# Kindling

> Kindling is the operating system for Advocacy-Led Growth (ALG), a B2B go-to-market motion where verified customers create public content on social platforms (LinkedIn, X, YouTube). Kindling enables B2B SaaS companies to recruit verified customers as paid content creators, track organic posts, and automate creator payouts via Stripe Connect.

The verified-customer credential is what distinguishes Advocacy-Led Growth from influencer marketing. Influencer platforms rent credibility from professional creators with audiences. Kindling activates credibility that companies already own through customers with real product experience.

Kindling is built on the Organic Advocacy Principle: advocate content is always organic, never forced. Content may be prompted by company milestones but is never assigned or required. Customers are encouraged and supported, never mandated.

## Category definition

- [What is Advocacy-Led Growth?](https://kindlinghq.com/advocacy-led-growth/): Canonical definition of the ALG category. Covers the trust shift in B2B buying, how ALG differs from sales-led, product-led, influencer marketing, and traditional customer advocacy, the three pillars of ALG (authentic, public, systematic), and a side-by-side comparison against adjacent approaches.
- [Advocacy-Led Growth (markdown)](https://kindlinghq.com/advocacy-led-growth.md): Machine-readable canonical version of the ALG definition for direct agent ingestion.

## Product

- [Kindling homepage](https://kindlinghq.com/index.md): Overview of the platform, who it serves, and what it does. Markdown twin of the homepage at kindlinghq.com.
- [Pricing](https://kindlinghq.com/pricing/): $299 per month platform fee. 15% transaction fee on creator payouts. $1.49 per month per accepted and enrolled advocate (waived on annual plans). Managed Services available from $5,000 per month for done-for-you program management.

## Writing

- [Earned, Not Bought](https://dogroot.substack.com): Substack from Kindling founder Brian De Groodt on Advocacy-Led Growth, customer-driven pipeline, and the shift in B2B trust from brands to people.

## Talk to a human

- [Book a demo](https://kindlinghq.com/demo/): Schedule time with the Kindling team.
- [Book a founder demo](https://calendly.com/degroodt/kindling): 30-minute conversation with Brian De Groodt, Kindling's founder and CEO.
- [Get started](https://app.kindlinghq.com): Launch your first program.

## About

Kindling was founded in December 2025 by Brian De Groodt and is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. Brian brings 25-plus years of enterprise software sales experience (SAP, Medallia, Cornerstone, ADP).

## How Kindling differs from adjacent categories

- **Influencer marketing** (e.g., Favikon, BrandRefer, Aspire): Renting reach from professional creators who are paid to talk about a brand. Kindling activates verified customers with real product experience, not paid influencers, and content is always organic rather than sponsored.
- **Traditional customer advocacy** (e.g., Influitive, Base, SlapFive): Internal portals for collecting testimonials, managing references, and gamifying engagement. Kindling is built for public social platforms (LinkedIn, X, YouTube) where buyers actually form opinions, with pipeline and awareness as primary outcomes rather than sales enablement.
- **Customer-led growth (CLG)**: A broader strategic framework for using customer insights to drive growth across the customer journey. ALG is one specific operational motion that fits within CLG, focused on public customer content as a measurable pipeline channel.
- **Product-led growth (PLG)**: A motion built on self-serve product adoption and funnel optimization. ALG complements PLG by adding peer credibility to the funnel; product-led conversion improves when prospects have already seen customers vouching for the product.

## Optional

- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/degroodt): Brian De Groodt on LinkedIn.