Raisely, a mission-driven B corporation, faced challenges in tracking traditional SaaS metrics. Learn how CEO Tom Maitland used Databox to create custom metrics to increase visibility and improve performance monitoring.
Most SaaS companies track similar metrics— churn, MRR, product usage, etc. But what happens when tracking those key metrics gets more complicated?
That’s the situation Tom Maitland found himself in. As the co-founder and CEO of Raisely – a mission-driven B corporation offering free subscriptions to help charities fundraise online – Tim leads the company with a unique mission: impact before profit.
Unlike regular SaaS companies, Raisely doesn’t make money from subscriptions but from donor tips. This meant that Tom and the Raisely team faced significant challenges when tracking their company’s performance. “We’re not a typical SaaS business, so many ‘standard’ reporting metrics for a SaaS company don’t apply to us. Things like MRR and churn are complex to calculate because we don’t have subscriptions. Being able to report on those as best we can is important for us,” Tom explains.
To track key metrics related to their company and fundraising efforts, the team took the initiative to develop an internal dashboard. However, they soon realized its drawbacks. “We previously built an internal dashboard with key metrics. That was great, but it required developer time to code, and we couldn’t pull data from different sources into it,” he says.
Recognizing the need for better reporting, the team set out to find a solution that was both capable and accessible – a combination they hadn’t found with other tools they tried.
In search of a solution, the team experimented with tools like Google Sheets, Looker Studio, and Baremetrics. However, they quickly realized these tools had limitations – they weren’t flexible enough, couldn’t connect to all the platforms they needed, and made it hard to present the data in an understandable format.
Then, through a simple Google search, they discovered Databox. During their trial, they were impressed. “It seemed pretty easy to create things… non-technical people can manipulate the data, graph it in different ways, and reorganize those dashboards,” Tom says. Databox also worked well with different integrations like SQL and PostgreSQL, giving Raisely the flexibility to pull various data types.
Now, they could gather data from their core platforms, build a more comprehensive view of their company’s performance, and track multiple data points in real-time.
Setting up Databox at Raisely was a team effort. Tom explained, “We had a company retreat with the goal of figuring out what we wanted to track. We worked together for a couple of days to iron everything out.”
Leveraging Databox’s integrations, they managed to bring all of their data under one roof, making it easy to see the full picture of their performance. Tom highlighted their approach, “We pulled in data from our core data sources, like our application, and also from Xero, Google Analytics, etc…to get a better picture across our business. We used SQL queries to look at data from Raisely, and then present it in a user-friendly graph”.
After working together to design their reporting process, Raisely ended up with 10 Dashboards, including the complex, custom calculations they needed to be able to track those traditional SaaS metrics. “We track MRR and churn in Databox. We use Postgres connections and SQL queries to try to calculate those metrics as best as possible,” Tom explains. He added, “It was really interesting because we were able to access data we’ve never seen before.”
To improve transparency and gain real-time insights into their performance, Raisely strategically incorporated Databox into their operations. They connected Databox with Slack, allowing them to receive weekly updates on their performance directly in Slack channels. In case of any anomalies in the data, the team proactively scheduled calls to dive deeper into the key metrics on their dashboards. “We check how many emails we’ve sent and if any bounced. We also track strange transactions. If something doesn’t look right, Databox sends us a message on Slack so we can fix it right away,” Tom explains.
Previously confined to a single dashboard, Raisely now actively uses ten dashboards, offering a 90% increase in accessible and visible data. “Before we would need to think about what to track and when. It would take time before someone would get to it… And now, they already have it all in the dashboards,” Tom explains.
With all their metrics accessible and transparent across the whole team, Raisely is more data-informed in their decision-making and how they gauge progress toward their goals. Tom notes, “It makes us more data-informed as we think about how we want to grow and serve our customers. The data is so accessible.”