Questions Including the awkward ones
Ask the obvious thing.
Favor pays people for recommendations, which is either a good idea or a terrible one depending on how it's built. Here is how it's built, including the parts where the honest answer is "we'll see".
The basics
What is Favor, in one sentence?
An app that carries a single recommendation from someone who actually goes somewhere to someone who doesn't, makes sure they're welcomed properly when they turn up, and pays the sender a cut of what the business earns from it.
What does it cost me?
Nothing, on either side, ever. The app is free to download, free to send from, and free to take your thank-you out of. There is no paid tier and no plan to add one.
Businesses pay a transaction fee on spend they can attribute to a referral, and most of that fee is passed straight to whoever made the introduction. How that fee works is here.
Why invite-only?
Because the whole thing rests on people actually knowing each other. Open the doors and Favor fills up with strangers recommending places to strangers — which already exists, and already doesn't work. We grow one city at a time and you get in when somebody already inside can vouch for you.
It also keeps the market small enough that we can read complaints by hand, which matters more than it sounds.
Where does it work?
Irvine, and only Irvine. A favor needs a business on the other end of it, so a city isn't open until enough places in it are. Where we're going next is here.
Is there an app, or is this a website?
An app, for iPhone and Android. Sending and receiving a favor is a phone thing — you're standing somewhere, thinking of someone. The website is for reading about it and for businesses.
Whether paying for this ruins it
Doesn't paying people ruin the recommendation?
It would, if the money were the point. So the product is built to keep it from being the point: you can only pass along places you've genuinely spent money at, you send to one person rather than broadcasting, and the person receiving the favor is never shown what the sender earned. They see your words. You get thanked afterwards, quietly, days later.
The honest version of this answer is that it's a real risk and we've designed against it rather than solved it. If a recommendation is bought rather than meant, it stops working inside about one visit — the guest doesn't come back, the business stops paying for that advocate, and the incentive dries up. That feedback loop is the actual safeguard.
Can't I just spam everyone I know?
There's no button for it. A favor goes to exactly one person, and you can only send places with your own spend behind them. Sending the same place to thirty people, one at a time, is possible and also obvious — it shows up immediately in how few of them ever redeem, and the earning stops.
What stops two people trading favors back and forth?
Welcomes apply to first visits only, so a closed loop runs out of first visits almost at once. Reciprocal pairs and self-referrals to a second account don't pay. This is the part of the system we expect people to try hardest to break, and we'd rather be told about a hole than discover it in the numbers — there's a note on that below.
What if I recommend somewhere and it's bad that night?
Tell us and we'll look at it — a person reads it, not a queue. The welcome stands regardless; that's the business's commitment, not yours. Repeated complaints about the same business get it removed. Repeated bad referrals from the same person stop earning.
Is the thank-you taxable?
Probably, past a certain amount, and it depends where you live. We report what we're required to report and we'll send you the paperwork if you cross a threshold that needs it. We can't give you tax advice and won't pretend otherwise.
What you're handing over
How does Favor know where I've spent money?
You connect a card, and we read the merchant names and amounts on it. That's what qualifies you to recommend somewhere. You can see exactly what we've read, and you can disconnect at any point — which switches off your ability to send favors, because there's nothing left to qualify them.
Can businesses see where else I go?
No. Cafe Mira learns that Mara sent Ben and that Ben spent $86.40 there. It learns nothing about where else either of them eats, and there is no screen in the product that would show it.
Do you sell any of this?
No. There is no ad product and no data product — the business model is the referral fee, which is the whole reason it can be this narrow. The privacy page says it at length.
Does the person I send to know it earns me anything?
They know Favor works this way — it's not a secret, it's on the front page. What they don't see is the amount, or whether a particular favor earned you anything at all. The order matters: you send, then later you're thanked.
Can I delete everything?
Yes. Deleting your account removes your profile, your card connection and your spending history. We keep the minimum record of paid thank-yous that financial rules require us to keep, and nothing else.
Found a hole?
We'd rather hear it from you.
A referral market with a gap in it gets found eventually, and we would very much prefer that to be by someone who tells us. If you spot a way to extract money from Favor that we clearly didn't intend, write to us before you scale it up.
Still stuck?
Anything this page doesn't answer, ask us directly and a person will reply. If you run a business, start here instead — the questions are different on that side.
Somebody you know has the good list.
Favor is invite-only while we grow city by city. Leave your email and we'll find who can vouch for you.