Dangerous Liaison

The first serious monetization attempt was a CPA referral service. Before Tax is about saving taxes and CPA's can help you do just that... made sense to play matchmaker.

Added a referral form connected to HubSpot's CRM I started to get sign ups. Next I conducted brief interviews over email about accounting services the prospect might be interested in. Finally I'd look up reputable CPA's in their geographic area and started connecting them via email. Heyyy this might just work! 😬

Thankfully I wasn't charging anything to anyone, because as it turns out that would have been pretty illegal. After lengthy discussions with a contract attorney, turns out there's strict rules that govern how you can refer professionals, such as CPA's, in the United States. Some networks like Dave Ramsey's have managed to find loopholes to stay compliant, but it still seemed kind of sketchy to me.

Shut it down.