moving fast while everyone else waits for funding.

Play this right, and your startup won’t just survive. It will feel inevitable.