Metricstory: Helping ecommerce companies find the needle in the data haystack

The idea for Metricstory sprang to life when co-founders Joshua Gebhardt and Brandon Nutter were working together for a Google Analytics consulting firm.

As they worked to help managers and directors at Fortune 500 companies get their heads around all the data coming in, they noticed large amounts of this data going unused.

“We began to understand that the problem was two-fold. First, it’s complex and hard to solve. Data science is tricky,” explains Gebhardt.

“And second, it comes down to speed. We looked around at the tools we had available at the time and didn’t have something that could keep up with the amount of data coming in. So we asked ourselves, ‘Wouldn’t it be awesome if we had tech that could catch everything and deliver simple, digestible insights so companies can actually grow their revenue with data-backed solutions?'”

Next up in ClickZ’s martech company of the week, get to know Metricstory. A Seattle-based software company, they have a mission of helping ecommerce companies make the most of their data and their dollars.

We chatted with one of the founders, Joshua, to learn a bit more about what the company is up to.

ClickZ: First, tell us a bit about what Metricstory does

Joshua Gebhardt: Metricstory is an intelligent analytics solution for ecommerce companies that discovers unrealized revenue opportunities in Google Analytics and Google Ads data.

It uncovers where money is being left on the table across all products, categories, email and ad campaigns, channels, devices, and landing pages. Teams utilizing Metricstory are supercharged with timely and relevant alerts, allowing them to make quick, evidence-backed, revenue-generating decisions.

In short, we have the ability to show ecommerce companies where they’re burning their money, help teams understand the story of their data, and develop better revenue-driving decisions as a result.

CZ: Where did the idea for Metricstory come from?

JG: My cofounder, Brandon Nutter, and I were working for a Google Analytics consulting firm and were regularly noticing how much data was going unused after a complex implementation.

We saw people flailing and struggling. We saw people not able to use their data to make informed decisions and decided to build software to fix that.

What value does data bring if it’s sitting unused or too cumbersome to sift through?

Metricstory was born from this idea, with the hope of making analytics more accessible, approachable, and meaningful for businesses. We started dreaming about it when we saw the effects of too much data coming in too fast; if we could stop time, our customers wouldn’t need Metricstory.

But of course we can’t, so by letting machines handle the heavy analysis and shine a light on the most important pieces, Metricstory helps teams understand their data, allowing them to better serve their customers.

And that’s our main goal: helping our customers serve their customers.

We know our customers don’t do what they do because they love data and performance analytics. We wanted to get our clients back to doing what they’re good at without worrying about understanding complex data.

CZ: What kind of impact would Metricstory have if a company were to implement it tomorrow?

JG: We have a simple, no-IT integration and typically have customers up and running on solutions within a week of receiving access to their data. Customers begin uncovering issues and opportunities immediately.

Our inefficient ad spend reporting can look at the prior twelve months, allowing for immediate correction, often resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in lift.

Ongoing value is delivered through weekly and daily alerts, top-down reporting with the ability to dig into granular insights, simple collaboration within Metricstory for internal and external stakeholders, and huge time savings for analysts.

CZ: What would you say are the biggest problems you solve for your customers?

JG: We help ecommerce teams cut through the noise in their data, surfacing only the most relevant, impactful, and specific insights so that their time can be focused on revenue generation instead of digging through immense amounts of data.

We wanted to help companies not just find the needle in the haystack, but find the needle in stacks of haystacks. In doing this, we wanted to build a user-friendly, simple dashboard, rid of flashy graphs and images that only add clutter.

Through this, we show customers specific data-driven insights on what’s doing well, what’s underperforming, and where they really should be focusing their efforts and dollars.

CZ: Makes sense. And what do you see as your biggest challenges moving into 2019?

JG: As our customers — and, in tandem, their customers — demand change and enhanced AI technology in the ecommerce space, hiring engineering and development talent to outpace these demands is our most anticipated challenge.

As we continue to grow Metricstory, and as AI continues to evolve in the ecommerce space, it’s critical to have the right talent on our team to continue serving our customers with unmatched, revenue-driving insights to their business.

CZ: So what are you doing to prepare?

JG: Metricstory is continuing to grow a network of talented engineers, sales leaders, and marketers to cultivate our team’s culture and values as we develop a fascinating new vertical in the analytics space.

This complex innovation, and the excitement we all share for the product and how it empowers our customers, will hopefully help us continue to attract some of the best engineering, AI/ML talent out there.

CZ: Who do you look to for insight and guidance as Metricstory grows?

JG: We’ve been fortunate enough to work with great venture capitalists at Elementum, Seven Peaks, and Birchmere. These VC relationships have led to the creation of our Board which is filled with talented and experienced individuals whom we look up to greatly.

Our Board consists of engineers, marketers, past founders, CEOs, and more. This grants us a diverse set of expertise and knowledge that we can lean on for guidance, examples, and insight.

Quick Facts

Employees: 16

Customers: 28

Year founded: 2015

Headquarters: Seattle

Martech landscape Ccategory: Automated Business Optimization (New Category)

Number of competitors: 2

Check out customer success stories and case studies here and a short, side-by-side video of Metricstory vs. Google Analytics here.