Jackson Ader

Jackson Ader questioned how much of the 40% growth in brands within agency customers is controlled by Zeta versus the agency, and why auto and insurance verticals remain top growers despite tough 2024 comps.

Answer

CEO David Steinberg described the agency relationship as a partnership where strong performance earns more business, and the low overall penetration ensures a durable growth runway. CFO Chris Greiner explained that verticals like auto and insurance continue to grow strongly because Zeta is still 'so thinly penetrated' in these massive markets, allowing for significant new logo and cross-sell opportunities.

Jackson Ader from KeyBanc Capital Markets sought clarification on whether the inbound calls were about acquiring Zeta the company or its software. He also questioned the capital allocation strategy of prioritizing share buybacks over potentially higher R&D spending, given the stated correlation between innovation and revenue growth.

Answer

CEO David Steinberg confirmed the inbound interest was about acquiring the company, attributing it to their market share gains. On capital allocation, he explained that they are already investing as much as they can in innovation but are limited by the pace of hiring highly selective engineering talent. Therefore, with available free cash flow and the belief that Zeta's stock is undervalued, share buybacks represent the best use of capital to reward shareholders.

Jackson Ader from KeyBanc Capital Markets inquired whether salespeople from acquisitions like LiveIntent ramp as quickly as new hires. He also asked about the brand multiplier effect of independent agencies and if it diminishes across the long tail.

Answer

CEO David Steinberg explained that the LiveIntent sales team is expected to ramp quickly due to the significant product similarities. He confirmed the brand multiplier for independent agencies dwindles statistically but emphasized that hundreds of these agencies each represent billions in spend and are expected to become super-scaled customers.

Jackson Ader from KeyBanc Capital Markets inquired about the expected sales ramp time for reps from acquisitions like LiveIntent compared to new hires, and asked about the potential brand multiplier effect from independent agencies versus large holdcos.

Answer

CEO David Steinberg stated that due to strong product similarities, he expects the LiveIntent sales team to ramp quickly. He also noted that the independent agency opportunity is substantial, with hundreds of agencies representing billions in spend, and Zeta expects each to become a super-scaled customer upon launch.

Jackson Ader from KeyBanc Capital Markets asked about the impact of SAP's price discipline on the linearity of backend bookings through the quarter and how this discipline is maintained as quarter-ends approach.

Answer

Christian Klein, CEO of SAP, explained that AI-driven cost optimization and business transformation use cases, often discussed at the C-level, reduce pricing pressure because SAP is seen as a critical partner. He noted that sophisticated software and cloud capabilities command a premium. SAP's sales team balances volume and pricing in quotas, and targeted migration credits are used to make business cases attractive without discounting exit prices or renewals, thus protecting cloud subscription prices.

Jackson Ader from KeyBanc Capital Markets asked how SAP's focus on price discipline is affecting the linearity of bookings throughout the quarter and its effectiveness as quarter-ends approach.

Answer

CEO Christian Klein explained that price protection is maintained because deals are driven by compelling business cases (cost optimization, automation, new business models with AI) and C-level engagement, rather than just IT needs. He noted that migration credits are used in a targeted way to make business cases attractive without discounting exit prices or renewals, ensuring a balance of volume and pricing in sales quotas.

Jackson Ader of KeyBanc Capital Markets asked for details on the new Alibaba partnership, including SAP's current footprint in China, the go-to-market mechanics, and the size of the addressable market.

Answer

CEO Christian Klein explained the partnership targets both multinationals in China and Chinese companies globalizing their business, aiming to capture the large enterprise and upper mid-market. CFO Dominik Asam clarified that China contributes a mid-single-digit percentage of total revenue and is included in the 'rest of APJ' region, which accounts for about 10% of revenue.

Jackson Ader of KeyBanc Capital Markets asked which part of the sales pipeline, cloud migrations or net new activity, would be more impacted by a macro disruption and which is better insulated.

Answer

CEO Christian Klein argued that both pipeline segments are resilient. He stated that net new customers often need to upgrade to scale their business, while installed base customers on outdated ERPs have a strong value proposition for moving. He expressed confidence based on the current pipeline and the relevance of SAP's portfolio in uncertain times.

Jackson Ader from KeyBanc Capital Markets questioned SAP's assessment of risks related to U.S. government investigations and asked for the size of its U.S. federal business as a percentage of total revenue.

Answer

CFO Dominik Asam clarified that the recent FBI search of a partner, Carahsoft, was confirmed to be unrelated to SAP's ongoing cooperation with a 2022 DOJ civil investigative demand. CEO Christian Klein affirmed that the relationship with U.S. public sector clients remains strong. Dominik Asam sized the U.S. federal business as a 'low single-digit' percentage of total revenue.

Jackson Ader asked if the trend of customers pulling forward their cloud migrations, mentioned earlier in the year, was still holding up amid a cooling macro environment.

Answer

CEO Christian Klein confirmed that positive pipeline momentum continues for both installed base migrations and net new customers. He credited the Sapphire conference for boosting customer confidence in SAP's strategy and noted a significant opportunity to expand its channel business, expressing optimism for the remainder of 2024 and into 2025.

Jackson Ader inquired about Sprinklr's net new logo acquisition and demand, and later asked if recent management changes and new hires might prolong the timeline for the company's operational 'bend.'

Answer

Rory Read, President and CEO, explained that FY26's plan targeted a 25% new logo mix, focusing on enterprise brands. He viewed new leadership hires as an accelerant for the transformation, bringing experience and scale to uplift execution rather than elongating the timeline.

Jackson Ader questioned the rationale for selecting the initial 200 "Project Bearhug" customers and asked how the company plans to offset the $10 million FX headwind to maintain profitability guidance.

Answer

President, CEO & Director, Rory Read, explained that "Project Bearhug" started with the largest strategic accounts and is moving down by size, while a parallel analytics effort is creating a "health check" to identify at-risk accounts proactively. CFO Manish Sarin stated that to offset the FX headwind, the company will be thoughtful about spending and leverage the "dry powder" retained from the earlier restructuring, ensuring they can maintain guidance. Read added that investments in AI, enablement, and services will not be sacrificed.

Jackson Ader from KeyBanc Capital Markets asked about Q4 bookings activity, including any deal slippage or duration changes, and inquired about the seasonality of large renewals for the upcoming year.

Answer

President and CEO Rory Read reported that Q4 bookings activity was 'stronger than expected' with a good mix of deals and no notable issues. He confirmed that the renewal seasonality for FY26 is expected to be consistent with prior years, with the largest renewal cohorts in Q4 and Q2. He also noted that sales incentives have been updated to better reward on-time renewals and a shift towards multi-year deals is underway.

Jackson Ader asked which of the planned operational changes would require net new investment versus a reallocation of existing resources. He also questioned if the $2 million in Q4 retention bonuses indicated a risk of unwanted sales representative churn.

Answer

President and CEO Rory Read clarified that his goal is to make the cost structure more efficient, with a net position of lower costs. Investments in areas like renewal managers and quota carriers will be funded through rebalancing and restructuring, not a net increase in spending. He explained the retention bonuses were not for reps but were a prudent investment to retain key skills across all critical functions during the transformation.

Jackson Ader of KeyBanc Capital Markets asked where customers are going when they churn or reduce spend and questioned the mechanics of the $10.1 million credit loss charge, including its impact on recognized revenue and RPO.

Answer

Founder and Co-CEO Ragy Thomas stated that budget cuts are a common theme and that churn is more often a 'down-sell' or 'true-up' rather than a loss to a specific competitor. Chief Financial Officer Manish Sarin clarified the credit charge, explaining that of the $10.1M, about $4M were write-offs and $6M were specific reserves, which resulted in removing approximately $5M from cRPO and a $3.5M headwind to FY25 revenue.

Jackson Ader asked about the pace of sales hiring relative to expectations and questioned the cause for the lower-than-typical net new account additions for the Monday CRM product during the quarter.

Answer

Co-CEO Eran Zinman and CFO Eliran Glazer responded that sales hiring is in line with their strategic plan, focusing on new products and enterprise segments. Regarding CRM, Zinman attributed the lower net new accounts to seasonality and some downmarket pressure, but emphasized a strategic shift towards landing higher-value, larger customers, making account count a less complete indicator of the product's success.

Jackson Ader asked for an update on the market repositioning of the monday dev product following a strong quarter for customer additions. He also questioned how macroeconomic uncertainty might manifest in the business if it were to worsen.

Answer

Co-CEO Eran Zinman attributed the strength in monday dev net adds to seasonality and efficient performance marketing spend, rather than a major go-to-market change. Co-CEO Roy Mann added that in past periods of uncertainty, the business has seen longer decision-making cycles and increased scrutiny on seat usage from larger enterprises.

Jackson Ader asked about the operational aspects of the sales-led growth motion, inquiring how the company manages sales cycles for complex, multi-product deals and what the best external KPIs are for tracking the efficacy of this motion.

Answer

co-CEO Eran Zinman explained their sales structure involves specialized teams for new customers based on their landing product, while account managers leverage 'overlay' specialists for cross-selling. He noted the entire sales organization is segmented by company size (SMB, Mid-Market, Enterprise), with different processes and cycle times for each, which is how they manage the complexity and scale the motion.

Jackson Ader asked for details on the typical sales rep motion—whether it's focused on new high-level buyers or consolidating existing teams—and how the recent pricing increases have impacted the down-market funnel and performance marketing spend.

Answer

Co-CEO Eran Zinman described a sales organization segmented by customer size (SMB, mid-market, enterprise), with Account Executives focusing on new business and Account Managers on expansion. He noted the CRO transition is an opportunity to bring in more enterprise expertise. Co-CEO Roy Mann explained that performance marketing is results-driven; the price increase led to fewer but higher-quality new customers with more scaling potential, aligning with the company's strategy to move its sweet spot higher.

Jackson Ader inquired about the competitive environment for AI voice solutions and Twilio's ability to drive pricing with more cohesive multi-product contracts in the future.

Answer

CEO Khozema Shipchandler explained that Twilio often provides the core infrastructure for voice AI companies and competes by offering context via its CDP, while remaining open to all LLMs. He noted the current focus is on multi-product adoption, which is naturally accretive, and that list prices are raised periodically, impacting self-serve customers most directly.

Jackson Ader inquired about Akamai's visibility and control over the timing of large CIS contract ramps and asked for an update on the CIS sales pipeline for the second half of the year.

Answer

CFO Ed McGowan responded that the timing is a mix; for some deals, Akamai had to build capacity (which is on schedule), while for others, it depends on the customer's schedule. He affirmed high confidence in the deals. He described the CIS pipeline as healthy and growing, with larger deal sizes and broad participation, and specifically highlighted the API security pipeline as 'extremely strong'.

Jackson Ader of KeyBanc Capital Markets asked about specific sales initiatives to capitalize on the shift from traditional search to social media and questioned the potential for sales disruption from the NewsWhip integration.

Answer

CEO Ryan Barretto said the main strategy is enabling the sales team on the value proposition of social's impact on AI and traditional search. CFO Joe DelPretto acknowledged the risk of disruption with any acquisition but stated that enablement to articulate the complementary value of NewsWhip and the core listening product is already well underway to minimize any negative impact.

Jackson Ader asked about the potential for elongating sales cycles, questioning if the cause would be customers conserving cash or cuts to social media and advertising budgets.

Answer

CFO Joe Del Preto clarified that the company is not currently seeing any material changes in sales cycle dynamics. He emphasized that Sprout Social has no direct exposure to advertising budgets as it operates on the organic side of social media. He pointed to the mission-critical nature of the product and strong gross retention as evidence of the business's resilience.

Jackson Ader asked if large enterprise deals are solely for social media management or part of a broader marketing stack purchase, and also inquired about the final financial benefit from the Salesforce Social Studio wind-down.

Answer

CEO Ryan Barretto clarified that large wins are specifically for social media management, although they may encompass various use cases like marketing, care, or influencer. CFO Joe Del Preto declined to provide a specific figure for the Social Studio benefit, stating it is not a number the company is publicly disclosing at this time.

Jackson Ader asked what the growth expectations for the CRPO metric should be going forward, questioning if the recent pace of slowdown is indicative of the future trend. He also inquired about potential new sales investments being contemplated now that new leadership is in place.

Answer

CFO Joe Del Preto stated that the company is not providing forward-looking guidance on CRPO at this time but will reconsider as the metric further converges on revenue. CEO Ryan Barretto addressed the investment question, stating that they feel good about the current investment strategy and structure and had no new changes to announce for the sales organization.

Jackson Ader from KeyBanc Capital Markets asked if the feature-rich Core Seats could cannibalize sales of full Sales or Service Hub seats and how HubSpot delineates features between them.

Answer

CEO Yamini Rangan clarified that use cases are distinct, with persona-specific seats (Sales Hub, Service Hub) focused on functional workflows like deal management or help desk operations. She stated the company does not believe Core Seats are cannibalizing full seats, as their value propositions are different. Rangan explained that daily-flow AI tools (co-pilots) will be in Core or persona seats, while AI that performs autonomous work (agents) will be monetized via credits, creating a durable, multi-faceted growth model.

Jackson Ader from KeyBanc Capital Markets followed up on core seats, asking if their feature-richness could cannibalize sales of full persona seats and how HubSpot delineates features between the two.

Answer

CEO Yamini Rangan stated that cannibalization is not a concern because the use cases are distinct: persona seats are for specific functional workflows (e.g., deal management in Sales Hub), while core seats provide platform-level capabilities. She clarified the monetization strategy: daily-flow AI tools (co-pilots) will be in seats, while AI agents that perform work will be monetized via credits, creating durable and separate growth paths.

Jackson Ader asked about the up-to-5% pricing increase for customers renewing on the new seat-based model, inquiring about HubSpot's flexibility on this increase given the macro environment and the introduction of new credit-based pricing.

Answer

CFO Kathryn Bueker confirmed that the price increase upon renewal is a component of the expected rise in Net Revenue Retention. She stated that the overall migration of customers to the new seats-based model is proceeding according to plan. Her comments indicated that the company expects to continue with its stated plan of implementing up to a 5% price increase at the first renewal for migrated customers.

Jackson Ader asked if HubSpot's extensive internal adoption of AI is expected to meaningfully improve expense growth and where any resulting savings might be redeployed.

Answer

CFO Kathryn Bueker confirmed that areas for reinvestment remain consistent: R&D and go-to-market capacity. CEO Yamini Rangan added that HubSpot is actively reimagining its own go-to-market functions—including support, marketing, and sales—with AI, which is expected to drive midterm to long-term efficiency and innovation.

Jackson Ader of KeyBanc Capital Markets questioned the dynamics affecting gross margin, asking when new, higher-margin software products might offset SMS headwinds and if revenue smoothing would also smooth gross margin seasonality.

Answer

CFO Amanda Whalen explained that while new products will eventually have a positive margin impact, they won't be significant enough this year. She noted that in Q2, leverage from infrastructure investments offset SMS headwinds, keeping gross margin flat sequentially. She does not expect significant changes to margin seasonality, as the Q4 SMS volume spike remains a key driver.

Jackson Ader from KeyBanc Capital Markets inquired about the exposure of Klaviyo's end customers to potential China tariffs and the expected revenue contribution from new products in the 2025 forecast.

Answer

CFO Amanda Whalen explained that the customer base is diverse, with many already diversifying supply chains away from China, and some see it as an opportunity. CEO Andrew Bialecki clarified that significant revenue from new products like Customer Hub and Marketing Analytics is not baked into the 2025 guidance, allowing time to refine them, but noted strong early traction and ROI for beta customers.

Jackson Ader asked if the rising customer acquisition costs at the low end are being driven by the same AI search trends Semrush aims to solve for its clients. He followed up by questioning the strategic message of Semrush pulling back from this challenge while simultaneously selling tools designed to help customers overcome it.

Answer

CEO Bill Wagner confirmed that the rise in paid search costs is linked to the changing Google search landscape with more AI overviews, making ad real estate more expensive. He clarified the decision to pull back was a strategic capital allocation choice based on poor unit economics for the high-churn, low-end segment, allowing a resource shift to high-return areas like enterprise.

Jackson Ader requested a more real-time indicator of retention for the enterprise cohort and sought clarification on whether the $30 million year-end Enterprise ARR target would be entirely incremental to the current $11 million.

Answer

CFO Brian Mulroy did not provide a real-time NRR but pointed to strong growth in customers paying over $10k (40% YoY) and $50k (86% YoY) as leading indicators. CEO William Wagner confirmed the $30 million target is almost entirely composed of the existing Enterprise SEO product, with the new AIO product expected to be additive in the future.

Jackson Ader from KeyBanc Capital Markets questioned the timeline for revenue acceleration following the guided increase in operating expense growth for 2025. He also asked if there was a difference in average deal size between new and existing customers for the enterprise SEO solution.

Answer

CFO Brian Mulroy positioned 2025 as an investment year to build on recent margin expansion and fuel the next phase of growth in enterprise and AI, with the goal of driving durable, accelerated growth. He confirmed they are not seeing a material difference in deal size between new and existing enterprise customers, noting that a significant expansion multiple came from an existing customer.

Jackson Ader from KeyBanc Capital Markets asked about the ACV uplift of the largest TCV deal and whether it can serve as a reference case to win similar upmarket customers.

Answer

CFO Graham O'Brien confirmed the deal's ACV is just under eight figures, representing millions of dollars in growth. CEO Henry Schuck added that they fully expect to replicate this success, as there are dozens of customers with a similar profile in their account base who can standardize on ZoomInfo to modernize their go-to-market operations.

Asked how much of the upmarket growth is driven by customers hiring new sales reps versus other factors, and questioned when the growth in Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO) would start to reflect the positive upmarket momentum.

Answer

The company stated that upmarket growth is a mix of some new seat sales, growth in their non-seat-based Operations product, and expansion into existing roles like account executives with Copilot. They noted that an increase in sales hiring would be a future tailwind. RPO growth is expected to turn positive as they move past lapping difficult downmarket comps from the prior year.

Inquired about the competitive landscape further upmarket, especially for Copilot deals, and the macroeconomic assumptions embedded in the 2025 guidance.

Answer

The company stated its product differentiation and competitive advantage are meaningfully stronger upmarket, driven by data quality, compliance, and AI innovation. The 2025 guidance does not assume any significant change (either better or worse) in the macroeconomic environment from what was observed in Q4.

Jackson Ader from KeyBanc Capital Markets asked for details on the ACV uplift from the largest TCV deal and whether this win can serve as a reference to secure similar upmarket customers.

Answer

CFO Graham O'Brien revealed the deal's ACV is just under eight figures, representing millions in growth. CEO Henry Schuck confirmed they intend to use this success as a blueprint to show dozens of similar customers how they can standardize on the ZoomInfo platform for data, insights, and AI.

Jackson Ader from KeyBanc Capital Markets asked about the desired background for the next CEO and whether Five9's AI strategy will broaden beyond the contact center to compete on capabilities like code generation.

Answer

CEO & Chairman Mike Burkland stated the CEO search prioritizes experience in AI innovation and a track record of operational excellence at scale. He clarified the strategy is to be the best-of-breed 'AI for CX,' which includes the contact center and related back-office automation, rather than general-purpose AI. President Andy Dignan added that some capabilities are becoming 'table stakes' for delivering enterprise AI.

Jackson Ader asked about the strategic rationale for the new partnership with Twilio Segment. He also inquired about the performance in the 'rest of world' geography, which appeared to be lagging, and what could be done to accelerate growth there.

Answer

CEO Spenser Skates positioned the Twilio partnership as a natural fit, given significant customer overlap and Amplitude's clarified strategy to be the application layer on top of CDPs, rather than a competitor. Regarding geographic performance, Skates advised not to read too much into quarterly variations, explaining that international markets are still in early stages of growth, particularly in the enterprise segment, and that he expects variance from quarter to quarter.

Speaking on behalf of Jackson Ader, an analyst asked about the expected shape of revenue growth throughout 2025, particularly regarding seasonality, and inquired if there were any notable macro-related differences between North American and international performance.

Answer

CFO Andrew Casey confirmed that as the business shifts more to enterprise, it will exhibit classic software seasonality with Q4 being the strongest and Q1 the lightest due to sales kick-offs and territory changes. CEO Spenser Skates added that the enterprise concentration will also lead to higher quarter-to-quarter variability. Regarding geography, both executives stated there were no significant bifurcations to call out, with Q4 performance being broad-based.

Asked for comments on acquisition rumors, whether the share repurchase program is still active, and if the free AI access trial will negatively impact gross margins.

Answer

The company declined to comment on acquisition rumors. They confirmed the share repurchase program is ongoing. They do not expect a major gross margin impact from the AI trial, as the workload has been moved to a significantly more efficient model with de minimis cost impact.

Asked about sales capacity plans for the year and which specific 'capabilities' products are driving the growth in that category.

Answer

Sales capacity is being rebalanced to focus more on the enterprise segment. The strongest performing capabilities continue to be Control Center, Dynamic View, and Data Shuttle, with the 'Advance' bundle also performing well.

Jackson Ader questioned how much the tech sector's subdued spending is impacting the reacceleration curve and how much a tech recovery could steepen it. He also asked about the CEO's 10b5-1 stock purchase plan and its messaging.

Answer

CEO Dustin Moskovitz explained that if the tech sector simply stopped being a drag, overall growth would rise to match that of healthier segments. Regarding his stock purchase, he stated it is independent of company operations and reflects his personal confidence at a point of stabilization for the business and the market. He clarified the plan's size is based on a dollar amount and price schedule.