“The asset is not the archive — it is who you know. The plant managers and maintenance engineers who call DO Supply first, and the sellers and dealers on the other side of the trade, including the ones who have since closed. Labs building industrial AI are paying enormous referral fees for an introduction to exactly that network.
You've built the relationships. Now it's time to monetize them: you authorize what's in scope, the lab pays the referral, and the relationship stays yours.
AI is not going away, and those introductions have a price whether you make them or not. Let the contact list collect dust, or put the referral proceeds back into operations — more inventory, more service, more reach. I'll make the introductions.”