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Referral program

A waitlist referral program that only rewards real friends.

Every signup gets a personal link to share. You choose what each referral earns, and LaunchList does the counting.

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Free for your first 100 contactsNo credit card needed
The founder's referral numbers: a viral coefficient of 1.14, 8,739 referred signups, 68% of 12,847, and 2,281 people who referred someone, over a leaderboard ranked by network reach, led by Russ Hanneman with 1,912, with the reward each referrer has earned. Beneath it, 312 referrals blocked before they counted: 141 repeats from the same IP address, 88 self-referrals and 52 that came in too fast. In front, Rohan Vohra, number 12 of 12,847, with his referral link and the three friends it brought, each credited, and his rewards: moving up the line given, early access to the beta earned, founding member status 7 referrals away.
Each signup sees the rewards ahead of them, and you see who is driving your referrals and what each of them has earned.
How it works

It runs while you build.

1. They get a link

Everyone who joins gets a personal referral link and one-tap share buttons on their status page, the moment they sign up.

2. A friend signs up through it

On your Launch page or your own site. Once the friend confirms their email, the referral is credited to whoever shared the link.

3. They move up the line

Each credited referral moves the sharer up your waitlist and closer to the next reward on your ladder.

Rewards

Decide what each referral earns.

Name rewards in your own words, from a few spots up the line to a call with your team.

Pied Piper's five rewards. Refer 1: Move up the line, set to move them up the list 10 spots on its own. Refer 3: Early access to the beta. Refer 10: Founding member status. Refer 25: a Pied Piper t-shirt. Refer 50: a call with the founding team. The last four are each set to You send it.
Pied Piper's five rewards. Refer 1: Move up the line, set to move them up the list 10 spots on its own. Refer 3: Early access to the beta. Refer 10: Founding member status. Refer 25: a Pied Piper t-shirt. Refer 50: a call with the founding team. The last four are each set to You send it.
A reward at any count

Put one at the first referral, the fiftieth, or anywhere between. An easy first win keeps new sharers going.

Some hand themselves out

Moving someone up a set number of spots, giving bonus points or adding a tag happens the moment the reward is earned.

The rest, you send

For early access, merch or a call, the Rewards section lists who earned it and is still waiting. Export the list, then mark each one given.

They see what is next

Each signup's status page shows how many more referrals the next reward takes.

Integrity

Every referral is checked before it counts.

Prizes draw people who want to win without sharing. So on top of the spam checks every signup passes, each referral gets its own.

312 referrals blocked before they counted, by reason: 141 repeat referrals from the same IP address, 88 self-referrals and 52 referrals that came in too fast.
No referring yourself

A second signup from the same device earns nothing. Sharing an office or home network is not treated as self-referral, so coworkers and family still count.

A cap per IP address

One person can only earn so many referrals from a single IP address. You set the number.

An hourly ceiling

Referrals that pile up faster than anyone really shares stop counting past an hourly limit, which you can also tune.

Spam never earns or gives credit

A signup held as spam, a throwaway inbox or one of a cluster from a single device is left out. If fraud turns up later, the credit is taken back.

The details

Built for the whole launch.

Show it off, test it, measure it and wire it into the rest of your stack.

A leaderboard anywhere

Show top sharers on your page, or embed the leaderboard on your own site so visitors see the race before they join.

Points for more than referrals

Give points for following you on X or joining your Discord. Points move people up the line, and only referrals earn rewards.

Try it before you share

In test mode you can refer yourself from one laptop and watch the whole loop work. Test signups never touch your real list or leaderboard.

Emails that ask them to share

An automation can check whether someone has referred anyone yet and follow up with the ones who have not.

See the loop working

Organic against referred growth over time, and how many referred signups go on to refer someone themselves.

Webhooks and API

Get a webhook when a referral is credited or rejected, and read referral data through the API.

In the docs:How referrals workRewards and milestones
Connected

The rest of the loop.

People share from their status page, the leaderboard can sit on your own site, and automations follow up with the quiet ones.

Questions

Before you launch a referral program.

What is a waitlist referral program?
A waitlist referral program gives everyone who joins your waitlist a personal link to share. When a friend signs up through that link, the person who shared it gets credit, which can move them up the list or earn a reward. It turns the people already waiting into a way to reach the next ones.
When does a referral count?
Waitlist forms ask new signups to confirm their email, so by default a referral counts once the friend confirms. If you turn confirmation off on a form, or people sign up with a phone number or username, it counts at signup instead. Either way it has to pass the fraud checks first.
Can the checks block a real friend?
The checks look for evidence of fraud, such as one device or one IP address earning again and again, rather than addresses that look unusual. A friend on a company domain that cannot be fully verified still counts. If you mark a signup as fake yourself, the credit it gave is taken back.
Can referral links point to my own website?
Yes. Links can point to the page LaunchList hosts for you, to your own site, or to any address you choose, such as an app you built with our API. Add the signup form to your site as an embed and the referral is credited wherever the friend signs up.
Are referrals included on the Free plan?
Yes. Referral links, the leaderboard, a status page for every signup and the fraud checks come with the Free plan. Rewards and points for follows and shares come with the Collect, Launch and Grow plans. The automations that follow up with people who have not shared yet come with the Launch and Grow plans.
Free for your first 100 contacts

Start your referral program today.

Set your rewards and publish your page, and the first shares can come in the same day.

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