Ponder — the easiest way to make and find referrals

What do business owners want most?

Ask any business what’s on the top of their most wanted list and almost all would say ‘increased growth’ i.e. more customers. They could spend more on marketing to attract new customers, but most would prefer organic growth fueled by word-of-mouth referrals. Referrals or recommendations from friends are the most trusted method to find out about new businesses.

Plus, unlike ad-fueled growth, referral-based growth leads to higher value customers who are quicker to close, have a higher spend, are more loyal, and are more likely to refer other customers, creating a virtuous circle.

However, businesses struggle to generate customer referrals. From a customer perspective, there aren’t obvious places to make referrals to your social network. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter aren’t designed for referrals. Sending out a paid referral link to promote a certain business feels like spam.

How can Ponder help?

Imagine if there was a way for businesses to activate their customers to make referrals. Ponder is a gamified referrals app where successful referrers earn money. On Ponder, users can ask their network for recommendations for a business or service. A dentist can say to a patient, refer me through Ponder and you’ll make money for every new customer that comes on. For every new patient, the customer is paid by the dentist.

Ponder users also compete against each other on how good of a referrer they are, compared to their friends. In this way, Ponder transforms the act of making referrals into a request-based, fun, and financially rewarding social network. This is unlike the current paradigm of impersonal reviews or spammy links.

Ponder for business referrals is being developed at the Helix Hashgraph accelerator in Hong Kong. Hashgraph is the best technology for shuttling micropayments around. It’s fast, cheap, and ultra secure. Here’s a picture of the “Hash-gang” at HQ.