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indyrct Pty Ltd  ·  The Business Model · Who Pays, When and Why

Who pays, when, and why

Five personas use the platform. They do not all pay, and they do not pay at the same time. The model is sequenced so the persona with the clearest near-term ROI carries the revenue, while willingness-to-pay that matures later sits in the moat. Every MDF dollar is counted once.

01The Through-Line

One spine holds the whole model together

Every persona in the channel uses Cotillion, but they do not all pay, and they do not pay at the same time. The monetisation model is sequenced on purpose. The persona with the clearest near-term ROI carries the revenue. The personas whose willingness-to-pay matures later sit in the moat rather than the forecast.

Read left to right, the sequence runs like this. The MSP pays now, because the ROI on a single strategic vendor is far larger than the fee. The vendor and distributor pay later for the cross-ecosystem intelligence only Cotillion can assemble, which is a moat rather than pre-seed revenue. At H4, procurement demand raises the value of the MSP’s profile spend and lifts supply-side willingness-to-pay across the board.

MSP pays now (revenue) → vendor and distributor pay for the meta-view (moat) → procurement demand at H4 raises the value of everything to its left.

02At a Glance

Who pays, at which horizon

The matrix below puts the whole business model on one screen. A revenue role is a paying line. A channel role funds or feeds adoption without being a revenue line of its own. A demand role creates pull without paying. Nothing is counted twice, and section 04 covers how.

Revenue: pays, counts as ARR now
Moat: pays later, strategic
Channel: funds or feeds adoption, not a line
Demand: creates pull, no payment
Not yet active
Persona / Horizon H1 · CoreDeal registration and profile H2 · EngageMDF and campaign intelligence H3 · ConnectCross-ecosystem meta-view H4 · DebutVerified procurement marketplace
MSPPrimary · Revenue RevenuePays from day one. $100 AUD per vendor connection per month (founding cohort, grandfathered; $150 AUD list from customer 25). RevenueScales toward ~$500 AUD on average per MSP across 3–4 vendors. RevenueMore vendors, plus pays for the Verified Capability Profile. Revenue ↑Profile revalued by buyer demand, so WTP rises.
VendorSecondary · Moat SeededFirst vendor most likely MDF-funded via a distributor, not a priced line. TraceAdoption and campaign tracking, still not a solid priced line. MoatPays for partner-intelligence. Searches and queries verified partner meta-data. MoatDeeper due-diligence data on the verified base.
DistributorICP3 · Channel + Future ConduitDisti-level MDF flows through it to fund MSP seats and the first vendor. No separate line. ConduitKeeps funding density across its partner base. Payer*Buys its own cross-vendor, cross-vertical meta-view. *Modelled, not headlined. PayerPortfolio-wide partner intelligence.
Channel Marketing AgencyParallel · Wedge WedgeRuns campaigns for distributors and their vendors. Funded by MDF, never a direct line. WedgeDensity multiplier, plus outside validation of attribution. —Stays a channel, and Cotillion does its reporting. —Feeds the verified data base.
Procurement OfficerFuture-state · Demand — — —Verified Capability Profile maturing toward external use. DemandFree buy-side magnet. Supply-side monetisation, with possible transaction or success-fee upside.
03Persona by Persona

Who is paying, when, and why

The same five personas in full: who pays, when, why the money moves, and what each one gets in return.

MSPManaged Service Provider · Primary ICP
Pays now · Revenue
Who pays
The MSP is the paying customer and the revenue engine of the raise. It pays directly for a seat per vendor relationship it manages through the platform.
When
From H1, day one. The base price is $100 AUD per vendor connection per month (founding cohort, grandfathered; $150 AUD list from customer 25). The MVP financial model matures toward ~$500 AUD per MSP across 3–4 strategic vendors.
Why they pay
The ROI on a single strategic vendor relationship, once MDF is captured, deals are registered, and tier is maintained, is far larger than $150 a month. If an MSP cannot get a return beyond the fee, that vendor was never strategic to begin with.
Value proposition
One profile across every vendor. The 27-minute deal registration drops toward two minutes. MDF gets identified, claimed, and reconciled instead of lost. Tier and certification currency stay current without manual portal work.
VendorThrough-partner Vendor · Secondary ICP
Pays later · Moat
Who pays
The vendor pays for cross-ecosystem partner intelligence: the ability to find, evaluate, and fund the right partners on verified data rather than self-reported claims.
When
The first vendor dollar is most likely MDF-funded through a distributor rather than a direct sale. A priced vendor-intelligence line matures at H3. We hold it as moat rather than pre-seed revenue, and we do not hard-price it until the horizon arrives.
Why they pay
Vendors have billions in MDF and no reliable way to know which partners convert it. Cotillion lets them search partners by ideal-customer and partner profile, query verified CRM meta-data (for example, a high-sell Microsoft partner who also moves Dell volume in AU tertiary education), and track MDF campaigns to close through unique identifiers.
Value proposition
MDF spent on performers rather than the loudest. Partner selection based on evidence. Co-marketing measured from lead to close. This is the partner-intelligence layer their single-vendor PRMs cannot produce.
DistributorValue-Added Distributor · ICP3
Conduit now · Payer later
Who pays
The distributor plays two roles, and we never sum them. As a conduit, it routes market-level MDF that funds MSP seats and the first vendor. As a payer later, it buys its own cross-vendor, cross-vertical view of partner capability.
When
It acts as a conduit from H1 onward, and is the likely source of the first vendor dollar. Its own paying product arrives at H3. We model it in full but keep it as channel and future upside for the raise rather than headlining it.
Why they pay
As a conduit, distributors live and die on MDF efficiency, and Cotillion’s campaign-identifier tracking turns their MDF from an unmeasurable cost into attributable pipeline. As a payer, they buy the meta-view for the same reason vendors do: to understand partners across vendors and verticals they do not distribute themselves and cannot see today.
Value proposition
Measurable MDF. A portfolio-wide view of partner capability that no single distributor relationship reveals. Reach and stickiness across a partner base that uses several distributors.
Channel Marketing AgencyParallel persona · Channel wedge
Never a direct line
Who pays
Not a headlined revenue ICP. The agency runs MDF-funded campaigns for distributors and their vendors. Any dollar that appears is the vendor’s or distributor’s MDF, and it lands on the MDF-funded line rather than a new agency line.
When
From H1, as a wedge folded into the distributor play. We plan no direct billing at any horizon.
Why they pay
The agency feels the attribution pain most acutely, because it has to prove MDF turned into pipeline or lose the account, yet it spends other people’s budget. Its value to Cotillion is density, since one agency instruments many campaigns at once, plus outside validation of the attribution layer.
Value proposition
Cotillion does the reporting grunt-work so the agency can run more campaigns. The framing is deliberate: agencies are a distribution and credibility channel, not a target for disintermediation.
Procurement OfficerMarketplace buyer · Future-state ICP
H4 · Demand
Who pays
The buy-side demand magnet rather than a payer. Monetisation stays on the supply side, where partners pay for profile, placement, and lead-flow. A transaction or success fee is possible upside for deeper due diligence against the same meta-data layer vendors pay for.
When
H4 · Debut, the future state. Government and public-sector procurement is the beachhead, because verification there is a hard compliance requirement rather than a preference.
Why they pay
Procurement runs on unverifiable vendor claims, and buyers need confidence rather than more listings. Charging the buyer would tax the very demand that gives the marketplace its gravity, so the buyer is subsidised and the supply side pays.
Value proposition
Here is the strategic payload. Procurement demand is the event that raises the value of the MSP’s profile spend. Once a buyer uses the Verified Capability Profile to de-risk selection, every partner has a strong reason to maintain and upgrade that profile, which lifts supply-side willingness-to-pay across every horizon to its left.
04Counting Discipline

Every MDF dollar is counted once

The model’s biggest integrity risk is double-counting MDF: the same funding showing up as MSP revenue at H1 and again as vendor or distributor revenue later. It does not. The rule is deliberate and consistent.

Count once

MDF-funded seats are MSP-ARR

A vendor- or distributor-funded MSP seat is booked once, on the MSP line, with a “MDF-funded” tag. It is never also counted as vendor or distributor revenue.

$0-CAC channel

Funded seats are an acquisition mechanic

We treat MDF-funded seats as a near-zero customer-acquisition channel. The MDF-seat to self-paid conversion is its own tracked metric, not inflated into new revenue lines.

No conduit revenue

Distributor flow-through is not a line

MDF that flows through a distributor to fund seats creates no distributor revenue. The distributor books revenue only when it buys its own product at H3.

Conversion from MDF-funded to self-paid should be high, for a structural reason. A vendor will not fund an inactive partner, and the MSP has to maintain that activity to keep the relationship. The seat is already earning its keep before the funding lapses, and $100/$150 a month is trivial against a strategic vendor’s ROI.

05The Revenue Arc

Which lines are live, horizon by horizon

The same sequence as a revenue arc: what is actually billed at each horizon, and what is being built toward. Bold items are live paying lines. The rest are channel, moat in progress, or future demand.

H1 · Now
Core
Deal registration and profile
  • MSP subscriptions, the revenue engine
  • First vendor seeded via disti MDF
  • Distributor as funding conduit
  • Agency wedge onboarding campaigns
H2 · Next
Engage
MDF and campaign intelligence
  • MSP subscriptions scale (~$500 avg at maturity)
  • Campaign-attribution density builds
  • Agency and disti multiply reach
H3 · Then
Connect
Cross-ecosystem meta-view
  • MSP subscriptions plus Verified Capability Profile
  • Vendor partner-intelligence, priced
  • Distributor meta-view, modelled not headlined
H4 · Vision
Debut
Verified procurement marketplace
  • Supply-side marketplace monetisation
  • Possible transaction or success fee
  • Procurement demand revalues MSP profile spend

Pre-seed revenue rests on the persona with the clearest near-term ROI. Everything else is moat, channel, or optionality: modelled honestly, and never counted early.

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The ICP Profiles
Who each payer is, where they fit, and the value proposition to them.
ICP Profiles →
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The Market
How these payers size into TAM, SAM, and a serviceable beachhead.
The Market →
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