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Decision: Affiliate / Pay-Per-Lead Infrastructure — Deferred

Context​

During the jiggly-bubble Marketing-Launch Readiness Sprint (2026-05-04), the question arose whether to build affiliate tracking and/or pay-per-lead infrastructure for the WiseAI Agency portfolio. The options considered were:

  1. Build now — add affiliate tracking, referral codes, commission tracking, and payout logic alongside the existing outreach pipeline in this sprint.
  2. Defer — explicitly scope it out of this sprint and document a re-visit trigger.

Decision​

Defer to a post-launch sprint. Affiliate and pay-per-lead infrastructure will not be built during the jiggly-bubble sprint.

Reasoning​

1. Out of scope for this sprint​

The jiggly-bubble sprint has a tightly scoped goal: get all WiseAI Agency surfaces certifiably ready for the first cold-outreach campaign (50-prospect tranche per vertical). Adding affiliate infrastructure in the same sprint risks scope creep that delays the more urgent outreach readiness work.

2. Commission and payout structure not yet decided​

The founder has not made a decision on:

  • Commission model (flat per-lead vs. % of first-year revenue vs. per-qualified-call)
  • Payout structure (Stripe-based payouts, manual invoicing, threshold minimums)
  • Affiliate eligibility (who qualifies — industry associations, complementary vendors, community leaders)
  • Legal requirements for affiliate disclosures (CASL + Ontario law)

Building the infrastructure before these decisions are made would require a rebuild.

3. The organic + cold-outreach + SEO funnel must prove itself first​

The current funnel (cold outreach → branded preview → demo call → Stripe checkout) has not yet been validated at scale. 741 funeral prospects scraped, zero conversions as of sprint start. Affiliate infrastructure before funnel validation is premature optimization.

An affiliate program is only valuable when there is something worth promoting and a proven conversion funnel to send referrals into.

4. Volume doesn't justify the overhead yet​

Affiliate infrastructure requires ongoing management: tracking link integrity, commission disputes, payout processing, affiliate onboarding. For a solo founder at sub-10 paying customers per vertical, this is overhead without proportional return.

Re-visit trigger​

Build affiliate infrastructure when ONE of the following is true:

  1. 10+ paying customers per vertical (funeral homes, vet clinics, or churches) with a proven conversion funnel — the affiliate program has something worth promoting.
  2. A credible partner offer lands — a funeral industry association, a vet practice management software vendor, or a church network approaches with a referral arrangement.
  3. A natural referrer relationship develops organically — an existing customer actively refers others and asks for a formal structure.

What to build when the trigger fires​

When the re-visit trigger fires, the minimal viable affiliate infrastructure for a solo founder should include:

  • Unique referral link per affiliate (UTM + tracked short code)
  • Supabase tracking table (affiliate_referrals) linking referrer → contact → conversion
  • Commission calculation script (not automatic payout — founder reviews first)
  • Simple affiliate portal or monthly email summary to each affiliate
  • Stripe payout or manual invoicing depending on volume

Do not build a self-service affiliate signup portal until there are 5+ active affiliates. Manual onboarding first.

  • knowledge/decisions/jiggly-bubble-demo-phone-strategy.md — shared phone number kept (no per-affiliate numbers)
  • DECISION_LOG.md — 2026-05-04 entry