“working with influencers was like a cheat code because the influencers are already trusted by their audience so if you can get an influencer to try your thing and like it you kind of unlock a new little section of the market”

Use Influencer Trust as a Cheat Code for Early Distribution

Lane found that trust-building is especially critical in education, and influencer partnerships compressed that trust-building timeline dramatically. He scaled from $2K to $10K/month largely off influencer collabs, then from $30K to nearly $1M by expanding to YouTube creators. The insight is that borrowed trust compounds faster than built trust.