Marketing powerhouse Wunderkind uses Tropic to centralize software and non-software purchases

About Wunderkind

In digital advertising, precision is everything, and Wunderkind knows how to hit the bullseye every time.

Wunderkind is the New York City performance marketing platform that pioneered a new style of targeting, serving up one-to-one marketing experiences via text, email, and social media, based on a user’s real-time and historical browsing behavior.

Founded in 2010, Wunderkind set out to be the world’s leading performance marketing solution. The company achieved an eye-popping $100 million in revenue in just seven years and now counts top retail, publisher, and travel brands as clients. It has 700+ employees and has raised more than $150 million to propel its growth.

The Challenge

Make Wunderkind’s purchasing process as precise as its behavior-based marketing tactics.

Yes, Wunderkind’s marketing approach is built on precision. But behind the scenes, keeping tabs on every supplier and dollar got less precise as the company grew.

Take its purchasing process, for example.

“Procurement and purchasing was sort of a lot of people’s part-time job and no one’s full-time responsibility,” says Nick Zaharchuk, the company’s AVP of Finance. When department heads or others went to negotiate contracts, they didn’t always have enough time or information to properly engage with suppliers. And the company was growing so fast that it didn’t have the resources or expertise to design modern workflows and enforce new policies.

“I always felt like we never quite knew if we were getting good pricing on our agreements. It was kind of a mess,” says Zaharchuk.

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The Solution

Wunderkind chose Tropic as a way to centralize and streamline the management of existing contracts, plus company-wide purchasing moving forward.

Zaharchuk knew the company needed a trusted partner to increase operating efficiencies and decrease spend inefficiencies. The Wunderkind team spent several weeks evaluating all the vendors with a managed services component.

While managed services were important, Zaharchuk was attracted to the underlying software that would help each department enforce spending discipline, best practices, and policy compliance.

For example, renewing 6-figure software contracts wouldn’t follow the same approval or negotiation process as requesting budgetary approval for a marketing event.

Zaharchuk and the Wunderkind team ultimately chose Tropic—and quickly got to work. “The implementation team was fantastic, and there was a ton of value just going through the onboarding exercise of populating the contract table and customizing approval workflows,” he says.

In a few short weeks, the finance team had real-time visibility into every key supplier relationship, purchase request, and upcoming renewal. They could then take a proactive approach to negotiate terms. When department heads wanted to bring on a new supplier, they were armed with insights and support to feel confident they are buying the right tool and getting a good price.

“Having the Tropic platform is so much better,” Zaharchuk says. “Now I know I can log into Tropic and quickly clear out my queue of tasks. I know what’s coming up—which negotiations are in process and where they stand. Having a centralized view is super valuable.”

Tropic serves as the center of purchasing decisions, including non-software categories for requests like marketing spend and hiring contractors.

Within 90 days of going live, Wunderkind has achieved 90%+ platform adoption with 108 requests flowing through Tropic (and counting). The team’s approved savings has already more than paid for the cost of Tropic, meaning that Wunderkind is on track to see a 3X+ return on their investment by the end of 2023.

Not to mention saving countless hours and more than a few headaches tracking down dozens of purchasing queries, existing contracts, negotiation conversations, etc.

“Just to have one URL that we can publish internally and that takes care of any purchase requests saves us a tremendous amount of time,” says Zaharchuk.

The Wunderkind team has found Tropic to be responsive, consultative in their approach, and a true growth partner in building a new procurement process.

“We now have tailored workflows that meet the needs of our purchasing processes, and the proper insights and support from the Tropic platform and team to guide us to good purchasing outcomes,” Zaharchuk says. “Tropic has always been highly invested in our success.”