Skip to main content
United Vows

Founding Vendor Program

Founding Vendor Standards

How you earn your Founding Cohort badge.

And how you keep it.

And how you get it back if you slip.

Why this exists

Founding Vendor status is meaningful precisely because it's earned and maintained. These standards aren't to penalize. They're to ensure the badge always represents active, high-performing vendors that couples can trust.

The six ongoing requirements

  1. 1. Maintain at least a 4.0 average verified review rating

    Verified reviews are the ones tied to bookings paid through United Vows. We use only those for the maintenance check, so off-platform Google reviews never push you under or over the line.

  2. 2. 20%+ of the inquiries couples send you here become a contract on United Vows

    Measured over a rolling 180 days: how many of the inquiries couples sent you on United Vows became a contract on United Vows. We count the contract, not the payment — the platform can only see what happens on it, and we will not publish a number we cannot stand behind. Fewer than 5 inquiries in those 180 days and there is no rate worth reading, so the standard does not apply to you that month. It exists because the badge points couples at vendors who take on the work that finds them here.

  3. 3. Active on the platform: signed in, or working an inquiry, within the last 60 days

    Any one of these, once, in 60 days: signing in, opening an inquiry, declining an inquiry, sending a proposal, signing a contract, or changing your profile, portfolio, services or pricing. Whichever you did most recently is your activity date, so signing in on its own is enough. A Founding Vendor badge means a vendor a couple can actually reach. If you go quiet for two months, the badge stops representing what it claims.

  4. 4. No claim left unanswered past your deadline in the last 12 months

    You get seven days to answer a claim, and answering is the whole ask — a claim you responded to leaves no mark here, whatever you and the couple ended up disagreeing about. We do not rule on who was right and this standard never tries to. What counts is a couple left waiting past your deadline with no reply at all. Answer it and the standard clears the same day.

  5. 5. Profile complete: 8+ portfolio items, services priced, calendar updated within 90 days

    A Founding Vendor profile is what couples point to. Empty portfolios and stale calendars work against everyone listed alongside you. The calendar half starts counting the first time you block or free up a date: if you have never blocked one, there is nothing to go stale and it cannot count against you.

  6. 6. 80% of inquiries opened or declined within 48 hours

    Measured over the same rolling 180 days. It says opened or declined and not answered because opening and declining are the two things the platform records — nothing here timestamps the moment you write back, so we will not claim to measure it. Declining an inquiry that is not a fit counts in full: telling a couple no inside two days is a real answer. Fast does not mean instant. The 48-hour window is the floor below which the marketplace stops working for couples, and anything inside it is fine.

A seventh check, on its own clock

Alongside the six above, your Conflict Resolution Index has to stay at 75 or higher. It runs on a different clock and a different rule: it is checked daily, not monthly, and it has no grace period or probation of its own. If it drops below 75, the badge, the directory listing and the commission reduction come off on that day's check, not after 30 days of warning.

It is just as reversible as the six standards above, and it comes back on the same daily clock it went off on: the first daily check that finds your Conflict Resolution Index at 75 or higher, with the six standards passing too, puts the badge back automatically. There is nothing to apply for.

The review process

We run the automated check across all six conditions once a month. We email you and post to your dashboard at every step below, so nothing on this ladder can happen to you without warning first. (The Conflict Resolution Index above is not on this ladder — see the previous section for how it works.)

  • First miss: We name the standards you are below and what clears each one. A 30-day grace period starts. Your badge stays on and nothing else happens.
  • Still below at the first monthly review after your grace period ends: Probation, and another 30 days. Your badge is still on.
  • Still below at the first monthly review after probation ends: The badge comes off. Because the reviews are monthly, that is never less than 60 days from your first miss and usually longer.
  • Any review you pass: The clock resets. Pass while you are in grace or probation and the whole thing closes. Pass after the badge has already come off and you get it back.

Losing the badge, and getting it back

Whichever way it happens, the badge coming off removes the cohort badge, the reduced commission rate, and your spot on the public Founding Partner directory. What differs is whether it comes back. There are two cases and they are not the same thing.

You fell below standard. This one is reversible.

If your account is still open and the badge came off because you missed the six standards through grace and probation, or because your Conflict Resolution Index dropped below 75 (checked daily, with no grace period or probation of its own, so that one can take the badge off the same day), you have not lost it for good. You have fallen below the line and can climb back over it.

Recovery means exactly the standard you fell below, no more and no less: pass all six maintenance conditions at a monthly review, and hold a Conflict Resolution Index of 75 or higher. Both at once, because both are what a Founding Vendor in good standing holds. Nothing else is asked of you and no new bar is added on the way back.

Recovery lands on the clock the loss came off. A badge that came off on the Conflict Resolution Index goes back on at the first daily check that finds you at 75 or higher. A badge that came off on the six standards goes back on at the first monthly review that finds you passing all six. Either way, that check puts the badge, the directory listing and the commission reduction back on your account. There is no application, no fee, no waiting period and nobody to ask. The commission reduction picks up whatever is left of its original 3-year run; the time you spent below the line does not extend it.

Your account ended. This one is permanent.

If your account is delisted, deleted, removed, or cancelled, the badge goes with it. The badge lives with the account, so it ends when the account ends. That applies whether you chose it or we did.

It does not come back. There is no waiting period after which it is restored, no appeal that restores it, and opening a new account later with the same business details does not restore it. If you leave after falling below standard, the exit is what counts and the recovery path above closes with it.

In both cases your account carries on as a standard vendor account with full access to every non-Founding feature. Read the program terms.