Q3 2024 FiscalNote Holdings Inc Earnings Call
Krista: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Krista and I will be your conference operator today.
Krista: At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Fiscal Note 3rd Quarter 2024 Financial Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. And after the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session.
Krista: If you would like to ask a question during that time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. And if you'd like to withdraw that question, again, press star one. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to the company. Please go ahead.
Bob Burrows: Good evening. My name is Bob Burrows, founder and principal of Western Avenue Advisors LLC, an investor relations consultancy.
Bob Burrows: I am Interim Investor Relations Officer for Fiscal Note, having been hired by the company back in April following the departure of the former IRO.
Bob Burrows: Thank you for joining the call today as we discuss Fiscal Note's third quarter 2024 financial results as well as the additional news today regarding the announced leadership change for the company.
Bob Burrows: With me on today's call with prepared comments are Tim Hwang, current Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder, Josh Resnick, current President and Chief Operating Officer, and Jon Slabaugh, CFO and Chief Investment Officer.
Bob Burrows: Other members of the senior management team will be available as needed during the Q&A session that will follow these prepared comments.
Bob Burrows: Please note, copies of today's press release, the current report on Form 10-Q for the quarter, and the required current report on Form 8-K related to today's disclosures, as well as an updated version of the corporate overview presentation, are all available on the company website.
Bob Burrows: In terms of important housekeeping, it is important to mention the following. During this call, we may make certain statements related to our business that are forward-looking statements under federal securities laws.
Bob Burrows: These statements are not guarantees of future performance, but rather are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties.
Bob Burrows: Our actual results could differ materially from expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements.
Bob Burrows: For discussion of the material risks and important factors that could affect our actual results, as well as the risks and other important factors discussed in today's earnings release, please refer to our SEC filings, which are available either on our company website or the Securities and Exchange Commission's EDGAR system.
Bob Burrows: Additionally, non-GAAP financial measures will be discussed on this conference call.
Bob Burrows: for reconciliation of these measures to their most directly comparable gap financial measure.
Bob Burrows: Finally, we use Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, in evaluating the performance of our business. These include Run Rate Revenue, Annual Recurring Revenue, or ARR, and Net Retention Revenue, or NRR.
Bob Burrows: Again, please refer to the earnings release or the updated corporate deck for definitions of these important metrics.
Speaker Change: And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Fiscal Note's current chairman, CEO, and co-founder, Tim Hwang. Tim?
Tim Hwang: Thank you, Bob, for that introduction, and thank you all for joining us this evening. It's great to be with you today as we discuss a variety of items on the company, including our third quarter 2024 results, the state of our overall business, and of course, the leadership transition also announced this evening.
Tim Hwang: Given that change, I'll share my thoughts on the company I co-founded before turning the call over to Josh, who will provide an update on the state of the business.
Tim Hwang: First let me adjust the rationale for taking a step now to transition the leadership of the company to Josh starting January 1, 2025.
Tim Hwang: When we set out more than 10 years ago on founding Fiscal Note.
Tim Hwang: Our guiding principle and mission was to help customers make sense of the complicated and constantly changing world we live in.
Tim Hwang: Delivering a proprietary AI-enabled platform that aggregates and organizes regulatory, political, and macroeconomic information, and analyzes the impact on their organizations overall. As of today, and reflecting back over that time frame, that is exactly what we have done.
Tim Hwang: Back then, applying machine learning and big data analytics to text and laws and regulations were just an inkling of an idea. Fast forward to today, and we are now living in what I believe will be one of the largest technology transformations of my generation.
Tim Hwang: Today we are the market-leading AI platform for the regulatory, legislated policy, and geopolitical intelligence sectors.
Tim Hwang: As you've heard from me many times, we are essentially the Bloomberg Terminal for regulatory, legislative, and strategic risk, drawing upon a deep reservoir of technical expertise, proprietary data, and analytical tools.
Tim Hwang: I take tremendous pride in knowing that we have amassed a collection of proprietary, high-quality, and authoritative data on a range of aspects, including international, federal, state, and local legislation across 80,000 cities.
Tim Hwang: All 50 states, and every major federal regulatory agency, as well as deep profiles on tens of thousands of policymakers, millions of legitimate regulatory bodies, and purpose-built analytical tools monitoring governments around the world, and resulting in what we have established as of today, a market-leading position across thousands of customers.
Tim Hwang: More than that, we have grown to become several hundred passionate individuals around the world, serving thousands of customers from the White House to the DoD, to almost half the Fortune 100, empowering decision makers around the world with the intelligence they need.
Tim Hwang: This success as a company from the very beginning of three guys and a laptop with an idea happened because we focused on the customer, cared about our employees, and continued to push the envelope on innovation.
Tim Hwang: From aggregating the world's legal data, to putting predictive analytics on it, pushing the boundaries of cloud collaboration, and now pushing the envelope on generative AI, Fiscal Node has been at the forefront of innovation at every turn, all while staying true to customer needs and making it a great place to work.
Tim Hwang: Looking ahead, the company, like any startup, now requires new leadership and a fresh perspective on the strategies and approaches to realizing the next phase of growth for the business.
Speaker Change: After almost 12 years at the helm of operating Fiscal Note every day, and after deep considerable thought, I've decided to pass the baton and transition to the role of Executive Chair, allowing me to step into a new chapter, returning to my founder roots with renewed passion and focus as we continue to scale Fiscal Note to even greater heights.
Speaker Change: Josh Rethnick, Fiscal Code's current President and COO, is the absolute right person for that task.
Speaker Change: I'll continue to work to reinforce my continued commitment to the company's vision and success in this new role, where I will continue to focus on strategic initiatives and the continuity of FISMA's mission as it enters the next phase of growth.
Speaker Change: I'm incredibly proud of what Cisco Motors has accomplished and excited to direct my passion, energy, and motivation in the role of Executive Chairman, working closely with Cisco Motors on culture, nurturing new innovative products,
Speaker Change: Accelerating our gender divide growth, working on strategy, and being a continuous advocate for this going externally. And I'm, of course, happy to support Josh, who has been an effective and impactful number two for the last four years.
Speaker Change: The future is part of the fiscal note, and the company could not be better positioned for the future. We are now living in a world where our customers need our products more than ever to navigate a rapidly changing geopolitical environment, and where our level of invention and innovation continues to push the boundaries of our products at the intersection of law and AI.
Speaker Change: With this leadership transition, that future has become even more promising as we continue to pursue our multi-year journey to earning our place in the history books and becoming a dominant player in our industry.
Speaker Change: It has been both an honor and a privilege to serve as CEO of Fiscal Notes.
Speaker Change: Josh and I, over the course of the next month and a half, will work together with the rest of the senior team, ensuring a smooth transition so that come January 1, we enter the new year well-positioned to execute on the company's mission and vision, and to ensuring we continue to impact the daily lives of our thousands of customers around the world. Thank you, and I'll now turn it over to Josh to update you on the current state of the company.
Josh: Thank you, Tim, for those kind words and for your heartfelt views about the company.
Josh: I want to thank everyone here for joining us this afternoon, and I look forward to discussing our third quarter results, as well as what you can expect to see from us in the future.
Josh: But first, I want to take a moment to address the change in Tim's role. Like a number of Fiscal Note team members, I joined Fiscal Note because of Tim.
Josh: In the early part of a startup's lifespan, its success rests on the founder's shoulders.
Josh: And from the moment I first met Tim, and ongoing throughout my time working at Fiscal Note with him, I've continued to be impressed by his unique qualities and skills.
Josh: And that's why I'm so glad Tim isn't leaving Fiscal Note and that he'll continue to work with us actively on strategy and other drivers of this next phase in the Fiscal Note story.
Speaker Change: As for me, I've succeeded at both ends of the spectrum, including in senior roles at some of the world's largest companies.
Speaker Change: as well as with hands-on experience with TechStars as an early hire, venture advisor, and leader and mentor to founders and teams. So I bring a balanced perspective that supports growth and innovation at any scale.
Speaker Change: I'm looking forward to continuing to collaborate with Tim as each of us steps into our new role.
Speaker Change: With that, let me turn now to the state of the company with a focus on what we've done and what you can expect to see from Fistula going forward.
Speaker Change: Let me begin by first taking a broad view of the recent past.
Speaker Change: We've spent the last two years rightsizing our cost structure, as well as going from consistently negative adjusted EBITDA to five quarters in a row of positive adjusted EBITDA, including this most recent quarter.
Speaker Change: Importantly, today we are announcing an upward revision for the full year 2024 to approximately $9 million suggested EBITDA.
Speaker Change: This is a tremendous accomplishment for all of our fiscal note teams and a testament to their hard work.
Speaker Change: And it also should serve as a clear statement from the entire fiscal note team as to the discipline with which we are operating the company.
Speaker Change: In 2023, we were laser-focused on achieving adjusted EBITDA profitability for the first time, and we did that one quarter sooner than planned.
Speaker Change: In 2024, we wanted to expand that profitability, and we've done that regardless of circumstance.
Speaker Change: We've been continuing to refine our product portfolio so that we can apply focus in the areas with the greatest foundation for future profitable growth.
Speaker Change: This includes the sales of Board.org and more recently ASIL, as well as sunsetting of non-core, underperforming products.
Speaker Change: All of which continues our ongoing initiative to divest non-core businesses, reduce business complexity, de-lever the balance sheet, and drive efficient and profitable growth.
Speaker Change: Excellence matters, and we simply cannot be excellent if our teams are spread too thin, trying to advance unproductive or unprofitable initiatives.
Speaker Change: As I'll discuss in a moment, we are actively evaluating other elements of our current product mix as we proactively reduce our organizational complexity and focus on the ways in which we best deliver value to our core customers.
Speaker Change: This has the additional benefit of positioning us to realize increasing margins and profitability.
Speaker Change: We have continued to optimize our commercial organization, giving us a solid foundation on which we can embark on a new phase of growth and sustained financial performance.
Speaker Change: We are driving alignment and replicating playbooks across our global teams.
Speaker Change: to increase customer engagement and improve performance management and sales productivity.
Speaker Change: We have leveraged AI technologies as the centerpiece of new products such as our co-pilots for policy and global intelligence.
Speaker Change: And we have integrated these technologies into our core offerings as a means to surface critical information more quickly and to help our customers be more productive and drive better outcomes for their organizations.
Speaker Change: And we continue to see promise in our ability to leverage our unique mix of data sets, proprietary content, and both human and artificial intelligence to better serve our customers' needs.
Speaker Change: And now, we're increasing our focus on product under the leadership of our new Chief Product Officer, Jon Baba-Olu, who's hiring we announced in the third quarter.
Speaker Change: Jon pioneered the development of case text and helped drive its rapid expansion by creating engaging customer experiences and leveraging new technologies such as generative AI to become one of the top products in all of legal tech.
Speaker Change: Leading to a successful $650 million all cash sale to Thomson Reuters.
Speaker Change: Importantly, given Fiscal Node's own roots and our desire for a product culture centered on rapid iteration and innovation.
Speaker Change: Jon is a true entrepreneur, having founded companies on his own, as well as helping build and grow KSTX, so he knows what it means to protect and provide a return on investor capital.
Speaker Change: So with that brief look back, I'll turn to the future.
Speaker Change: First and foremost, building on what I just noted regarding our emphasis on product.
Speaker Change: We will focus on delivering best-in-class product experiences, leveraging our strengths in data collection, aggregation, normalization, synthesis, and analysis.
and Artificial Intelligence.
and in our proprietary content.
Speaker Change: The whole of which provides us with a competitive advantage that is difficult to replicate.
as a core component of that.
Speaker Change: Under our new Chief Product Officer's leadership, we are consolidating and deprecating legacy platforms in parallel with our prioritization on creating new product experiences that address the core challenges our customers face.
Speaker Change: There's a targeted use of generative AI, where it puts customer value first.
Speaker Change: as well as by leveraging other cutting-edge technologies and our data science capabilities.
Speaker Change: We will deliver robust, intuitive solutions that empower and enable our customers to achieve outside outcomes.
Speaker Change: The end result will be improved customer experiences that drive higher growth and retention.
Speaker Change: More product-led growth and product-led sales that will decrease our customer acquisition cost over time.
Speaker Change: and streamline operations that enable us to continue to increase profitability.
Speaker Change: Second, we will be increasingly focused in areas and segments where we see the greatest growth and opportunities.
Speaker Change: including international where we are experiencing demand for our global policy data as well as our EU policy analysis and global intelligence.
Speaker Change: and Corporates, where there is continued room for expansion in our core markets and where we've seen traction and growing opportunity in key segments such as large enterprise and mid-market.
Speaker Change: Tied to this, we will continue to evaluate further portfolio rationalization and de-emphasis.
in areas that we see as non-core or sub-optimal.
including sunset of any non-core underperforming products.
Speaker Change: While this may include wholesale reduction or elimination of non-core initiatives, we also are digging into areas where we don't view the growth profile as a long-term fit.
For example.
Speaker Change: We've implemented more margin discipline on one-time revenue from our advisory visits, which has had a near-term impact on top-line growth.
Speaker Change: but which will better enable our increased profitability and returns over time.
Speaker Change: Third, we will continue to take steps necessary to improve our capital structure.
Speaker Change: As you're aware, and as I reiterated earlier, we've already begun this process with the salesofboard.org and ASEL, and we will continue to take advantage of opportunities in the market where we feel we can realize value for shareholders.
Speaker Change: Deleverage further and refine our focus so that we can better drive growth.
Speaker Change: Jon and his team have done an excellent job in driving successes this year, and they will continue to do so as we look ahead.
Speaker Change: Overall, the changes we've made and are making to our organization and our portfolio are intended to position us to return to a trajectory of sustainable growth and increasing profitability.
Speaker Change: We have delivered on profitability. We continue to get more profitable. And that's just the start.
Speaker Change: We've better positioned our organization for growth, and we are investing in the product improvements that will drive that growth.
Speaker Change: Jon and his team will continue to take steps to improve our capital structure while we maintain a commitment to driving growth in the core business and compete to retain our existing customers and win new business every day.
Speaker Change: Together, these initiatives are foundational to the next phase of long-term sustainable growth for the company.
Speaker Change: I'm both humbled and honored to step into the role of CEO at the outset of the new year, but mostly I'm excited about the large global opportunity that lies ahead, and I look forward to updating you on our progress across 2025 and beyond.
Speaker Change: With that, I'll now turn the call over to Jon to take us through the numbers. Jon?
Jon: Thank you, Josh. My comments will be brief this afternoon, and given today's other news, I want to take a moment to congratulate Tim on his transition to executive chair. Tim's contribution as founder, CEO, and chairman cannot be understated.
Speaker Change: Tim, it has been a pleasure working with you these past five years, and I look forward to continuing to collaborate with you in your new capacity.
Speaker Change: And Josh, I'm equally thrilled to continue our work together as you step into the CEO role and continue driving the next phase of profitable growth for fiscal notes. With that, let me turn to the quarterly performance, starting with the income statement.
Speaker Change: Total revenue for Q3 2024 was $29.4 million in line with our forecast and lower than the prior year due primarily to the divestiture of Board.org.
Speaker Change: All down, period to period, subscription revenue remains the cornerstone of our business, accounting for 93% of total revenue this quarter, and in line with the company's historical trends.
Speaker Change: Looking at our key performance metrics, as of Q3 2024, run rate revenue is $119 million. And annual recurring revenue is $109 million.
Speaker Change: On a pro forma basis, adjusting for the impact of the board.org divestiture.
Speaker Change: Current year run rate revenue is $5 million lower than the prior year third quarter, and ARR was level with prior year third quarter. And as of Q3 2024, net revenue retention was 99%, slightly lower than the prior year.
Speaker Change: Turning expenses, principal operating expenses in Q3 2024 continue the trend of year-over-year decreases, reflecting the impact of cost-saving initiatives instituted last year. The board.org divestiture and sunset products during the current year.
Speaker Change: Cost of revenues decreased by over $4 million, or 40%, due to certain technology-related amortization expenses in 2023 that did not recur in 2024.
Speaker Change: R&D decreased by $1.2 million, or 28%. Sales and marketing decreased by just over $2 million, or 19%.
And GMA decreased by just under $4 million or 26%.
Speaker Change: In aggregate, total operating expenses in Q3 fell over $11 million versus the prior year, or 24%.
Speaker Change: A performed basis excluding amortization expenses, stock-based compensation, and the impact of the sale of Board.org, OPEX decreased approximately $4 million, or 12%.
Speaker Change: Looking at profitability for the quarter. Let's start above the line. Gross margins remain strong in the quarter, with Q3 2024 coming in at 79% on a gap basis and 86% on an adjusted basis.
Both increases over prior year period.
Speaker Change: These improvements primarily reflect our focus on consistent adjusted EBITDA growth and the impact of the sale of Board.org, Sunset Products, and improved efficiencies. As I've stated at each of our earnings calls this year, we continue to pursue and find further incremental operating efficiencies.
Speaker Change: The gap net loss for Q3 2024 was approximately $14.9 million, slightly higher than the prior year period. EBITDA for Q3 2024 was negative $5 million, slightly higher versus the prior year period.
Speaker Change: And adjusted EBITDA was positive $3.4 million versus just under a million dollars for the prior year period.
Speaker Change: With a positive adjusted EBITDA for the quarter, that brings fiscal note to five consecutive quarters of positive performance for this key profitability metric.
A total of $9.4 million on a trailing four-quarter basis.
Speaker Change: At quarter end, we had cash and cash equivalents, including short-term investments, of approximately $33.4 million, which continues to reflect the positive contribution from the sale of Board.org in March.
Speaker Change: Period end cash also reflects the ongoing initiatives to improve efficiencies across the company and our continuing attention to prudently allocate capital to investments in the business with the highest potential for growth and positive return.
Speaker Change: Additionally, at quarter end and after giving effect to our sale of ASIL and the principal repayment, our total debt outstanding, including principal and accrued interest, stood at $168 million, sequentially lower than $172 million at the end of the second quarter.
to receive the guidance.
Speaker Change: Today, taking into consideration the visibility we have on the remainder of the year.
We revised our full year 2024 numbers slightly.
Speaker Change: Specifically, we raised our four-year profitability forecast for adjusted EBITDA to nine million dollars, up from approximately eight million dollars forecast in August.
Speaker Change: At the same time, we lowered our full-year revenue forecast for total revenue to $120 million, down from the previous $121 million forecast in August.
Speaker Change: This $1 million reduction reflects the divestiture of ASIL and also the impact of anticipated lower advisory revenue as we continue to evaluate the trajectory of that business going forward.
Speaker Change: Offset by the realization of improved operating leverage resulting from further operational rightsizing initiatives.
Speaker Change: Of note, the forecast of $9 million in adjusted EBITDA marks the first full calendar year of adjusted EBITDA profitability for fiscal notes.
Speaker Change: The company expects to continue to drive de-leveraging and therefore improvement of its capital structure.
Speaker Change: Reduce complexity of its product portfolio and strengthen customer experience and retention rates through the ongoing optimized product strategy and roadmap through the end of 2024 and continuing into 2025.
Speaker Change: We also, today, provided guidance for Q4 2024 total revenues of approximately $29 million and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $2.5 million.
Speaker Change: Both reflecting divested and sunset products in the continued trends we've experienced throughout the year. Finally, I wanted to note that the board continues to review all strategic alternatives available to the company to maximize value for shareholders.
Speaker Change: As always, we do not intend to provide updates on the outcome of this review until further disclosure is appropriate or required.
Speaker Change: In summary, our business, through the first nine months of 2024, remains stable and well-positioned to drive future impact and success.
Speaker Change: We continue to implement our product strategy while executing our operational efficiency initiatives as we further solidify our position as a critical partner to our diverse customer base. This concludes my prepared remarks. I'll turn it over to the operator to begin the question and answer session.
Operator.
Speaker Change: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. And if you'd like to withdraw that question, again, press star one.
Speaker Change: Your first question comes from the line of Jesse Silbelzin with D. Boral Capital. Please go ahead.
Speaker Change: Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. Congrats on the shift in the C-suite. It's a big move, and I think investors
Speaker Change: are going to be excited to see some changes with the business. I am curious, looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you.
Speaker Change: What, in terms of the target capital structure, you know, over the medium term, we've sold some assets, we've improved profitability quite dramatically or quite recently. What is the goal for the capital structure, maybe on a net debt to EBITDA basis? And how do we get there from here? What's the vision over the medium term?
Speaker Change: Thanks for the question, Jesse. It's Jon, and that's something that we spend a lot of time thinking about, the right capital structure. As we said, we're still continuing to kind of evaluate
That and other strategic moves we might make.
Speaker Change: The company has a senior credit facility and some subordinated debt as well. We're looking at ways to reduce our overall cost of capital and be able to service that with the...
Robert Burrows, Timothy Hwang, Jon Slabaugh, Bob Burrows, Unknown Executive
Speaker Change: Robert Burrows, Timothy Hwang, Jon Slabaugh, Bob Burrows, Timothy Hwang, Jon Slabaugh,
Speaker Change: I think just one quick follow-up for me, there's a lot of talk on the bigger picture on the business here. I'm just kind of drilling into specifics. One thing that I think a lot of people are really excited to hear about was this co-pilot program with...
Speaker Change: AI being utilized. I was wondering, you know, there were some pilots done earlier in the year. There's certainly been some progress there. Would you guys be able to elaborate on any customer reception with the new technologies that you guys are executing on and implementing with your product and any developments there, please? Thank you.
Speaker Change: Sure, Jesse. This is Josh. I'll address that. So we launched two co-pilots earlier this year. One is our co-pilot for policy. One is the co-pilot for global intelligence.
with the Co-Pilot for Global Intelligence that's essentially
Speaker Change: Combined with the other aspects of our product experience, it gives our end users a new way to interact with our data and analysis, and a way in which
Speaker Change: they can get to the heart of answers to their most pressing issues much more quickly.
Speaker Change: We've been really happy with the customer uptake that we've seen. We've seen a very broad uptake among our customer base. We're seeing a lot of good healthy metrics in terms of things like return visits.
Speaker Change: repeated, kind of repeating inquiries. And we like actually the nature of the questions that we're seeing being asked. And we've also seen promise in terms of
Speaker Change: the potential that that has to help drive upsell and cross-sell through product-led sales and product-led growth, which is important for us going forward as well. So a lot of good successes there, and we feel really good about that product and what it will be able to do to help drive us to more growth going forward.
Speaker Change: for a co-pilot for policy. That was a bit of a different nature of launch. So that was
Speaker Change: Taking an approach of essentially slicing off a single piece of functionality, making that available.
Speaker Change: to users to interact with in a different way. So taking just really a small subset of what our core product is able to do for users from a policy standpoint, giving them the chance to interact much more simply around.
Just a simplified set of functionality.
Speaker Change: And what's been good about that is, again, we've had a lot of learnings from how users have interacted with it, some different types of users than we have typically worked with in the past.
Speaker Change: and we've been able to leverage both that technology that we developed and the learnings from that to bring a lot of that functionality directly back into our new core product initiative as well, which is something I talked about in terms of how we're focused on driving these improved customer experiences across the core. So again, a lot of good work from that and good learnings coming from that one.
Great, thank you very much for taking the questions.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Your next question comes from the line of Mike Latimer with Northland Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Speaker Change: All right, great. Yeah. Thanks. And congrats, Tim and Josh, on your new roles.
Robert Burrows, Unknown Executive
The gross margin was
Well, overall profitability was great, but gross margin.
You know was up nicely I guess is that
Speaker Change: It seems like that would be sustainable given the drivers here, but do you view gross margin levels as sustainable?
Speaker Change: Hi Mike, it's Jon Slabaugh. We believe so. The gross margins increased by virtue of the Board.org divestiture which had a little bit of a different cost profile to it. And it's also improved as we've de-emphasized some of the advisory and service-oriented lines of business. They had a higher fulfillment cost as well.
Speaker Change: Double and triple down on our core policy and global insights business. Those are subscription businesses with really great margin profiles.
Got it. Got it. Good. And then.
Speaker Change: In terms of thinking about a return to growth, it sounds like new products are key. Do you feel like the new products you just talked about are sufficient to get back to growth, or are there going to be others that you're launching here that are kind of critical?
Speaker Change: So, hey Mike, it's Josh. So, thanks for the question there. So, a good part of what's going to help us get back to the level of growth that we expect is what I talked about generally speaking regarding product and the focus that we have on product going forward. What's really key for us is creating the right customer experiences that can drive the right levels of engagement.
Speaker Change: that can help us drive better retention as well as that cross-sell up-sell. As I mentioned before, those are where we have the most significant challenges. And so what we want to do is
Speaker Change: Bring those new experiences to our core products and our core customers. That will give us a very strong basis for growth going forward and a basis of not just growth, but long-term profitable growth. And that will give us the ability to continue to invest in new product development over time as well.
Okay. Bye.
And I'll just ask, actually, on the third quarter.
Speaker Change: I believe historically it's been an important quarter for government bookings. How did the government perform in the quarter?
Speaker Change: So yeah, Mike and Josh, so we saw good government performance in Q3 and that continues to be a strong basis for us going forward as well.
Speaker Change: And just last one, you know, you talked a lot about looking at
Speaker Change: De-emphasizing or divesting non-core product areas. I guess, can you give us a sense of, you know, what percent of the...
Revenue or AR could be in that non-core category.
I get them.
Speaker Change: I really don't want to give any kind of guidance on that right now. I think it's fair to say that a substantial portion of our revenue really is in businesses that we intend to be in for the long haul, but we're still going through that evaluation and need to kind of make decisions kind of one by one as we continue to focus on simplifying the business and kind of clearing the path.
to growth.
Okay, next one.
Thanks a lot.
Speaker Change: Our next question comes from the line of Zach Cummings with B. Reilly Securities. Please go ahead.
Speaker Change: Hi, this is Ethan Wydell calling in for Zach Cummins. Thanks for taking my questions. To start, Tim, congrats on the transition. Can you elaborate maybe on why now is the right time for the leadership transition?
Tim Hwang: Yeah, I appreciate the question. I mean, I think, first of all, you know, it's been a great run here, kind of running the company day to day and operating for the last 12 years.
As I mentioned in my remarks, I literally.
Tim Hwang: started a company with three guys and a laptop in a Motel 6 room in Silicon Valley.
Tim Hwang: I've been grinding 365 days a year ever since and so.
I do think that the company is quite well-positioned here.
Tim Hwang: had launched a number of new products have gotten to a place where we have several thousand customers and, as was mentioned today, you know, we've had, you know, effectively sort of record profitability on an adjusted basis.
Tim Hwang: and now consecutive profitability five quarters in a row. And so looking at 2025 and beyond, I think, you know, we're quite well positioned to make the transition.
Tim Hwang: As I mentioned, I'm still, you know, very involved in the business, you know, got strong interest in making sure that the company continues to be successful, leading the board and strategy and quite a number of different product and culture based initiatives. And so I think, you know, I've been working with Josh for the last
Tim Hwang: You know, almost six years now just seemed like the right time to make that transition here.
God, it's helpful. Thank you.
Tim Hwang: Sure. So, this is Josh. I'll address that. You know, we obviously look very deeply in the business to see where
Tim Hwang: things that are working, things that are not. And as I mentioned, a big part of what we're doing going forward is making sure that we're doing the right things.
Tim Hwang: to focus on the areas where we see that promise and the opportunity for growth. So a couple sectors and segments that I've mentioned, we're seeing a lot of promise in international. That includes areas of our global policy data sets.
Robert Burrows, Timothy Hwang, Jon Slabaugh, Bob Burrows, Unknown Executive
Tim Hwang: In addition to just generally speaking, bringing that focus in those areas that will work is bringing the focus on the product as well and bring the right product experiences.
Tim Hwang: in front of our customers to help drive that retention and that cross-sell, up-sell that will be a foundation for growth as well. And we've been undertaking efforts in that regard. We have improvements underway for our core products, and the early signs there that we're seeing are very promising. So we feel excited about the direction that we're going there as well.
Got it. I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of John Roy with Water Tower Research. Please go ahead.
John Roy: Thank you. Obviously, there's a lot of focus on growth on the top line and new products and possibly new geos, which would seemingly require new products. I was curious if you could give us any color on the competitive landscape.
John Roy: Are these seeming to you purely greenfield opportunities that no one is there? Are you, do you see players that are already there? Just curious if you could give us some color on the competitive landscape.
John Roy: Sure. So this is Josh. And maybe I can help clarify a bit in terms of what I'm talking about in terms of international. What I'm talking about there in the areas that we see promise is really about the global data sets that we have in part, and policy analysis that we have regarding markets outside the US. So these are assets that we already have. We have customers already engaging with them. And we're seeing a lot of, as I said, we're seeing metrics and indicators underneath that are giving us an indication of a lot of promise in terms of the demand for those existing data sets and content sets that we already have.
John Roy: And so when I'm talking about the optimism that we have in terms of where we see that promise going forward.
John Roy: It is in regards to data we already have, content we already have, and focuses in on products we already have but the improvements to those products that we are making in order to drive better engagement with our existing customer sets.
John Roy: We do see promise in new logo as well, but in terms of key areas that we're focused on in terms of driving that continued improvement, a lot is focused on that retention cross sell up sell. And that's where the improvements to our existing current core products come into play.
Speaker Change: Does that help answer the question? You've got a lot already in hand to really get to these new areas. That sounds great. Yeah.
Speaker Change: We have no further questions in our queue at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Bob Burrows for closing comments.
Bob Burrows: Great. Thanks, Krista. That concludes our call this evening. We appreciate everyone's participation on the call. With any additional questions, please contact any of us. And again, all materials related to the company's third quarter 24 financial results are available on the Fiscal Note website. We look forward to speaking with all of you again in the future. Good night.
Bob Burrows: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation and you may now disconnect.