#118 Inside RevOps at a $100M+ ARR Consumption-Based Business – with Markus Jaensch, Head of RevOps at Aiven

Markus Jaensch, Head of RevOps at Aiven, joins Janis and Philipp to unpack what consumption-based pricing actually means for a RevOps team running a $100M+ ARR business. Aiven — the open-source data platform behind managed Kafka, Postgres, OpenSearch, and ClickHouse — recently crossed $100M ARR, and Markus walks through how the forecasting model, comp design, and territory setup have evolved over 4.5 years to deal with the fundamental problem of consumption: a "win" doesn't equal revenue, and the next 12 months can swing either direction.We cover:Why consumption ARR is structurally harder to forecast than SaaS bookingsWhy Aiven moved away from pure ARR forecasting and back to bookings + finance-modeled ARRThe three forecast buckets: new business, add-on, and commit contractsUsing MEDDPICC with mandatory mutual success plans and CRM score as a red-flag signalT-shirt sizing (S/M/L/XL) with solution architects to anchor opportunity sizeThe two non-negotiables to close-won at Aiven: valid payment method + 3 consecutive days of consumptionWhy RevOps owns the close-won gate — and the tradeoff of being a controlling functionThe Farmer/Hunter evolution: from split, to mixed, to dedicated Inside Sales + named-territory Field repsComp design: bookings as a sanity metric, ARR as the paid metric, with new-ARR ramp-to-sizeStack: Salesforce + data warehouse, and why Aiven switched from spot ARR to a 30-day averageBuilding the process around the customer first, not internal convenienceMarkus Jaensch on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markus-jaensch/Aiven: https://aiven.ioWeflow: https://www.weflow.aiRevOps Chat Community: https://www.weflow.ai/communityRevOps Letter: https://www.weflow.ai/revopsletterJanis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janiszechPhilipp on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippstelzerBook recommendation: The Café on the Edge of the World by John StreleckyChapters:(00:00:00) Intro & Welcome to Markus(00:02:14) Why Consumption ARR Is the Topic — and Aiven Crossing $100M(00:03:39) Why Consumption ARR Is So Hard to Forecast(00:08:30) Bookings vs. ARR Forecasting — and Aiven's Evolution(00:12:53) MEDDPICC, Mutual Success Plans & Deal Hygiene(00:16:21) T-Shirt Sizing with Solution Architects(00:18:01) The 3-Day Consumption Rule for Close-Won(00:22:28) Modeling the ARR Ramp After a Booking(00:26:27) The Farmer/Hunter Evolution & Inside Sales Motion(00:29:37) Comp Design: Bookings, ARR, and Ramp-to-Size(00:31:00) Stack: Salesforce, Data Warehouse & 30-Day Average ARR(00:34:34) Final Learnings on Consumption Forecasting(00:36:29) The Customer-First Principle(00:38:02) Book Recommendation & Close