Compa grows confidently on Equals
“
I hate being blocked from decision-making because of missing data. Moving to Equals has given me peace of mind: now I have all my core metrics always up to date in one place. And everyone familiar with Excel can answer their questions by creating reports from raw data in seconds.
—
Matthäus Kerres
Co-founder
Discovering the opportunity
Compa helps architects focus on their craft and leave the cost management to the experts. They’re a vertical software system that offers workflow management and a plethora of templates to run a professional architecture firm. Looking for guidance on how to optimize their ARR forecasting, Matt came across the Figma template announcement on LinkedIn and decided to explore Equals.
Prior to Equals, Matt had set up a Snowflake account and was spending time downloading information from the database and pasting it into spreadsheets for reporting and data analysis purposes. “After getting Snowflake set up, I knew that I needed a more scalable way of extracting insights. I started out trying Mode and Metabase, but was always unhappy with the flexibility when it came to answering ad-hoc questions about user activity. I constantly found myself downloading data directly from Snowflake and pasting it into an Excel file. To get around this issue, I connected to Segment and built a reverse ETL into Google Sheets. The problem with this was that whenever I added a column or wanted to change something, everything in my sheets would break. Equals solved that issue, I can now run reports on live data in a spreadsheet.”
Prior to Equals, Matt had set up a Snowflake account and was spending time downloading information from the database and pasting it into spreadsheets for reporting and data analysis purposes. “After getting Snowflake set up, I knew that I needed a more scalable way of extracting insights. I started out trying Mode and Metabase, but was always unhappy with the flexibility when it came to answering ad-hoc questions about user activity. I constantly found myself downloading data directly from Snowflake and pasting it into an Excel file. To get around this issue, I connected to Segment and built a reverse ETL into Google Sheets. The problem with this was that whenever I added a column or wanted to change something, everything in my sheets would break. Equals solved that issue, I can now run reports on live data in a spreadsheet.”
Implementing changes
Since getting started, Matt has not only customized the Figma template to fit his business needs, but he also built out several workbooks with all key company metrics: tracking funnel, marketing ad spend, conversion rates, and more. The team at Compa also uses Equals to run experiments to better understand how conversion rates change over time as they adjust certain values or messaging.Favorite feature: “There’s nothing like live data in a familiar format — you connect once and then don't have to worry about anything. I also have to say that the graphs look really nice. I love the UI in the product, it makes me want to share our dashboards with our team and stakeholders.”
Unlocking growth
What originally started as a way to make recurring reporting more efficient and accurate, has also evolved into creating specialized dashboards for less technical teammates. At Compa, they’ve set up a workbook to serve as an in-depth CRM for their support team. Support members can log into Equals and type the name of a client into a cell, then watch as all of the relevant data filters through. This has allowed them to become more personalized in their interactions, and has unveiled data previously inaccessible to these users.
But don’t take our word for it. Matt says, “There’s a lot of stress when it comes to reporting. I used to constantly chase down who was presenting certain information, how they were pulling their analyses, and whether the data displayed was up to date. There’s nothing worse than being in a meeting where a decision should be made, that ends up tabled because the metrics aren’t right. Even little things, like worrying about granting access to Snowflake, add up. The night before our weekly metrics meeting was always a pain – wasting time updating views and taking screenshots or even redoing some of the spreadsheet work. Those 30 minutes a week I can now spend working on creating value for our architects. The stress is all gone.”
But don’t take our word for it. Matt says, “There’s a lot of stress when it comes to reporting. I used to constantly chase down who was presenting certain information, how they were pulling their analyses, and whether the data displayed was up to date. There’s nothing worse than being in a meeting where a decision should be made, that ends up tabled because the metrics aren’t right. Even little things, like worrying about granting access to Snowflake, add up. The night before our weekly metrics meeting was always a pain – wasting time updating views and taking screenshots or even redoing some of the spreadsheet work. Those 30 minutes a week I can now spend working on creating value for our architects. The stress is all gone.”
