Looking for trustworthy ARR
Descript is on a mission to make video a cornerstone of everyone's "communication toolkit" by making video editing as easy and accessible as editing a doc.
On the heels of rapid growth across their B2B and B2C businesses, Descript increasingly needed a single source of truth for their revenue reporting. The goal: align a growing range of stakeholders—product, marketing, and finance—on initiatives that would move the needle.
At the time, Descript relied on Stripe for all billing, payments, and subscriptions and used a third-party tool to extract Stripe data for revenue reporting. However, they faced major hurdles when it came to operationalizing this data. Firstly, it was impossible to customize business logic for the components of ARR (like churn, restarts, and expansion) to align with the way Descript viewed its own business. Secondly, existing tools lacked the flexibility for deep data exploration to better understand customer behavior and revenue growth over time.
As Ibrahim Cisse, VP of Finance at Descript shares, "There were just far too many limitations on how we could view our business. We were flying blind." Recognizing the need for a solution that would give back control over their own business metrics, Descript turned to Equals.
Achieving accuracy in reporting
The Descript team quickly connected to Stripe using Equals' intuitive point-and-click integration. They then began modeling raw Stripe data according to their unique business logic using Equals' SQL editor and flexible spreadsheet interface.
“Before Equals, I had to write specific queries in Stripe Sigma, download a CSV, and transform it in Excel,” shares Ibrahim. “Now, thanks to Equals, I can run and schedule queries and perform all transformations in one connected flow.”
With direct access to row-level data, Descript gained the ability to explore ARR drivers with ease: “I can segment based on any customer attribute and build cohort analyses to dig deeper into revenue growth,” Ibrahim explains. “With just a few clicks, I have all that information at my fingertips.”
Alongside Equals' technical capabilities, Descript found immense value in the partnership it offered. “Having partners who specialize in finance and understand Stripe’s data and our business was a huge unlock,” says Ibrahim. “Getting ARR from 0 to 97% is somewhat easy; getting from 97% to 100% is extremely hard. That’s where Equals Experts were invaluable.”
“Equals really thinks about how to go from raw data to insightful, live dashboards all in one place,” notes Ibrahim. “Instead of sending a classic deck for board meetings, I now just share our Equals ARR dashboard with a high level of confidence.”
Leveraging Equals for all growth metrics
Descript is taking the next step with their newfound insights: "Our data team is leveraging the work we've done with Equals to replicate that logic in BigQuery," shares Ibrahim. "Our plan is to pipe everything from BigQuery into Equals to build all of our reporting. We're going to leverage Equals even more going forward."
In parallel, the team is exploring other ways to unlock efficiencies with Equals. "Equals integrates with pretty much everything," attests Ibrahim. "It was super easy to connect to Quickbooks: we went from an extensive process with multiple downloads and custom formulas to one-click accounting consolidation across all our subsidiaries."
As Descript continues to grow, Equals will be a strategic partner every step of the way.