What if I sold permanent sponsorships for my $168M challenge?

During the weekend, I sat down to write and plan, and the craziest ideas showed up in my head instead. But I think it's time to start considering unconventional ways to kick off the 168M challenge.

I'm confident I can bring in revenue over time. But the first year might be slow, and no rule says I can't try something ridiculous alongside the normal path.

Where the idea came from

I think it's a mix of things. The OG Million Dollar Homepage. The Outbid rage and every clone that followed. The last one was not sustainable long-term.

So I started wondering if I could do something similar, but tie it to a journey that runs for years instead of a single stunt, one that could carry a growing audience with it as it goes.

Here's the format I thought about: a maximum of five sponsors, one-time payment of $5,000 each.

For that, a sponsor gets permanent recognition on the 168M Challenge page, their name or company linked forever from that page, and a locked-in "Founding Sponsor" position.

They get a mention in the launch announcement, a dedicated sponsor profile or short description, maybe their logo somewhere on the challenge dashboard, mentions in blog posts, and a public, timestamped record of when they joined.

No recurring payment. They just become part of the documented history of the challenge, for as long as the challenge exists.

Honestly, I don't think this is the worst idea. It might not even be crazy.

It could work, maybe?

This isn't the same as buying guaranteed traffic. They're buying a permanent place in a story that hasn't finished being written yet.

And that's the critical part: the 168M challenge isn't a campaign with an end date.

It's a long run at a huge number, tracked publicly from zero. If I build the following I'm aiming for, a $5,000 placement locked in today becomes worth a lot more in year three or year five than it is right now.

The sponsor isn't paying for today's traffic. They're paying for a compounding position in something that's still small.

If they factor in how much I blog and write, and I start layering newsletters on top of that, I think their return only grows from there.

You know what would be ironic? If Claude AI became a sponsor after all the ranting, venting, and occasional praise I've thrown its way. That would be a total punchline.

Read also: Cancelling Claude, it's the right time for me now because stupidity runs off the charts.

I looked into this a bit today, and it's not without precedent. Some publishers already sell sponsorship placements that stay live in old podcast or blog content indefinitely.

Long-term creator partnerships are an established structure too. So what's different about what I'm proposing? Not much, honestly.

What if it fails?

If this doesn't work, I don't think it's a loss. I plan to cold email companies I love first, see how they respond, then move down to companies I use, then my broader list, roughly in that order.

If it really doesn't land, there's another angle:

Ask platforms like Vercel or Claude for a free year instead of cash. That way I preserve my personal seed capital, keep my costs close to zero, and put the budget I do have toward other things.

Maybe sponsors who cover a subscription end up being a different category entirely from founding sponsors who pay cash upfront. I don't fucking know yet. I need to sit with this over the coming week.

Read also: Subscription check: what I'm paying now, and what's coming

The one thing I'm sure of: I need to be extremely explicit about what a sponsor gets and what they don't.

Deliverables, rights, obligations, payment terms, all spelled out clearly. I don't think that part will be hard to figure out. I could also go all-in and just set up a Paddle or Stripe payment link with a dedicated page and see what happens.

Jeezes, I don't fucking know. But this is what showed up in my head while I was cooking today. I'll come back to it next week and see if it still holds up once the weekend clears.

For now, it's just a note to myself: five spots, a story that's only getting started, and a price that only makes sense if I follow through.