Kestrel
4× partner revenue in two quarters
An affiliate programme run on a spreadsheet became a Tuesday and a button.
- Industry
- Developer tools
- Team
- 60 people
- Relationship
- Customer since 2025
Kestrel had eighty partners and one spreadsheet. Commission was calculated by hand from two exports, paid by international transfer, and disputed roughly once a week.
Enrolment on their own domain
Partners now sign up at partners.kestrel.dev, which is Trace's embedded dashboard on Kestrel's domain and in Kestrel's type. They see their links, their clicks and their commission the moment it is earned, so the monthly reconciliation email stopped being necessary.
Payouts as one action
The payout run collects tax forms at enrolment, batches every partner into one debit, and retries failed transfers for a week before anyone is told. What used to be a two-day job is a review and a click.
- Partner revenue up 4× in two quarters
- Time to first commission down from 31 days to 2
- Disputes: none since the dashboard went live