Quipli Cut Churn by 50% — and It Started at the Top of the Funnel

Founders love to talk about product, growth, and virality — but not enough about churn. The truth is, most early SaaS companies lose customers because they say yes too broadly, too early.

That’s what Kyle Clements, founder of Quipli, learned firsthand. His company builds software for equipment rental businesses — and in the early days, they took on all kinds of customers: event rentals, ATVs, boats, startups. It helped them grow fast.

But over time, churn crept in. Not because the product was broken — but because not all those customers were the right fit. The solution? Segment ruthlessly. Price strategically. And build the kind of business where 90%+ of customers stick around for years.

Key Takeaways

• Quipli serves equipment rental companies with an all-in-one platform
• Early churn was high — until they zeroed in on their true ICP
• They cut entire segments from their top-of-funnel strategy
• Annual contracts and pricing helped qualify serious customers
• Churn, it turns out, is a marketing problem — not just a support one

The Origin Story: Renting Online Shouldn’t Be This Hard

In 2020, Kyle tried to rent some equipment online — and the experience was a mess. Even national brands made it hard. Independent shops? Most didn’t even have a site.

So he started calling rental companies. Hundreds of them.

“I wasn’t from the rental space. I just had a bad experience and got curious. The deeper I went, the more obvious the gap became.”

Quipli launched as a lightweight online rental tool. But as customers started using it, they asked for more. Could it manage inventory? What about payments? Scheduling? Over time, Quipli became a full system of record — the one platform these businesses log into first thing in the morning and shut down last at night.

The Churn Problem: A Hidden GTM Issue

Early retention wasn’t great. At one point, logo retention was in the 70s — which, as Kyle admits, “isn’t something investors get excited about.”

But the real insight came from slicing the data.

“We started cohorting our customers by segment — boats, events, startups, equipment rental. And suddenly it was obvious. One group had 94% logo retention. The rest didn’t.”

So they made the hard call: no more event rentals, boats, or early-stage startups. Quipli went all-in on established equipment rental businesses doing $300K+ in annual revenue.

The result? A massive retention lift — and a business that felt way more scalable.

Top-of-Funnel = Where Churn Starts

“Everyone thinks churn is a support problem. It’s not. It starts way earlier — with who you let in the funnel to begin with.”

Quipli redesigned their entire acquisition motion:

• Their podcast now only features equipment rental companies
• Marketing copy speaks only to that use case
• Pricing is published and firm: $6,000/year, annual contract only

They even dropped month-to-month billing, which filtered out the tire-kickers.

“Once you set your price and your positioning, you start attracting people who are really bought in. That’s how you build retention.”

The Payoff: 90%+ Retention, Cleaner Pipeline

The results speak for themselves:

• Retention jumped into the 90s
• CAC payback improved with annual upfront contracts
• The team spends less time chasing the wrong deals — and more time compounding value for the right ones

And with a cleaner customer base, everything else got easier: product direction, onboarding, upsell motion, community building.

“It’s fun again. We’re focused. And now we’re building the best product in the industry — for the exact right customer.”

Final Advice for Founders: Don’t Delay the Focus

“It’s okay to start broad. But once you see the signal, commit. The hardest part isn’t seeing your ICP — it’s having the guts to say no to everything else.”

If you’re building in a vertical, or trying to clean up retention without spinning your support team into the ground…

Book a Free AI Assessment to uncover how to use AI to battle churn, sharpen your ICP, and clean up your funnel. You’ll get a strategic roadmap tailored to your business, so you can qualify the right customers, reduce support load, and scale retention with confidence.