Building a Program That Thanks the People Who Built Us

Why a Small Shop Even Needs a Program Like This

There is a particular kind of quiet that settles over a shop when you realize you have to “do marketing.” It is the same quiet that happens when an ant colony decides to relocate. No panic, no spectacle, just a collective acknowledgment that the world has shifted and something practical needs doing.
For us, the practical answer was an affiliate program. Not because we dreamed of running one, but because every traditional option felt like paying rent on a building we never visited. Ads swallowed the budget without much to show for it. Meanwhile, the people bringing new customers to us were the same ones posting photos of their trucks, answering installation questions, and letting us know to ditch the Velcro (we did).
A program that thanked those people felt far more honest than another round of experiments with ad platforms.

The Early Posts That Shaped This Company

Interrobang did not grow out of one legendary forum thread. It grew out of many small posts scattered across the Rivian community. Some were build updates. Others were troubleshooting notes. Many were people asking if a certain idea was possible. Over time, those conversations formed a kind of shared workshop. They shaped our first prototypes, influenced our redesigns, and reminded us that a good solution spreads because someone took the time to explain it.
The affiliate program follows the same pattern. It acknowledges that this community has been introducing new owners to our work long before we formalized anything. When you share your referral code, you are doing what Rivian owners have quietly done for years. You are pointing someone toward a tool you found useful, and now there is a straightforward way for us to thank you for it.

How the Program Fits Into Our Design Philosophy

We build things to be modular, repairable, and easy to share. The affiliate system follows the same pattern. It is simple to join, simple to use, and simple to benefit from. You receive $50 when your code is used. Your friend receives $50 off their tonneau cover. There are no tiers or leaderboards, only a clean exchange that rewards the people already doing the work of helping each other.

What It Looks Like to Join

We kept the mechanics plain. You sign up on the affiliate page, create your account, and receive your referral code. The dashboard shows your referrals and payouts in a clear, uncluttered way. When someone uses your code at checkout, your friend receives a discount and you receive your payout through PayPal. It is the kind of exchange that does not need a manual, only a reason.
The reason, as we see it, is simple. Growth feels better when the people who shaped the company benefit from it.

The Part Most Programs Forget

Affiliate systems in the larger world often feel like gamified spreadsheets. They lean on leaderboards, pressure, and metrics. Our scale is smaller, which allows something easier. The program is meant to sit quietly in the background until you want it. If you are the kind of person who answers questions in forums, swaps installation tips, or shows your setup to someone curious at a charging station, the code gives you a way to be thanked for that effort. Nothing more complicated.
There is no expectation that anyone will promote anything. The system exists for the moments when you would have shared the information anyway.

Why We See It as Part of the Design

Our products grow out of practical needs. The affiliate program did too. It is not a marketing trick or a campaign strategy. It is a tool that supports the same loop that helped us build our first tonneau cover: someone encounters a problem, someone else offers a solution, and the knowledge travels farther than expected.
A program that returns value to that loop feels right for a company rooted in community prototypes and shared fixes. It fits the rest of our design philosophy, which hinges on keeping things modular, repairable, and transparent.

Looking Ahead

We expect the program to evolve the way our products do. There may be small adjustments as we learn how people use it. The core idea will stay the same. We want to keep finding ways for the community to benefit directly from the growth it helped create.
If you have thoughts about what the program should become, we are listening. That has not changed since the earliest posts.

Sign up for the Interrobang affiliate program