Chapter 3 of 11
Where work starts
Who brought the opportunity—and what did they actually contribute?
Illustrative examples only. These are possible commercial arrangements, not current offers, agreed pay, promised work, forecasts, or evidence of customer results. All amounts are USD, before tax.
A relationship is a contribution to understand, not an automatic percentage to subtract.
| Starting position | What changes | Possible route | How someone could earn |
|---|---|---|---|
| Existing customer | An independent already holds the relationship. | Keep the customer contract; ask Intent for a bounded specialist package. | The independent earns on its own engagement. Intent and specialists earn on the purchased scope. |
| Rekindled contact | A previous contact has a new problem or sponsor. | Record who reopened access, developed the need and is doing current work. | Negotiate current contributions; a historical contact does not create a perpetual account fee. |
| New relationship | Someone introduces a buyer or develops a new account. | Separate introduction, discovery, domain expertise, proposal and negotiation. | A fixed referral fee, funded presales or a bounded success term could each fit different work. |
| Two overlapping relationships | Several people know the same customer. | Resolve consent, roles and attribution before proposing obligations. | Pay distinct approved contributions from one affordable budget; do not stack duplicate commissions. |
| Public work creates inbound | A demo, article, class or repository prompts a real buyer conversation. | Qualify a problem, decision-maker, constraints and willingness to pay. | Content and maintenance may have funded budgets; audience attention alone creates no project payment. |
| Provider or integrator introduces work | A vendor or larger firm requests a capability. | Confirm whether this is a lead, an authorized subcontract or an approved funded program. | The named contracting payer owes only the signed scope; no provider pipeline is promised. |
| Customer asks several firms to collaborate | Different firms hold trust, domain knowledge and capacity. | Choose a prime or clearly separate contracts and interfaces. | Each firm prices its responsibility, assets and work; network membership creates no tax on other business. |
Relationships do not move through a one-way funnel.
A proposed state model for a specific opportunity, not a compulsory funnel or an existing agreement. Several opportunities can coexist within one relationship. The customer keeps its choice of supplier. A transition records a decision; it creates payment rights only where the parties have actually agreed them.
Follow pauses, reactivation, lost awards, disputes and renewals
| From → to | What changes | Decision | Earning boundary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relationship and permission → Discovery and qualification | A current need and permission to explore | Choose the pursuit owner, funder and bounded work. | No automatic referral award merely because a contact exists. |
| Discovery and qualification → A qualified opportunity | Evidence supports a funded next step | Confirm buyer, decision process, fit and capacity. | Accepted discovery may earn independently of the later sale. |
| Discovery and qualification → Closed, stopped or handed over | The useful answer is no build | Deliver the decision evidence and close the scope. | Paid evidence work can be successful without an implementation fee. |
| A qualified opportunity → Contracting and procurement | The customer chooses a contracting route | Select independent prime, Intent prime, provider prime or separate scopes. | Only the chosen business boundary enters each fee ledger. |
| Contracting and procurement → Discovery and qualification | A new stakeholder or constraint changes the need | Requalify, amend or stop; approve any extra investigation. | Repeated presales must have a funder; do not infer unlimited free revisions. |
| Contracting and procurement → Authorized delivery | The payer authorizes scope and contributors accept their roles | Confirm responsibilities, dependencies and available funding. | A written award starts agreed obligations; it is not already collected cash. |
| Contracting and procurement → Closed, stopped or handed over | The award is lost or the customer declines | Close the opportunity while preserving the relationship if appropriate. | Unmet success conditions earn nothing; authorized work and costs still need their agreed treatment. |
| A qualified opportunity → Paused or dormant | Budget, timing or sponsorship disappears | Record the reason and a review condition. | A forecast disappears; already incurred pursuit cost does not. |
| Authorized delivery → Paused or dormant | An agreed stop gate or dependency blocks work | Use the agreed change or stop process and protect the customer handoff. | Identify committed capacity, cancellation costs and amounts already earned. |
| Paused or dormant → Discovery and qualification | A sponsor or problem returns | Reconfirm permission, scope, current contributions and terms. | Reactivation can merit new scoped work; it does not revive expired payment rights automatically. |
| Authorized delivery → Evidence and acceptance | A milestone and its evidence are ready | The authorized reviewer applies the agreed acceptance criteria. | An independent evaluator earns for sound review, including unfavorable findings. |
| Evidence and acceptance → Exception or dispute | Scope, acceptance or attribution is contested | Separate undisputed work from the exception and name the resolver. | Track the disputed amount and funding exposure without deleting obligations. |
| Exception or dispute → Authorized delivery | The parties agree remediation or changed scope | Identify whether this is owed correction or separately authorized work. | Use the agreed remedy or new budget; avoid a second payment for the same duty. |
| Evidence and acceptance → Adoption and operation | The customer accepts and buys continuing service | Authorize service coverage, current account work and maintenance. | A new service period has its own contributors and earning bases. |
| Adoption and operation → Discovery and qualification | Renewal, another department or a new workflow is considered | Review actual value, customer preference, new scope and capacity. | Prior attribution alone does not create a perpetual renewal or expansion commission. |
| Adoption and operation → Closed, stopped or handed over | The customer self-operates, changes supplier or ends service | Agree handover, access removal, retained rights and remaining duties. | Exit ends future work as agreed; it does not erase unpaid earned fees. |
| Evidence and acceptance → Closed, stopped or handed over | The bounded project is complete with no continuing service | Finish handover and reconcile the remaining record. | Final acceptance, final invoice and final collection remain separate events. |
Provider work has several meanings.
- Introduction or co-sell
- A provider helps an opportunity develop. Identify who signs and pays; the introduction itself is not an award.
- Integrator subcontract
- A larger prime buys a named package from Intent or an independent. Only that package belongs in the supplier’s fee ledger.
- Approved program funding
- A specified payer funds approved activity under its eligibility, claim and payment rules. Unapproved funds do not finance delivery.
- Credits or ordinary consumption
- Credits may offset eligible vendor bills. The account holder still owes uncovered usage; credits cannot be spent on contractor invoices.
Anthropic and OpenAI publish partner programs. Those programs support possible routes into deployment work; they do not establish that Intent has been promised projects or that every participant can claim provider funds.
What the research changes about this model
These selected studies and historical cases explain mechanisms to test. They are not a systematic review, industry earnings survey or validation of this network. The teaching applications are our proposed responses, not conclusions that the sources tested for Intent. Scenario prices and volumes remain explicit assumptions.
Monetization changes can damage the bargain
In March 2023, Docker reversed its announced Free Team sunset after community feedback and offered refunds to affected customers who had upgraded.
Application to this design: Keep public-use rights, optional paid services and membership expectations clear. Make proposed changes, decision authority, objections and participant exit visible; community trust cannot be treated as automatic demand.
Limits: This documents a policy reversal, not Docker’s business failure or a measured loss caused by the announcement. It supplies no optimal price or governance formula.
A growing content library is not a cash entitlement
Demand Media’s Content & Media revenue fell from $137.038 million in 2014 to $73.814 million in 2015. Reported visits and revenue per thousand visits both declined.
Application to this design: Track audience access, qualified conversations, paid conversion and monetization separately. Budget publishing as an expense unless a sponsor or buyer actually funds it; do not count the same downstream sale twice.
Limits: The filing describes multiple contributing factors, while its marketplace business grew. This is not evidence that all creator businesses fail or an estimate of a solo creator’s earnings.
Research, evidence boundaries and diagram method
This is a proposed operating model illustrated with constructed numbers. The sources below establish program mechanisms and constraints; none establishes the scenario rates, Intent revenue, individual compensation or a guaranteed source of projects.
- Anthropic: Services Track and Partner Hub — Distinguishes practice standing from referral credit and deal protection. Does not establish any scenario fee, Intent tier, inbound work or cash entitlement. Checked 2026-10-12.
- OpenAI Partner Network — Shows an official build, co-sell and delivery program. No claim of Intent enrollment, procurement approval, referral rate or awarded work. Checked 2026-10-12.
- AWS Partner Central: Creating a fund request — Separates funding approval, cash claims, invoices and credits. Eligibility and program terms apply; the customer-paid discovery example is not an AWS award. Checked 2026-10-12.
- AWS Marketplace: Managing disbursements — Explains why accepted work and available cash can occur at different times. A marketplace example only; other procurement and payment routes have their own terms. Checked 2026-10-12.
- Microsoft: Manage co-sell opportunities — Supports a customer-consent gate before sharing contact details in co-sell. Does not grant another firm ownership of an account, a universal commission or guaranteed seller help. Checked 2026-10-12.
- Langfuse: Self-hosted pricing — A public example separating open-source software from paid enterprise capabilities and support. This is an offer structure, not evidence of Intent demand, profitability or transferable pricing. Checked 2026-10-12.
- GitHub Sponsors: Sponsorships, fees and taxes — Shows a distinct sponsorship route for eligible open-source contributors. Sponsorship is not a guaranteed sale, support contract or license transfer; no sponsorship is assumed in the ledgers. Checked 2026-10-12.
- AWS Marketplace: Channel Partner private offers — Distinguishes approved resale from ordinary vendor consumption. This does not authorize resale of an arbitrary model, API, dataset or contributor’s software. Checked 2026-10-12.
Diagram method: Cathryn Lavery’s open-source Diagram Design, using its Sankey, waterfall, bar, line, architecture and layer-stack references in Intent’s established visual style. The selected chart grammar explains the relationship; the worked examples supply the data.
Apply it to a real workflow.
Start with a customer problem, the people who can help, and a clearly bounded first piece of work.
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