Modus

What do they actually do

Modus is an early-stage SaaS tool that connects a company’s HR and sales systems (HRIS, ATS, Salesforce, and spreadsheets) to continuously spot people-related issues that cause revenue to slip, like slower-than-planned ramps, territory coverage gaps, or compensation outliers. It presents a single capacity view, surfaces AI-generated alerts (e.g., "revenue gap," ramp diagnostics, OTE benchmarks), and shows underlying drivers so leaders don’t have to reconcile spreadsheets or reports manually (site).

Customers typically run a hands-on demo/pilot where they connect data sources, review standardized ramp/comp benchmarks against internal and external data, inspect flagged issues, and take recommended actions (e.g., adjust hiring timing or territory coverage). The product emphasizes request-access demos rather than self-serve signups, suggesting it’s in pilot/early commercial rollout. Modus is a YC Summer 2024 company founded in 2024 with a small team (YC, site).

Who are their target customer(s)

• VP / Head of Sales: Needs early visibility into whether ramp, coverage, or comp assumptions will jeopardize the plan; today, gaps are discovered late because performance is scattered across spreadsheets/CRM instead of one capacity view (site).
• Head of RevOps: Spends time reconciling inconsistent ramp assumptions and comp benchmarks; lacks proactive signals (slipped ramps, coverage gaps, out‑of‑market OTEs) to fix plans before revenue is lost (site).
• Head of Finance / FP&A: Must link hiring/ramp timing to revenue and justify headcount spend; limited scenario modeling leads to over‑ or under‑hiring and forecast risk (site, YC).
• Head of HR / Talent Acquisition: Manages openings, backfills, and time‑to‑hire without clear signals on which roles/cohorts drive near‑term revenue impact, making prioritization difficult (site).
• Frontline Sales Manager: Needs to quickly distinguish normal ramp variation from coaching needs or cohort‑level issues; diagnosis is slow without integrated, role‑level signals (site).

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Run focused, founder‑led pilots via YC and founder networks. Do tight integrations into HRIS/ATS/CRM, measure a small KPI set (ramp time, coverage gaps, revenue impact), and convert wins into case studies/testimonials (YC, site).
• First 50: Productize onboarding based on pilot learnings. Use targeted outbound to VP Sales/RevOps/Finance at companies actively hiring; sell a defined pilot‑to‑production package with prebuilt connectors, a fixed SOW for onboarding, and a short ROI sprint to de‑risk implementation (site, Modus blog).
• First 100: Scale via RevOps consultancies and HRIS/ATS partners/marketplaces; publish benchmarks, webinars, and a packaged “30‑day capacity check” to drive inbound demos and warm leads (site).

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Near‑term, Modus fits the workforce planning/workforce analytics categories, which are each ~low‑single‑digit billions: workforce planning tools are estimated around $1.5B in 2024, and workforce analytics around $1.8B–$2.1B mid‑2020s (VMR, TBRC, GVR analytics). Adjacent expansion into broader workforce management and RevOps/sales platforms points to larger markets; workforce management alone was ~$8B in 2022 with a double‑digit CAGR to 2030 (GVR WFM).

Bottom-up calculation:

A practical U.S. prospect pool is firms with 100+ employees (~166,964), or ~318,943 if including 50–99 employees—segments that typically have RevOps/Finance/HR buyers for this category. Multiply targeted firm counts by segment ACVs to build SAM/SOM (NAICS counts).

Assumptions:

• Initial SAM focuses on companies with 100+ employees and dedicated RevOps/Finance/HR functions.
• ACVs scale by size/integration scope; pricing not public yet, so model ranges by segment.
• Published market figures overlap; treat workforce planning as the conservative baseline TAM and others as expansions.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Anaplan: Enterprise planning platform used for headcount, cost, and sales planning. Overlaps in linking headcount to financials and scenarios; heavier EPM stack vs. Modus’s focused sales capacity/revenue‑gap diagnostics.
• Workday Adaptive Planning: Workforce and financial planning within Workday. Broad enterprise suite and EPM workflows; Modus positions on faster sales‑capacity alerts (ramp, coverage, comp) on top of HR/CRM data.
• ChartHop: People‑ops platform for org charts, headcount planning, and ATS/HRIS integrations. HR‑centric collaboration vs. Modus’s RevOps/Finance‑oriented revenue risk alerts.
• Visier: People analytics/workforce planning with predictive HR insights and an AI analyst. Broader HR analytics focus vs. Modus’s sales capacity diagnostics tied to revenue outcomes.
• Clari: RevOps and forecasting platform centered on pipeline/deal intelligence. Clari focuses on deal flow and forecast accuracy; Modus focuses on headcount/ramp/hiring timing as capacity drivers.