BROADCASTS.com

When it comes to FP&A data, WP Engine CFO David Brolsma is an open book. \u201cWe make a data visualization tool called \u2018Looker\u2019 available to all of our employees,\u201d reports the veteran tech executive. \u201cWe\u2019re an open book company, so all employees can see almost all of the same performance data points that I see.\u201d

At the Austin-based start-up that provides developer-centric WordPress products for companies and agencies of all sizes, Brolsma and his extended team keep their eyes on the crucial metric of market share growth, as well as on customer retention, churn, daily active users, and other software-as-a service (SaaS) measures.

Brolsma helped used a Dutch auction to take Rackspace public in 2008, just before the global economic crisis hit. The fanatical customer support he learned at that cloud computing pioneer proved valuable in helping WP Engine\u2019s customers to navigate the extreme uncertainty brought about by the global pandemic throughout 2020. \u201cCOVID was impacting a lot of our customers, especially in industries like travel and hospitality,\u201d Brolsma confides, \u201cso we decided to talk to them to figure out how we could best be of help.\u201d

Despite WP Engine\u2019s own COVID-related budget cuts and spending constraints, the company eventually offered credits to distressed customers. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to make this kind of decision,\u201d Brolsma adds, \u201cbut now our customer retention is off the charts\u2014like nothing we\u2019ve ever seen before.\u201d\xa0\u2013Eric Krell