Engineers can join the partner program in addition to taking bookings. Most of our top earners do. The two streams stack: you keep 80% of your weekly bookings and earn 5% on every engineer you refer plus 10% on every founder.
Why engineers make great partners
- You already know engineers who would be a fit. Ex-coworkers, bootcamp cohort, conference connections.
- You already know founders who are looking. Past clients, friends-of-friends raising rounds.
- The recommendation lands harder coming from someone in the pool.
How to join
- Open your engineer dashboard.
- Click Become a partner in the sidebar.
- Confirm your handle for the partner link (
cadence.work/r/your-handle). - Approval is instant for engineers in good standing (rating average 4.0+).
The economics
- 5% recurring on every engineer you refer who gets booked, every week they have an active engagement.
- 10% recurring on every founder you refer, every week they have an active engagement.
- Stacks with your engineer earnings. They are paid as separate Stripe line items so you can track each.
What this means in practice
A senior engineer with a steady booking ($1,200 / week net) who refers 10 active engineers earns an additional $750 / week passive ($75 each). Refer 5 active founders on top and you are looking at another $750 / week. That is real income, on top of your bookings, recurring.
Conflicts of interest
- You cannot refer a founder you are currently booked with. Wait until the engagement ends.
- You cannot refer yourself. Self-referrals are fraud per the platform terms.
- You can refer engineers you have worked with elsewhere, no restriction.
Read more
Anything else, partners@cadence.work. Back to help center.