Pick where you want to go. Every route starts with a move you can make within the hour.
Open your deployed Reference Relay, follow the guide's first run section and ask one former manager to sign a reference for you. Screenshot every moment that felt good or confusing. This is your first demo and your first bug list.
Go through the career and tech job groups you are in, your DMs and your contacts. Write 20 names with one line each on why Reference Relay would help them. Real names, not personas.
Send a short personal message, not a pitch deck. Offer free use for a month in return for 15 minutes of honest feedback. Track replies on a sheet.
Hey [name], I just launched Reference Relay, it lets a referee sign a job reference once, which you share privately with expiring links and can revoke anytime. I built it with you in mind after [the thing they posted or said]. Would you try it free for a month and tell me in 15 minutes what is broken? No pitch, I just want it to be useful.
After two weeks of free use, tell your active users the price: $9 for a reference vault. Ask directly. Anyone who says yes is your first customer; anyone who says no gets one question: what would make it worth it?
Thanks for using Reference Relay these two weeks. I'm moving to paid next week at $9. You have used it [X] times, so I wanted to ask you first. Want to keep going? If not, what would make it worth that to you?
Make a sheet with weekly users, paying users, revenue and references signed. Update it every Monday for 12 weeks. Decide one change per week from what the numbers say.
Leave an email and we nudge you at 24 and 72 hours with your next move. Optional.
Or to keep this voyage on your profile.
LIVE DEMORecruiters pay a small USDC fee to request verified proofs from candidates, who get paid.