# Partner with the small platforms first and take the receipts to the big ones

- Category: distribution
- Author: Andrei Statescu (https://indie.md/people/andrei-statescu/)
- Source: https://indie.md/journeys/andrei-naramine/
- Canonical URL: https://indie.md/advice/win-the-small-platforms-first/

Andrei wants official relationships with the web novel platforms, but Wattpad is owned by a very large East Asian corporation, and a solo founder with an unlaunched extension does not get that meeting. So the sequence starts lower: the smaller platforms, still counting users in the millions, share the same reader-retention problem, answer their own email, and can say yes without a committee. One legitimate integration there produces the assets the big conversation requires, engagement numbers, an accessibility story, authors who vouch for it, receipts instead of promises. He has already assembled the stakeholder list on LinkedIn and drafted the outreach before launch, because partnerships have lead times just like sales. Treat platform partnerships like fundraising: get quick yeses from those who can afford to give them, convert the yeses into evidence, and climb the ladder with proof in hand instead of cold-emailing the summit first.