PaletteHQ

Palette, operating as PaletteHQ, Inc., sells cloud-based sales compensation software that lets finance, revenue-operations and sales teams design, calculate, manage and audit sales commission plans. The platform centralizes data pulled from CRM, billing and accounting systems into a single source of truth, applies a commission plan designer capable of complex calculation logic, and produces commission accruals, payout schedules and monthly statements that can be exported to payroll or HR software. Reps and managers see personalized dashboards updated in real time, which the company positions as a replacement for spreadsheet-based "shadow accounting."

Beyond calculation, the product includes reporting and scenario tooling: A/B testing and back-testing of compensation plans, what-if analyses on cash flow and business objectives, quota setting, ramp-up optimization, commission cost budgeting and payout forecasting. Operational features cover manual data overwrites with comment trails and change history, commission splits, dispute handling, plan comparison and ready-made plan templates. A "challenges" feature lets managers create short-term incentive contests against any chosen KPI. A reconciliation capability merges data sources — for example matching invoices or payments in a billing system to opportunities or deals in a CRM — so commissions can be paid only once cash is collected.

The company reports SOC 2 Type II certification with annual audits and GDPR compliance, and offers support by email, live chat and Slack alongside documentation and a public system status page.

Founding story

According to the seed funding announcement, Palette was founded in December 2020 by Jean-Edern Lorillon, Fabien Pinel and Jean-Yves Delmotte. Lorillon, the CEO, was previously a sales executive at the San Francisco-based search-as-a-service company Algolia, where by his Y Combinator profile he participated in growth from 200 to 8,500 customers; he has said he started Palette after finding that existing commission tools could not accommodate modern compensation plans built for product-led sales and consumption- or usage-based pricing. [5][6]

Business model

B2B SaaS sold to companies that run sales commission plans. Pricing is seat-based, where a seat is defined as a payee enrolled in at least one commission plan; administrator seats and accountant access are not charged. A one-time implementation fee applies and is scaled to each customer's plan complexity and use case. [2]

Recurring subscription revenue based on the number of commissionable payees, plus a one-time, customer-specific implementation fee. [2]

Traction

Y Combinator lists a team size of 14 and Active status, with engineering and wildcard roles open in Paris. At the time of the 2022 seed announcement the company said it was used by companies ranging from small businesses to publicly traded corporations, naming Nextech AR, EverCommerce, Gorgias, Mews, Kandji and GetAccept; Bain Capital Ventures cited early customer momentum as a reason for leading the round. Website testimonials come from Contentfly, Nextech AR, PlayPlay, Kandji and SalesScreen, and published case studies reference Voxel and Pagefreezer. [0][5][6]

Latest developments

Most recent sourced milestone is the May 2022 $6M seed round. Current website content (copyright through 2024) highlights SOC 2 Type II certification, an expanded integration catalog, the challenges feature, and recent content on sales compensation in the usage-based pricing era and customer stories from Voxel and Pagefreezer. [0][5]