Referral Logic

Purpose

How one user brings in another — whether that's a creator inviting other creators, a merchant inviting other merchants, or the waitlist's implicit referral mechanics.

Current State: Not Defined in Source Material

Neither the raw data doc, the case study doc, nor the live wesellvia.com copy describe a referral program. This doc is a placeholder for a decision, not a spec of an existing feature — don't build against it yet.

Relevant Existing Mechanics (adjacent, not referral per se)

• The waitlist itself functions as a soft viral loop: "reply with what you'd need it to do" invites engagement, and "your signup is what moves the line" frames each signup as contributing to a shared goal — but there's no tracked referral link or incentive structure currently.
• The "private beta, in join order" roadmap mechanic creates a natural incentive to invite others only insofar as it doesn't currently reward the referrer.

Questions to Resolve Before Writing This Doc for Real

• Is a referral program even wanted for MVP, or is it explicitly out of scope (given the stated principle of solving chicken-and-egg via niche focus, not virality)?
• If built: does a creator get a commission bonus or queue-priority for referring another creator? Does a merchant get anything for referring another merchant?
• Referral tracking would reuse the same AffiliateLink/attribution infrastructure (see Domain Model) — worth deciding if that's a deliberate reuse or a separate system.