Acumen.io
Carl spent 15 years in business intelligence, initially crunching numbers for large corporations. He realized that the power of data-driven decision-making shouldn't be limited to business analysts in corporate settings—it should be available to everyone. More importantly, he wanted to embed these insights directly into the applications where decisions were actually being made, not in separate analytics tools.
Around seven years ago, Carl created Kimolayo (now operating as Acumen.io), a building block for any web platform that wants to offer analytics and dashboards to their end customers. The product was designed as a native web component that SaaS companies could plug into their platforms, similar to how companies use Stripe for payments or Auth0 for authentication. The solution connects to customer databases through cloud-first architecture and can integrate with APIs and structured data sources.
Carl conducted large-scale research examining 250 of the top-performing companies on G2 across main categories, analyzing how end users perceived analytical features. The research revealed that 89% of these companies dealt with negative reviews about their analytics implementations. The primary issues were: 61% complained that analytics were too clunky to use, they couldn't find what they needed; second, the data presented wasn't relevant to their decisions; and third, users couldn't configure or edit reports to their preferences. Most SaaS companies treated client-facing analytics as a checkbox item—a cost center rather than a competitive advantage.
Based on customer experiences and research, Carl developed a five-level framework for customer analytics experience (CAXS): Level 1 focuses on getting basics right with general metrics; Level 2 customizes experiences per customer; Level 3 embeds analytics seamlessly into the platform with real-time data; Level 4 adds interactivity and integrates analytics into workflows; Level 5 represents the ultimate goal—proactive, automated insights with full customization freedom. Carl positions this framework as essential for modern SaaS companies, noting that 79% of HubSpot users prefer their own custom reports over templates. He argues that with technological advancement, companies should be at least on Level 3, as client-facing analytics can be the difference between competitive success and extinction.
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