B2B SaaS · publishing platform 2024–2026 Sole marketing leader

2 pie charts that built a Customer Success function in 30 days

Building the case for someone to own retention

Executive summary

What existed

Paperturn had analytics dashboards. They didn’t tell us what to do; they were just there. There was no way to see where revenue concentrated, which segment carried the business, or whether any segment deserved a dedicated function. No Customer Success function had ever existed at the company.

What I built

A revenue-concentration analysis on the active customer book (4,153 accounts) segmented by usage-limit clusters (1–5 / 5–10 / 15+ publications). Two pie charts side by side: share of accounts and share of revenue. The 15+ cluster carried 39% of revenue on 9.4% of accounts.

What changed

~30 days from analysis presentation to operating CS function

+15% enterprise revenue growth · year following

Where the revenue concentrates

I pulled the active customer book as of early 2025 (4,153 accounts) and segmented by usage-limit clusters — 1–5 publications, 5–10, and 15+. For each cluster, two numbers: share of total accounts and share of total revenue. Same data, same denominator on both, presented side by side as pie charts.

Account share vs. revenue share by tier Two donut charts side by side, same 4,153-account denominator. Pie 1 (account share): Tier 1 67.5%, Tier 2 23.0%, Tier 3 9.4%. Pie 2 (revenue share): Tier 1 30%, Tier 2 31%, Tier 3 39%. Tier 3 is highlighted in Nordic navy on both pies. Pie 1 · accounts Share of accounts 9.4% Tier 3 share Pie 2 · revenue Share of revenue 39% Tier 3 share same data opposite shape Tier 1 · 1–5 publications Accounts: 67.5% · Revenue: 30% Tier 2 · 5–10 publications Accounts: 23.0% · Revenue: 31% Tier 3 · 15+ publications Accounts: 9.4% · Revenue: 39% n = 4,153 active accounts · early 2025
Same 4,153-account denominator, opposite shape. Tier 3 is the smallest slice on the left and the largest on the right — that asymmetry is the case for the Customer Success function.

Tier 3 carries 39% of revenue on 9.4% of accounts. Two pies, same data, opposite shapes: that’s the visual that made the case for a Customer Success function.

Not “every SaaS company has one.” The argument: there is a small, identifiable customer segment carrying ~39% of revenue, and nobody’s job is to keep them.

What happened next

Presented to leadership in January 2025. Within ~30 days, the Customer Success function was operational. Dan Rees was reassigned from Sales (responsible for ARR) to Customer Success (responsible for NRR), mandate scoped against the Tier 3 concentration the analysis surfaced. In the year following, enterprise accounts grew +15% in yearly revenue.

Causation, honestly

The analysis arrived first, the hire arrived second, the lift arrived third. Sequence is verifiable. Causal weight is partial: enterprise growth in 2025–26 also reflects product changes, market dynamics, and the maturing sales motion. What I can defensibly claim is that the analysis created the conditions for the hire. There was no Customer Success function before, and no business case for one before the data named the segment to focus on.

What persists

The Customer Success function is still operating. Dan Rees is still CS Lead and has hired a part-timer to extend coverage. The Tier 3 / Denmark / Pro segment remains the flagship retention focus in the book.