FAQ — Bowline

Question 1

Why is Bowline cheaper than a growth agency or in-house team?

Accepted Answer

Agency retainers typically run $5k–$15k/mo plus recruitment overhead for the in-house team of 3–5 FTEs they want you to staff alongside (analyst, partnerships lead, paid-social manager, copy, designer). Bowline's subscription tiers are $1,500/mo, $3,000/mo, or $5,000/mo — with a lower-cost $500/mo entry tier for the moment you want partnership-led growth off the ground — and the same agent fleet replaces the staffing line. No padded hours billed; no recruitment cost; no per-seat markup. The trade-off in one sentence: lower cash spend, you give up direct control of the humans running the campaigns — the Friday digest and senior review on every highlight are the replacement for the meetings you would otherwise be in.

Question 2

How fast will I see measurable ROI?

Accepted Answer

First campaigns launch within the first one to two weeks after onboarding. The agent fleet starts emitting signal from week one — every Friday you receive a digest email summarizing the prior Monday → Sunday: partner-level lift, spend, top campaign, and senior sign-off from Sarah on every highlight. Bottom line: measurable signal inside 30 days, not a "trust us, it is working" promise. Three months is the realistic window for compounding lift; the digest gives you the receipts either way.

Question 3

Who owns the campaign data, partner contacts, and weekly digests?

Accepted Answer

You do. Every partner campaign, partner contact record, conversion event, and weekly digest lives in your Bowline tenant — data is scoped to your Subscriber record, and every read is gated by your subscriber ID. You export the full set from your profile at any time. On cancellation we keep the export endpoint open for 30 days, then the tenant is purged. Nothing about your brand or your partner book ever leaves your tenant. Read the founder story behind this promise at /about#origin.

Question 4

How long does onboarding take?

Accepted Answer

Five minutes to join the waitlist on the home page. Once activated, the in-app onboarding form takes roughly thirty minutes (four short fields — brand basics, channels, tier, billing contact), then you are routed to Stripe-hosted checkout for the recurring subscription. The Scout agent starts its first run on your brand within 24 hours of activating — the digest the following Friday reflects the Scout's findings and the Builder's first partnership picks.

Question 5

How does cancellation and export work?

Accepted Answer

Cancel from your profile — no email back-and-forth. Because billing runs through a recurring Stripe Checkout subscription, the change lands at the end of the current billing period (same promise the /pricing page makes). No clawback for partial months. The full tenant export (campaigns, partner contacts, conversion events, digests) stays available for 30 days post-cancel; after that window the tenant is purged. We do not retain your data.

Answers to the five questions SMBs ask before they sign up.

Why is Bowline cheaper than a growth agency or in-house team?

How fast will I see measurable ROI?

Who owns the campaign data, partner contacts, and weekly digests?

How long does onboarding take?

How does cancellation and export work?