How Dynamic Mockups made referrals a core loop of its visual engine, and shipped it in an afternoon.

Dynamic Mockups is the visual engine behind every product that needs to be seen, found, and sold. Print-on-demand sellers, brands, agencies and e-commerce platforms use it to turn product data into professional product visuals automatically, at any volume, for any channel. Every mockup that leaves the platform is a product visual someone else can make. The growth loop was already there and Cello was a perfect choice to support it.

The result so far: 230+ users discovered the referral program and 19 shared their links in the first month, and a decision to invest further in the loop with an affiliate and a partner program on the same system.

Why referrals became a strategic pillar

Most rendering now happens in the background, triggered by product data, not by clicks. Growth had to follow the same principle. Paid channels needed a budget every month while SEO compounded slowly.

A referral loop compounds with the product itself: the more people create with the engine, the more people are invited into it.

Two things made referrals a natural fit rather than a side experiment:

1. The audience already earns online. POD sellers and creators think in margins and recurring revenue. A revenue share is a language they speak fluently.
2. The audience is networked. Creators live in Facebook groups, Discord servers, YouTube channels and courses about selling online. One good referral link travels far.

So referrals were not bolted onto the growth plan. They sit next to SEO, product-led signups and partnerships as one of the four ways the visual engine grows, and Cello is the system that runs the whole people-powered part: end users, affiliates and partners.

How they built it

A reward that pays the way creators earn

Dynamic Mockups pays referrers a recurring share of what their referrals spend, and gives the new user a real reason to start paying. Referrers earn 30% of every payment from each referred user for as long as they stay subscribed, capped at $50 per referral per month, paid out via PayPal with no minimum threshold. Referred users get 50% off any monthly plan for three months, on top of the free plan and the 100,000+ free templates they already get on signup.

Built in a couple of hours with Cello’s MCP server and docs

The Dynamic Mockups team builds with AI coding tools daily, so they started where Cello’s docs tell you to start: by pointing the coding agent at Cello’s MCP server. The MCP server has live access to the documentation and to the health of the integration itself, so the agent could read what to build, build it, and then check its own work against Cello.

1. Connect the MCP server. The agent pulled the current SDK, token and event specs straight from Cello instead of from a pasted doc.
2. Build in production, in testing mode. Referral component in the web app, token generation and user identification on the backend, signup and purchase events, webhooks for attribution.
3. Verify automatically. The MCP server reported which steps were healthy and which were still missing, so nothing was left to guesswork.
4. Run the pre-launch testbook. Share, sign up through a referred link, subscribe, confirm the reward lands. End to end, no issues found.
5. Launch. Referral link live in the top-right corner of the app for every user, plus a launch post explaining the program.

The invite lives where the value shows up

A referral prompt works best in a moment of delight: right after the product has just done something impressive. For Dynamic Mockups that moment is unmistakable. A user drops in a design, and a second later they are looking at a finished product photo they did not have to shoot, style or retouch.

Today the live touchpoint is the always-available link in the app header, alongside the public launch post. The next ones are planned for the moments when users are already engaged with the engine: while they wait for a mockup to be created, right after they download visuals made with Layouts, and while Stitch AI is generating an embroidery preview.

One system, three motions: users, affiliates, partners

B2C referrals are the first motion, not the only one. The same infrastructure is being extended into an affiliate program and a partner program, so every kind of advocate is rewarded from one place and attribution never has to be reconciled across tools.

• User referrals (live). Every creator and seller on the platform shares a personal link. 30% recurring, invitee gets 50% off.
• Affiliates (in progress). YouTubers, course creators and POD educators who teach people how to sell online. Higher volume, tracked and paid through Cello.
• Partners (in progress). Print providers, POD platforms, agencies and e-commerce tools whose customers need product visuals. Co-marketing and integration-led.

The story so far

• 230+ users discovered the referral program in the first month.
• 19 of them shared their referral links in that same first month.
• Integration built and tested end to end in about two hours using Cello’s MCP server and docs, with no issues in production.
• Affiliate and partner programs are in progress on Cello’s Partner Referrals, with the first conversations under way.
• Referrals are now an explicit pillar of the growth strategy for the visual engine, alongside SEO, product-led growth and partnerships.

What’s next

Partners first. The highest-leverage advocates for a visual engine are the businesses whose customers all need product visuals: print providers, POD platforms, e-commerce tools and agencies.

Community channels for creators. Creators trust other creators. The team is opening community spaces where sellers and designers share what they made, and where inviting another creator is the natural next step. Creator spotlights, a “made with Dynamic Mockups” gallery and category-specific channels (apparel, mugs, embroidery) give people a reason to bring their peers in.

Chasing better moments to show up. The next in-product triggers follow value: while a mockup is being created, right after visuals made with Layouts are downloaded, and while Stitch AI is generating an embroidery preview. Team and workspace invites are the other side of the same loop: a designer who brings in a client or a colleague is referring too.