Auditing RateGain's Growth Stack Against the Connect-Capture-Convert-Retain Framework
Objective: Given RateGain Travel Technologies' current ad-hoc tool list, map each tool to the lesson's four required layers (connect, capture, convert, retain) and flag which layer is missing or duplicated before recommending a fix.
You're the growth ops lead at RateGain Travel Technologies, the Noida-founded travel-tech SaaS company that IPO'd on the NSE/BSE in December 2022 at a ~₹3,630 Cr market cap on listing day. Marketing currently uses Typeform for demo requests and Google Sheets for everything else, and leads are visibly slipping between steps.
List every tool RateGain currently uses, map it to one of the four layers (connect, capture, convert, retain), and name the layer that has no tool at all.
Before you start
What you'll need
Free path (everything below is enough to finish)
Free, fast to share with the growth and sales team
7,000+ integrations and the easiest setup for a non-technical marketer to push Typeform leads into a CRM
Paid upgrades (optional, faster/deeper)
Single customer-data pipeline that ends the duplicate-tracking problem the lesson warns about
The process
1 step
Step 01 of 01
The lesson's playbook states a real stack has four layers, connector, CRM, conversion, and data pipeline, and to 'buy one tool per layer, not three.'
RateGain has Typeform (capture) and Google Sheets (a manual, non-connector stand-in for everything else). Which of the four layers has zero real tool, and what breaks because of it?
Procedure
- List every tool currently in use, including manual spreadsheets standing in for a missing layer
- Map each to connect, capture, convert, or retain
- Mark any layer with zero tools mapped to it
- Note what breaks operationally because that layer is manual (e.g. leads copy-pasted from Sheets to sales, with delays)
- Recommend one real tool per missing layer, not three
STACK MAP — RateGain CAPTURE: Typeform (demo request form) ✓ CONNECT: none, leads are manually copied from Typeform into Google Sheets CONVERT: none, no CRM, sales works off the raw sheet RETAIN: none, no lifecycle messaging tool BREAKS: demo requests sit in a shared sheet for up to 48 hours before a sales rep sees them, and there is no automated follow-up for leads who don't book a call. RECOMMENDATION: add Zapier (connect) to push Typeform submissions into a CRM in real time, and HubSpot CRM (convert) to replace the raw sheet as the sales system of record.
Healthy
Every layer has exactly one recommended tool, and the audit names a specific operational break caused by the missing layer.
Unhealthy
Audit lists tools without mapping them to a layer, so the missing layer is never actually identified.
What this means
A stack with a spreadsheet standing in for a layer isn't missing a nice-to-have, it's missing the layer entirely.
So what do I do about it?
| Symptom | Action | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Leads sit in a shared sheet for two days before sales sees them | Add one connector tool to push new leads into a CRM in real time | half day |
Final deliverable
A one-page stack map showing every current tool by layer, the layer with zero tools, and a one-tool-per-layer fix.
See a reference example
STACK MAP — Utkarsh Small Finance Bank, digital account-opening funnel CAPTURE: Typeform (pre-qualification form) ✓ CONNECT: Zapier pushing form submissions to the CRM ✓ CONVERT: HubSpot CRM ✓ RETAIN: none, no automated onboarding sequence for approved accounts BREAKS: newly approved account holders get zero automated onboarding emails; branch staff manually call each one, and roughly a third are never contacted in the first week. RECOMMENDATION: add Customer.io (retain) triggered off the account-approval event already flowing through Segment.
Success criteria
You're done when you can:
- Every current tool is mapped to exactly one of the four layers
- The audit names the layer with zero tools and the specific operational break it causes
- Recommendation adds exactly one tool per missing layer