How Knock increases revenue, expands TAM, and builds customer trust with Orb

Knock is a notification system that helps businesses scale their notifications system without the hassle of building an in-house tool.

Pain Points

Managing Knock’s usage-based billing manually became untenable after its public launch and rapid growth. Building an in-house solution would require time and resources the team just didn’t have.

Solution

The team outsourced their billing infrastructure to Orb and has seen dramatic improvements because the process no longer requires manual work—invoices are automatically created based on customer usage and sent out on time. Customers have a better, more transparent experience, and the Knock team can get products to market six months faster.

Key Points

• Manual billing became impossible to keep up with when Knock’s public launch was successful
• Stripe didn’t meet their needs for a flexible billing solution, so they turned to Orb
• With Orb, invoices are created automatically and the team can experiment with new and custom billing plans
• Knock saved 6 months of engineering time by deciding not to build a billing solution

Knock’s notifications-as-a-service platform uses a usage-based billing model, charging its customers for the volume of notifications sent each month.

However, usage-based pricing comes with a handful of challenges: metering usage data, managing upgrades across different usage tiers, and creating an intuitive invoice for customers.

When Knock co-founders Sam Seely and Chris Bell started the company, billing customers was a manual, arduous process that required looking up each customer’s monthly volume and adjusting invoices. While manageable during the company’s beta phase, billing became untenable after its public launch, when its customer base grew dramatically. Sam and Chris considered building an in-house solution but decided it would require time and resources the team didn’t have.

So, they decided to outsource their billing infrastructure. They considered using Stripe, but it couldn't handle many of Knock’s billing needs, like per-customer adjustments, support for different billing providers, and modeling complex product offerings. After evaluating several solutions, Knock decided to partner with Orb.

Knock’s billing process has improved dramatically with Orb, most noticeably because it no longer requires manual work. The team saves time because invoices are automatically created and sent out on time based on customer usage.

Delivering a better billing experience to customers

Knock customers get a better experience with Orb’s interactive invoices, where they have better visibility into the value they’re receiving and can see how their price aligns with the value they get from Knock.

On the backend, Orb also helps Knock test out pricing when customers request new features. The process with Orb is easy for the team to manage on a per-customer basis—they can set up trials, add discounts, and override existing pricing plans.

Getting to market six months faster

With Orb, the Knock team gets to market faster. In fact, the team saved six months of engineering time by implementing Orb instead of building an in-house billing solution. They also have more flexibility to launch new pricing plans and strategies. And, with the option to test out new plans and customize each plan on a per-customer basis, they deliver value to customers more quickly.