Pillar · Referral

Referral. Users bring users.

Virality, advocacy, referral mechanics — when users bring users without further spend.

Referral · Brief

Users bring users. Virality, advocacy, referral mechanics — when users bring users without further spend.

Studies

Studies in this pillar. 12 indexed.

№ 01Dropbox's Double-Sided Referral Program — Dropbox.Referral · Viral+60%permanent lift in signupsDropbox№ 02PayPal's Paid Referral Blitz — PayPal.Referral · Network Effects5Musers in early growthPayPal№ 03Tesla's Tiered Referral Program — Tesla.Referral · Zero Ad Spend$0traditional ad spendTesla№ 04Uber's Ride Credit Referral Engine — Uber.Referral · Credits100M+riders (by 2018)Uber№ 05Robinhood's Free Stock Referral Program — Robinhood.Referral · Gamification23M+funded accounts (2023)Robinhood№ 06Airbnb's Travel Credit Referral 2.0 — Airbnb.Referral · Credits300%increase in referral bookingsAirbnb№ 07Morning Brew's Merch-Tiered Referral Program — Morning Brew.Referral · Newsletter4M+subscribersMorning Brew№ 08Harry's Pre-Launch Waitlist Referral Campaign — Harry's.Pre-Launch · Waitlist100Kemails in one weekHarry's№ 09Beehiiv's Built-In Referral System for Newsletters — Beehiiv.Referral · Newsletter750K+newsletters on platformBeehiiv№ 10Webflow's Designer Community as Growth Engine — Webflow.Community · Designer3.5M+usersWebflow№ 11Wise's Word-of-Mouth Flywheel: How Being 8–10× Cheaper Turned Customers into a Growth Engine — Wise.word-of-mouth · referral70% of new users acquired via word-of-mouthShare of new Wise customers who first heard about the product from a friend (Nilan Peiris, Lenny's Podcast)Wise№ 12tbh's School-by-School Takeover: How Nikita Bier Engineered Viral Critical Mass in 9 Weeks — tbh.virality · word-of-mouth360,000 installs/day at peakDaily install rate at peak growth (Nikita Bier, Lenny's Podcast)tbh
Writing

Writing in this pillar. 3 indexed.

The studio register

One operator-grade memo a month: benchmarks, growth studies, and what we learned building. No news recap.

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