Create and Use Personal Referral Links

With a personal referral link, you can share a Startnext project and see which page views and contributions are attributed to your referral. Startnext refers to these links as “affiliate links” in the interface. To do this, you’ll need a Startnext account.

Why are there personal referral links?

A personal recommendation can get people excited about a project. However, with a regular project link, your contribution remains invisible. Your referral link lets you track how often others visit the project through your link and what kind of support results from those visits.

Your results can also serve as a starting point for a paid collaboration: In your link overview, you can contact the starters directly and request a commission for future referrals. However, a response or an offer is not guaranteed.

Whether you're a starter or a team member, you can use a personal referral link for your own project.

Create and share a referral link

Your link is generated automatically when you share a project. You don't need to set it up separately.

1. Sign up for Startnext.
2. Open the project you'd like to recommend.
3. Open the Share feature by tapping the paper airplane icon.
4. Select one of the available channels or click "Copy Link."
5. Share the copied link, for example, in a message, a newsletter, or a social media post.

The sharing options provided automatically use your personal referral link. This also applies to the native sharing feature on your phone.

If you share the same project again, you'll receive the same link. If you share a different project, you'll receive a unique link.

Find Your Links and Share Them Again

1. Open your user menu.
2. Select "Affiliate Links."
3. In "My Affiliate Links," you'll find your links and the corresponding results.
4. Open the "Share" feature for the desired project to use the link again.

A link appears in the overview as soon as you actually share it or successfully copy it—or, at the latest, when someone else clicks on it. Simply opening and then closing the share menu does not create an entry in your overview.

You can search for and filter your links, and sort them by newest links or most recent activity. You can also view the overview for different time periods.

Request a commission from the starters

In the “My Affiliate Links” section of your profile, you can contact the project creators directly to request a commission for your referrals. The results of your link so far show the contribution you’ve already made.

1. Open your user menu → "Affiliate Links."
2. Select the project for which you would like to request a commission.
3. Use the direct message feature to contact the organizers and send your commission request.
4. When the founders make you an offer, you'll receive an invitation link as an ambassador for this project. You can use the link to review the commission agreement they've offered and either accept or decline it.

Referrers are not required to respond to your request or make an offer. Neither your referral link nor the request alone entitles you to a commission. The commission agreement takes effect only when you accept the offer. Commissions for referrals made prior to this will not be paid retroactively.

The commission request feature is not available for your own project. You can still use your link and view its results, however.

Understanding the Results

This overview shows you the impact of your recommendations:

• Clicks or views: How many times others have opened your link. Repeated views of the same link within the same session count only once. If you open your own link while logged in, it does not count as a click.
• Support for this project: Support that has been assigned to your link for the recommended project.
• Support for other projects: Support for other Startnext projects that were attributed after your link was shared. These are reported separately.
• Confirmed Amount: The confirmed amount of support for the recommended project. An additional contribution to Startnext and redeemed voucher amounts are not included in this total.

A pending donation is not the same as a confirmed amount. If a donation is canceled or a payment is not successfully processed, the allocation will be adjusted accordingly.

You'll see aggregated figures, not the names or individual payment details of the supporters. When supporting other projects, their project names are not displayed either.

When is a referral credited to your link?

Different time periods apply to the classification:

• Recommended Project: Support can be assigned up to 180 days after the link is clicked.
• Other project: Support can be assigned during the same visit or within seven days.

If there are multiple referral links, a direct referral for the supported project takes precedence over an indirect referral. Within the same attribution type, the last matching link click counts. Each contribution is attributed to no more than one person.

For guests, the assignment remains valid only for the current browser session. If they log in or register during this session, the assignment is transferred to their account. If they exit the session without logging in or receiving assistance, a later assignment is not guaranteed.

Use the link as is

Share the full link using the "Share" feature. If you change or remove the personal code, your referral can no longer be tracked.

After opening the link, the personal code disappears from the browser address bar. This is by design: the request has already been processed. To share it again, use the "Share" feature or "My Affiliate Links," not the browser address that appears afterward.

A personal referral link alone does not entitle you to compensation.