About Connectd

Connectd is a people-first platform that connects startups and scaleups with experienced fractional executives and strategic advisors.

Powered by AI-driven matching, Connectd pairs companies with the right operators at the right time. The platform helps startups access senior leadership to scale faster, while enabling experienced executives to build flexible, high-impact fractional careers.

Founded in 2019, Connectd has enabled 10,000+ connections across the UK and US, supporting both sides of the ecosystem at critical growth moments.

Connectd operates a dual-sided business model.

On one side, advisors and fractional C-level leaders join Connectd through a paid membership. Members access curated opportunities, learning resources, mentorship, and a strong peer network.

On the other side, Connectd for Startups supports startups and scaleups from pre-revenue to Series B. The offer is a seat-based subscription, with 1-2 year commitments, often including pro bono executive placements for up to six months.

A fragmented finance stack holding back scale

Spyros joined Connectd in 2024 to lead the Finance team, with a clear mandate: support the company’s next growth stage and build a finance stack that could scale with new business and operational complexity.

Connectd has always been sales-led, driven by a fast-growing sales team expected to reach nearly 60 sales reps in 2025. But the finance stack Spyros inherited was not designed for that reality. Billing was handled through Stripe Billing, while payments were split between Stripe and GoCardless—a setup better suited to a self-serve product than a sales-led organization.

“We’ve always been sales-led first, but it quickly became clear that our stack was not built for our needs. It worked for self-serve, not for complex sales.”

The limitations quickly surfaced:

• A fragmented setup, with Stripe on one side and GoCardless on the other for SEPA payments
• No global control over sales roles and permissions
• Very limited flexibility to test and iterate on pricing and packaging
• An unmanageable product catalog for custom, sales-driven deals

“At one point, our Stripe product catalog had more than 500 products. It was impossible for Finance to manage, and even harder to control what sales teams could do — especially around discounts.”

On top of that, the lack of a proper integration with Salesforce made the quote-to-billing process increasingly painful.

“Our quote-to-billing flow was so fragmented that we had to handle many steps manually. That made the process error-prone and slowed down onboarding, which was extremely frustrating for the sales team.”

When Finance couldn’t fully support Sales

Spyros strongly believes that Finance should be an enabler, not a blocker.

“Finance has a real role to play in supporting sales day to day. For us, that means accelerating the journey from quote to platform access and making it seamless.”

In theory, sales and finance should work hand in hand to support growth. In practice, the tooling made it impossible. Every new request from sales turned Finance into the “bad cop”—not by choice, but because the stack lacked flexibility.

Even after hiring a full-time finance profile dedicated to billing, the problems persisted. The issue wasn’t resourcing—it was the tools:

• Processes were too manual and error-prone
• No clean way to control product creation, catalogs, and deal templates through roles and permissions
• Frequent errors impacting reporting and analysis
• International growth introducing new complexity, especially around US sales tax

To make matters worse, support was lacking.

“Everything relied on Stripe — but there was no real support. That made me lose even more confidence in the tools we were using every day.”

When the finance stack became a bottleneck for Sales, it was clear to everyone: something had to change.

A first billing implementation that didn’t meet expectations

As Connectd continued to scale, Spyros and his team knew they needed a billing system they could trust long-term — one that would support the company’s next phase of growth without becoming another bottleneck.

In December 2024, they formally kicked off the process, scoping their needs and benchmarking solutions built specifically for sales-led businesses.

Two criteria quickly became non-negotiable:

• A deep, native integration between billing and CRM (Salesforce) to create quotes and manage subscriptions end-to-end
• Strong pricing and contract flexibility, enabling sales teams to handle multi-year contracts, free trials, commitments, and flexible payment schedules with ease

After reviewing several options, Connectd initially chose a Merchant of Record, Cleverbridge.

“On paper, it checked the boxes. In reality, the implementation told a very different story.”

During implementation, the limitations became clear. Cleverbridge’s CRM integration did not provide the level of flexibility Connectd needed. Key sales use cases — such as commitment extensions and multi-phase contracts — were difficult or impossible to support. Once again, Finance started to lose control of the quote-to-cash process.

Two months into the Cleverbridge implementation, Spyros came across Hyperline, which had just released a native integration with Anrok to handle US sales tax — a growing pain point for Connectd as it accelerated its expansion in the US.

Choosing Hyperline and building a system Finance and Sales can trust

After multiple attempts and months spent evaluating alternatives, Spyros was clear on one thing: Connectd needed to build a billing foundation they could trust for the long run and scale.

“I looked at so many solutions. None of them were robust enough. There was always a limitation somewhere.”

What convinced Spyros wasn’t just Hyperline’s feature set — it was the feeling that this time, they were building something durable, not another workaround.

“With Hyperline, I felt confident enough to say: let’s start a new implementation and build something long-term.”

From day one, the relationship felt different. Hyperline worked as a true partner, with a shared Slack channel, fast feedback loops, and a product team moving at high velocity. Instead of adapting Connectd’s processes to the tool, Hyperline adapted to Connectd.

“The best part was the mindset: let’s build this together.”

Hyperline’s flexibility quickly became a key differentiator. The platform is API-agnostic, fully configurable, and designed to fit complex, sales-led use cases—without forcing teams into rigid structures.

For Spyros, this changed the dynamic between Finance and Sales entirely.

“For the first time, Finance could act as a real business partner. I didn’t have to be the bad cop anymore.”

With native integrations across CRM, payments, and tax, clean data sync, and no siloed systems, Finance finally had the control it needed—without slowing Sales down.

“There were no hard limits. We could build everything we needed. The discussions were easy, collaborative, and always focused on how to move faster.”

For Connectd, Hyperline wasn’t just another billing tool. It became the foundation of their quote-to-cash stack — and a system they could confidently scale with.

Conclusion

By rebuilding its quote-to-cash stack with Hyperline, Connectd aligned Finance and Sales around a single, scalable foundation. Finance regained control and visibility, Sales gained speed and flexibility, and both teams could finally operate as true partners in growth.

With a billing system built for sales-led complexity, Connectd is now equipped to scale confidently — without workarounds, bottlenecks, or trade-offs.