Startup uRefer hopes to help companies get referrals right

An Ann Arbor tech startup aims to help corporate America develop more effective referral systems.

URefer has five full-time employees and four-part time, and CEO Jonn Behrman said the company should at least double that by the end of 2009. The company already has a blue-chip client list that locally includes American Laser Centers, the laser hair removal chain, which offers past customers $100 for new referrals.

Behrman is a serial entrepreneur who has grown several Web-based companies, including Ann Arbor-based Beyond Interactive and Spirit Shop.

His partner in the effort is Richard Beedon, another serial entrepreneur, who now runs MacBeedon Partners LLC in Ann Arbor, an investment and management consulting firm. The company's vice president of technology, Michael Burba, is a West Point graduate with long experience at Sun Microsystems Inc. and Compuware Corp.

URefer's product automates and systematizes the referral process, allowing people who want to make introductions of a company or organization to their friends -- uRefer calls them "connectors" -- to make introductions of companies or organizations to prospects, who receive relevant information from people they trust.

URefer also offers a variety of other tools, including link management and more.

The company also offers the uRefer Give Back Program, which allows connectors and prospect the option of donating a portion of their referral reward to charity. Supported charity organizations include the American Red Cross, Conservation International, the Humane Society of the United States, the Make-a-Wish Foundation, the National Breast Cancer Foundation and the One Laptop Per Child project.

"We have several customers who want to really incorporate the idea of charity into their referral program so that people feel all the money isn't just a self serving act," Behrman said. ""A big part of what we try to do is improve the sort of stigma that some referral programs have to them."

URefer is compensated for its services through setup fees, ongoing subscription fees, and a variable reward processing fee.

More at www.urefer.com.

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