SPONSOR PLAYBOOK
What happens between checkout and go-live, day by day.
Public onboarding timeline so you know exactly what to expect after you complete checkout. We treat sponsor onboarding like a software release — eight working days, three explicit phases, one inbox.
TIMELINE
Three phases, eight working days, one inbox.
Phase 1
Day 1-3
Assets received and verified
You complete Stripe checkout and receive an onboarding email with the seven-item asset checklist below. Reply to hello@ai2.design with the bundle. We confirm receipt within 24 working hours and flag anything unclear before drafting begins.
Phase 2
Day 4-7
Curator drafts placement copy
Berkay personally drafts your placement in catalogue voice — usually 40-90 words for Featured, 90-150 for Lead. We send a proof in plain text by Day 6. You approve as-is, request specific edits, or pause for further conversation. We never rotate copy without your explicit sign-off.
Phase 3
Day 8
Slot enters rotation
Your placement goes live on the agreed surfaces — homepage, gallery rail, exports footer (Featured and Lead) and gallery footer rotation (Community). Featured and Lead slots become visible on every catalogued page as soon as your kit is approved; Community slots join the rotation at the same moment and refresh quarterly thereafter. We send a confirmation email with deep-link URLs and the first impression count. Reporting is monthly from then on.
ASSETS
What we need from you (assets checklist)
- ✓ Logo SVG — vector, single-color or two-color (no rasterised PNG/JPEG)
- ✓ Wordmark PNG — fallback, transparent background, 800×200 minimum
- ✓ Tagline — 60 characters or less, no emoji, no ALL CAPS
- ✓ Destination URL — ideally a stable landing page, not a campaign-specific redirect
- ✓ Industry note (Lead tier only) — one-sentence category description for exclusivity check
- ✓ Brand color hex — for accent placement on the gallery rail
- ✓ Press contact email — separate from billing, for editorial follow-ups
REPORTING
What you receive monthly
- · Aggregate impression count across the placement surface (Vercel Speed Insights data, sampled)
- · Click count + click-through rate (PostHog Cloud EU, anonymised)
- · Editorial mentions of your category in the previous month's blog issues
- · Notes on any placement adjustment we made at our discretion during the month
Referral program
Refer a sponsor, get +10% off your next year.
Active sponsors receive a unique referral link in their onboarding email. When a new sponsor signs up through your link and completes their first annual term, both of you receive a 10% discount on your next year's renewal — stackable with FOUNDING40 if it still applies. No hidden minimums; the referred sponsor sees the same editorial bar everyone else passes.
- Step 1 · Share your link
- Your onboarding email contains a unique referral link tied to your account. Share it on Twitter, LinkedIn, in your newsletter, or with peers.
- Step 2 · They inquire
- The referred sponsor lands on
/sponsorwith your link attached. The inquiry form picks it up automatically — no extra step from them. We verify the attribution before crediting the referrer. - Step 3 · Discount applied
- When the referred sponsor completes their first annual term, your renewal automatically receives a 10% discount. No manual coupon entry. Stackable with FOUNDING40 if still active.
Fine print — Referral credits are honored only for sponsors who pass editorial review and complete their first annual term. The 10% credit applies one-time per referred sponsor. Combined discount with FOUNDING40 caps at ~50%. Reasonable use limits apply per account.
Questions before you sign?
Reply to hello@ai2.design with subject 'Sponsor — pre-signup question'. Berkay personally responds within 2 business days.