Case Study

How ClassDojo Streamlined Revenue Planning with Causal

Learn about ClassDojo's switch to Causal for their cohort-based revenue models.
2 days saved per month
Monthly cohort and scenario modelling in a fraction of the time
Greater confidence in accuracy
Trust in revenue projections and retention metrics (LTV, churn)
More time for product development  
Time freed up to focus on optimizing product and customer experience
Industry
B2C SaaS
Funding
$191M
ClassDojo's vision is to give every kid on earth an education they love. Today, ClassDojo is actively used in over 95% of US schools, reaching +50m kids in +180 countries. Recently featured in Forbes, ClassDojo is now building the best place on the internet for kids.
Technologies

The problem

With no in-house finance team, a new freemium offering (ClassDojo Plus) and a desire to better understand their drivers of growth, ClassDojo’s revenue team was inhibited by Google Sheet’s limitations:

  • Inability to run scenarios -  as ClassDojo tried to add scenarios to their Google Sheets model, the number of calculations multiplied  with each new scenario added, resulting in a slow and overcomplicated model.
  • Difficulty managing cohorts - the ClassDojo team had difficulty managing their customer cohort model in G-Sheets as they tried to track LTV metrics and improve their retention curves. The manual nature of the model meant that the ClassDojo team was spending too much time building models with less confidence
  • No version control - having to update actuals manually and create new versions each time assumptions were updated created confusion and increased risk to ClassDojo’s revenue planning processes

The solution

With ClassDojo’s team eager to learn about their business in data driven and probabilistic ways,  it became essential for them to have the ability to have a model where assumptions could be quickly changed, to add and compare scenarios effortlessly and to share relevant and real-time dashboards and models in logical ways. ClassDojo partnered with Causal to accomplish these goals in a number of ways:

Dynamic revenue modelling and scenario planning

With Causal, the ClassDojo team is able to effortlessly model and analyze multiple revenue lines, each having different characteristics. With each revenue model built as their own model, the team can now analyze projections at a granular and consolidated levels. These projections are then able to be layered in with dynamic scenario functionality so they can understand each case as they solidify their plans.

Automated and accurate cohort modelling

With connected data, easy to use formulas and automated cohort calculations, the ClassDojo team was able to finally gain confidence in their retention curves and metrics as they knew they were modelling in accurate and reliable ways.

Increased collaboration across the business

Causal’s natural language formula syntax and easy-to-follow formulas allowed incoming data science and engineering team members to understand how each component of the revenue model works, and follow how each output traces back to their respective inputs.

The outcome

Revenue planning on autopilot

With Causal’s revenue planning model humming in the background, ClassDojo can spend more time on what matters: building the best customer experience for their fast-growing community of students and their families.

With more time and fewer worries about data accuracy, they are able to free up resources to focus on product strategy and execution.

Better business partnering

With a small team focused on cross-functional collaboration, the ability to ‘de-mystify’ the revenue model with natural syntax language and linked formulas that actually make sense have allowed the product, engineering and data team to work better together as they focus on hitting targets and building ranges of confidence within their financial models.

$191m Raised
“Using Causal, we feel more confident than ever in our revenue planning processes. We're now able to accomplish more, faster, and with tighter collaboration across the business”
Michael Overell
Head of Revenue

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