Luster vs. Gradual

Everstage stands out as the leading no-code platform for automating sales commission processes, significantly easing the burden on Operations and Finance teams while providing gamified incentives for sales personnel. This platform is trusted by numerous public companies and enterprises across diverse sectors, including SaaS, Business Services, Financial Services, Insurance, Real Estate, Life Sciences, Manufacturing, and Staffing. The customizable plan designer offered by Everstage accommodates various plan structures, all presented in a user-friendly design. Users can efficiently create and manage quotas, tailoring measurement periods, assigning multiple quota categories, and establishing ramp structures without any limitations. The platform eliminates the hassle of constant back-and-forth communication regarding change requests. Everstage also enables effective management of exception requests, queries, and approvals while maintaining a comprehensive audit trail. Moreover, it allows you to monitor the performance of your customer-facing teams, serving as a reliable source of truth for quarterly business reviews and annual planning. With Everstage, all necessary data fields for real-time commission calculations are seamlessly integrated, ensuring accuracy and efficiency in your commission processes. This comprehensive approach not only enhances operational efficiency but also boosts team motivation through gamification.

Podium is a leading AI-powered platform that combines lead management and multi-channel communication into a single solution, trusted by over 100,000 businesses worldwide to acquire and convert customers effectively. At the heart of Podium’s platform is its AI Employee, an intelligent virtual assistant that ensures businesses engage with leads instantly at any time of day, significantly improving conversion rates and driving revenue growth. Podium centralizes communications by consolidating calls, texts, payment links, and bulk messaging campaigns into one intuitive dashboard, simplifying customer outreach and engagement. The AI Employee automates routine customer interactions, delivering timely, accurate, and personalized responses across all communication channels to maintain strong customer relationships. Podium has been widely recognized for its innovation, earning spots on Forbes’ Next Billion Dollar Startups, Forbes’ Cloud 100, the Inc. 5000, and Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies lists. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Lehi, Utah, Podium is backed by prominent investors including Accel, Summit Partners, GV (Google Ventures), and Y Combinator. The platform empowers businesses to not only respond to leads faster but also to collect more customer reviews and boost Google rankings through automated review requests. Podium’s easy-to-use web and mobile apps enable businesses to manage conversations, payments, and marketing efforts seamlessly. With its focus on AI-driven efficiency and customer satisfaction, Podium is a powerful tool for scaling sales and engagement. Its continuous innovation helps businesses stay ahead in competitive markets by providing superior lead conversion and communication solutions.

ShareCRM is an all-in-one, AI-powered enterprise CRM platform designed to drive growth through connected data and intelligent automation. It brings marketing, sales, and service functions together to manage the entire customer journey from first contact to long-term retention. The platform supports omnichannel marketing automation, allowing businesses to coordinate campaigns across digital and offline channels. Sales teams benefit from centralized lead management, configurable pipelines, CPQ capabilities, and integrated payment and ERP workflows. ShareCRM also delivers robust service automation, enabling efficient handling of customer inquiries, service orders, vendor coordination, and expense settlement. Built-in collaboration tools improve communication through chats, calendars, tasks, and approval workflows. AI capabilities generate insights, predictions, and personalized content to improve conversions and service quality. Advanced business intelligence dashboards provide deep visibility into marketing, sales, service, and partner performance. The low-code PaaS architecture allows organizations to customize data models, processes, and interfaces with minimal technical effort. ShareCRM supports deployment across multiple industries and niche segments, offering proven scalability and flexibility. With a global presence and thousands of enterprise customers, the platform is designed for complex, growing organizations. Overall, ShareCRM helps businesses streamline operations, improve collaboration, and achieve predictable revenue growth.

SalesTarget.ai — The Complete Sales OS for Modern Outbound Teams Prospect smarter. Reach further. Close faster. SalesTarget.ai brings together data intelligence, multichannel outreach, and pipeline management into one unified platform — purpose-built for B2B companies, agencies, and revenue teams tired of juggling disconnected tools. The Intelligence Engine sits at the heart of the platform, giving teams instant access to 840M+ contacts, 150M+ business profiles, 4,000+ data attributes, and insights from 50+ top-tier data providers. Pinpoint the right buyers with firmographic, technographic, and behavioural filters — then act on live intent signals before your rivals even know a deal is in motion. Everything you need, under one roof: Email Outreach — run high-converting campaigns with smart scheduling, inbox warm-up, spintax, and a centralized inbox optimized for deliverability Power Dialer — auto-work through call queues straight from your CRM, eliminating manual dialing and keeping every conversation tracked LinkedIn Automation — engage prospects via connection requests, InMail, and profile touches as part of a coordinated multichannel sequence Email Validation — verify contacts before sending to protect your domain reputation and slash bounce rates Built-in CRM — manage deals, log calls, assign tasks, and align your team without leaving the platform AI Co-pilot — prospect, sequence, and report across the entire workflow using plain-language chat commands One connected system. Zero tool-switching. Infinite scale.

For over 25 years, CBT Nuggets has established itself as a frontrunner in providing on-demand IT training. Subscribers can access a wide range of training materials from renowned vendors such as Cisco, Microsoft, and AWS at any time. In addition to IT-specific courses, the training library includes productivity courses tailored for project managers and end-user training on essential topics like security best practices and Microsoft Office. The team behind CBT Nuggets comprises seasoned professionals with certifications in various fields, including networking, wireless technology, cybersecurity, data analytics, and artificial intelligence. Many of the courses offered align with IT certification exams, serving as valuable resources for those pursuing certification. CBT Nuggets also simplifies complex technical subjects into manageable skills, making it a practical resource for employees in their day-to-day roles. Furthermore, training administrators can assign specific videos to staff members and monitor their advancement through the program. No matter what your objectives may be, CBT Nuggets equips you with the necessary training to excel in your career. The platform’s comprehensive offerings ensure that learners have the tools they need to thrive in an ever-evolving technological landscape.

D&B Hoovers accelerates the journey from prospecting to establishing profitable client relationships more efficiently. By identifying crucial prospects and potential areas for growth, it serves as a powerful sales acceleration tool that leverages data and analytics. B2B sales professionals can engage with clients swiftly, enhancing their business development efforts. With access to comprehensive intelligence across more than 120 million business records, users gain valuable insights that empower their marketing and sales strategies. The platform features an intuitive interface alongside automated workflows, including alerts, triggers, and smart lists, which simplify the user experience. Furthermore, D&B Hoovers merges Dun & Bradstreet's extensive commercial database with advanced analytics to deliver a robust sales intelligence solution. This service also offers versatile search and list-building capabilities, real-time alerts, in-depth company profiles, and insightful research reports to support informed decision-making in the sales process. Overall, D&B Hoovers positions your organization for success by enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales efforts.

AI Sales Representative - Your Future Sales Agent May Not Be Human at All Transform your engaged website visitors into sales-ready leads without dedicating even a single working hour. Using our cutting-edge WebID + Person identification technology, we target the most engaged visitors on your site, focusing on those who can provide the greatest value to your sales initiatives. - Comprehensive Prospect Information: We collect 40 essential data points for each prospect, including their first name, last name, email address, and more. - Engaged Yet Unidentified: These prospects are actively researching online but haven't yet interacted with your sales team. - Key Position in the Sales Funnel: These visitors are well into your sales funnel, spending significant time on your crucial 'buying pages' while remaining anonymous, making them prime candidates for conversion into appointments. - AI-Powered Engagement: Our AI Sales Rep adeptly identifies and engages these visitors, encouraging them to show interest in your offerings. This entire process is automated, allowing your sales team to focus solely on the leads that are most likely to convert—your accessible opportunities. By harnessing AI, you can seamlessly convert your website visitors into leads that are ready for meetings, all while enhancing efficiency in your sales process.

Cloverleaf is the only AI coaching platform that combines validated behavioral assessments, HR system data, and calendar context to deliver coaching proactively — right inside Slack, Microsoft Teams, Workday, and email. With support for DISC, CliftonStrengths, Insights Discovery, and other validated assessments on a single platform, Cloverleaf helps organizations get more value from their assessment investments. Customers save an average of 32% on assessment spend while unlocking continuous coaching powered by that data. What makes Cloverleaf different is how coaching is proactively delivered. It's personalized to the individual, the people they're meeting with, and the work happening that day. Ahead of a performance conversation, a team standup, or a 1:1 with a new direct report, relevant coaching shows up automatically. No one has to open a separate app or figure out what to search for. HR and talent leaders can map coaching to their organization's own competency models and leadership expectations. When someone gets promoted, changes teams, or moves into a management role for the first time, coaching activates through HRIS integration — covering skills like delegation, giving feedback, and navigating new team dynamics from the start. The platform addresses core talent development needs: building manager capability, reinforcing performance review outcomes, preparing leaders during role transitions, and sustaining the impact of formal development programs between cohorts and workshops. Coaching happens in the flow of work so that skills actually show up in daily behavior. HR and talent leaders can track coaching engagement, monitor which capabilities are being reinforced, and identify development trends across teams and departments. Cloverleaf holds SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and GDPR-aligned certifications. More than 45,000 teams rely on it today, with 86% reporting stronger team performance and 95% gaining actionable new learnings.

Adaptive Security was founded in 2024 by seasoned entrepreneurs Brian Long and Andrew Jones. Since inception, the company has raised over $50 million from top-tier investors including OpenAI, Andreessen Horowitz, and executives from Google Cloud, Fidelity, Plaid, Shopify, and other industry leaders. Adaptive defends organizations against sophisticated, AI-driven cyber threats such as deepfakes, vishing, smishing, and spear phishing. Its next-generation security awareness training and AI phishing simulation platform enables security teams to deliver ultra-personalized training that adapts to each employee’s role, access level, and exposure. This training leverages real-time open-source intelligence (OSINT) and features highly convincing deepfake content—including synthetic media of a company’s own executives—to mirror real-world attack vectors. Through AI-powered simulations, customers can continuously assess and improve organizational resilience. Hyper-realistic phishing tests across voice, SMS, email, and video channels evaluate risk across every major vector. These simulations are fueled by Adaptive’s AI OSINT engine, giving teams deep visibility into how attackers might exploit their digital footprint. Today, Adaptive serves global leaders like Figma, The Dallas Mavericks, BMC Software, and Stone Point Capital. With an industry-leading Net Promoter Score of 94, Adaptive is redefining excellence in cybersecurity.

Revolutionizing the recruitment landscape, our AI-driven platform employs simulations to showcase candidates' abilities in realistic scenarios prior to their hiring. By eliminating the reliance on artificial intelligence-generated resumes and rehearsed answers, our solution enables businesses to accurately assess genuine skills in action. Prominent organizations such as Bloomberg and McKinsey leverage our targeted job simulations and skill evaluations, achieving a remarkable 50% reduction in screening time while enhancing the quality of their hires. Key Features: - Realistic job simulations that reflect actual job scenarios - AI-enabled verification of both technical and interpersonal skills - Automated processes for early identification of top talent - Effortless integration with applicant tracking systems - Interview guides tailored to performance metrics - Comprehensive insights and analytics on candidates - An impartial evaluation method that minimizes bias The outcomes are impressive, with a 74% decrease in hiring expenses, a 50% acceleration in the recruitment timeline, and a tenfold increase in the rate of candidate conversions, demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach.