Symbiome is a science-led skincare brand pioneering microbiome research into skin health, selling direct-to-consumer through their website. As an early Kintsugi customer since 2022, they've spent the last three years barely thinking about sales tax…and that's exactly the point.

The Problem with "Good Enough"

Before Kintsugi, Symbiome's President and COO Adam Klausner had already tried to solve the sales tax problem. He'd moved from manual tracking to Avalara, one of the most widely used platforms in the space. It wasn't the answer he was looking for.

The issues Symbiome was looking to address were straightforward: cost and manual overhead. But, that provider required Adam's accountant and bookkeeper to stay actively involved, managing registrations and fielding calls with state agencies. For a founder running a growing company, that’s not the ideal solution.

Choosing Kintsugi

When Adam got on a call with Kintsugi, he knew immediately that they could address the friction he was dealing with on a daily basis. 

"With Avalara, I was tracking nexus myself and spending time on tasks like being on hold with the Secretary of State’s office,” Adam said. “Kintsugi completely solved this problem by taking over these time-consuming tasks for me.” 

Kintsugi was more affordable, and it addressed the core problem: the fact that manual sales tax compliance takes massive amounts of time. Instead of offering a partial solution, Kintsugi delivered sales tax that actually runs itself. He made the switch. 

What "Autopilot" Actually Looks Like

So many platforms aim to maximize your time using them, but Kintsugi was designed to be used as little as possible after onboarding. Adam spends less than 30 minutes per month on sales tax compliance, checking the dashboard, reviewing anything flagged for approval, and that’s it. As Symbiome has reached nexus in new states over time, Kintsugi has caught and handled it automatically.

"It's been exactly as advertised," Adam said. "It runs smoothly in the background."

The Shopify integration has been seamless throughout. Where Avalara required his accounting staff to stay involved in the tool, Adam is the only one who logs in now, and he's rarely there long.

What Changes When Compliance Actually Works

For a biotechnology company productizing its R&D into a consumer skincare brand, the founder's attention is a finite resource. Sales tax is not where founders need to put their focus. And with a small team, any time spent on sales tax compliance – even in Finance – is time away from more important growth-oriented tasks. 

With Kintsugi, Adam and his staff are free to focus on work that really moves the needle for Symbiome. Three years into their Kintsugi journey, Symbiome has the kind of compliance setup most DTC founders want and few actually have: accurate, automatic, and humming along seamlessly in the background.

That's what Kintsugi was built to deliver.