Jake Roberge

Jake Roberge of William Blair & Company, L.L.C. asked about the potential timing of optimization from AI-native customers and the early feedback for Datadog's own AI solutions like Bits AI.

Answer

CEO Olivier Pomel stated that the timing of any customer optimization is unpredictable and depends on individual business needs and renewal cadences. He reported that the initial response to the new AI agents has been very positive, with customers purchasing quickly, and the company is now focused on scaling up distribution and enablement.

Jake Roberge inquired about the start of the year-end selling season, how the pipeline compares to prior periods, and whether selling a broader platform across departments has elongated sales cycles.

Answer

Executive Chairman Steve Beauchamp described a stable demand environment and strong execution from go-to-market teams, carrying momentum from FY25 into Q1 and the current selling season. He stated that sales cycles have not elongated, as the strategy mitigates this by allowing clients to start with any product (typically HCM) and then implement additional modules later, a motion the company is accustomed to.

Jake Roberge from William Blair asked for an update on the demand environment, specifically how the start of the year-end selling season has progressed and how the current pipeline compares to prior periods. He also inquired whether selling a broader platform across multiple departments has led to elongated deal cycles or if closing times have remained consistent since the launch of Paylocity for Finance.

Answer

Steve Beauchamp, Executive Chairman, reported a good start to the selling season with a stable demand environment and strong execution from go-to-market teams, expressing satisfaction with pipeline momentum and conversion. He confirmed that Paylocity has not experienced elongated sales cycles despite selling a broader platform, attributing this to a strategy of initially onboarding clients on any product (typically HCM) and then implementing additional modules, often engaging HR, finance, and IT decision-makers simultaneously.

Jake Roberge of William Blair & Company asked about the broker channel's performance amid recent industry M&A, whether demand environment 'noise' from the prior quarter persisted, and what assumptions for HR budgets are in the guidance.

Answer

President, CEO & Director Toby Williams affirmed the broker channel remains strong, contributing over 25% of new business, and that the overall demand environment was 'fairly steady and healthy' through Q4. CFO Ryan Glenn added that the fiscal 2026 guidance assumes a similar environment and that they are comfortable with all underlying assumptions, including those for HR budgets.

Jake Roberge inquired about the specific drivers of the strong Q3 recurring revenue beat, the largest of the year, and asked about the key value propositions resonating in early Airbase cross-sells.

Answer

President and CEO Toby Williams credited the outperformance to strong, synchronized execution across sales and operations during their busiest season. Executive Chairman Steven Beauchamp detailed that for Airbase, customers are responding well to the combination of spend management ROI, back-office efficiency, and an improved employee experience.

Jake Roberge from William Blair asked about the initial feedback on Pegasystems' new predictable AI agents and how their approach differs from competitors. He also questioned how Blueprint is facilitating new logo acquisition and the overall progress of this strategic push.

Answer

Alan Trefler, Founder and CEO, explained that Pega's agents leverage LLMs at design time for creativity and discipline, then use a robust workflow engine at runtime for predictability, a structural difference from competitors who rely on LLMs for runtime control. He also highlighted the environmental benefit of less LLM consumption at runtime. Ken Stillwell, COO and CFO, and Mr. Trefler noted that Blueprint significantly accelerates new logo engagement by offering a user-friendly, non-technical experience and speeding up business development, making it easier to target and onboard new clients.

Jake Roberge inquired about the early feedback on Pegasystems' new predictable AI agents and how their approach differs from competitors. He also asked about Pega GenAI Blueprint's impact on new logo acquisition and the overall progress of this strategic push.

Answer

Alan Trefler, Founder and CEO, highlighted Pega's unique strategy of leveraging LLMs for design-time creativity and a robust workflow engine for runtime predictability, contrasting it with competitors' prompt-driven, runtime LLM reliance. Ken Stillwell, COO and CFO, and Mr. Trefler explained that Blueprint accelerates initial engagement and business development for new logos by offering a user-friendly, non-technical experience that simplifies understanding and implementation.

Jake Roberge asked for a breakdown of the drivers behind the net new ACV acceleration, specifically between Pega Blueprint, legacy transformation, and general AI tailwinds. He also inquired about progress and learnings from the new logo acquisition strategy.

Answer

Founder & CEO Alan Trefler identified legacy transformation of non-Pega systems as a primary growth driver, with Blueprint serving as a key enabler. COO & CFO Kenneth Stillwell added that Pega is seeing momentum in winning new workflows, both in new logos and new divisions of existing clients. Trefler also highlighted the potential of partner-branded Blueprints to expand market reach.

Jake Roberge asked about UiPath's key pitch for Maestro in customer conversations, focusing on what gets them in the door and the types of deals they are seeing. He also followed up on the overall health and stability of UiPath's go-to-market motion after a year of changes.

Answer

Daniel Dines, Founder and CEO, highlighted Maestro's agnostic approach as a key pitch, addressing customer concerns about platform lock-in when processes span multiple business systems. He emphasized Maestro's tight integration with UiPath's automation platform, making it easy to combine agents, human-in-the-loop, and robots, positioning it as a compelling offering against major orchestration platform providers. Regarding the go-to-market motion, Daniel Dines described it as "stable" and making "solid progress" by being more customer-centric, breaking silos, and fostering closer collaboration between go-to-market and product teams, which is crucial for rapid iterations driven by customer interactions.

Jake Roberge questioned what differentiates UiPath's Maestro orchestration solution from competitors in the market and asked for an update on the stability of the go-to-market organization following recent operational changes.

Answer

Founder & CEO Daniel Dines explained that Maestro is more ambitious than typical agent-to-agent orchestration, as it connects agents, robots, and people to deliver enterprise-level workflows with deep analytics. CFO & COO Ashim Gupta confirmed that the go-to-market and operational structures are now stable and substantially complete, with future tweaks focused on capturing the agentic opportunity rather than disruptive changes.

Jake Roberge asked about the progress of Docusign's IAM rollout in newer markets, specifically enterprise and international, compared to the core North American commercial market, and if the anticipated pricing uplift has been maintained.

Answer

CEO Allan Thygesen highlighted encouraging larger IAM deals with enterprise customers in Q2, noting the long-term market opportunity and the positive impact of go-to-market changes. CFO Blake Grayson added that international regions are embracing IAM, and a meaningful expansion for customers moving from e-signature to IAM has been consistently observed.

Jake Roberge of William Blair & Company, L.L.C. questioned the specifics of the go-to-market transition driving lower early renewals and the contrast with stronger billings in prior quarters. He also inquired about the overall health of the business, the durability of the IAM upsell opportunity, and the outlook for net retention and expansion.

Answer

CEO Allan Thygesen explained that compensation changes designed to encourage in-quarter deals, rather than early renewals, took effect sooner than forecasted. CFO Blake Grayson added that Q1 business fundamentals remain strong, with IAM deal volume exceeding Q4, and noted that prior quarters had a tailwind from early renewals, making direct comparisons misleading. Both executives expressed confidence in the IAM strategy and improving business fundamentals like dollar net retention.

Jake Roberge of William Blair & Company, L.L.C. inquired about the largest remaining go-to-market opportunities and asked for an update on early customer feedback and migration progress for the new serverless solutions.

Answer

CEO Ashutosh Kulkarni identified significant remaining opportunities in the enterprise and mid-market segments, stating that GTM changes made a year ago are now fully effective and position the company for long-term growth. Regarding serverless, he reported that adoption is ahead of internal targets with positive feedback, and the current focus is on expanding the data center footprint to drive further adoption.

Jake Roberge, on behalf of Miles Minter at William Blair, asked about the impact of a competitor's (Vertex/Moderna) trial pause on patient enrollment for Arcturus's CF study and sought commentary on the competitor's safety issues.

Answer

President and CEO Joseph Payne stated that while a competitor's pause could potentially aid recruitment at overlapping sites, most of Arcturus's sites do not have competition due to strategic site selection with the CF Foundation. He declined to speculate on the competitor's program, instead emphasizing Arcturus's differentiated delivery technology and purification IP as key advantages.

Jake Roberge from William Blair & Company, L.L.C. asked about the demand for Check Fraud Defender and confidence in hitting the $20 million ACV target, the status of large IDR&D deals that were previously pushed out, and the operational efficiency improvements identified by the new COO.

Answer

CEO Ed West expressed optimism about achieving the ACV goal for Check Fraud Defender, citing ongoing tests, partner conversations, and contract discussions with large financial institutions, noting the ROI is clear but procurement cycles are long. CFO Dave Lyle mentioned that some of the delayed standalone biometrics deals have changed while others are still progressing slowly. West added that the IDR&D team is now tightly integrated, with its capabilities enhancing Mitek's platforms, and noted the new COO is accelerating the pace of business integration and cost-saving initiatives.

An analyst on behalf of Jake Roberge of William Blair & Company asked about the progress of the U.S. partner channel and whether it could reach the scale of the international channel, and also inquired about demand for security solutions.

Answer

CEO John Strosahl confirmed they are heavily investing in the domestic channel, which now benefits from a new partner portal, and he believes it can achieve the same scale as their international business. He also stated that demand for security solutions remains strong, driven by customers needing to both manage and secure devices, with mobile security being a particularly fast-growing area across multiple industries.

Jake Roberge asked for feedback on the new agentic AI offerings since Splash and whether any specific agents are seeing outsized interest or ROI among private preview customers.

Answer

CEO & President Tom Shea reported very strong feedback from the private preview program. He described two categories of agents: one for structured data (Finance/Operations Analyst) and another for unstructured data (Search/Deep Analysis). He noted that customers, including OneStream itself, are seeing value across the full spectrum of use cases, from quantitative analysis to narrative generation.

Jake Roberge from William Blair inquired about the drivers behind the continued go-to-market productivity improvements and the outlook for the public sector business entering its key Q3 buying cycle.

Answer

CFO Serge Tanjga attributed productivity gains to better execution, a strategic move upmarket to larger deals, and process improvements. On the public sector, CEO Matt Calkins confirmed that customer conversations are healthy and that Appian is benefiting from favorable shifts in federal buying priorities, but did not offer a specific forecast for the third quarter.

Jake Roberge from William Blair & Company asked where the impact of iWant is expected to show up most—in new logos, retention, or product adoption—and when it might become meaningful in the financial results. He also inquired about the progress of new office rollouts.

Answer

CEO Chad Richison responded that he expects iWant to have an impact across all areas. He identified new logo additions as the largest opportunity for revenue growth but also anticipates a 'huge impact' on retention, CRR-driven upsells, and client win-backs over time. Regarding expansion, he noted the new offices are ramping well, highlighting that the Providence office reached a million dollars in new sales faster than any previous office.

Jake Roberge of William Blair & Company asked what partners like SAP are saying about when migration headwinds might ease and inquired about the initial ramp and win rates for the e-invoicing solution.

Answer

President and CEO David DeStefano stated there have been no changes to SAP's public deadlines and that the migration trend is broad, including Oracle and Microsoft. For e-invoicing, he noted that the solution's value proposition is resonating well, but win rates are highest where Vertex has the necessary country coverage, underscoring the urgency to expand its global footprint.

Jake Roberge from William Blair & Company, L.L.C. asked about the Government of Canada contract, seeking to understand the phasing of the deployment and how it will layer into Dayforce's recurring revenue this year and next.

Answer

Executive VP & CFO Jeremy Johnson stated that of the ~$15 million U.S. deal signed last year, about half has been worked through, with the remainder expected to phase in through the back half of the current year. He added that the project is tracking to plan, with the company expecting to move from design to the early phases of implementation in 2026.

Jake Roberge of William Blair & Company inquired about the key learnings from securing the first federal agency deal and the current trend of the public sector pipeline.

Answer

SVP of Investor Relations Matt Humphries explained that the win validated their commercial playbook's applicability to the public sector, where agencies seek to solve business problems and improve auditability. He noted the pipeline is building at the federal, state, and local levels, driven by strong system integrator partnerships. Co-CEO Owen Ryan also credited a key partner, Deloitte, for their help in securing the win.

Jake Roberge inquired about the broader macroeconomic environment, asking if there were any changes from the previous quarter beyond the pressure on sustainability. He also asked for a comparison of demand from large, enterprise Wave 1 CSRD reporters versus the mid-market corporate segment.

Answer

CEO Julie Iskow stated that the macro environment remained fairly consistent from Q1 to Q2, with continued uncertainty and some deal cycle elongation, but strong demand overall. She clarified that the tapering in sustainability demand was primarily seen in the mid-market "corporate" segment. In contrast, demand from large enterprises subject to Wave 1 of CSRD remains more stable, driven by regulation, stakeholder expectations, and risk management.