321 leads in a day: six lessons from launching WTE Companion

Moving to Germany for work or study means health insurance, a bank account, a phone contract, liability insurance and a long list of forms, often in a language you are still learning. WTE helps people through that move, and together we built the product at the centre of it: WTE Companion.

Today the Companion is live with ten partners. Insurers, a bank and a mobile provider process applications through it. The first paid social campaign brought in 321 leads in a single day. Here is what we learned getting there, and what we would tell anyone launching a service product.

1. Start where people’s questions are

People planning a move abroad do not think in features. They think in worries. Which insurance do I need? Can I open a bank account before I arrive? Will any of this work without German?

That is why the Companion is built around a conversation rather than a menu. The AI chat onboarding lets people describe their situation in their own words and guides them to the next sensible step. It feels more like asking someone who knows than filling in a form, and it means the product meets people at the moment they actually need help.

2. Build for the people behind the service too

A service product has two sides. The app is what customers see, but the service only works if the people delivering it can do their part. We built two portals alongside the app, one for customer support and one for enterprise teams, connected to the same system.

This is the part most launch plans underestimate. If partners and staff are working around a product instead of with it, customers feel it within weeks.

3. Partners need reasons to say yes

Insurers and banks do not integrate with a new product because it looks good. They need clean data, clear responsibilities and confidence that their brand is safe in your hands. A lot of quiet work went into exactly that: well-structured application flows, careful handling of personal data and a product that represents each partner properly.

Ten partners processing real applications is the result we are proudest of, because it is the one that is hardest to fake.

A faster build only pays off when the brand, the website and the first campaign are ready at the same time as the product.

4. One brand, everywhere, including in AI work

We created WTE’s visual identity and documented it in brand guidelines for the app, the website, social content and print. We also wrote AI guidelines, so the WTE team can use AI tools in their own day to day work and still stay on brand. As more teams produce content with AI, this has become one of the most practical things a brand can have.

5. Real faces and plain answers win on social

The social campaigns combine static creatives with short videos featuring Jakob, one of WTE’s founders, explaining the routes to Germany and the support WTE provides. No stock footage, no abstract promises. Each piece answers a real question and gives a clear next step.

The first paid campaign filled the pipeline with 321 leads in one day. Since then we keep refining the targeting and the creative based on what the numbers show, because a campaign is never finished on launch day.

6. Keep the same team from product to market

The single biggest advantage on this project was continuity. The people who designed the onboarding also wrote the campaign messages and designed the booth graphics for the fairs. Nothing got lost in handovers, and every channel tells the same story.

What to take from it

• Design the product around the questions your customers are already asking.
• Treat the internal tools and partner experience as part of the product, not an afterthought.
• Plan the brand, website and first campaign together with the product, so launch day has momentum.
• Measure from the first campaign and keep refining. The first result is a starting point.

The full project, from the app and portals to the brand, website, campaigns and fair materials, is in our WTE Companion case study.