How Slidebean tracks growth with ChartMogul
“If you see it you can act on it,” says Caya, CEO. With no easy way to calculate and analyze metrics in the early days of Slidebean the team was left trying to figure out how to combine data into a single model from different sources – causing frustration and wasting time.
What is Slidebean?
Slidebean set out in 2014 to revolutionize how people create presentations. Fast forward to today, Slidebean has helped thousands of founders raise over $500M in just the past 18 months. They have more than 500K subscribers on YouTube where their CEO, Caya, shares in-depth documentaries about startups, tech, and their impact on society.
We spoke with Caya about the challenges they had with reporting on their growth metrics and how they overcame them.
The challenge: managing reporting became overwhelming
As is typical for most SaaS companies, Slidebean experimented with several billing systems over the years. They started out using Stripe, found it lacking in some features they needed, switched to Chargebee, and then switched back to Stripe again as its roadmap evolved. Eventually they settled upon using a combination of Stripe, Chargebee and Paypal.
In addition to using three separate billing platforms, they also ended up with several accounts in Stripe that were being used by different teams. Reporting across this set-up meant extracting data from each account in each billing system and spending a lot of time trying to stitch it together in spreadsheets.
“We found ourselves extracting data from each Stripe account and manually compiling it into a spreadsheet. It was unsustainable.”
As Slidebean’s customer base grew from hundreds to thousands, this set-up became unmanageable. Firstly, it was sucking up a lot of time. Figuring out calculations for metrics like churn was also complicated. The highly manual process was prone to mistakes, leading to diminished trust towards the numbers. On top of all of this, Slidebean struggled to give the rest of the team access to numbers they understood and could act on.
They realized they needed a new solution for understanding their business performance.
The solution: streamlining reporting with Subscription Analytics
ChartMogul Subscription Analytics provided Slidebean with a much-needed solution to consolidate their reporting. By implementing ChartMogul, Slidebean could aggregate data from all sources—whether SaaS or non-recurring revenue—into a single, easy-to-read format.
“ChartMogul represents consolidation for us. It brings together data from various businesses and sources into one place, making it easy to digest.”
Now, Caya can assess Slidebean’s performance in minutes, enabling quick, informed decisions.
“Eventually, you need a tool that allows you to see your key metrics in under a minute. I look at MRR, net revenue, and monthly churn. If everything’s on track, it’s time to celebrate with the team. If something’s off, you need to diagnose the issue—whether it’s churn or conversions—and address it swiftly.”
The result: empowering teams with data transparency
Today, ChartMogul is an integral part of Slidebean’s operations. It’s not just a tool for the leadership team; it’s accessible to everyone in the company, fostering a culture of transparency and accountability.
“With ChartMogul, our entire team can track the company’s performance and understand how their efforts contribute to the bottom line.”
ChartMogul also plays a crucial role in goal setting across departments. The retention team tracks cohort retention rates, while marketing and product teams monitor customer conversions and plan upgrades.
“ChartMogul allows our teams to directly monitor their progress toward goals. It’s part of gamifying the process and keeping them engaged. But more importantly, it provides visibility into how their work impacts the overall business.”
While full access to performance data might be overwhelming for some, Caya believes the type of people he hires thrive on it.
“If you can see it, you can act on it.”