A rewards program designed for renters, built on data
Bilt Rewards is a platform that enables individuals to earn rewards on rent payments and in their neighborhood.
For more than 100 million renters in the United States, housing is their largest monthly expense. Yet unlike credit-card payments, rent doesn’t typically help renters build credit, let alone earn rewards. Most landlords don’t accept credit cards for rent; those that do often charge steep fees.
In 2021, Bilt set out to make rent more rewarding. The result has been extraordinary growth. Today, Bilt processes over $40 billion in annual rent and HOA payments—more than 3x the previous year.
Bilt oversees a complex ecosystem of data, including tenant information, card transactions, payment processing, and first party data. To manage it, Bilt’s data analytics team adopted dbt Cloud for data modeling, transformation, and orchestration. During onboarding, they quickly realized they needed a custom approach to handling their massive data.
“Our team was already proficient with dbt Cloud, so we were able to set up basic best practices smoothly,” says Ben Kramer, Senior Director of Data Analytics at Bilt. “But for our complex use cases, we needed a strategic expert and partner who would help us achieve value quickly.”
To meet its business requirements, Bilt chose to work with a Resident Architect from dbt Labs’ professional services team.
[Learn more about dbt Labs professional services.]
Building incremental models for complex use cases
Every day, Bilt processes millions of transactions across its users, merchants, and partners. Unsurprisingly, the cost of reprocessing the entire dataset for every update is substantial.
However, due to the unique shape of its data sources, Bilt's initial attempts to make its models incremental proved technically challenging and remained expensive.
“Our team didn’t have the time to figure out complicated incremental models,” says Kramer. “We needed a highly customized approach, which would have taken days to weeks to do on our own.”
For Bilt—a fast-growing company pioneering a new market segment—speed is paramount. Stakeholders need timely access to data to set strategies, build the right features, and address customer questions. And, the business needs to get answers at scale.
“Keeping data warehouse costs low was critical for our leadership team,” says Kramer. “By bringing on a dbt Labs Resident Architect, we would save months of trial and error. Without their expertise, our costs would have continued increasing while we figured out incrementality.”
A strategic partner dedicated to creative solutions
The Resident Architect developed a customized approach for Bilt—one based on deep expertise in both dbt modeling and Bilt’s data warehouse platform.
First, they reviewed Bilt’s data sources, data warehouse logs, performance problems, and existing workflows. Next, they introduced a scalable and repeatable modification to Bilt’s initial implementation.
“The Resident Architect helped us reduce the volume of data to be scanned on our key datasets by 99%,” says Kramer.
The Resident Architect also advised the data team on best practices, like modeling conventions, when to utilize multiple projects, and optimizing job schedules in the data pipeline. Once they established a solid maintenance framework, the team quickly pivoted to long-term scalability—exploring custom tests and testing packages, dbt Mesh, and multi-threaded projects.
Throughout the partnership, the Resident Architect provided the following:
Trusted expertise
The data team relied on the Resident Architect as a sounding board for their big-picture questions and ideas. From there, the Architect helped the team prioritize and determine the best place to start. “The Resident Architect was a trusted partner from the beginning,” says Kramer. “They enabled us to dive deeper into every aspect of dbt and unlock its advanced potential early on.”
Strategic guidance and recommendations
The data team always knew the right next step to take, thanks to the Resident Architect’s direction. For example, when the team considered creating multiple dbt projects, the Resident Architect identified the optimal timing and business threshold. When it came to data testing, they provided numerous examples, training, documentation, and recommendations for how to make the most of their custom tests.
Dedicated support for challenging use cases
As the team tackled increasingly advanced use cases, like optimizing authorized view permission grants in the data warehouse, the Resident Architect was a dedicated partner. They researched the best approaches and developed custom strategies—tasks that would have distracted the data team from business priorities.
“Having an expert in the room gave us confidence in our decisions,” says Kramer. “The Resident Architect has seen a variety of projects and best practices across many organizations. Instead of spending days piecing together best practices and debating internally, we could get clarity in a single one-hour meeting.”
Significant cost savings with a roadmap for innovation
As a result of its work with dbt Labs’ Resident Architect, Bilt saved tens of thousands of dollars. Building performant incremental models took just hours to complete, rather than months.
“Our work with dbt Labs’ Resident Architect has driven the business forward, faster,” says Kramer. “We were able to maintain our focus on key business priorities without sacrificing weeks to ensure our warehouse costs were in order.”
With a solid structure and clear documentation in place, Bilt is shifting to a more proactive approach with data. The organization, structure, and best practices have freed the team from constantly answering ad-hoc questions. It’s even eliminated the need to hire an analyst dedicated solely to handling queries.
Looking ahead, the data team is considering implementing business intelligence—something that’s easier to do with dbt. They’re also exploring generative AI and enabling AI-driven recommendations for both internal and external use. Because both business and technical users can use dbt, the team can focus on hiring the right talent to support their initiatives (rather than only the most technical).
“We’re confident that our investment in dbt is delivering enormous value,” concludes Kramer. “Thanks to dbt Labs’ Resident Architect, we understand precisely what we want to do next and how to position ourselves to grow.”
