Case Studies
A compensation program built around how capacity trades: sold, bought back and resold, often more than once before it is used.
Engagement: Sales compensation assessment and plan design, August to October 2026
Industry: AI Infrastructure / GPU Compute Marketplace
Services: Sales compensation assessment, deal data analytics, crediting and commission rate design, career architecture, quota methodology, terms and conditions, plan documents, governance design
Written by
Carmen Olmetti
A fast-growing AI compute marketplace buys and brokers GPU capacity and sells it on contracts that let customers sell unused capacity back. The company earns a spread on the original sale and again each time that capacity is resold. With headcount planned to roughly double, leadership wanted a compensation program that paid for what the business needed: more liquid supply, more creditworthy customers and a growing resale product.
The existing program had grown up around the early team. Six commissionable populations shared three plan documents, no participant had a signed commission agreement, and three of the five revenue motions had no crediting rule. The same rate applied to every deal, across a book where deal sizes varied enormously.
Mapping the business first
RevEng interviewed ten leaders across the executive team, go-to-market, supply, finance and growth, and reviewed every plan document and the full contract extract. From those inputs, the team mapped the five revenue motions, the supply pipeline, and where in the flow credit should be earned. That map anchored every design decision, because the motions determine the roles and the roles determine the plans.
Letting the deal data shape the design
The contract analysis showed a few very large deals alongside many smaller ones, frequent repeat purchases with no defined owner, and prices that moved on the same hardware. Each finding led to a design choice: commission rates that step down as deal size rises, gross profit as the commission base, and payment that follows customer cash. RevEng also assessed the program against all 25 elements of its Sales Compensation Growth Model to prioritize the work.
Plans for both sides of the market
The company sells on both sides of a market, securing supply and selling demand. RevEng designed separate plans for the two account executive roles on one shared pay ladder, so sellers at the same grade earn the same at target and differ only in pay mix. A graded career architecture now sets pay by role rather than by individual negotiation.
Documents ready to sign
RevEng drafted the full documentation set: a Plan Document for each participant, a shared Terms and Conditions, and a Quota Sign-Off Sheet for each period. The documents define every term that drives pay, release commission as cash arrives and service starts, and are written with California wage law in mind. A Sales Compensation Committee owns exceptions and disputes.
A program that matches how the business makes money.
Every revenue motion now has one crediting event, one commission base and a defined set of credited roles. Resale, the company’s strategic priority, is paid on top of target earnings.
Protection without a payout ceiling.
Paying on gross profit across cash and delivery milestones means commission is always funded by cash already received. A marginal rate taper on very large deals keeps earnings growing at every level of performance while keeping any single payout affordable.
A foundation built to double.
Career architecture, governance and a clear path to quota-based plans in the new plan year give the company what it needs to run compensation at twice its current size.