Starting at a $500 weekly cap on a new network de-risked a relationship that scaled to $40k/mo.

Starting at a $500 weekly cap on a new network de-risked a relationship that scaled to $40k/mo.
Cohort: one buyer onboarding an unproven network, 5-month log. Goal: bound first-payment risk before scaling.

— Month 1: capped exposure at $500/wk, confirmed first payout cleared on time ▏
— Month 2: $4k/wk after pay verified ▏▏▏
— Months 3–5: scaled to $10k/wk ▏▏▏▏▏▏▏▏ ($40k/mo)

First payment landed 2 days early. Had it bounced, max loss was capped at one week's $500.

Read: the first payout is the only real reliability data — a deliberately small opening bet priced the unknown at $500 before committing $40k (n=1 network, 5-month).