How can an introduction email explain the $100,000 maximum without promising earnings?
Treat $100,000 as a ceiling and describe the floor honestly: there is no floor. A ceiling sentence that names the base, the cap and the trigger cannot be read as a forecast. A sentence that names only the number can.
Most bad referral emails fail in one of three ways. They lead with the number ("this could be worth six figures"), they blur whose money it is ("we could both do well here"), or they hide the referrer's interest in a footer. Each one makes the owner do the work of discovering what the introducer stands to gain, and owners who discover it late tend to stop trusting the rest of the message.
The program terms give you the exact words to stay inside. The reward is 25% of the Actual Supplier Payout, capped at $100,000 cumulatively per referred company across all installments, agreements and renewals. It is paid by SourceX separately and never deducted from the company's compensation. A lead, meeting or signed agreement alone does not earn a payable reward, and portal or calculator estimates are projections, not promises.
The three variants
Illustrative wording. Replace the bracketed parts, keep the disclosure sentence intact, and send only after the owner has agreed to hear about SourceX (see how to ask permission first).
Variant A: the short note (owner you know well)
Subject: The data licensing contact I mentioned
[Name], as promised, this is SourceX. They license approved business data directly from companies for AI training and evaluation, and they handle the agreement, rights review, data preparation, delivery and payout. Whether any of your records are a fit is their call after a review, and nothing moves without your approval.
So you know where I stand: I am a SourceX referral partner. If your company licenses data through them, SourceX may pay me 25% of what it actually pays you, up to $100,000 in total. That comes from SourceX, not from your payment, and nothing is owed to me for an introduction or a meeting.
Happy to set up a 20-minute call if you'd like one.
Variant B: the advisor note (client relationship, professional duties)
Subject: Introduction you asked about: SourceX
[Name], following our conversation about the [system] retirement, here is the introduction. SourceX reviews operating records at a metadata level first (what exists, how much, how long, which system, who owns it) and only proposes terms if there is a fit. You would decide what, if anything, is licensed.
Disclosure: I have a referral agreement with SourceX. If a license completes and SourceX pays your company, SourceX may pay me a reward of 25% of that payout, capped at $100,000 for your company. It does not reduce what you receive. My advice to you on [the engagement] is unaffected, and you are free to decline this introduction without any effect on our work.
Variant C: the peer note (owner to owner, or investor to portfolio CEO)
Subject: Worth 20 minutes? Licensing old operating records
[Name], we looked at this for [context] and I thought of your [record type]. SourceX licenses that kind of material for AI training and evaluation when the company owns it and buyers need it. They told us plainly that most of the answer depends on their review, not on anything I can say.
Transparency: I'm in their referral program. Any reward to me is 25% of what SourceX actually pays your company, at most $100,000 in total, paid by SourceX after you've been paid. No reward for the intro itself.
Each variant keeps four elements in one place: who pays (SourceX), the base (what SourceX actually pays the company), the cap ($100,000 per company, in total), and the trigger (after the company is paid). Drop any one and the sentence starts to read like a promise. The introduction email builder can generate a first draft; check its output against these four elements before sending.
Phrase swaps: from promise to disclosure
The left column is wording that appears in referral outreach generally. The right column says the same thing within the terms.
| Risky phrase | Why it misleads | Safer replacement |
|---|---|---|
| "This could be a six-figure opportunity" | Implies a likely outcome nobody has assessed | "SourceX reviews whether there is a fit; there is no estimate yet" |
| "I can earn up to $100,000 on this" | States the cap without the base or trigger | "Any reward to me is 25% of what SourceX actually pays you, capped at $100,000 in total" |
| "You'll get paid for your data" | Promises an offer before review | "If there is demand and the rights check out, SourceX proposes terms in writing" |
| "We both win" | Hides that your reward depends on their deal | "My reward depends on a completed license; yours is set in your own agreement" |
| "Small finder's fee, nothing to worry about" | Minimizes a material connection | State the formula and cap plainly |
| "Fees come out of the deal" | Wrong: the reward is not deducted | "SourceX pays any reward separately; it never comes out of your payment" |
The Federal Trade Commission's endorsement guidance makes the general point behind this table: when someone recommending a business has a material connection to it, such as a commission, that connection should be disclosed clearly and conspicuously, and vague labels or disclosures behind links fall short. An introduction email is a private recommendation rather than an ad, but the same plain-words standard is the safe default. Some professions add their own disclosure or consent rules; check yours before sending.
What should the email ask, and what should it leave out?
The email asks for a conversation, not for data. Discovery stays at metadata level, and the company decides what happens next.
| Include | Leave out |
|---|---|
| One sentence on what SourceX does | Attachments, exports, screenshots or sample records |
| The record type you noticed, in general terms | Customer names, ticket contents, employee details |
| That a review decides fit and terms | Any dollar figure for the company's offer |
| Your disclosure sentence, in the body | Disclosure only in a signature or footer |
| A specific, low-effort next step | Deadlines you cannot document |
Before sending, work through the introduction email worksheet so you know the answers to the basic qualification questions without collecting anything sensitive.
Does the company qualify before you send it?
Check four things you can confirm from a conversation, not from records. The introduced company needs 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), a documented operating history, rights to license the records, and an authorized contact who can open a licensing discussion. Companies in the U.S., Canada and the EU qualify, as do companies in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, South Africa, Latin America, the UAE and Saudi Arabia when at least 90% of the data is in English.
What you can reasonably know: which systems hold the records, roughly how many years they span, who owns them, and which executive can say yes. What stays unknown until SourceX reviews it: whether buyers want those records, what the rights review concludes, what the company is offered, and therefore what any reward would be. Your email should leave all four of those open, because they are.
What happens to the $100,000 figure after the email?
Nothing, unless a license completes. If an owner asks "so what would you actually get?", the honest answer is a formula, not a number. Illustrative: if SourceX paid the company $120,000 for a completed handoff, the reward would be $30,000; at $400,000 it would reach the $100,000 cap, and a later license with the same company would add nothing, because the cap is cumulative per company. The earnings calculator shows the same arithmetic. Statuses run from estimated to eligible, approved, processing and paid, and a reward can be reduced or reversed if the company's payout is, as the rewards page explains.
If you want more guidance on the conversation that follows the email, see discussing referral rewards transparently. More guides are on the guides hub.
Next step
Refer a company. Earn up to $100,000. Default reward: 25% of Actual Supplier Payout, capped at $100,000 cumulatively per referred company. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.
Once your disclosure sentence is drafted and the owner has agreed to hear from SourceX, register as a partner, confirm the company against who qualifies, and keep the program terms open while you finalize the wording.