Karbon Case Study
“We rebuilt the billing system about three times at my previous company. I never, ever, want to change billing systems at Karbon, so we chose Zuora when we founded the company. Our very first dollar was earned through Zuora and, hopefully, our hundred millionth dollar will be earned through Zuora, too.” – Stuart McLeod, Founder and CEO of Karbon
Karbon is a workstream collaboration platform that ensures workflow visibility for growing teams and enterprises.
Karbon invested in Zuora at inception in order to steer clear of any potential future billing system challenges.
With Zuora, Karbon has the flexibility to design product packages and prices that integrate seamlessly with payments to optimize the customer experience—and a solid foundation on which to grow.
Growth at Karbon has more than doubled every year since 2014, and the company is now expanding outside its foundational vertical—accounting—into other industries.
“Initially, we didn’t allow purchases on the website; we just formed quotes for customers to view. Now the product catalog is published on our website, subscriptions are available for purchase, and the API is extensively integrated. Everything you do in Zuora is reflected on our company website.” – Stuart McLeod, Founder and CEO of Karbon
Karbon is an advanced workstream collaboration platform that integrates email and other work applications to ensure visibility across teams, departments, and geographic locations. The business was developed in response to the “always-on economy,” whereby work teams are increasingly cross-functional, geographically dispersed, yet still collaborating in real time.
When it was founded in 2014, Karbon insisted on investing in Zuora’s billing and subscription solutions right out of the gate, knowing that the quality and flexibility of Zuora’s products would allow them to grow their business quickly and in any direction. Karbon Founder and CEO Stuart McLeod had been burned before, having to rebuild the billing system multiple times at his previous company, so he insisted on starting with a solid billing foundation to avoid future problems.
Says McLeod, “We made the decision at startup to forego spreadsheets and invest in Zuora. I have no regrets. I value the product and it’s a very core part of our stack now.”
Zuora has helped to streamline the entire order-to-revenue process. For example, whereas initially they didn’t allow purchases on the website, now “Zuora gives us the flexiblity to be able to think about how to create a product catalog of services that the customer can easily select and pay for online, which then seamlessly integrates into our system to trigger all the backend things that have to happen from order to revenue,” according to McLeod.
With Zuora, Karbon has seen growth more than double every year since start up. Zuora provides Karbon with the necessary flexibility to design product packages and pricing around the needs of new customers that will integrate seamlessly with the company’s payment system as the company continues to grow.
Karbon initially targeted the accounting and finance industries—and enjoyed good market penetration. But it wasn’t getting the growth velocity that it wanted within that niche. With the deeper systems integration and greater automation provided by Zuora, Karbon has been able to extend its business into new markets.
As they branch out to larger businesses and different industries, Karbon continues to rely on the Zuora system.
“I look forward to growing into more of Zuora’s product stack. Soon enough, hopefully, we’ll be growing into some of the management and churn management products,” said McLeod. “I’m always espousing the virtues of Zuora. I’m happy to be a customer.”
"We made the decision at startup to forego spreadsheets and invest in Zuora...we have no regrets. I value the product and it's a very core part of our stack now." - Stuart McLeod, Founder and CEO of Karbon
