GrowthHero: The Simple Way to Launch Referral Programs

Growing a business today can feel like pushing a boulder uphill. Ads cost more every year, SEO takes months to pay off, and social platforms keep shrinking your organic reach. If you’re a small business owner, you’ve probably felt it — the late nights chasing visibility, the budget burned on campaigns that don’t always convert.

So what’s the alternative? How do you grow without draining your time, money, and energy? The answer might be simpler than you think: referrals. 

This spotlight takes a closer look at GrowthHero, a SureSwift portfolio company helping small teams turn everyday word-of-mouth into a steady growth engine. It’s referral program software built for founders who want something simple, effective, and scalable.

We’ll get into why referrals still outperform most channels, what gets in the way of sharing, and how GrowthHero removes the friction so businesses can grow with ease.

Table of Contents

• Why referrals still convert better than ads
• What’s getting in the way of referrals?
• How GrowthHero removes the friction
• More growth, less spend
• Final thoughts: Make it easy to say yes (and share)

Why referrals still convert better than ads

Think about the last time you bought something because a friend swore by it. You probably didn’t bother with ads or reviews — you trusted their recommendation. That trust carries more weight than any campaign or clickbait headline ever could.

That’s the magic of referrals. They aren’t just another marketing channel. They’re built on trust.

And the numbers backs it up: 88% of consumers say they trust recommendations from people they know more than any other type of advertising. Referred customers are also 37% more likely to stay loyal compared to those acquired through traditional channels. 

For small businesses, that’s a huge advantage. Paid ads eat your budget whether or not they work. Referrals only cost you when they deliver.

And this opportunity is only getting bigger. Shopify predicts affiliate marketing will reach nearly $33 billion by 2033, thanks to the boom in e-commerce and creator-driven marketing.

Which begs the question: if people are so ready to recommend the products they love, why isn’t every customer already an affiliate, and every founder running a referral program?

What’s getting in the way of referrals?

The problem is, while people are willing to share, most businesses don’t have a system that makes it easy for them to do so. 

For customers and affiliates, that often means clunky sign-up forms, confusing links, or too many hoops to jump through before they can actually recommend your product. The excitement fades, and the referral never happens.

On the founder’s side, the pain runs even deeper. What looks simple on paper quickly turns into a tangle of manual work, technical headaches, and abandoned programs:

• Spreadsheets that never end — tracking conversions, verifying payouts, chasing down errors; it’s a mountain of manual work that steals hours every week.
• Technical roadblocks — without integrations, you’re stuck relying on developers just to connect the basics. For lean teams, that’s a budget you can’t justify.
• Programs that stall out — if the experience is clunky for affiliates, they won’t stick around. And that leaves you with an empty program that never builds momentum.

GrowthHero’s interim General Manager put it this way: “You can set up affiliates and manage them in a spreadsheet if you want. The challenge with that is there’s a lot of manual work. It becomes very intensive and consuming just to even get started.”

Bigger companies can brute-force their way through with staff and resources. But for small businesses, that friction often makes referrals feel impossible — even before they’ve had a chance to deliver results.

And that’s the very gap GrowthHero was designed to close.

How GrowthHero removes the friction

Instead of forcing you to juggle spreadsheets, chase down errors, or rely on developers to stitch things together, GrowthHero gives founders a simple, reliable system built for small businesses that don’t have time to overcomplicate things.

It’s designed around three core pillars:

• Quick setup that doesn’t require technical expertise
• Clear dashboards so both businesses and affiliates can see results instantly
• Set-it-and-forget-it automation for commissions and tracking

Together, these pillars make GrowthHero especially friendly for non-technical teams. The real win? Less time lost to admin, more energy going toward your product and your customers.

And it’s not just theory — real founders back it up. Turbion Carrera said running a full affiliate program with GrowthHero is “worth the money” because of its ease of use and responsive support. ATTIC Teas summed it up simply: “Really excellent app… does exactly what I wanted it to. Highly recommended.” 

Whether you’re a Shopify store owner who needs seamless plug-and-play integration, or you’re building a business on another platform, GrowthHero was built to keep things simple. In both cases, the outcome is the same: referral programs that are easy to launch, easy to manage, and ready to scale as you grow

The GrowthHero team (Amanda McKay, Jonathan Crowe, and John Austin) like to say “Affiliate and referrals represent a good opportunity to expand growth channels beyond traditional advertising. For an e-commerce store—apparel, supplements, or anything on Shopify—creating an affiliate channel remains a smart investment for small businesses.”

More growth, less spend

For small teams, every dollar counts. With paid ads, you spend money whether or not the clicks convert. It’s a gamble that lean businesses can’t always afford. This is where referrals stand out — you only pay when results actually come in. 

Even better, referrals do more than cut costs. They align with how customers actually want to buy:

• Acquisition costs drop, no wasted spend on clicks that don’t convert.
• Conversion rates rise, referrals come preloaded with trust, so new customers are more likely to say yes.
• Retention improves, people who join through a trusted recommendation don’t just buy once, they stick around.
• Trust builds loyalty, instead of pushing ads at strangers, referrals start relationships on the right foot.

And the real unlock? Automation. GrowthHero handles the tedious parts — tracking, payouts, commissions — so you’re not buried in admin. That’s what transforms referrals from a “nice idea” into a growth engine you can actually scale.

For founders, that means customer acquisition isn’t just cheaper — it’s built on trust, retention, and relationships that last. GrowthHero helps you grow in a way that’s not only sustainable, but far less exhausting than pouring money into ads.

Final thoughts: Make it easy to say yes (and share)

Most people are happy to recommend the products they love — but only if it’s easy. The moment sharing feels complicated, the opportunity disappears.

That’s why GrowthHero exists. When you make it simple for customers to share, they do — and GrowthHero makes that possible. With fast onboarding, automation that just works, and integrations where small businesses already are, it turns referrals into a dependable growth engine.

For founders, that means one less system to struggle with and one more channel to grow sustainably. It’s growth grounded in trust, not just tactics.

If you’re a founder looking for sustainable growth without added complexity, GrowthHero is referral program software designed for you. Start your free trial and see how simple referral growth can be.