How I built my Startup on Squads referral fees

February last year I started doing referral sales on the Squads.com platform. The idea of Squads is to connect remote, on-demand teams to clients that have a need for developing software products (web & app). I often ran into entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs wanting to build a great digital innovation. In most cases these people didn’t have the skills to design & build the required software. Some of them turned to hiring employees or working with freelancers. They lost a lot of time and money getting their development up to speed and ended up with flaky products.

When I came across Squads I was enthusiastic from the start. On this platform there are stable, high performing teams that can design & build software and are available on demand (24*7). It is the greatest solution for the issues that my fellow entrepreneurs face again and again. That’s when I joined Squads for business development and set-up a referral sales program. I use this referral program to earn a passive income through the platform. With the money earned, I started building my own Startup called SwipeGuide. SwipeGuide is a mobile, visual, step-by-step instruction app — check it out!

In this post I will share some tips & tricks that enable you to do the same. You can earn a good passive income or collect the budget to build your own tech startup.

1. Reach out to people that have software needs

It’s clear that Squads focuses on software development decision makers. On the one side these are project owners of digital projects in companies. On the other side entrepreneurs building tech startups. Squads runs projects for both types of clients. In my network, I also have people in both categories, so I started reaching out to them at meetups and online. Everywhere I go I tell people about Squads. Not only because I want to get the referrals, but also because I am truly enthusiastic about the Squads approach. If you don’t believe it, don’t sell it. Especially not to people in your network.

2. Be creative with the referral link

When you create an account on Squads.com you get a personal referral link. I use this one in my e-mail signature to point people to the platform for sign-up. I also make personalized messages in order to get people to sign-up. Within StarterSquad I have seen people using the link in their LinkedIn & Facebook profile as well. And I am sure there are more creative ways of using the referral link to get sign-ups. Every person that signs up through your referral link is visible in your account. Once they start booking capacity on Squads, you get the referral fee automatically added to your credits. Now I see the credits in my account build up week-by-week. This results in a passive income that I can either cash in or use directly to get my own software developed.

This is how I added the referral link to my e-mail signature

3. Guide your clients

Whenever a person signs up through your referral link, you need to give some guidance. They are, after all, on the platform through you, so there is a relationship of trust. You also want to help them get the most out of Squads. After signing up, I simply guide my referrals through a few simple steps getting started:

1) Create a project: In Squads you can easily create a project by filling out the project briefing. This is a high level description of what you want to build. Although most of my referrals can complete this independently, I sometimes do a Skype call to help them through this process. I also inform some teams about the project that is coming though the Slack communication platform Squads is using.

2) Select a team: The next crucial step is selecting a team. Squads will suggest up to three teams based upon the project briefing. The smart algorithm in the platform normally does a good job, but I tend to have look as well. Team reputation & ratings give a lot of info, but I also have my personal favorites that I sometimes suggest to my contacts. In the end, the project is matched with a team and the show can start.

3) Buying credits & start: Before the project can start money needs to be in the account. So my referrals have to buy some credits for the first week. This is easily done through the Squads payment options like paypal, creditcard, IDEAL and even bitcoin. I always highlight that there is a 100% satisfaction guarantee, so you keep control over your money. Budget can be allocated per week as all Squads teams work in weekly sprints. You set your first budget, discuss and prioritize the workflow, and your team starts working. By the end of the first week your contact gets a first demo, accepts the work and sets a new budget for the next week/sprint. Every time you’ll get a referral fee on the purchases, slowly building up your passive income.

Squads.com (formerly known as Capacitor) short Explainer video

4. Use the earned credits for your projects

After a while I earned a significant budget through Squads and was able to get an MVP built. That is when I kicked-off my SwipeGuide project. For SwipeGuide I also worked with a Squads team myself to do the design & software development for it. First, I worked with the Spotless team to design & build a prototype. Then I joined the Utrecht Inc accelerator with that product and pivoted from a B2C product to a B2B focus. At this point I chose to go for mobile first and switched to the Sirius team. The next release was built on my referral earnings combined with first payments of three launching customers. Squads provided an excellent springboard to get my Startup kicked off.

5. Next level referrals through growth hacks

Initially, I only did basic stuff with my referral. In most cases I did personal selling. Also, I used my referral link in my e-mail signature. I created some blog posts that have my personal referral link as well. After studying the field of growth hacking, I now believe that opportunities exist to further improve my referral business. On Growth Hackers blogs and in books like ‘Traction’ you can find some interesting sales channels and growth hacks. These can be applied to referral sales on Squads.com as well. I’m convinced that I can create more referrals when I do some creative campaigns. This will be great as I have some new Startup ideas that I want to earn a budget for. So, if you see me send out messages regarding software development teams or Squads.com be sure to click the link, sign-up and start your project on Squads.com. By doing so you’ll help me build some great new software Startups that will benefit the world ;-)

**Do you also want to earn through referrals?**Sign-up on Squads.com

Hacker Noon is how hackers start their afternoons. We’re a part of the @AMIfamily. We are now accepting submissions and happy to discuss advertising &sponsorship opportunities.

To learn more, read our about page, like/message us on Facebook, or simply, tweet/DM @HackerNoon.

If you enjoyed this story, we recommend reading our latest tech stories and trending tech stories. Until next time, don’t take the realities of the world for granted!