Chelsea OlsenPartner Program, WhyBrilliantEarn from the candidates you can't place today.
WhyBrilliant's Nova matches your candidates to real tech roles and pays you a commission on every placement. Profiles that would otherwise sit cold keep working for you. Book a call and I'll show you what a partnership could look like for your network.
- ✓You never hand over your candidate list: candidates opt in themselves via your own branded link
- ✓No exclusivity, no minimums, no extra work beyond sharing a link
- ✓Every candidate you refer stays attributed to you for three years, so you earn whenever we place them, even long after you shared the link
Book a call with Chelsea
Choose a slot that works for you. The calendar below books straight into my diary.
Pick a time →Additional income, not instead of.
We hear this from every recruiter we talk to, so let's address it directly.
“My pool is curated from years of relationship-building. I'm not handing that over.”
You've earned every one of those contacts. It's reasonable to be protective of it.
You're not handing over anything. You're sharing a link.
Candidates find WhyBrilliant through your own branded page and register themselves. We never receive a list, a database export, or contact details you haven't chosen to pass on. Nothing changes for the candidates you're actively placing today.
Monetise the profiles sitting cold in your pipeline.
Your talent stays yours to place. You keep working your active candidates exactly as you do today; this simply pays you on the people who'd otherwise sit cold for months, so it's added on top, never instead of.
Four steps, and the only ongoing effort is one link.
Get your branded link
We set up your own referral landing page, uniquely attributed to you, with no setup work on your side.
Share with your network
Send it to candidates who aren't right for your current mandates: by email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, wherever you'd normally reach them.
Candidates self-register
They create their own profile on the WhyBrilliant platform. Attribution to you is locked in for three years from that moment.
Our AI Agent matches, you get paid
Once WhyBrilliant places one of your attributed candidates and has received the placement fee from the client, you invoice your commission. You keep it even if the client is later refunded, so there's no clawback risk, ever.
A worked example, so there's no guesswork.
Your commission is 15% of the placement fee WhyBrilliant actually receives from the client, excluding VAT, not a percentage of the candidate's salary. Here's what that looks like for one placement.
Illustrative example · candidate placed on a €100,000 gross annual salary · assumes a placement fee of 10% of first-year salary (your actual fee basis depends on WhyBrilliant's agreement with each client company)
| Item | Basis | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Candidate's annual salary | Agreed with client company | €100,000 |
| Placement fee to WhyBrilliant | 10% of salary, net of VAT (illustrative) | €10,000 |
| Your commission rate | Per referral agreement | 15% |
| Your commission for this placement (net of VAT) | €1,500 | |
Statutory VAT is added on top of the €1,500 when you invoice. Your commission becomes due once WhyBrilliant has received the client's placement fee in full (paid within twelve weeks of the candidate's start date, or within five working days if the fee arrives later), and you keep it even if the client is later granted a refund. Refer several candidates who each get placed, and each one is invoiced and paid separately.
See the page your candidates land on.
Every partner gets their own referral landing page, carrying your name, logo, and photo. Candidates you invite register themselves here, which is what locks in their three-year attribution to you. Here's an example of how one looks.
The right role, brought to you.
Skip the job boards and the cold applications. Talk to Nova once, she scans 1M+ open roles across DACH and brings the ones that fit straight to your inbox. When hiring managers want to meet someone like you, the introduction comes through Nova too.
Free for talent, companies pay only when they hire. No public profile, no signals to your current employer. Built in Germany.
A 10 minute conversation. Nova does the rest.
By signing up you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. Your data is encrypted and never shared without your consent.
An example only. Your live page carries your own name, logo, colours, and photo.
What's actually in the agreement
The full terms live in your signed referral agreement, here's the summary that matters most.
What's actually in the agreement
SummaryCommission
15% of the net placement fee (excluding VAT) WhyBrilliant actually receives from the client company, regardless of how we structure pricing with that client. Statutory VAT is then added on top of your commission when you invoice.
Payment timing
Your commission falls due once WhyBrilliant has received the placement fee from the client in full, and is paid out shortly after (within twelve weeks of the candidate's start date, or within five working days if the fee arrives later). You are never asked to repay it, even if the client is later granted a refund.
Attribution window
Three years from a candidate's first sign-up through your branded link.
Exclusivity
None. Refer candidates to us and to anyone else. No minimums, no restrictions.
Confidentiality
Standard mutual confidentiality obligations, continuing for two years after the agreement ends.
Termination
Either party can end the agreement with four weeks' notice. Candidates already attributed to you before that stay attributed for the remainder of the three-year window.
You always know where your candidates stand.
After every 30-day sign-up window, you get a report of everyone who registered through your link. You can also request an update on attribution and billing status once per quarter.
You always know where your candidates stand.
Quarterly access on request| Candidate | Signed up | Status | Commission |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. Novak | 03 Feb 2026 | Registered | Not yet |
| J. Richter | 07 Feb 2026 | In process with client | Not yet |
| M. Adeyemi | 14 Feb 2026 | Placed | Awaiting client payment |
| S. Weber | 19 Feb 2026 | Placed & paid | €1,500 invoiced |
How to share the link with your candidates.
You don't have to figure out what to say. We hand you ready-made materials for every channel, and if you'd rather not lift a finger, we'll run the outreach for you.
Social media templates
Ready-to-post copy and graphics for LinkedIn and other channels, written to introduce WhyBrilliant to your network. Post them as they are or add your own voice.
Email campaign templates
Proven email copy you can drop into your own tool and send to the candidates who aren't right for your current mandates. Subject lines and follow-ups included.
We'll send it for you
Short on time? On request, we'll send the email campaign to your network on your behalf, pointing to your own branded referral page. You just approve the list and the copy.
The practical details.
How do I get paid?
When WhyBrilliant places one of your attributed candidates, we tell you the start date, the client's refund or guarantee period, and the amount to invoice. You then send us an invoice for your commission: 15% of the placement fee we receive from the client, excluding VAT, plus statutory VAT on top where applicable. Payment is conditional on us receiving the client's fee in full. If that happens within twelve weeks of the candidate's start date, we pay you by the end of that twelve-week window; if it takes longer, we pay within five working days of receiving the fee. Once you're paid it's yours to keep, with no clawbacks, even if the client is later granted a refund. Each placement is invoiced and paid separately.
How does this align with GDPR?
Candidates register themselves, so you never transfer a database or candidate list to us, which is the cleanest basis under GDPR. Both parties act as independent controllers for the data each of us processes; there's no joint controllership or data processing arrangement created by the partnership. You're responsible for making sure your own outreach to candidates has a valid legal basis (e.g. an existing relationship or consent), and we handle everything from the point a candidate registers on our platform in line with GDPR and German data protection law (BDSG).
What language should my candidates speak, German or English?
Either. WhyBrilliant operates across Germany's tech market, where plenty of roles run in English as the working language. Refer German-speaking or English-speaking candidates. Both are a fit.
What kind of candidates are appropriate?
Anyone in an IT or tech company, in any department, not just engineering. Developers and technical roles are a strong fit, but so are sales, operations, marketing, product, and other commercial functions inside tech companies.
Do I have to work exclusively with WhyBrilliant?
No. There's no exclusivity in either direction: refer candidates elsewhere too, and we'll keep sourcing from other partners and channels as well.
How long does attribution last?
Three years from the candidate's first sign-up through your link. If we place them anytime in that window, you're paid, even if it happens long after the original referral.
What if a candidate already registered through another partner?
Attribution goes to whoever the candidate signs up with first. If someone in your network had already registered through another partner's page before reaching yours, they stay attributed to that partner, and a placement won't earn you a commission. It works on a first-sign-up-wins basis, so the sooner your candidates register through your link, the better. Any candidate we've had to exclude for this reason is flagged in your quarterly report, along with the supporting evidence.
Talk to Chelsea
I run the partner program personally. If you've got questions this page didn't answer, or you just want to talk through whether this makes sense for your network, book a time or drop me a line.