Article · ~20 min read

Building a Referrals Program

Lenny Rachitsky · Lenny's Newsletter Freemium Intermediate

Battle-tested referral advice from the person who turned Airbnb's host referral program into its biggest driver of supply growth, honest about when referrals do and don't work.

  • Referral programs add fuel to existing word-of-mouth; they can't create it.
  • Motivating the referrer is ~90% of the problem to solve.
  • Expect under 10% of users to convert a successful referral.
Open on lennysnewsletter.com ↗

It answers 4 questions

  1. When should I build a referral program?
  2. Is my product going to go viral, and how do I make it more shareable?
  3. What's a common mistake founders make with referral and virality?
  4. When does cold outreach stop scaling, and what do I move to next?

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