Half Your Buyers Could Be Recommending You – Most Aren't

01 /The Concept

Word of mouth is one of the most powerful forces in marketing. Research from Nielsen finds that 85% of consumers make purchases based on recommendations from people they know personally.

Hypt helps companies put that referral process on autopilot – and scale it.

The platform reaches users across offline and online channels: a QR code tucked into product packaging or handed over by a salesperson, a link in a follow-up email, a website pop-up, or any other touchpoint. The key design choice: the platform never jumps straight to asking for a recommendation. It first asks about the experience – quality of service, satisfaction with the purchase. Only if the response is positive does it move to the referral step.

This gives companies two benefits in one. First, genuine product and service feedback. Second, referrals that actually drive new sales.

The results from this simple approach are solid. 73% of users who click through leave a review; 39% of those reviewers – more than half – go on to send a recommendation to someone they know.

A company dashboard shows all of it: buyer feedback, referrals sent, and purchases completed as a result of those referrals.

Hypt is based in Switzerland and already serves a range of Swiss and European clients. It just raised CHF 1.65M (~$2.07M) in a new round, adding to CHF 300K raised at seed.

02 /Why It Matters

Many companies have used NPS (Net Promoter Score) for years to gauge product and service quality – asking users on a scale from 0 to 10 how likely they are to recommend you to a friend or colleague.

Hypt took that same concept and pushed it further: stop asking hypothetical questions that people can answer one way and act another. Instead of asking about *future* intention, capture *actual* recommendations in the present moment. This is both more informative and immediately actionable.

Hypt calls its approach "Personal Media Ads."

The core idea: people enjoy sharing positive experiences – or at least they don't object to it. The platform's role is to catch that moment of genuine satisfaction, then help the user turn it into a credible, concrete message for their contacts.

An example of what that message might look like: "Hey – how are you? I just had a meeting with Michael at [bank name], and it was genuinely great. They had a really strong offer with some nice terms. If that's relevant to you, I'd recommend checking them out." With links to the bank's site and a direct contact for Michael.

The message doesn't need to be creative. It just needs to authentically reflect a positive experience, describe the value received, and include a concrete person or path for the recipient to follow.

This approach works because, as McKinsey research suggests, specific and personal referrals can cut customer acquisition costs in half – and lift company revenues by 5–15%.

The same logic is driving growth in B2B sales. Platforms are emerging to connect existing customers with prospects – so that potential buyers can get first-person recommendations, including implementation details and context specific to their industry. A [recent review](/review/novaya-era-b2b-prodazh-klienty-klientam) covered Deeto, which raised $17M (including $12.5M in early July) for a platform whose AI automatically matches and schedules calls between existing satisfied customers and prospective buyers based on similar industries and challenges. Champion ([covered here](/review/neozhidannye-pomoshhniki-v-prodazhah)) raised $3.3M in its first round for a similar platform. SlashExperts ([covered here](/review/samye-luchshie-prodazhniki-jeto-tvoi-klienty)) raised $2M in a first round in April for another comparable approach.

03 /Opportunities

Share buttons, "Leave a review" prompts, and NPS pop-ups are everywhere now – which is precisely why most users have stopped noticing them.

The real leverage is finding the *right moment* to invite a user to recommend a product or service, and giving them the right words to do it in a way that actually moves the recipient.

The honest assessment of Hypt: it doesn't appear to use AI yet – but it's still generating solid results. That implies that adding AI to this process should make results substantially better.

The directional opportunity: AI platforms that help companies generate more personalized referrals at better-timed moments. Core capabilities would include identifying the optimal window, drafting the right message automatically, and continuously tracking and refining the underlying logic based on what's working.

What business context, audience, and referral mechanics could make this work better than anything currently on the market? Companies will pay serious money for that.