How do you reduce paid acquisition costs for a fintech app? You give happy users a reason — and the tools — to invite their friends.
Argo app · Gold Circle Reward · Refer a friend and earn $20 in gold for both of you · email invite, referral link, social sharing
The problem
Without a structured way for users to invite others, all acquisition ran through paid channels — expensive and hard to scale. Meanwhile, existing users were already enthusiastic. They just had no mechanism to share it.
My job: design the full system — user-facing invite and reward experience, plus admin tooling for FinOps to manage distributions without engineering involvement.
Business goals
Increase organic acquisition
Reduce cost per new user vs paid channels
Drive trading activity
Reward requires a real trade — not just a sign-up
Improve retention
Referred users are higher quality and more engaged
Give FinOps control
Manage distributions without engineering tickets
Research
About 15 people aligned with Argo's user profile. The signal was clear enough — and the gold reward preference was genuinely surprising.
"The preference for gold over cash told me these users identified with the product. They weren't just customers — they were believers."
| Platform | Reward model | What I took from it |
|---|---|---|
| Wealthsimple | Cash on sign-up + first deposit | Dual-trigger increases quality of referred users |
| Shakepay | BTC reward in-product | In-product asset rewards deepen affinity |
| Coinbase | Crypto after trade threshold | Trade gate drives real engagement, not just sign-ups |
Design decision
Tiered systems are exciting to design but confusing to users — and confusion erodes trust, which is the last thing you want in fintech.
User flows
The referrer shares a link and tracks rewards. The referee signs up and completes a trade. The admin manages distributions — no engineering required.
Referrer & Referee
Referrer shares their link
Via email, link copy, or mobile share sheet from the sidebar
Referee signs up and trades
KYC + $500 in gold within 30 days triggers the reward
Rewards distributed monthly
FinOps exports eligible users and approves distributions
Referee journey
Clicks referral link
Branded landing with clear reward context
Creates account + KYC
Standard compliance flow, unchanged
Completes first trade
$500+ in metals — both parties receive $20 in gold
Mobile + web referral flow · My rewards tab · Referral history ($80 earned, $20 pending, 6 friends) · step-by-step earning journey
Refer a friend modal & history dashboard
The user-facing surface: a modal for sharing the referral link (email, copy, social) and a history dashboard showing total earned, pending, and friends invited.
Left: Refer a friend — send via email, copy referral link (argovault.com/join/GOLD-AKA), share on Facebook · Messenger · WhatsApp · X · Right: Referral history — $80 earned · $20 pending · 5 friends invited · view less / view more
Admin portal
The admin panel let FinOps configure rules, track eligible users, and trigger distributions — all without engineering. That hard constraint shaped every decision in this surface.
Key features: program history by month, to-be-distributed amounts, eligible user list with status filtering, CSV export, and one-click approve/reject.
Set eligibility rules
Trade volume, time window, reward amount
Review participant list
Filter by: To Be Rewarded / Already Rewarded
Export + approve
Download CSV, review, approve — last Friday of each month
Admin portal · Referral Program tab · Program History + To Be Distributed · Approve / Reject workflow · user distribution table
What I'd do differently.
I'm open to senior and lead product design roles. Let's see if we're a good fit.