# Venture customer network referrals: a permission checklist

Canonical: https://refer.sourcex.si/guides/when-customer-introductions-become-data-licensing-introductions
Last updated: 2026-11-05

A customer introduction becomes a data licensing introduction only when three things change hands: the purpose, the person and the evidence. Executives in a fund's customer network agreed to meet vendors, so licensing their own company's records is a new purpose that needs a fresh yes. The contact is often a functional leader, while the CEO authorizes. And the company itself must pass the fit tests: its full-time workforce numbered 50 or more at its peak, it has a documented operating history, it holds rights to license, and it has an authorized contact.

The customer network is often where a venture platform team's best-fitting companies sit, because the executives in it work at established buyers rather than young startups. That is exactly why the relationship deserves care: it was built for the portfolio's sales, and one careless ask can cost a portfolio company a deal.

## Where the program rules end and the thesis begins

| Kind of statement | What it says | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Published rule | Any referred company must have peaked at 50 or more full-time employees and must show documented operating history, rights to license and an authorized contact | Program terms (Version 2026-10-22.2, since replaced by version 2026-11-04) and the who-qualifies page, both read on 2026-10-26 |
| Published rule | SourceX's screening guidance treats an introduction made without the decision maker's knowledge as usually not a fit | Who-qualifies page |
| Depends on review | Acceptance, the scope of any license and any reward | Settled only by SourceX's review, a signed agreement and the payment conditions in the terms |
| Our bet | A platform team's customer network holds more companies that clear the size and history tests than its early-stage portfolio does | Unmeasured; running the checklist below on real contacts is the test |

## What a customer introduction program actually agreed to

Platform teams build these networks deliberately. a16z Growth lists "Leads & Intros", go-to-market business development to help companies connect with new customers and partners, among its services. The firm's seed program is more explicit about the terms of membership: speedrun's customer page describes a network of 150+ founding members and 1,000+ insiders, and says every founding member has signed an NDA and shared a wishlist of the tools they want to try.

Read that as a contract of expectations. The executive agreed to evaluate products, under confidentiality, for their own company's use, not to be asked whether that company would license its operating records. The relationship is valuable, but its permission has a scope, and a licensing conversation sits outside it.

| Word | Meaning here |
|---|---|
| Customer network | Executives a platform team puts in front of portfolio companies as prospective buyers or design partners |
| Relationship purpose | What the executive signed up for when they joined the program or took the meeting |
| Relationship owner | Whoever the executive will listen to on this subject: a platform lead, a portfolio founder or an account executive |
| Authorizer | The CEO, who decides whether the company discusses licensing and signs for it |

## Map the company and the relationship owner first

Every customer contact implies three people, and the map needs all three before any message goes out.

1. **The contact.** Usually a functional buyer: a head of operations, IT, finance or support who evaluated a portfolio product.
2. **The authorizer.** The company's CEO. In an owner-led company the contact and the CEO may be the same person, which simplifies the path but not the permission.
3. **The relationship owner.** Once a portfolio company is selling to that executive, its founder or account team owns the relationship day to day, and the platform team that made the introduction may no longer be the right person to ask.

Whether to approach a sponsor or the CEO directly is weighed in [introducing through a sponsor or directly to the CEO](/compare/introduce-through-sponsor-or-directly-to-ceo), and the internal sponsor's role is covered in [identifying an internal sponsor](/guides/how-to-identify-an-internal-sponsor-for-a-data-partnership).

## The customer relationship permission checklist

Answer the seven questions in order for each contact. The first "stop" or "wait" ends the row for now.

| # | Question | If the answer is no or unknown |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Has the contact agreed, in this conversation, to hear about licensing their own company's records? | Ask permission first, in a separate message that names the new purpose |
| 2 | Is every portfolio company's sale, renewal or pilot with this company closed or paused by agreement? | Wait until the commercial conversation is settled; a licensing ask mid-deal can look like leverage |
| 3 | Has the current relationship owner (founder, account executive or platform lead) agreed that the ask can be made, and by whom? | Ask the relationship owner; if they decline, mark the row "owner declined" and stop |
| 4 | Will the contact take it to the CEO by choice, or is the contact the CEO? | Do not route around the contact; record "no CEO path" |
| 5 | Is everything you would say about the company public or offered by the contact for this purpose, rather than learned under a network NDA or a sales process? | Use only public facts and what the contact tells you now |
| 6 | Would the records be the company's own, rather than material belonging to its customers or covered by customer contracts? | Record it as a rights question; partners never ask for samples |
| 7 | Are the fit facts known: 50+ full-time employees at peak, operating history, location? | Ask metadata questions through the contact, or park the row |

A row that clears all seven is an "ask now". The decision tree in the graphic condenses them into three gates: purpose, conflicts and fit with a CEO path.

On question 7, location is published in one sentence. 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 70% of the data is in English.

On question 6, customer-facing businesses often hold records that customers' contracts restrict, and the guide to [customer contract data use restrictions](/guides/customer-contract-data-use-restrictions) explains what to note. The questions a partner may ask describe the records from the outside (what kind, how many years, which system holds them) and never reach inside them: no exports, no screenshots, no access.

## The checklist applied: an owner-CEO, a VP mid-renewal and a startup that fails (Illustrative)

Illustrative. Generic companies, invented facts, no outcomes implied.

**A. The contact is the owner.** The founder-CEO of a 260-person regional distributor joined a fund's executive program to try warehouse software. Question 4 passes at once, because the contact is the CEO. Question 1 does not: he agreed to evaluate software. The platform lead sends one separate message asking whether he would like to hear how companies license operating records for AI training, says that SourceX pays partners a referral reward that never comes out of the company's payout, and waits. He says yes, and the portfolio company's trial ended last quarter, so question 2 passes too.

**B. A VP in the middle of a renewal.** The head of support at a 1,400-person insurer sits in the customer network and is renewing a portfolio company's contract. She is not the CEO. Question 2 fails, so the row waits. Once the renewal is signed, the portfolio founder, who owns the relationship, agrees the platform lead may ask. She decides to take it to her CEO herself, which makes her the internal sponsor; the CEO remains the one who says yes or no.

**C. The design partner that cannot qualify.** A celebrated 30-person startup is the network's most enthusiastic design partner, and its founder would take the call tomorrow. It is below the headcount floor, and most of its records live inside its customers' accounts. No amount of enthusiasm changes either fact. The platform lead files it under "later" and writes down the two things to watch: a full-time team of 50 or more, and a body of records the startup owns outright. Why young companies rarely pass is set out in [why startups rarely qualify](/proof/why-startups-rarely-qualify); how much money a company has raised says nothing about whether it qualifies.

## A warm contact is not yet a qualified company

A customer program measures access. Qualification asks whether the company passes the published tests and whether its CEO wants the conversation. Keep the two answers apart and treat each combination differently:

- **Permission given and fit facts passing:** make the ask.
- **Permission given, fit facts unknown:** ask the contact a few descriptive questions before anything else.
- **Fit facts passing, permission or a conflict outstanding:** ask permission, or wait for the deal to close.
- **A fit fact fails:** write down what would have to change, and leave the contact alone until it does.

## Order the next asks by permission, not by imagined payouts

SourceX publishes no conversion rates and no typical payouts, and relevance to current data needs is only judged in review, so any forecast of proceeds would be invented. Order the list on what you can see:

1. **Permission given.** The contact said yes to hearing about licensing.
2. **No open commercial conflict.** No portfolio sale, renewal or pilot in progress.
3. **Fit facts known.** All of them before some of them.
4. **A dated trigger.** The company has announced a system replacement or an archive retirement with a date. Calendar pressure on the platform team does not count.

Attribution follows the program terms: the first valid introduction within the 90-day window is credited once the company submits a verified application, one partner per company. If the portfolio founder owns the relationship, agree in writing beforehand who registers and submits. The person who submits must have signed the SourceX Channel Partner Agreement; agreements signed under its earlier title, the Channel Partner Non-Circumvention and Non-Disclosure Agreement, remain in force as signed.

## Where this checklist could be wrong

- **Goodwill is the scarce asset.** A platform team's customer program exists for the portfolio. If raising licensing with even a few executives makes the program feel extractive, the cost lands on portfolio sales. Nobody has published how program executives respond to this kind of ask, so keep a note of each response.
- **Rights.** Customer-facing companies may hold mostly customer data. FTC staff wrote in February 2024 that a company quietly switching to more permissive uses of customer data, such as AI training, through a retroactive change to its terms may act unfairly or deceptively. SourceX's screening guidance treats client-owned material as usually not a fit.
- **Demand.** Whether a company's records match a current program is judged in SourceX's review. A contact who clears all seven questions can still hear no, and a company that misses one program may match a later one.
- **The thesis itself.** For a growth-stage fund whose portfolio companies already have hundreds of employees, the portfolio may hold as many fitting companies as the customer network.

**Methods note.** The checklist was built on 2026-10-26 from the program's published fit criteria, its attribution rule and the stated terms of one venture firm's customer network (sources listed below). It records permission and fit evidence and nothing else: the value of a company's records, their quality and any payout are outside it and are left to SourceX's review. **Try it on 20 contacts:** run the checklist on 20 people from your customer program and count rows at "ask now", rows waiting on a conflict, and contacts who said yes when asked. For the portfolio side of the program, start with the [overview for venture platform teams](/for/venture-platform-teams) and the [first-month plan](/guides/a-first-month-referral-plan-for-venture-platform-teams); for rings beyond the customer network, see [the five-ring map](/guides/your-next-ai-data-introduction-may-sit-outside-the-portfolio).

## Next step

> **Refer a company. No cap on rewards.** Default reward on a company's first qualifying transaction: the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of Actual Supplier Payout, with no cap; further qualifying transactions first agreed within 12 months of the first Closing pay 15%. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, including the USD 100,000 Minimum Transaction, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.

When a customer contact clears all seven questions, [register for a partner link](/register), confirm the company against [who qualifies](/who-qualifies), read the [program terms](/terms), and introduce the CEO only when the company wants the conversation.

Weighing SourceX itself as an investment is a different decision from making a referral; investor materials are available on request through the [SourceX investor overview](https://sourcex.si/investors).

This article is for information only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities. Any offering by SourceX is made only to verified accredited investors through its offering documents.

## Sources

- https://refer.sourcex.si/terms
- https://refer.sourcex.si/who-qualifies
- https://speedrun.a16z.com/customers
- https://a16z.com/growth/
- https://www.ftc.gov/policy/advocacy-research/tech-at-ftc/2024/02/ai-other-companies-quietly-changing-your-terms-service-could-be-unfair-or-deceptive
- https://sourcex.si/investors