Case studies
Last Updated
9/19/2025

Aerospace startup eliminates sales tax complexity with Anrok

Case studies
Last Updated
9/19/2025

Aerospace startup eliminates sales tax complexity with Anrok

From zero to multi-state compliance without adding headcount

Anrok | Streamlined sales tax for SaaS

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This fast-growing aerospace SaaS startup, founded by former SpaceX engineers, provides innovative software solutions to the aerospace industry and is expanding into adjacent markets. With an average deal size of $200,000 and annual contracts reaching into the millions, the company serves enterprise clients across multiple states while maintaining a lean operations team. With Anrok, they transformed a potential six-figure tax compliance burden into an automated process requiring less than an hour per month.

From California simplicity to Colorado complexity

As a California-based SaaS startup, the company initially enjoyed minimal sales tax exposure within their home state. However, their growth trajectory quickly presented new challenges when they landed a major enterprise customer in Colorado—one of the most complex sales tax jurisdictions in the United States with its numerous home rule jurisdictions.

“We knew we had minimal exposure as long as we stayed within California,” explains the company's strategic finance lead. “But when one of our very large customers based in Colorado came on board, it immediately flagged on our operations team's radar as something we needed to address.”

The challenge was compounded by the company's lean structure. With a single person handling all finance functions—from accounting and budgeting to investor relations—there was no bandwidth to manually manage the intricacies of multi-state sales tax compliance.

“I'm not a CPA, I'm not a tax accountant,” the finance lead notes. “We needed a solution that would take all that work off my plate while ensuring we maintain compliance and pay the appropriate taxes.”

“The implementation was painless and everything was set up with just a few email exchanges and button clicks in Stripe. Things worked right out of the box, which is what you want when you're in the middle of raising a Series B.”

Finance Lead at Series A aerospace startup

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Anrok | Streamlined sales tax for SaaS

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Sales tax is inevitable, but it can be painless

Anrok runs in the background so you can focus on growth.

Modern automation built for digital companies

After evaluating Avalara, TaxJar, and Numeral, the company chose Anrok for its comprehensive integrations and modern approach to tax compliance.

Anrok stood out with its broad integration capabilities—supporting both their Bill.com setup and later Stripe transition, plus Rippling for physical nexus monitoring. This was critical as competitors like Numeral only supported Stripe.

“The implementation was painless,” recalls the finance lead. “Everything was set up with just a few email exchanges and button clicks in Stripe,” says the finance lead. “Things just worked right out of the box, which is exactly what you want when you're in the middle of raising a Series B.”

The company also valued Anrok's responsive support, especially compared to another provider whose support team had been dismantled after a recent acquisition. And a strong recommendation from a former colleague who had used Anrok during M&A due diligence provided additional confidence.

Six-figure savings with minimal effort

With Anrok, the company avoided hiring a dedicated tax accountant—saving tens of thousands to six figures annually—while spending less than an hour per month on sales tax compliance.

“If I had to do this myself, we'd probably have to hire a tax accountant. That would be tens of thousands if not six figures annually,” the finance lead explains. “Now I just monitor whenever we bill a new invoice to check if there's liability.”

The initial assessment revealed no immediate liabilities despite million-dollar invoices in Colorado's complex jurisdictions. Anrok's precision in determining taxability for their mix of SaaS and professional services provided clarity they couldn't achieve manually.

As they expand, Anrok automatically flags new obligations—even helping them navigate international complexity when an Indian customer came on board, determining they were below the threshold for liability.

“I want to think about sales tax as little as possible. Anrok allows me to do exactly that—when we bill a new customer in a new state, it automatically gets flagged and we can register from there.”

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