Case Study
User Growth Strategy Project
Business Context
Denim is a New Jersey-based invoice factoring software startup. Its platform and API allows freight brokers to exchange receivable invoices for cash, providing liquidity and enabling them to secure carrier capacity.
As a part of their growth strategy, Denim planned to create several integrations with Transportation Management Systems (aka ‘TMS’, software used to book and manage shipments). To support that strategy, I was tasked with creating a integration strategy which could help the company grow the proportion of users in the 'mid-size' broker segment ($900k to $6 Million in Annual Gross Revenue) which in turn would boost revenue.
After preliminary research, it became clear that public data about TMS user base composition and broker revenue is almost non-existent. I needed to come up with creative/indirect measures to indicate high-value, so I used a combination of several research strategies to identify 'high-value’ integration partners, each of which is described below.
As a part of their growth strategy, Denim planned to create several integrations with Transportation Management Systems (aka ‘TMS’, software used to book and manage shipments). To support that strategy, I was tasked with creating a integration strategy which could help the company grow the proportion of users in the 'mid-size' broker segment ($900k to $6 Million in Annual Gross Revenue) which in turn would boost revenue.
After preliminary research, it became clear that public data about TMS user base composition and broker revenue is almost non-existent. I needed to come up with creative/indirect measures to indicate high-value, so I used a combination of several research strategies to identify 'high-value’ integration partners, each of which is described below.
Research Strategies
STRATEGY #1: Identify TMSs by proportion of customers in the mid-market segment
Using Gartner user review data, I grouped potential integration platforms by reported company revenue (that is, the revenue of the company that the user is associated with) – a very rough measure for identifying the target user segment for each platform and by extension, potential ‘high value’ integration partners
STRATEGY #2: High-growth broker segment based strategy
Since rapid growth could be a motivation to look for liquidity solutions, this strategy focused on identifying the fastest growing brokers and then identifying the TMS that they are using. If any TMS is commonly used, that could be an additional indicator of a ‘high-value’ integration partner. Although the research didn’t identify a commonly used TMS, it did reveal that most high-growth brokers use a proprietary TMS rather than an off-the-shelf solution.
STRATEGY #3: Secondary research based strategy
Although public broker size/revenue is hard to come by, this research was focused on analyzing industry reports based on private data. This research highlighted three TMSs with user bases with a significant portion of their user base concentrated in the mid sized to enterprise size segment.
STRATEGY #4: Employee count as a proxy for broker size
Another proxy for company size is employee count, so for this strategy, I leveraged company size data from customer review platforms to get a picture of the customer size distribution for each TMS of interest. This research revealed three potential ‘high-value’ integration partners with at least 30% of their their customer base in the ‘mid-size’ range.
Key Outcomes
After collecting data through the research strategies described above, the data was synthesized into a series of recommendations:
1. Refined list of Low/High-Value Integration Partners. TMS platforms that were tentatively on Denim’s integration roadmap were removed after research revealed they did not have a user base aligned with the team’s goals. Additionally, TMS platforms that were aligned but not included on the roadmap were added.
2. Alternative, iPaas Based Solution. Since the core motivation for the integration strategy was user growth, I also recommended integration with an Integration-Platform-as-a-Service (iPaas) to dramatically reduce development cost, grant access to a very large user base AND give non-technical customers the ability to access the platform’s capabilities without any development work.
1. Refined list of Low/High-Value Integration Partners. TMS platforms that were tentatively on Denim’s integration roadmap were removed after research revealed they did not have a user base aligned with the team’s goals. Additionally, TMS platforms that were aligned but not included on the roadmap were added.
2. Alternative, iPaas Based Solution. Since the core motivation for the integration strategy was user growth, I also recommended integration with an Integration-Platform-as-a-Service (iPaas) to dramatically reduce development cost, grant access to a very large user base AND give non-technical customers the ability to access the platform’s capabilities without any development work.
These recommendations led to the decision to prioritize integration with Zapier, an industry leading productivity iPaas, and has contributed to its dramatic revenue growth in 2 years.
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