Cello

This post is for all growth operators who have burned their fingers with B2B user referral programs in the past. Read Elena Verna’s take in her recent blog post about B2B User referrals and the mistakes you should avoid. (sponsored by Cello 👋) This piece on B2B user referrals highlights that: 1️⃣ Meaningful incentives matter. Gusto and Brex show how high rewards can drive significant growth. 2️⃣ You need to build a foundation first. Successful referrals require an existing Word of Mouth (WOM) loop. Look for NPS scores, onboarding survey responses, social shoutouts, and backchannel mentions to gauge your WOM. 3️⃣ Connect with users emotionally. Meet your users at moments of pride (e.g. trigger your referral program upon successful NPS completion. Tap also into intrinsic and social motivations by solving user problems. If there was an easy and fast way to give this channel a 2nd chance? 🤔 haha Read the full article (link in comments) 👇 and share your thoughts!

Nearly all B2B companies try implementing financially incentivized user referrals to drive acquisition at one point or another. And most of them fail spectacularly. I sure did one too many times. Why? 3 reasons: 1. B2B referrals are an order of magnitude more expensive than B2C referrals -> B2B referrals risk professional relational capital and $20 bucks is just not going to cut it. -> B2B incentives often offset the company budget, not the individual. Employees are not incentivized to save a few hundred bucks of their company's budget. ⚡ This means you have to be ready to pay as much as your SEM CAC or more. And after all, if you were willing to give that money to Google, why not your own users? 💡 Great examples are Gusto and Brex. Check them out on my blog. 2. Referrals aren’t something you can just slap onto your product. -> You have to have Word of Mouth referrals going before leaning into financial incentives. ⚡ Invest into love marks & watch for your NPS>70. 3. Trying to introduce referrals sometimes reveals a flaw in the way companies approach their customers. -> There are 3 general types: Extrinsic (driven by external rewards), Intrinsic (driven by internal rewards), and Social (driven by social rewards). Although financial referral programs focus on the extrinsic motivation, building the intrinsic motivation is often necessary for the foundation. ⚡ Being able to tap into intrinsic motivation generally depends on your users genuinely caring about your product. It has to not only *truly* solve their problem or make them better at their job, but also evoke an emotion. 💡 For example, such products for me are Miro (I can’t work without them), Substack (I love how they simplified newsletter creation for me), Reforge (I owe a lot of my career development to them), Superhuman (it made me un-hate the email), and Spotify (they help me discover the music I love). This post is sponsored by Cello who can help you kickstart your referral program! More deets on my blog, as per uge: https://lnkd.in/gxRg9up4 #growth #referrals

Nearly all B2B companies try implementing financially incentivized user referrals to drive acquisition at one point or another. And most of them fail spectacularly. I sure did one too many times. Why? 3 reasons: 1. B2B referrals are an order of magnitude more expensive than B2C referrals -> B2B referrals risk professional relational capital and $20 bucks is just not going to cut it. -> B2B incentives often offset the company budget, not the individual. Employees are not incentivized to save a few hundred bucks of their company's budget. ⚡ This means you have to be ready to pay as much as your SEM CAC or more. And after all, if you were willing to give that money to Google, why not your own users? 💡 Great examples are Gusto and Brex. Check them out on my blog. 2. Referrals aren’t something you can just slap onto your product. -> You have to have Word of Mouth referrals going before leaning into financial incentives. ⚡ Invest into love marks & watch for your NPS>70. 3. Trying to introduce referrals sometimes reveals a flaw in the way companies approach their customers. -> There are 3 general types: Extrinsic (driven by external rewards), Intrinsic (driven by internal rewards), and Social (driven by social rewards). Although financial referral programs focus on the extrinsic motivation, building the intrinsic motivation is often necessary for the foundation. ⚡ Being able to tap into intrinsic motivation generally depends on your users genuinely caring about your product. It has to not only *truly* solve their problem or make them better at their job, but also evoke an emotion. 💡 For example, such products for me are Miro (I can’t work without them), Substack (I love how they simplified newsletter creation for me), Reforge (I owe a lot of my career development to them), Superhuman (it made me un-hate the email), and Spotify (they help me discover the music I love). This post is sponsored by Cello who can help you kickstart your referral program! More deets on my blog, as per uge: https://lnkd.in/gxRg9up4 #growth #referrals

Whenever I talk about Cello's journey - it has the good, the ugly, and everything in between. 👀 Recently, I had the chance to sit down with 🎙️GARY M. REEMAN Reeman for a deeper discussion on the story behind Cello. In this episode, I shared: 👉 The challenges I faced as the CRO at Shore and how they led to the creation of Cello. 👉 Insights on being a remote-first company and maintaining a strong culture. 👉 Our vision for a growth operating system for digital products. 👉 How Cello fosters advocacy and boosts word-of-mouth growth. We also talked about: 💡 Key components of a successful B2B referral program. 💡 Different types of referral programs: user, affiliate, influencer, and value-added. 💡 Seamlessly integrating referrals into the user journey. 💡 The psychology behind referrals and leveraging various incentives. Curious to know the details? Tune in to the full episode (link in comments). Give it a listen, and let me know your thoughts! 🌟

We keep hiring at Cello 👋🏻 We seek a driven & passionate individual to support us as a Founder's Associate (m/f/x). Cello is growing rapidly, and we need a hands-on person to help us navigate this exciting journey. The FA will work closely with me, tackling strategic initiatives (e.g., the affiliate module), streamlining operations (marketing and sales), and ensuring we hit our ambitious milestones. ✨ Why join us? 👉 Remote-first (±3 CET): Flexibility to work from anywhere within this time zone. 👉 Unique growth opportunity: Join an early-stage GrowthTech start-up and take ownership from day one 👉 Backed by top-tier investors: HVCapital, ByFounders, TinyVC, and angels from YouTube, Personio, and Workday. 👉 Impactful work: Our product went from inception to live within 8 months and now serves 1.5M monthly enabled users from leading SaaS operators like Typeform, Moss, Join, and more. 👉 Dynamic team: Collaborate with experienced professionals from Twilio, Microsoft, Wise, and other top companies. If you know of someone you could recommend or want to apply yourself, just shoot me a message or apply here: https://lnkd.in/eA2NvtDS Let's goooo! #cello #hiring #foundersassociate #b2bsaas #startup

It's a wrap! 🎉 Last month was intense for Cello on #producthunt. Still overwhelmed by the amount of support we received from this community. 🙏 You all helped us reach some fantastic milestones. Here’s what Cello achieved in this launch: ⭐️ #1 Product of the Day 🎖️ #1 Product of the Week 🏆 #2 Product of the Month 🔥 #1 Product of the Month Marketing Plus, we also received 1500+ upvotes and 400+ comments on PH! And now, it’s time to announce the winner of our raffle….🥁 Check out the comment section to find out who it is! Thank you once again to everyone who has been part of this journey. Onward & upward! 🚀

👋🏻 Hi LinkedIn Network. I need your help. Please spread the news or let me know if you know someone.... 🙏 We're looking for a Senior Customer Success Manager (m/f/x) at Cello! Your mission is to ensure our (enterprise) customers thrive, driving their success and our growth. Enable fast time-to-value and unlock user-led growth. ✨ Why Join Us? - Remote-first (±3 CET) - Competitive base salary + eVSOP - Unique growth opportunity in an early-stage GrowthTech start-up - Backed by top-tier investors: HVCapital, ByFounders, TinyVC, and angels from YouTube, Personio, and Workday - Work on a product that went from inception to live within 8 months and already serves 1.5M monthly enabled users from leading SaaS operators (Typeform, Moss, Join etc.) - Join a passionate, experienced team from Twilio, Microsoft, Wise, and more Ready to make an impact? Apply now, and let's reinvent the way how companies sell their products: https://lnkd.in/eZ-HXr2p #CustomerSuccess #GrowthTech #JoinUs #RemoteWork #TechJobs #

The Cloud Challengers Top 100 🚀 What does it take to be a leading early-stage software company in Europe? We looked at data on the sector, stage, and location to create our report (view here: https://lnkd.in/exAu-sGC). Congratulations to the Top 10 listed below, check the comments for the rest of the Top 100 companies ✅ 1) Wikifarmer 2) We Are Learning 3) Cello 4) CUR8 5) Aikido Security 6) Solarize 7) metergrid GmbH 8) marta 9) Carbonfact 10) Reflect #cloudchallengerstop100 #cc100 #notioncapital #cloudchallengers #report #B2B #SaaS

What if the key to successful, engaging UX… Simply lied in psychology? Well, psychology (both positive and negative) can make or break your UX design. You see, we have two brain modes: 1) The task-positive network: When we're on a mission to get things done. 🎯 2) The task-negative network: When we're daydreaming or the mind-wandering mode. Knowing this can make a huge difference in UX design. Let me explain. 👉 Task-Positive Network When users have a clear goal, they want: ✅ Simple, direct paths. ✅ No distractions. Think about online shopping. People want to find what they need quickly and check out smoothly. 👉 Task-Negative Network When users are just browsing, they enjoy: ✅ Exploring new things. ✅ Engaging content. Imagine scrolling through a news app or a social feed. Interactive elements and rich content keep them interested. Now, here’s how to design for both: ⭐️ Visual Grouping We naturally group things we see (Gestalt Principles). Use this to: ✅ Create clear, organized layouts. ✅ Use white space wisely. ⭐️ Less is More Too many choices overwhelm us (Hick’s Law). Keep it simple: ✅ Fewer options mean quicker decisions. ✅ Clean, uncluttered designs make for happy users. By balancing these insights, you can design natural and enjoyable experiences. Remember, it’s not just about making things look good – it’s about making users feel good. 🤩 #ux #design #saas #growth

🚀 Excited to share an insightful clip from my recent podcast interview with Stefan Bader, the founding CEO of Cello! 🎧 In this episode, Stefan dives deep into how Cello is revolutionising customer acquisition for SaaS companies leveraging user referral strategies. With their innovative platform, Cello transforms word-of-mouth into a powerful and scalable growth channel, helping clients achieve significant growth by turning their users into ambassadors. Listen to the brief clip below and follow the links in the 1st comment to learn more about Cello’s unique approach to growth, their journey so far, and what’s next for this dynamic startup. #startup #saas #growth #customeracquisition #entrepreneurship #userledgrowth