Pilot vs. Zeni: How SparkPlug Went Beyond the Dashboard

Meet Andrew and SparkPlug

Andrew Duffy, Co-Founder and CEO of SparkPlug, is on a mission to transform the way hourly workers are rewarded. After meeting his cofounder at Harvard, the pair created SparkPlug as a solution to help drive positive economic change. As a “behavioral science nerd turned finance nerd turned startup nerd,” Duffy has led SparkPlug through significant growth and development, including their Series A in November of 2022.

A B2B/SaaS performance incentive software platform, SparkPlug rewards top-performing retail salespeople with actual cash via gamified commissions, contests, and goals.

Struggling to find a reliable accountant

Initially, SparkPlug tried getting their accounting needs met by rotating through a number of solutions—alternating between an individual bookkeeper and Zeni, an external accounting platform. “[Zeni’s dashboards] felt really important when I was first setting up Zeni, because I think there's this idealized view of the founder with all their dashboards with perfect visibility into everything in the business. In reality, the dashboard is only as good as the data that's in it,” said Duffy.

They quickly found that their unique business model wasn’t captured by Zeni’s one-size-fits-all approach: “We’re consistently dealing with flows of dollars that are not necessarily revenue, but need to be appropriately treated in our financial controls.”

Zeni had a templated approach that wasn't working... our business didn't fit 100% into the mold of templated businesses that a platform like that can work with. It became clear to me that what I really needed at the core was good reporting functionality that I could use to make sure that my board and I knew exactly what was going on in the business.

Duffy simply wasn’t able to get the insights he needed from Zeni, and found that he was often fighting against the assumptions made by the Zeni software tool.

"With Zeni, we really felt the lack of individual bespoke support to fill in the cracks of what the software tool couldn't do,” he said. “Consistently, there just wasn't anyone who could take in my description of the business and put it into the output in a way that really tracked. That was my biggest struggle with their platform and was a big reason why I left."

Finding a partner that could keep up

Switching to Pilot was an important change for Duffy and SparkPlug. Pilot’s dedicated team of experts, powered by its bespoke software tools, were able to finally get him what he needed. Every business is unique, and in Pilot, Duffy had found a partner that could actually tailor a solution to his needs.

Pilot has really stuck for us as the first service that has effectively combined platform and self-service accessibility while also having individualized bookkeeping and accounting support from actual people you can interface with, and who have learned more about your business so that they can really understand what's going on with it.

Pilot’s impact: More time to focus on the business and full confidence in the numbers

Since switching to Pilot from Zeni, SparkPlug has seen the payoff they’d hoped for:

• Many hours saved on operating and reporting: Pilot significantly streamlined SparkPlug’s financial reporting, making it easier to communicate financial health and runway to both internal and external stakeholders. “Pilot has definitely made the reporting and bookkeeping process significantly easier for me,” said Duffy. “I feel much more confident in our financial reporting and tracking cadence without me having to do a crazy amount of work.”
• Improved financial decision-making: With Pilot handling bookkeeping and accurate financials, the SparkPlug team can focus on strategic decisions without getting bogged down in day-to-day operational details. “We’ve seen areas of the business that aren’t really providing us the value that we want them to and have reoriented our strategy around trying to spend elsewhere.” he adds.‍
• A vetted extension of their team: “The availability and proactivity of our dedicated account people has been really great. Andrea is awesome.” This personalized attention has not only streamlined SparkPlug’s financial processes but also enhanced their overall operating confidence since switching from Zeni. "[Zeni’s communication] was a little bit haphazard. They didn't really have a tight grasp of what factors were relevant to me. That was a challenge. There wasn't really a dedicated resource."

Why Pilot?

“Pilot’s combination of personalized and scalable service has been a great fit for us.” For SparkPlug, the choice to partner with Pilot over other platforms came down to Pilot’s ability to offer both a scalable solution and responsive, productive support. The alignment between Pilot’s service model and SparkPlug’s complex needs made it a standout choice.

“I feel like we have somebody at the business who understands us. I can also see how Pilot has been built to scale,” which will help as SparkPlug continues to grow.