How Clicki Replaced Manual Venmos with Real-Time Payouts, Powered by Dots
How Clicki replaced hundreds of manual Venmos with Dots’ API to automate 2,000+ payouts each month, cut support tickets, and scale growth.
TL;DR
- Referral payouts at scale. From “Kendall’s phone + Venmo” to 1-2 k automated payouts per month.
- All rails in one wallet. Venmo, ACH, Amazon & Visa gift cards—no extra code.
- Back-office chores gone. Instant invoices, 1099 tracking, and compliance handled by Dots.
- Slack-speed partnership. Daily funding and quick feedback loops with the Dots team.
Meet Clicki
Clicki is a referral platform for small and local businesses, from lawn care companies, to pest control operators, home cleaning brands, and more.
Anyone who lives and dies by Google reviews and word-of-mouth. The product lets these businesses incentivise customers to share, refer, and repeat.
“If they have a Google My Business profile, there’s a gap no one is filling. We let them reward customers instantly.” – Kendall Hines, Co-founder & CEO
The Payout Bottleneck
Early days = Kendall + Venmo
- Every time a promoter cashed out, Kendall opened his phone and sent money by hand.
- Hundreds of individual Venmos; his personal account was eventually flagged.
- No support for gift cards or ACH; no 1099 management; lots of late-night admin.
“We could build payouts ourselves…or spend that time generating more referrals. Dots let us move fast.” – Kendall
Plugging In Dots
- Stripe invoice closes → Clicki automatically triggers a Dots payout “within seconds.”
- Wallet funding via wires. Free Mercury wires keep the Dots balance topped up.
- Slack channel with Dots engineers. Quick answers, feature requests addressed, even help spotting a rogue cron job.
Impact
Before Dots
- Manual Venmos only – which led to Kendall’s Venmo account being flagged.
- Payout queue tied to Kendall’s availability
- Separate tools for billing, compliance, and 1099s
After Dots
- Automated payouts across Venmo, PayPal, ACH, Amazon & Visa gift cards
- Thousands of payouts per month handled in the background
- Invoice + payout + tax reporting in one flow
“The best testimonial is silence and our support pings on payouts almost disappeared.” - Kendall
If Dots vanished tomorrow? “I’d be personally Venmo-ing people again,” Kendall laughs...and Clicki’s 300 brands (plus millions of end users) would flood support.
Looking Ahead
Clicki continues to add ~30 new brands a month. With payouts now invisible, the team is free to build new products and keep refining ways to turn happy customers into growth.