How Composed Comp scales their growth with Bonsai

Composed Comp is a fast-growing Chicago-based consulting firm specialising in product-led growth and customer-success advisory. In just 18 months the team expanded from a handful of consultants to 14 billable experts serving software companies across North America.

Before Bonsai: Growth outpacing process

Until early 2024, each consultant managed projects “their own way” in disparate tools:

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"We’d spend hours reconciling Harvest hours with HubSpot deals and whatever spreadsheet someone had built. It worked – but it definitely wasn’t scalable."
— Alexis B., Head of Operations

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This meant there was no single source of truth and leadership lacked real-time visibility on hours burned vs. hours remaining. On top of that, onboarding new team members meant teaching three tools and a patchwork process.

The selection process

In evaluating agency platforms, Composed Comp required tag-based project organisation, hour-based budget alerts, granular permissions, a client portal, and seamless Harvest/HubSpot migration. Bonsai was the only solution to satisfy every need. As Operations Manager Alexis noted,

“Most PM tools think in dates or revenue. We think in hours. Bonsai was the first platform that spoke our language out of the box.”

Onboarding: Four weeks to “go live”

Bonsai assigned a dedicated Customer Success Manager (CSM) and data specialist. Together they made sure Composed Comp went live on their deadline, with minimal service disruptions. 

Alexis appreciated the white-glove approach:

“Bonsai’s team literally cleaned our CSVs, scheduled training around three time-zones and sent us Loom videos any time we got stuck. Change management was a breeze.”

Life with Bonsai: One workspace, total clarity

1. Standardized Project Management

Every engagement now starts from a shared template that pre-loads phases, tasks and hourly budgets. Consultants track time directly on tasks; project progress and remaining hours update instantly for managers.

2. Real-Time Budget & Utilisation Alerts

Bonsai pings project owners (in-app and email) when 80 % of the retainer hours are reached. No more month-end surprises or frantic scope extensions.

3. Capacity Planning Without Spreadsheets

Recurring monthly allocations are handled by setting repeat tasks; the workload view rolls these up so Aaron, the Consulting Manager, sees each consultant’s load by week or month and can re-balance with drag-and-drop speed.

4. Integrated Billing & Revenue Forecasting

Invoices flow from tracked time; payments land via Stripe-powered card or ACH rails. The leadership team filters the revenue forecast by account owner to understand pipeline coverage months in advance.

Scaling with Bonsai

Bonsai’s product team is already beta-testing features Composed Comp requested. For Alexis, the partnership feels more like co-development than vendor-client:

"A huge shoutout to Bonsai’s breath-of-fresh-air implementation and product teams. They’ve been proactive, responsive, and genuinely invested in our success"

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