Item 1. Legal Proceedings.
We have also received, and may in the future continue to receive, claims from third parties asserting, among other things, infringement of their intellectual property rights. Future litigation may be necessary to defend ourselves or our customers by determining the scope, enforceability and validity of third-party proprietary rights or to establish our proprietary rights. Defending such proceedings is costly and can impose a significant burden on management and employees. The results of any current or future litigation cannot be predicted with certainty, and regardless of the outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources and other factors.
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
A description of the risks and uncertainties associated with our business is set forth below. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including Part I, Item 2, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our condensed financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. If any of the risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the trading price of our Class A common stock could decline.
Risks Related to Our Business and Our Industry
The COVID-19 pandemic, including variants of COVID-19, and/or the impact of vaccinations and increased demand for in-person dining could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
The COVID-19 pandemic, the measures attempting to contain and mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including stay-at-home, business closures, indoor dining restrictions, and other restrictive orders, and the resulting changes in consumer behaviors, have disrupted the restaurant industry, our normal operations and impacted our employees, partners, and customers. While certain regions have started re-opening as a result of increased vaccination rates, we expect these disruptions and impacts to continue. In addition, we face risks related to resurgences of COVID-19, including the emergence of new variant strains of COVID-19 in regions that have reopened which have and may in the future necessitate renewed government restrictions.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have taken a number of actions that have impacted and continue to impact our business, including transitioning employees across our offices (including our corporate headquarters) to remote work-from-home arrangements, cancelling business development events, and imposing travel and related restrictions. Given the continued spread of COVID-19 and the resultant personal, economic, and governmental reactions, we may have to take additional actions in the future that could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations. We continue to monitor the situation and may adjust our current policies as more information and guidance become available. We have adjusted our policies to allow our New York City headquarter employees to work remotely on an optional basis, which may lead to decreased workforce productivity and business disruptions. We have had to expend, and expect to continue to expend, significant time, attention, and resources to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated global economic uncertainty, including to develop and implement internal policies and procedures and track changes in laws and government guidelines and restrictions. The remote working environment may also create increased vulnerability to cybersecurity incidents, including breaches of information systems security, which could damage our reputation and commercial relationships. Over time, such remote operations may decrease the cohesiveness of our teams and our ability to maintain our culture, both of which are critical to our success. Additionally, a remote working environment could negatively impact our marketing efforts, our ability to enter into customer and business development contracts in a timely manner, our international expansion efforts, and our ability to recruit and retain employees across the organization.
With the onset of COVID-19, we began to see an increase in transaction volumes as consumers turned to online ordering as compared to in-person dining. This shift began at the end of the first quarter of 2020 and continued through the third quarter of 2021. We have also experienced an increase in our penetration of our Rails and Dispatch modules, as evidenced by an increase from 44% in 2019 to 71% in 2020 of our customers using all three of our modules. The combination of increased transaction volumes and increased multi-module adoption resulted in an increase in transaction revenue as a percentage of platform revenue. For the three months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020, 47.2% and 44.9% of our platform revenue was subscription revenue, respectively, and 52.8% and 55.1% was transaction revenue, respectively. For the nine months ended
September 30, 2021 and 2020, 45.4% and 50.0% of our platform revenue was subscription revenue, respectively, and 54.6% and 50.0% was transaction revenue, respectively. While we have benefited from the acceleration of demand for off-premise dining, our business and financial results could be materially adversely affected in the future if these trends do not continue. For example, as the effects of shelter-in-place orders abate with the continued roll-out of vaccines in the United States and consumers potentially return to pre-COVID digital ordering preferences and habits, the trends we experienced in 2020 and through the third quarter of 2021 on multi-module adoption, number of active locations, and transaction volume may not continue and our revenue may fluctuate in the near term.
The degree to which COVID-19 will affect our business and results of operations will depend on future developments that are highly uncertain and cannot currently be predicted. These development include but are not limited to the duration, extent, and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, actions taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, including restrictions on indoor dining that could impact our customers, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions on economic activity and domestic and international trade, the timing of the vaccine rollout and acceptance of the vaccine, and the extent of the impact of these and other factors on our employees, partners, vendors, and customers. The COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions could limit our customers’ ability to continue to operate, serve customers, or make timely payments to us. It could disrupt or delay the ability of employees to work because they become sick or are required to care for those who become sick, or for dependents for whom external care is not available. It could cause delays or disruptions in services provided by key suppliers and vendors, increase vulnerability of us and our partners and service providers to security breaches, denial of service attacks or other hacking or phishing attacks, or cause other unpredictable effects. It could also result in declines in order volume as consumers potentially return to pre-COVID digital ordering preferences and habits.
The COVID-19 pandemic also has caused heightened uncertainty in the global economy. If economic conditions further deteriorate, consumers may not have the financial means to make purchases from our customers and may delay or reduce discretionary purchases, negatively impacting our customers and our results of operations. Uncertainty from the pandemic may cause prospective or existing customers to defer purchasing decisions in anticipation of new modules or enhancements by us or our competitors. Our small and medium business, or SMB, brands may be more susceptible to general economic conditions than our enterprise brands, which may have greater liquidity and access to capital. Uncertain and adverse economic conditions also may lead to increased refunds and chargebacks, reduced demand for our platform, lengthening of sales cycles, loss of customers, and difficulty in collections. Since the impact of COVID-19 is ongoing, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related impact on the global economy may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. Volatility in the capital markets has been heightened during recent months and such volatility may continue, which may cause declines in the price of our Class A common stock.
Further, to the extent there is a sustained general economic downturn and our solutions are perceived by customers and potential customers as costly, or too difficult to deploy or migrate to, our revenue may be disproportionately affected by delays or reductions in on-demand commerce spending. Competitors may respond to market conditions by lowering prices and attempting to lure away our customers. In addition, the increased pace of consolidation in the restaurant industry, the labor shortage faced by the restaurant industry, and the loss of partners that may have gone out of business or may have merged with other of our partners, may result in reduced overall spending on our platform. We cannot predict the timing, strength, or duration of any economic slowdown, instability, or recovery, generally or within the restaurant industry. If the economic conditions of the general economy or markets in which we operate worsen from present levels, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.
Our rapid growth may not be sustainable and depends on our ability to attract new customers, retain revenue from existing customers, and increase sales to both new and existing customers.
We principally generate revenue through subscription revenue from our Ordering module, transaction fees associated with the use of our Rails and Dispatch modules, and professional service fees from the deployment and integration of our platform. While the number of customers using our platform, the number of modules that each customer uses, and the volume of transactions on our platform have grown rapidly in recent years, there can be no assurance that we will be able to retain these customers or acquire new customers, deploy additional modules to these customers, or that the volume of transactions on our platform will continue to increase. Our costs associated with subscription renewals and additional module deployments are substantially lower than costs associated with generating revenue from new customers. Therefore, if we are unable to retain or increase revenue from existing customers, even if such losses are offset by an increase in new customers or an increase in other revenues, our operating results could be adversely impacted.
The circumstances that have accelerated the growth of our business stemming from the effects of the COVID-19 may not continue and our revenue may fluctuate in the near term. You should not rely on our revenue or other operating and
liquidity metrics for any previous quarterly or annual period as any indication of our revenue or revenue growth or other operating and liquidity metrics or their growth in future periods.
We may also fail to attract new customers, increase the volume of transactions on our platform, retain or increase revenue from existing customers, or increase sales of our modules to both new and existing customers as a result of a number of factors, including:
•reductions in our current or potential customers’ spending levels;
•reduction in the number of transactions using our Ordering, Rails, and Dispatch modules due to the abatement of the effects of COVID-19, including the continued widespread rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine and the reopening of indoor dining;
•actions taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, including restrictions that could impact our customers;
•the labor shortage facing the restaurant industry;
•the absence of ongoing U.S. federal government stimulus directed at consumers;
•competitive factors affecting the software as a service, or SaaS, or restaurant brand software applications markets, including the introduction of competing platforms, discount pricing, and other strategies that may be implemented by our competitors;
•our ability to execute on our growth strategy and operating plans;
•a decline in our customers’ level of satisfaction with our platform and customers’ usage of our platform;
•the difficulty and cost to switch to a competitor may not be significant for many of our customers;
•changes in our relationships with third parties, including our delivery service provider, or DSP, ordering aggregator, or aggregator, customer loyalty, and payment processor partners;
•failure to maintain compatibility with third party systems or failure to integrate with new systems;
•the timeliness and success of new modules we may develop;
•concerns relating to actual or perceived security breaches;
•the frequency and severity of any system outages; and
•technological changes or problems.
Additionally, we anticipate that our revenue growth rate will decline over time to the extent that the number of customers using our platform increases and we achieve higher market penetration rates. Furthermore, to the extent our market penetration among larger potential customers increases, we may be required to target smaller customers to maintain our revenue growth rates, which could result in lower gross profits. As our growth rate declines, investors’ perception of our business may be adversely affected and the trading price of our Class A common stock could decline as a result. To the extent our growth rate slows, our business performance will become increasingly dependent on our ability to retain revenue from existing customers and increase sales to existing customers.
Our limited operating history with our new modules in a new and developing market makes it difficult to evaluate our current business and future prospects, and may increase the risk that we will not be successful.
In 2015 and 2017, we launched our Dispatch and Rails modules, respectively, and in 2016 we began to offer a transactional-based pricing model for our Ordering module. While the recent introduction of these new offerings, this new pricing model, and an increase in transaction volumes have contributed significantly to our recent growth in revenue, we have little experience with these new modules and transactional-based pricing model, which makes it difficult to accurately assess our future prospects. You should consider our future prospects in light of the challenges and uncertainties that we face, including:
•the fact that our business has grown rapidly and it may not be possible to fully discern the trends that we are subject to, including negative trends we may experience related to the continued widespread rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, reopening of indoor dining, and other actions and restrictions imposed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic;
•that we operate in a new and developing market with a rapidly changing competitive landscape;
•that we may be unable to accurately predict our revenue and operating expenses for new modules that we release;
•our ability to enhance or retain our brand among customers and potential customers;
•that we may in the future enter into additional new and developing markets that may not develop as we expect or that our platform or modules may not adequately address; and
•that elements of our business strategy are new and subject to ongoing development.
We have encountered and will continue to encounter risks and difficulties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing industries, including increasing and unforeseen expenses as we continue to grow our business. If our
assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which we use to plan and operate our business, are incorrect or change, or if we do not manage these risks successfully, our reputation, business, results of operations, and prospects will be harmed.
Our business could be harmed if we fail to manage our growth effectively.
The rapid growth we have experienced in our business places significant demands on our operational infrastructure. The scalability and flexibility of our platform depends on the functionality of our technology and cloud infrastructure and its ability to handle increased traffic and demand. The growth in the number of third-party ecosystem partners, customers using our platform, and the number of orders processed, coordinated, and delivered through our Ordering, Rails, and Dispatch modules has increased the amount of data and requests that we process. Additionally, new modules, solutions, services, and restaurant ecosystem partners that we integrate may significantly increase the load on our technology infrastructure. Any problems with the transmission or storage of increased data and requests could result in harm to our brand or reputation. Moreover, as our business grows, we will need to devote additional resources to improving our operational infrastructure and continuing to enhance its scalability in order to maintain the performance of our platform, including by improving or expanding cloud infrastructure.
This rapid growth has also placed, and will likely continue to place, a significant strain on our managerial, administrative, operational, financial, and other resources. As a result, we intend to increase headcount significantly in the near future to further expand our overall business, with no assurance that our revenue will continue to grow. As we grow, we will be required to continue to improve our operational and financial controls and reporting procedures and we may not be able to do so effectively. In addition, our management team has little experience leading a large, potentially global business operation, so our management may not be able to lead any such growth effectively.
We may make acquisitions or enter into joint ventures or other partnerships, which could divert management’s attention, result in operating difficulties and dilution to our shareholders and otherwise disrupt our operations and adversely affect our business, operating results, or financial position.
From time to time, we may evaluate potential strategic acquisition, joint venture, or partnership opportunities, such as our acquisition of Wisely Inc., or Wisely. Any transactions that we enter into could be material to our financial condition and results of operations. The process of acquiring and integrating another company or technology could create unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures. Acquisitions and other partnerships involve a number of risks, such as:
•diversion of management time and focus from operating our business;
•use of resources that are needed in other areas of our business;
•in the case of an acquisition, implementation or remediation of controls, procedures, and policies of the acquired company;
•in the case of an acquisition, difficulty integrating the accounting systems and operations of the acquired company and maintaining the quality and security standards consistent with our brand, including potential risks to our corporate culture;
•coordination of product, engineering, and selling and marketing functions, including difficulties and additional expenses associated with supporting legacy services and platform and hosting infrastructure of the acquired company and difficulty converting the customers of the acquired company onto our platform and contract terms, including disparities in the revenue, licensing, support, or professional services model of the acquired company;
•in the case of an acquisition, retention and integration of employees from the acquired company;
•unforeseen costs or liabilities, including potential legal liability for violations of applicable law, industry rules, or regulations arising from prior or ongoing acts or omissions by the acquired company or partner that are not discovered by due diligence during the acquisition or partnership process;
•adverse effects to our existing business relationships with partners and/or customers as a result of the acquisition or joint venture;
•the possibility of adverse tax consequences;
•the assumption or incurrence of additional debt obligations or expenses, or use of substantial portions of our cash;
•the issuance of equity securities to finance or as consideration for any acquisitions that dilute the ownership of our stockholders;
•the issuance of equity securities to finance or as consideration for any acquisitions may not be an option if the price of our common stock is low or volatile which could preclude us from completing any such acquisitions;
•litigation or other claims arising in connection with the acquired company or partner; and
•in the case of foreign acquisitions, the need to integrate operations across different cultures and languages and to address the particular economic, currency, political, and regulatory risks associated with specific countries.
In addition, a significant portion of the purchase price of companies we acquire may be allocated to acquired goodwill and other intangible assets, which must be assessed for impairment at least annually. In the future, if our acquisitions do not yield expected returns, we may be required to take charges to our operating results based on this impairment assessment process, which could adversely affect our results of operations.
We may not be able to identify acquisition or investment opportunities that meet our strategic objectives, or to the extent such opportunities are identified, we may not be able to negotiate terms with respect to the acquisition or investment that are acceptable to us.
On November 4, 2021, we consummated our acquisition of Wisely, or the Wisely Acquisition. The Wisely Acquisition may create numerous risks and uncertainties, which could adversely affect our financial condition and operating results. Further, the addition of Wisely to our business will entail many changes, including the integration of Wisely, its technology and products and certain of its personnel as well as changes in systems and employee benefit plans. These integration activities are complex, and we may encounter unexpected difficulties and incur unexpected costs or experience business disruptions. In addition, we may be required to spend additional time or money on integration that otherwise would be spent on the development and expansion of our existing business. There can be no assurance that any of the acquisitions we may make, including the Wisely Acquisition, will be successful or will be, or will remain, profitable.
Wisely may have unknown liabilities or liabilities that exceed our estimates. Any such liabilities could adversely affect the financial position of the combined company.
Prior to the Wisely Acquisition, Wisely’s activities may have exposed the company to various potential liabilities relating to the conduct of its business, including, but not limited to, potential contract claims, historical tax matters, and other potential liabilities that could adversely affect the financial position of the combined company. Upon consummation of the Wisely Acquisition, we assumed these potential liabilities. While we continue to evaluate what we believe to be the most significant of these potential liabilities, it is possible that these liabilities may exceed our expectations or that other liabilities, whether currently known or unknown to us, result in substantial losses to us. Wisely’s obligations to indemnify us for certain representations and warranties under the definitive agreement are limited to specified maximum dollar amounts and subject in certain instances to our inability to recover first from the escrow account and subsequently under the representation and warranty insurance policy, or the R&W Policy. If any issues arise post-closing, we may not be entitled to sufficient, or any, indemnification or recourse from Wisely or under the R&W Policy, which could have a materially adverse impact on our business and results of operations.
We have a history of losses and we may be unable to sustain profitability.
We have incurred significant losses since inception and we may not maintain profitability. We incurred a net loss of $40.2 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2021. We incurred net losses of $8.3 million and $11.6 million for the years ended 2019 and 2018, respectively. As of September 30, 2021, we had an accumulated deficit of $109.5 million. These losses and accumulated deficit are a result of the substantial investments we made to grow our business and we expect to make significant expenditures to expand our business in the future. We anticipate that we will continue to incur losses in the near-term as we increase our operating expenses, including, without limitation, as a result of expected increases in:
•sales and marketing expenses, as we continue to spend on marketing activities and expand our sales efforts;
•research and development expenses, as we continue to introduce new modules to extend the functionality of our platform;
•expenses related to customer service and support, which is critical to our continued success and ability to maintain a strong reputation for our brand;
•expenses related to the successful integration of any acquired businesses, including sales and marketing, research and development, finance, legal, and information technologies expenses;
•expenses related to further investments in our network infrastructure in order to support the continued growth of our business and to meet the demands of continuously changing security and operational requirements; and
•general costs and administrative expenses as a result of our continued growth and the increased costs associated with being a public company.
These increased expenditures will make it harder for us to achieve or sustain profitability and we cannot predict if we will achieve or sustain profitability in the near term or at all. Historically, our costs have increased each year due to these investments and we expect to continue to incur increasing costs to support our anticipated future growth. In addition, the costs associated with acquiring new customers may materially rise in the future, including if we expand international sales efforts outside of the United States and Canada, increase our efforts to pursue SMB restaurant brands, or increase sales efforts to other verticals. If we are unable to generate adequate revenue growth and manage our expenses, we may continue to incur significant losses and may not achieve or sustain profitability.
We may also make decisions that would reduce our short-term operating results if we believe those decisions will improve the experiences of our customers and consumers and if we believe such decisions will improve our operating results over the long-term. These decisions may not be consistent with the expectations of investors and may not produce the long-term benefits that we expect, in which case our business may be materially harmed.
Our sales cycles can be long and unpredictable, and our sales efforts require considerable investment of time and expense. If our sales cycle lengthens or we invest substantial resources pursuing unsuccessful sales opportunities, our operating results and growth would be harmed.
We have historically incurred significant costs and experienced long sales cycles when selling to customers. In the restaurant brand market segment, the decision to adopt our modules may require the approval of multiple technical and business decision makers, including security, compliance, operations, finance and treasury, marketing, and IT. In addition, while restaurant brand customers may more quickly deploy our modules on a limited basis, before they will commit to deploying our modules at scale, they often require extensive education about our modules and significant customer support time or pilot programs, engage in protracted pricing negotiations and seek to secure development resources. In addition, sales cycles for restaurant brand customers in general and larger restaurant brands in particular are inherently complex and unpredictable. These complex and resource intensive sales efforts could place additional strain on our development and engineering resources. Further, even after our customers contract to use our platform, they may require extensive integration or deployment resources from us before they become active customers, which have at times extended to multiple quarterly periods following the execution of the agreement. Because we generally only generate Ordering, Rails, and Dispatch module revenue after our platform is deployed, if we are unable to deploy our platform with our customers in a timely manner, our results of operations and financial condition may be harmed. Finally, our customers may choose to develop their own solutions that do not include any or all of our modules. They also may demand reductions in pricing as their usage of our modules increases, which could have an adverse impact on our gross margin. If we are unable to increase the revenue that we derive from these customers, then our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.
We expect fluctuations in our financial results, making it difficult to project future results, and if we fail to meet the expectations of securities analysts or investors with respect to our results of operations, our stock price and the value of your investment could decline.
Our results of operations have fluctuated in the past and are expected to fluctuate in the future due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. As a result, our past results may not be indicative of our future performance. In addition to the other risks described herein, factors that may affect our results of operations include the following:
•fluctuations in demand for or pricing of our platform, or any of our modules;
•fluctuations in usage of our platform, or any of our modules, including due to the potential lack of durability of the growth we have experienced in the near term due to COVID-19 and the associated shelter-in-place orders on consumer preferences for digital ordering and customer adoption of multi-modules as COVID-19 associated restrictions continue to abate;
•our ability to attract new customers;
•our ability to retain our existing customers;
•the timing of our customer purchases and deployments;
•customer expansion rates and the pricing and quantity of subscriptions renewed and transactions processed through our platform;
•timing and amount of our investments to expand the capacity of our third-party cloud infrastructure providers;
•the investment in new modules relative to investments in our existing infrastructure and platform;
•fluctuations or delays in purchasing decisions in anticipation of new modules or enhancements by us or our competitors;
•changes in customers’ budgets and in the timing of their budget cycles and purchasing decisions;
•our ability to control costs, including our operating expenses;
•the amount and timing of payment for operating expenses, particularly research and development and sales and marketing expenses, including sales commissions;
•the amount and timing of non-cash expenses, including stock-based compensation, goodwill impairments and other non-cash charges;
•the amount and timing of costs associated with recruiting, training and integrating new employees and retaining and motivating existing employees;
•the effects of acquisitions and their integration;
•general economic conditions, both domestically and internationally, as well as economic conditions specifically affecting industries in which our customers participate;
•health epidemics or pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic;
•the impact of new accounting pronouncements;
•changes in regulatory or legal environments that may cause us to incur, among other elements, expenses associated with compliance;
•changes in the competitive dynamics of our market, including consolidation among competitors or customers; and
•significant security breaches of, technical difficulties with, or interruptions to, the delivery and use of our modules and platform capabilities or third-party applications or point of sale or management systems that our platform integrates with.
Any of these and other factors, or the cumulative effect of some of these factors, may cause our results of operations to vary significantly. If our quarterly results of operations fall below the expectations of investors and securities analysts who follow our stock, the price of our Class A common stock could decline substantially, and we could face costly lawsuits, including securities class action suits.
Our business depends on customers increasing their use of our platform, and any loss of customers or decline in their use of our platform could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Our ability to grow and generate incremental revenue depends, in part, on our ability to maintain and grow our relationships with existing customers, to have them increase their deployment and use of our platform and Ordering, Rails, and Dispatch modules, and to increase or maintain transaction volume on our platform. Although our customers generally have multi-year contracts with us, they generally have the right to elect not to renew by providing at least 90 days’ written notice prior to the expiration date of the contract. In addition, if our customers do not increase their use of our platform or adopt and deploy additional modules, or if they reduce the number of locations using our platform, then our revenue may decline and our results of operations may be harmed. Customers may not renew their contracts with us or reduce their use of our platform for any number of reasons, including if they are not satisfied with our platform or modules, the value proposition of our platform or our ability to meet their needs and expectations, security or platform reliability issues, or if they decide to build their own solution internally or if they decide to temporarily or permanently close their restaurants in a location then affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, consumers may change their purchasing habits or reduce their orders from our current customers, which could harm their business and reduce their use of our platform. We cannot accurately predict our customers’ usage levels and the loss of customers or reductions in the number of locations that use our platform or their usage levels of our modules may each have a negative impact on our business, results of operations, and financial condition and may cause our expansion rate to decline. If a significant number of customers cease using, or reduce their usage of our platform, then we may be required to spend significantly more on sales and marketing than we currently plan to spend in order to maintain or increase revenue from our customers. Such additional sales and marketing expenditures could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
If we fail to continue to improve and enhance the functionality, performance, reliability, design, security, or scalability of our platform in a manner that responds to our customers’ evolving needs, our business may be adversely affected.
The on-demand commerce and digital ordering markets are characterized by rapid technological change, frequent new product and service introductions, and evolving industry standards. Our success has been based on our ability to identify and anticipate the needs of our customers and design and maintain a platform that provides them with the tools they need to operate their businesses in a manner that is productive and meets or exceeds their expectations. Our ability to attract new customers, retain revenue from existing customers, and increase sales to both new and existing customers will depend in large part on our ability to continue to improve and enhance the functionality, performance, reliability, design, security, and scalability of our platform. Additionally, to achieve and maintain market acceptance for our platform, we must effectively integrate with new or existing software solutions that meet changing customer demands in a timely manner.
As we expand our platform and services, and as the number of our customers with higher volume sales increases, we expect that we will need to offer increased functionality, scalability and support, including to keep our platform, systems, and services secure, which requires us to devote additional resources to such efforts. To the extent we are not able to enhance our platform’s functionality in order to maintain its utility and security, enhance our platform’s scalability in order to maintain its performance and availability, or improve our support functions in order to meet increased customer service demands, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
We may experience difficulties with software development that could delay or prevent the development, deployment, introduction, or implementation of new modules and enhancements. Software development involves a significant amount of time, as it can take our developers months to update, code, and test new and upgraded modules, and integrate those modules into our platform. We must also continually update, test, certify, maintain, and enhance our software platform. We may make significant investments in new modules or enhancements that may not achieve expected returns. The continual improvement and enhancement of our platform requires significant investment and we may not have the resources to make such investment. Our improvements and enhancements may not result in our ability to recoup our investments in a timely manner, or at all. The improvement and enhancement of the functionality, performance, reliability, design, security, and scalability of our platform is expensive and complex, and to the extent we are not able to perform it in a manner that responds to our customers’ evolving needs, our business, operating results, and financial condition will be adversely affected.
Our growth depends in part on the success of our strategic relationships with third parties and our ability to integrate with third-party applications and software.
The success of our platform depends, in part, on our ability to integrate third-party applications, software, and other offerings into our platform. We anticipate that the growth of our business will continue to depend on third-party relationships, including relationships with our point of sale, or POS, systems, DSPs, aggregators, digital agencies, payment processors, loyalty providers, and other partners. In addition to growing our third-party partner ecosystem, we have entered into agreements with, and intend to pursue additional relationships with, other third parties, such as search engine and social media, location services, voice ordering, autonomous vehicle, and virtual kitchen providers. Identifying, negotiating, and documenting relationships with third parties and integrating third-party content and technology requires significant time and resources, and third-party providers may choose to terminate their relationship with us, compete directly against us, enter into exclusive arrangements with our competitors, or make material changes to their businesses, solutions, or services that could be detrimental to our business.
Third-party developers may change the features of their offering of applications and software or alter the terms governing the use of their offerings in a manner that is adverse to us. We may also be unable to maintain our relationships with certain third-parties if we are unable to integrate our platform with their offerings. In addition, third-parties may refuse to partner with us or limit or restrict our access to their offerings. We may not be able to adapt to the data transfer requirements of third party offerings. If third-party applications or software change such that we do not, or cannot, maintain the compatibility of our platform with these applications and software, or if we fail to ensure there are third-party applications and software that our customers desire to add to their ordering or delivery portals, demand for our platform could decline. If we are unable to maintain technical interoperability, our customers may not be able to effectively integrate our platform with other systems and services they use. If we fail to integrate our platform with new third-party offerings that our customers need to operate their businesses, or to provide the proper support or ease of integration our customers require, we may not be able to offer the functionality that our customers and their consumers expect, which would harm our business.
The third party service providers we integrate with may not perform as expected under our agreements or under their agreements with our customers, we or our customers may in the future have disagreements or disputes with such providers, or such providers may experience reduced growth, reduce incentives for our customers’ consumers to make delivery orders or otherwise change their business models in ways that are disadvantageous to us or our customers. For example, if the DSP providers we partner with for our Dispatch module were to increase prices of the delivery to customers, the number of orders made through our platform could be reduced and our business may be harmed. In addition, if our Rails providers were to reduce incentives for consumers to order through those respective aggregators, our revenue and business may be harmed. If we lose access to solutions or services from a particular partner, or experience a significant reduction or disruption in the supply of services from a current partner, it could have an adverse effect on our business and operating results.
Our Dispatch module currently relies on a limited number of DSPs.
The availability of DSPs generally, and of specific DSPs in certain markets, is integral to the value that our Dispatch module provides to our customers and our ability to generate revenue from orders fulfilled through Dispatch. However, the delivery service provider market has not yet fully developed and could be adversely affected by various conditions, including
industry consolidation, changes in labor and independent contractor laws and changes in pricing models, the success of competitors or competing solutions for customers, and general economic conditions. In general, there is more than one DSP available to fulfill delivery orders through Dispatch. In certain markets, however, delivery orders are fulfilled by one or a limited number of DSPs, with a subset of such DSPs being responsible for fulfilling a majority of orders in that market. In addition, certain of these DSPs may be, or may be perceived to be, in competition with us with respect to some of our offerings and, as a result, may be less incentivized to continue to partner with us. If one or more DSPs that represents a significant volume of our Dispatch transactions overall, or DSPs that represent a significant volume of our Dispatch transactions in any single market, are no longer able to continue to provide timely and reliable delivery services, including as a result of a shortage in the labor market or changes in the labor laws, or if we or a DSP terminate our partnership, we could experience significant interruptions in the delivery of orders through our Dispatch module, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
Our Rails module currently relies on a limited number of aggregators.
Our Rails module integrates with a limited number of digital ordering aggregators to fulfill third-party ordering transactions on our platform. These aggregators could decide to create new software that is incompatible with our platform, enter into agreements that are exclusive or on terms that are more favorable than those we offer directly with our customers or potential customers, or enter into agreements directly with our competitors or potential future competitors of ours that are exclusive or on terms that are more favorable than those we offer to our customers. Certain of these aggregators may be, or may be perceived to be, in competition with us with respect to some of our offerings and, as a result, may be less incentivized to continue to partner with us.
Factors impacting the pricing strategies of our aggregators, including operating costs, legal and regulatory requirements, constraints or changes, could also impact our business. For example, in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, jurisdictions across the United States implemented price controls on some food delivery logistics platforms. These price controls have caused, and may in the future cause, aggregators to increase the fees charged to consumers. Such increase in the fees charged by aggregators could result in reduced demand for services by consumers, and our transactional revenue from our Rails module may decline. Moreover, recently a number of aggregators have merged, consolidated, or gone out of business, which could reduce the number of aggregators on our Rails module, reduce our revenue, and limit the effectiveness of Rails. In the event that any of the largest digital ordering aggregators do not integrate with our platform, or create software that is incompatible or competes with our platform by directly integrating with one of our customers, our ability to generate transactional revenue using our Rails module will decline, which could harm our business and results of operation. If we or one or more of these aggregators that represents a significant volume of our Rails transactions overall terminate our partnership, it could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
For the three months ended September 30, 2021, and 2020, Rails module transaction revenue from our largest digital ordering aggregator, DoorDash, accounted for an aggregate of 14.3% and 21.8% our total revenue, respectively, and DoorDash accounted for a majority of our transaction revenue from our Rails module during the three months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020. For the nine months ended September 30, 2021, and 2020, Rails module transaction revenue from DoorDash accounted for an aggregate of 17.1% and 18.2% of our total revenue, respectively, and a majority of our transaction revenue from our Rails module.
Security breaches, denial of service attacks, or other hacking and phishing attacks on our systems or the systems with which our platform integrates could harm our reputation or subject us to significant liability, and adversely affect our business and financial results.
We operate in the on-demand commerce industry, which is prone to cyber-attacks. Our board of directors reviews cybersecurity risks brought to its attention by members of senior management who report up to our board of directors. We have an established in-house security team which is responsible for reviewing and overseeing our cybersecurity program and bringing any cybersecurity risks to the attention of the board of directors and the audit committee at regular meetings of the audit committee. Failure to prevent or mitigate security breaches and improper access to or disclosure of our data, our customers’ data, or their consumers’ data, could result in the loss or misuse of such data, which could harm our business and reputation. The security measures we have integrated into our systems and processes, which are designed to prevent or minimize security breaches, may not function as expected or may not be sufficient to protect our internal networks and platform against attacks. Further, our platform also integrates with third-party applications and POS and management systems over which we exercise no control. Such third-party applications and POS and management systems are also susceptible to security breaches, which could directly or indirectly result in a breach of our platform. The failure of a customer’s third-party front-end provider to adequately protect their systems could result in an attack that we are unable to prevent from the back-end, which could result in a service outage for all customers, and may require us to take the affected customer offline to restore service to
the platform for other customers. In addition, techniques used to sabotage or to obtain unauthorized access to data change frequently. As a result, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate measures to prevent an intrusion into our networks directly, or into our platform through the third-party applications or POS and management systems with which our platform integrates. Our exposure to security breaches may be heightened because our platform is accessible through hundreds of our customers’ white label domains and mobile applications.
Our storage and use of our customers’ data concerning their restaurants and consumers is essential to their use of our platform, which stores, transmits and processes our customers’ proprietary information and information relating to them and consumers. If a security breach were to occur, as a result of third-party action, employee error, malfeasance, or otherwise, and the confidentiality, integrity or availability of our customers’ data was disrupted, we could incur significant liability to our customers and their consumers, and our platform may be perceived as less desirable, which could negatively affect our business and damage our reputation. In addition, any loss of customer or individual consumer data could create significant monetary damages for us that may harm our ability to operate the business.
A security vulnerability in our platform or point of sale integration software could compromise our customers’ in-store networks, which could expose customer or consumer information beyond what we collect through our platform. As a multitenant SaaS provider, despite our logical separation of data between customers, we may face an increased risk of accidentally commingling data between customers due to employee error, a software bug, or otherwise, which may result in unauthorized disclosure of data between customers. We have in the past, and may in the future, be subject to distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attacks, a technique used by hackers to take an internet service offline by overloading its servers. A DDoS attack could delay or interrupt service to our customers and their consumers and may deter consumers from ordering or engaging with our customers’ restaurants. Our platform and third-party applications may also be subject to DDoS attacks in the future and we cannot guarantee that applicable recovery systems, security protocols, network protection mechanisms and other procedures are or will be adequate to prevent network and service interruption, system failure, or data loss. In addition, computer malware, viruses, hacking, credential stuffing, social engineering, phishing, physical theft, and other attacks by third parties are prevalent in our industry. While we have not experienced any material attack on our systems to date, we have in the past, and may in the future, experience such attacks and, as a result of our increased visibility, we believe that we are increasingly a target for such breaches and attacks.
Moreover, our platform and third-party applications, services, or POS and management systems integrated with our platform could be breached if vulnerabilities in our platform or third-party applications or POS and management systems are exploited by unauthorized third parties or due to employee error, malfeasance, or otherwise. Further, third parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees or customers into disclosing sensitive information such as user names, passwords, or other information or otherwise compromise the security of our internal networks, electronic systems and/or physical facilities in order to gain access to our data or our customers’ data. Because techniques used to obtain unauthorized access change frequently and the size and severity of DDoS attacks and security breaches are increasing, we may be unable to implement adequate preventative measures or stop DDoS attacks or security breaches while they are occurring. In addition to our own platform and applications, some of the third parties we work with may receive information provided by us, by our customers, or by our customers’ consumers through web or mobile applications integrated with our platform. If these third parties fail to adhere to adequate data security practices, or in the event of a breach of their networks, our own and our customers’ data may be improperly accessed, used, or disclosed.
Any actual or perceived DDoS attack or security breach of our platform, systems, and networks could damage our reputation and brand, expose us to a risk of litigation and possible liability and require us to expend significant capital and other resources to respond to and alleviate problems caused by the DDoS attack or security breach. Our ability to retain adequate cyber-crime and liability insurance may be reduced. Some jurisdictions have enacted laws requiring companies to notify individuals of data security breaches involving certain types of personal data and our agreements with certain customers and partners require us to notify them in the event of a security incident. Such mandatory disclosures are costly, could lead to negative publicity, and may cause our customers to lose confidence in the effectiveness of our data security measures. Moreover, if a high-profile security breach occurs with respect to another SaaS provider or one of the service providers we partner with, customers may lose trust in the security of the SaaS business model generally, which could adversely impact our ability to retain revenue from existing customers or attract new ones. Any of these events could harm our reputation or subject us to significant liability, and materially and adversely affect our business and financial results.
If our software contains serious errors or defects, we may lose revenue and market acceptance and may incur costs to defend or settle claims with our customers.
Software or APIs such as ours may contain errors, defects, security vulnerabilities, or software bugs that are difficult to detect or correct, particularly when first introduced or when new versions or enhancements are released. Despite internal
testing, our platform may contain serious errors or defects, security vulnerabilities, or software bugs that we may be unable to successfully correct in a timely manner or at all, which could result in lost revenue, significant expenditures of capital, a delay or loss in market acceptance, and damage to our reputation and brand, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations. For example, our payment processing code may contain a software bug or other misconfiguration, resulting in failure to collect payment for orders that are otherwise fulfilled, which could result in significant refunds owed to our customers. A software or API bug could also result in a customer receiving an item other than what they ordered or an ingredient to which they are allergic, causing reputational harm to us. In addition, our tax calculation code may also contain errors or defects, which may result in differences payable by us or fines owed by us, or our fraud detection software could identify false positives in the system, and in turn could reduce transactional revenue. Furthermore, our platform allows us to deploy new versions and enhancements to all of our customers simultaneously. To the extent we deploy new versions or enhancements that contain errors, defects, security vulnerabilities, or software bugs to all of our customers simultaneously, the consequences would be more severe than if such versions or enhancements were only deployed to a smaller number of our customers.
Because our customers use our platform for processes that are critical to their businesses, errors, defects, security vulnerabilities, service interruptions, or software bugs in our platform and APIs could result in losses to our customers. Although we endeavor to limit our liability in customer agreements, our customers may be entitled to significant compensation from us in the form of service level credits or to pursue litigation against us for any losses they suffer or cease conducting business with us altogether. Further, a customer could share information about bad experiences on social media, at industry conferences, or with peer companies, which could result in damage to our reputation and loss of future sales. There can be no assurance that provisions typically included in our agreements with our customers that attempt to limit our exposure to claims against us would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from liabilities or damages with respect to any particular claim. Even if not successful, a claim brought against us by any of our customers would likely be time-consuming and distracting to our management team and costly to defend, and such a claim could seriously damage our reputation and brand, making it harder for us to sell our modules.
We and certain of our third-party partners, service providers, and subprocessors transmit and store personal information of our customers and consumers. If the security of this information is compromised or is otherwise accessed without authorization, our reputation may be harmed and we may be exposed to liability and loss of business.
We transmit and store personal information and other confidential information of our partners, our customers, and consumers. Third-party applications integrated with our platform may also handle or store personal information, credit card information, including cardholder data and sensitive authentication data, or other confidential information. We do not proactively monitor the content that our customers upload and store, or the information provided to us through the applications integrated with our platform, and, therefore, we do not control the substance of the content on our servers, which may include personal information. Additionally, we use dozens of third-party service providers and subprocessors to help us deliver services to customers and consumers. These service providers and subprocessors may handle or store personal information, credit card information, or other confidential information. There may in the future be successful attempts by third parties to obtain unauthorized access to the personal information of our partners, our customers, and consumers. This information could also be otherwise exposed through human error, malfeasance, or otherwise. The unauthorized release, unauthorized access, or compromise of this information could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Even if such a data breach did not arise out of our actions or inactions, or if it were to affect one or more of our competitors or our customers’ competitors, the resulting consumer concern could negatively affect our customers and our business.
We integrate with a number of third-party service providers in order to meet our customers’ needs, and although we contractually require our customers to ensure the security of such service providers, a security breach of one of these providers could become negatively associated with our brand, or our assistance in responding to such a breach could tie up our internal resources. By the nature of the integrations, we could also get directly drawn into any resulting lawsuits. We are also subject to federal, state, and provincial laws regarding cybersecurity and the protection of data. Some jurisdictions have enacted laws requiring companies to notify individuals of security breaches involving certain types of personal information and our agreements with customers and partners require us to notify them in the event of certain security incidents. Additionally, some jurisdictions, as well as our contracts with certain customers, require us to use industry-standard or reasonable measures to safeguard personal information or confidential information. As cardholder data and sensitive authentication data is transmitted through our platform, we may be required by card networks and our contracts with payment processors to adhere to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards, or PCI-DSS.
Our failure to comply with legal, regulatory or contractual requirements, and the rules of payment card networks and self-regulatory organizations, including PCI-DSS, around the security of personal information, cardholder data, or sensitive authentication data, could lead to significant fines and penalties imposed by regulators and card networks, as well as claims by
our customers, consumers, or other relevant stakeholders. These proceedings or violations could force us to spend money in defense or settlement of these proceedings, result in the imposition of monetary liability or injunctive relief, divert management’s time and attention, increase our costs of doing business, and materially adversely affect our reputation and the demand for our platform. In addition, if our security measures fail to protect credit card information adequately, we could be liable to our partners, our customers and, consumers for their losses. As a result, we could be subject to fines, we could face regulatory or other legal action, and our customers could end their relationships with us. There can be no assurance that the limitations of liability in our contracts would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from any such liabilities or damages with respect to any particular claim. We also cannot be sure that our existing insurance coverage and coverage for errors and omissions will continue to be available on acceptable terms or will be available in sufficient amounts to cover one or more large claims, or that our insurers will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceeds our available insurance coverage, or changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases, or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
We are subject to stringent and changing privacy laws, regulations and standards, and contractual obligations related to data privacy and security. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could harm our reputation, subject us to significant fines and liability, or adversely affect our business.
The regulatory framework for privacy and security issues in the United States is rapidly evolving. Laws in all 50 states require us to provide notice to customers when certain sensitive personal information has been disclosed as a result of a data breach. These laws are frequently inconsistent, and compliance in the event of a widespread data breach is costly. Moreover, states regularly enact new laws and regulations, which require us to provide consumers with certain disclosures related to our privacy practices, as well as maintain systems necessary to allow customers to invoke their rights. For example, on January 1, 2020, California adopted the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, or CCPA, which provides new data privacy rights for consumers and new operational requirements for covered businesses. The CCPA gives California residents more control over their personal information and includes a statutory damages framework and private right of action imposing civil penalties against businesses that fail to comply with certain security practices. Although the CCPA’s implementation standards and enforcement practices are likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future, the CCPA may increase our compliance costs and exposure to liability. More so, additional states that adopt privacy laws that differ from the CCPA may require us to do unanticipated and unbudgeted work in order to comply with additional privacy and data security requirements. The costs associated with compliance may impede our development and could limit the adoption of our services. Finally, any failure by our vendors to comply with applicable law or regulations could result in proceedings against us by governmental entities or others.
Additionally, virtually every foreign jurisdiction in which our current or potential future customers may operate has established privacy and data security laws, rules, and regulations. The European Union, or E.U., has adopted the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which went into effect on May 25, 2018. Among other requirements, the GDPR regulates transfers of personally identifiable information from the E.U. to non-E.U. countries, such as the United States. Under the GDPR, fines of up to €20 million or up to 4% of the annual global revenue of the noncompliant company, whichever is greater, could be imposed for violations of certain GDPR requirements. Moreover, individuals can claim damages as a result of GDPR violations. Other jurisdictions outside the E.U. are similarly introducing or enhancing privacy and data security laws, rules, and regulations, which may increase the risks associated with non-compliance.
Certain current or potential future customers are subject to the GDPR and we may be required to assist such customers with their compliance obligations. While we are not currently subject to the GDPR ourselves, many of our customers are subject to the GDPR. We may be required to expend resources to assist our customers with such compliance obligations. Assisting our customers in complying with the GDPR or complying with the GDPR ourselves if we expand our business to the E.U. in the future may cause us to incur substantial operational costs or require us to change our business practices to maintain such information in the European Economic Area.
We publish privacy policies, self-certifications, such as the E.U.-U.S. Privacy Shield, and other documentation regarding our collection, processing, use and disclosure of personal information, credit card information, and other confidential information. Recently the E.S.-U.S. Privacy Shield was declared insufficient by the Court of Justice of the European Union and the E.U.-U.S. Privacy Shield is no longer a valid mechanism to comply with E.U. data protection requirements relating to data transfers. We do not know when, or if, the E.U.-U.S. Privacy Shield will become an effective mechanism for data transfers. Although we endeavor to comply with our published policies, certifications, and documentation, we may at times fail to do so or may be perceived to have failed to do so. Such failures can subject us to potential international, local, state, and federal action if they are found to be deceptive, unfair, or misrepresentative of our actual practices, resulting in reputational or financial harm to the company. Globally, there have been numerous lawsuits brought against technology companies related to their
privacy and data security practices. If those lawsuits are successful, it could increase the risk that we may be exposed to liability for similar practices. Furthermore, if customer concerns regarding data security increase, customers may be hesitant to provide us with the data necessary to provide our service effectively. This could generally limit the adoption of our product and the growth of our company.
Payment transactions processed on our platform may subject us to regulatory requirements and the rules of payment card networks, and other risks that could be costly and difficult to comply with or that could harm our business.
The payment card networks require us to comply with payment card network operating rules, including special operating rules that apply to us as a “payment service provider” that provides payment processing-related services to merchants and payment processors. The payment card networks set these network rules and have discretion to interpret them and change them. We are also required by our payment processors to comply with payment card network operating rules and we have agreed to reimburse our payment processors for any fines they are assessed by payment card networks as a result of any rule violations by us or our customers. Any changes to or interpretations of the network rules that are inconsistent with the way we and the payment processors and merchants currently operate may require us to make changes to our business that could be costly or difficult to implement. If we fail to make such changes or otherwise resolve the issue with the payment card networks, the networks could fine us, cancel or suspend our registration as a payment service provider, or prohibit us from processing payment cards, which would have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results. In addition, violations of the network rules or any failure to maintain good standing with the payment card networks as a payment service provider could impact our ability to facilitate payment card transactions on our platform, increase our costs, or could otherwise harm our business. If we were unable to facilitate payment card transactions on our platform, or were limited in our ability to do so, our business would be materially and adversely affected.
If we fail to comply with the rules and regulations adopted by the payment card networks, we would be in breach of our contractual obligations to our payment processors, financial institutions, or partners. Such failure to comply may subject us to fines, penalties, damages, higher transaction fees and civil liability, and could eventually prevent us from processing or accepting payment cards or could lead to a loss of payment processor partners, even if there is no compromise of customer or consumer information. In the event that we are found to be in violation of any of these legal or regulatory requirements, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be harmed.
We believe the licensing requirements of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and state agencies that regulate banks, money service businesses, money transmitters, and other providers of electronic commerce services do not apply to us. One or more governmental agencies may conclude that, under its statutes or regulations, we are engaged in activity requiring licensing or registration. In that event, we may be subject to monetary penalties, adverse publicity, and may be required to cease doing business with residents of those states until we obtain the requisite license or registration.
We currently generate significant revenue from our largest restaurant customers, and the loss or decline in revenue from any of these customers could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
For the year ended December 31, 2020, our 10 largest restaurant customers generated an aggregate of approximately 21% of our revenue. Although these customers enter into long-term contracts with us, they may reduce or terminate their usage of our platform or decide not to renew their agreements with us.
We have in the past, and we may in the future, lose one or more of our largest restaurant customers. While no such losses have been material to date, in the event that any of our largest restaurant customers do not continue to use our platform, use fewer of our modules, use our modules in a more limited capacity, or not at all, or if the volume of transactions processed on our platform declines, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be adversely affected in the future.
Our business is highly competitive. We may not be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors.
We face competition in various aspects of our business and we expect such competition to intensify in the future, as existing and new competitors, including some of our current ecosystem partners, introduce new solutions or enhance existing solutions that are directly competitive with our modules. Our platform combines functionality from numerous product categories, and we may compete against providers in each of these categories including white-label digital ordering solution providers, restaurant-focused POS platforms, aggregators that provide direct digital ordering solutions, and custom software providers. Our potential new or existing competitors may be able to develop solutions that are better received by customers or may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, regulations, or customer requirements. Some ordering aggregators sell solutions that are competitive with our core platform and they may become more aggressive in their sales tactics, including by bundling competitive solutions with their delivery or aggregator
products. If competitors, many of which are much better capitalized than we are, are successful in providing our customers with a more attractive solution or pricing, our business and results of operation may be harmed.
Competition may intensify as current or future competitors enter into business combinations or alliances or raise additional capital, or as established companies in other market segments or geographic markets expand into our market segments or geographic markets. For instance, current or future competitors could use strong or dominant positions in one or more markets to gain a competitive advantage against us in areas where we operate including by integrating additional or competing platforms or features into solutions they control, such as additional payment, rewards, or delivery platforms or features. In addition, certain customers may choose to partner with our competitors in a specific geographic market, or choose to engage exclusively with our competitors. Further, our current ecosystem partners could add features to their solutions, including point of sale functionality, limit or terminate the availability of their products on our platform, or directly compete with our solutions by expanding their product offerings. Current and future competitors may also choose to offer a different pricing model or to undercut prices in an effort to increase their market share. If we cannot compete successfully against current and future competitors, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be negatively impacted.
Mergers of or other strategic transactions by our competitors, our customers, or our partners could weaken our competitive position or reduce our revenue.
If one or more of our competitors, aggregator partners, or DSPs were to consolidate or partner with another one of our competitors, aggregator partners, or DSPs, the change in landscape could adversely affect our ability to compete effectively. Our competitors may also establish or strengthen cooperative relationships with our third party ecosystem partners, thereby limiting our ability to promote our platform. In addition, we may lose customers that merge with or are acquired by companies using a competitor’s or an internally developed solution. Disruptions in our business caused by these events could adversely affect our revenue growth and results of operations.
If we fail to maintain a consistently high level of customer service or if we fail to manage our reputation, our brand, business, and financial results may be harmed.
We believe our focus on customer service and support is critical to onboarding new customers, retaining our existing customers and growing our business. As a result, we have invested heavily in the quality and training of our support team along with the tools they use to provide this service. If we are unable to maintain a consistently high level of customer service, we may lose existing customers or fail to increase revenue from existing customers. In addition, our ability to attract new customers is highly dependent on our reputation and on positive recommendations from our existing customers. Any failure to maintain a consistently high level of customer service, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality customer service, could adversely affect our reputation and the number of positive customer referrals that we receive.
We are dependent on the continued services and performance of our senior management and other key employees, the loss of any of whom could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition. We may also engage the services of third parties who provide consulting services to support our business and the failure to identify and/or retain such third parties could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
Our future performance depends on the continued services and contributions of our senior management, including our Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Noah H. Glass, and other key employees to execute on our business plan, keep our platform stable and secure, and to identify and pursue new opportunities and platform innovations. The failure to properly manage succession plans or the loss of services of senior management or other key employees could significantly delay or prevent the achievement of our strategic objectives. From time to time, there may be changes in our senior management team resulting from the hiring or departure of executives, which could disrupt our business. We do not maintain key person life insurance policies on any of our employees with the exception of Noah H. Glass, our Founder and Chief Executive Officer. The loss of the services of one or more of our senior management or other key employees for any reason could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results, and require significant amounts of time, training, and resources to find suitable replacements and integrate them within our business, and could affect our corporate culture.
We engage the services of third parties who provide us with certain consulting services to support our business. Any failure to identify and/or retain such third parties could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition and could require significant amounts of time and resources to find suitable replacements.
If we cannot maintain our corporate culture as we grow, our success and our business and competitive position may be harmed.
We believe that a key contributor to our success to date has been our corporate culture, which is based on transparency, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit. Any failure to preserve our culture could negatively affect our ability to retain and recruit personnel, which is critical to our growth, and to effectively focus on and pursue our corporate objectives. Our substantial anticipated headcount growth, our transition from a private company to a public company, and our transition to permit our New York City headquarter employees to work remotely on an optional basis may make it difficult to maintain these important aspects of our culture. If we fail to maintain our corporate culture, or if we are unable to retain or hire key personnel, our business and competitive position may be harmed.
If we are unable to hire, retain, and motivate qualified personnel, our business may be adversely affected.
Our future success depends, in part, on our ability to continue to attract and retain highly skilled personnel. Competition for these personnel is intense, especially for engineers experienced in designing and developing SaaS or on-demand commerce applications, products managers and designers, and experienced enterprise sales professionals.
Further, our ability to increase our customer base, especially among restaurant brands, SMBs, potential international customers and other customers we may pursue, or to achieve broader market acceptance of our platform will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively organize, focus and train our sales, marketing and customer success personnel.
Our ability to convince restaurant brands to use our platform or adopt additional modules will depend, in part, on our ability to attract and retain sales personnel with experience selling to large enterprises. We believe that there is significant competition for experienced sales professionals with the skills and technical knowledge that we require. Our ability to achieve significant revenue growth in the future will depend, in part, on our ability to recruit, train, and retain a sufficient number of experienced sales professionals, particularly those with experience selling to restaurant brands or large enterprises. In addition, even if we are successful in hiring qualified sales personnel, new hires require significant training and experience before they achieve full productivity, particularly for sales efforts targeted at restaurant brands and new territories. Our recent hires and planned hires may not become as productive as quickly as we expect and we may be unable to hire or retain sufficient numbers of qualified individuals in the future in the markets where we do business.
In the past we have experienced, and we expect to continue to experience, difficulty in hiring employees with the appropriate qualifications, particularly if we significantly expand headcount in the near-term. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we have. If we hire employees from competitors or other companies, their former employers may attempt to assert that these employees or we have breached their legal obligations, resulting in a diversion of our time and resources. In addition, prospective and existing employees often consider the value of the equity awards they receive in connection with their employment. If the perceived value of our equity awards declines, experiences significant volatility, or increases such that prospective employees believe there is limited upside to the value of our equity awards, it may adversely affect our ability to recruit and retain key employees. If we fail to attract new personnel or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel, our business and future growth prospects would be harmed.
Additionally, many of our employees continue to work remotely, which has allowed us to reduce certain office related costs. We have adjusted our policies to allow our New York City headquarter employees to continue to work remotely on an optional basis. If an increasing number of employees choose to work from our corporate headquarters, we could incur increased costs and expenses in order to provide the appropriate office infrastructure for these personnel.
We rely upon Amazon Web Services and other infrastructure to operate our platform, and any disruption of or interference with our use of these providers would adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We outsource substantial portions of our cloud infrastructure to Amazon Web Services, or AWS, Cloudflare, and other infrastructure providers. Our customers need to be able to access our platform at any time, without interruption or degradation of performance. Their failure to access our platform could make us liable for service credits or, in more severe cases, contractual breaches. We are, therefore, vulnerable to service interruptions at AWS, Cloudflare, and other infrastructure providers, which could decrease the number of transactions we process on our platform and negatively impact our revenue. We have experienced, and expect that in the future we may experience interruptions, delays and outages in service and availability due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software errors, website hosting disruptions, and capacity constraints including those related to the complexity and number of order permutations. Capacity constraints could be due to a number of potential causes, including technical failures, natural disasters, fraud, or security attacks. In addition, if an infrastructure provider’s security is compromised, or our modules or platform are unavailable or our customers or their
consumers are unable to use our platform within a reasonable amount of time or at all, then our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be adversely affected. In some instances, we may not be able to identify the cause or causes of these performance problems within a period of time acceptable to our customers. It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve our platform performance, especially during peak usage times, as our platform become more complex and the usage of our platform increases. To the extent that we do not effectively address capacity constraints, either through AWS or alternative providers of cloud infrastructure, our business, results of operations, and financial condition may be adversely affected. In addition, any changes in service levels from AWS may adversely affect our ability to meet our customers’ requirements.
In addition, AWS provides us with service pursuant to an agreement that continues until terminated by either party. Pursuant to our agreement with AWS, we have committed to spending $3.4 million over the two-year period of November 2019 through November 2021. AWS may terminate the agreement by providing 90 days prior written notice, and it may, in some cases, terminate the agreement immediately for cause upon notice. Although we expect that we could receive similar services from other third parties, arranging alternative cloud infrastructure services could be costly, complicated, and time-consuming, and we could experience interruptions on our platform and in our ability to make our modules available to customers. Our agreement with AWS also includes a minimum spending commitment, part of which may be forfeited if we were to switch providers.
Any of the above circumstances or events may harm our reputation, cause customers to stop using our platform, impair our ability to increase revenue from existing customers, impair our ability to grow our customer base, subject us to financial penalties and liabilities under our service level agreements and otherwise harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We may be unable to achieve or maintain data transmission capacity.
Our customers often draw significant numbers of consumers to their websites and mobile applications over short periods of time, including during key television events, marketing events, holidays, or during peak delivery times, which significantly increases the traffic on our servers and the volume of transactions processed on our platform. Our infrastructure or software may be unable to achieve or maintain capacity high enough to handle increased traffic or process transactions in a timely manner. Our failure to achieve or maintain high capacity could significantly reduce demand for our platform. Further, as we continue to attract larger restaurant customers, the volume of data stored and transactions processed on our platform will increase, especially if such customers draw significant numbers of consumers over short periods of time. In the future, we may be required to allocate resources, including spending substantial amounts of money, to build, purchase, or lease additional infrastructure in order to handle the increased load. Our ability to deliver our platform also depends on the development and maintenance of internet and mobile application infrastructure by third parties, including by our cloud service provider. Such development and maintenance includes the maintenance of reliable networks with the necessary speed, data capacity, and bandwidth. If one of these third parties suffers from capacity constraints, our business may be adversely affected.
Our business and prospects would be harmed if changes to technologies used in our platform or new versions or upgrades of operating systems or applications adversely impact the process by which customers and consumers interface with our platform.
We believe that our platform’s functionality, simplicity, positive user experience, and ability to integrate with multiple technology partners in the restaurant ecosystem have helped us to expand and offer our platform to customers who may have limited technical personnel. In the future, providers of mobile, website, or other operating systems or applications could introduce new features, policies or rules that would make it difficult for customers to use our platform. In addition, mobile devices, websites, operating systems, or other applications could introduce new features, change existing operating systems, APIs, or other specifications such that they would be incompatible with our platform, or prevent delivery or aggregator partners from accessing customers who are using our platform. Any changes to technologies used in our platform, existing features that we rely on, or operating systems, APIs, or applications that make it difficult for customers to access our platform or consumers to access our customers’ ordering applications or websites, may make it more difficult for us to maintain or increase our revenue and could adversely impact our business and prospects.
Our future success depends in part on our ability to drive the adoption of our platform by international and SMB customers, and to expand into new, on-demand commerce verticals.
Although we currently do not derive significant revenue from customer accounts located outside the United States, and do not derive any revenue from customer accounts outside of North America, the future success of our business may depend, in part, on our ability to expand our customer base worldwide. However, because we have limited experience with international customers or in selling our platform internationally, our business model may not be successful or have the same traction outside
the United States. As a result, our investment in marketing our platform to these potential customers may not be successful. Additionally, our success may depend in part on our ability to increase our partnerships with SMB customers. These customers may have different requirements than our larger restaurant brand customers, and therefore may not find our platform to be as attractive as our existing customers. They may also be unwilling to agree to pay subscription or transactional fees for our platform or modules at the levels required to make these transaction profitable, or they may request additional functionality, training, customer service, or software integrations. We also believe that our platform can be applied to other on-demand commerce verticals beyond the restaurant industry, and plan to focus on sectors or opportunities that are also undergoing the digital transformations. If we are unable to increase the revenue that we derive from international and SMB restaurant customers, or deploy our platform in other on-demand commerce verticals, then our business, results of operations, and financial condition may be adversely affected.
We may be subject to claims by third parties of intellectual property infringement.
The software industry is characterized by the existence of a large number of patents and frequent claims and related litigation regarding patents and other intellectual property rights. Third parties have in the past asserted, and may in the future assert, that our platform, modules, technology, methods or practices infringe, misappropriate, or otherwise violate their intellectual property or other proprietary rights. Such claims may be made by our competitors seeking to obtain a competitive advantage or by other parties. Additionally, non-practicing entities purchasing intellectual property assets for the purpose of making claims of infringement may attempt to extract settlements from us. The risk of claims may increase as the number of modules that we offer and competitors in our market increases and overlaps occur. In addition, to the extent that we gain greater visibility and market exposure, we face a higher risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement claims.
Any such claims, regardless of merit, that result in litigation could result in substantial expenses, divert the attention of management, cause significant delays in introducing new or enhanced services or technology, materially disrupt the conduct of our business and have a material and adverse effect on our brand, business, financial condition and results of operations. Although we do not believe that our proprietary technology, processes and methods have been patented by any third party, it is possible that patents have been issued to third parties that cover all or a portion of our business. As a consequence of any patent or other intellectual property claims, we could be required to pay substantial damages, develop non-infringing technology, enter into royalty-bearing licensing agreements, stop selling or marketing some or all of our modules or re-brand our modules. We may also be obligated to indemnify our customers against intellectual property claims, and we may have to pay substantial settlement costs, including royalty payments, in connection with any such claim or litigation and to obtain licenses, or modify applications, which could be costly. If it appears necessary, we may seek to secure license rights to intellectual property that we are alleged to infringe at a significant cost, potentially even if we believe such claims to be without merit. If required licenses cannot be obtained, or if existing licenses are not renewed, litigation could result. Litigation is inherently uncertain and can cause us to expend significant money, time and attention to it, even if we are ultimately successful. Any adverse decision could result in a loss of our proprietary rights, subject us to significant liabilities, require us to seek licenses for alternative technologies from third parties, prevent us from offering all or a portion of our modules and otherwise negatively affect our business and operating results.
We could incur substantial costs in protecting or defending our intellectual property rights, and any failure to protect our intellectual property or prevent third parties from making unauthorized use of our technology could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Our success depends, in part, on our ability to protect our brand and the proprietary methods and technologies that we develop under the intellectual property laws of the United States and, potentially in the future, foreign jurisdictions so that we can prevent others from using our inventions and proprietary information. Although we own four registered trademarks in the United States, as of September 30, 2021, we hold no issued patents and therefore would not be entitled to exert patents to exclude or prevent our competitors from using our proprietary technology, methods, and processes to the extent independently developed by our competitors.
We rely primarily on trade secret laws and confidentiality agreements with our business partners, employees, consultants, advisors, customers, and other current or prospective partners in our efforts to protect our proprietary technology, confidential information, processes, methods, and intellectual property. These confidentiality agreements may not effectively prevent disclosure of our confidential information or the unauthorized use of our technology, and it may be possible for unauthorized parties to copy our software or other proprietary technology or information, or to develop similar software independently without our having an adequate remedy for unauthorized use or disclosure of our confidential information. In addition, others may independently discover our trade secrets and proprietary information, and in these cases, we would not be able to assert any trade secret rights against those parties. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce
and determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive business position.
In addition, the laws of some countries do not protect intellectual property and other proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. To the extent we expand our international activities, our exposure to unauthorized copying, transfer and use of our proprietary technology or information may increase.
We cannot be certain that our means of protecting our intellectual property and proprietary rights will be adequate or that our competitors will not independently develop similar technology. If we fail to meaningfully protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Any future litigation against us could be costly and time-consuming to defend.
We may become subject to legal proceedings and claims that arise in the ordinary course of business, such as claims brought by our customers, our partners, or third parties in connection with commercial disputes or our technology or employment claims made by our current or former employees. Litigation might result in substantial costs and may divert management’s attention and resources, which might seriously harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Insurance might not cover such claims, might not provide sufficient payments to cover all the costs to resolve one or more such claims, and might not continue to be available on terms acceptable to us. A claim brought against us that is uninsured or underinsured could result in unanticipated costs, potentially harming our business, financial position, and results of operations.
We use open source software in our platform, which could negatively affect our ability to sell our services or subject us to litigation or other actions.
We rely on open source software in our proprietary platforms and we expect to continue to rely on open source software in our platform in the future. The terms of certain open source licenses to which we are subject have not been interpreted by U.S. or foreign courts, and there is a risk that these licenses could be construed in a manner that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to commercialize our platforms. Certain open source projects also include other open source software and there is a risk that those dependent open source libraries may be subject to inconsistent licensing terms. This could create further uncertainties as to the governing terms for the open source software. Moreover, we cannot ensure that we have not incorporated and are currently relying on additional open source software in our platform in a manner that is inconsistent with the terms of the applicable license or our current policies and procedures. Although we employ open source software license screening measures, if we were to combine our proprietary software platform with open source software in a certain manner we could, under certain open source licenses, be required to release the source code of our proprietary platform, which could allow our customers and competitors to freely use such software solutions without compensation to us. Additionally, we may from time to time face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the open source software or derivative works that we developed using such software, which could include our proprietary source code, or otherwise seeking to enforce the terms of the applicable open source license. These claims could result in litigation and we could be required to incur significant legal expenses defending against such allegations and could be subject to significant damages, required to comply with onerous conditions or restrictions, required to make our proprietary source code for our platform and any modifications and derivative works developed using such open source software generally available at no cost, purchase a costly license or cease offering the implicated services unless and until we can re-engineer them to avoid use of the open source software in dispute, which could disrupt the business dependent on the affected platforms. This re-engineering process could require significant additional research and development resources, and we may not be able to complete it successfully. In addition to risks related to license requirements, use of certain open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of software. From time to time, there have been claims challenging the ownership rights in open source software against companies that incorporate it into their products and the licensors of such open source software provide no warranties or indemnities with respect to such claims. As a result, we and our customers could be subject to lawsuits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software. Some open source projects have known vulnerabilities and architectural instabilities and are provided on an “as-is” basis which, if not properly addressed, could negatively affect the performance of our platform. Any of these risks could be difficult to eliminate or manage, and if not addressed, could have a negative effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Our brand is integral to our success. If we fail to effectively maintain, promote, and enhance our brand, our business and competitive advantage may be harmed.
We believe that maintaining, promoting, and enhancing the Olo brand is critical to expanding our business. Maintaining and enhancing our brand will depend largely on our ability to continue to provide high-quality, well-designed, useful, reliable, and innovative modules, which we may not do successfully in the future.
Errors, defects, security incidents, disruptions, or other performance problems with our platform, including with third-party applications, services, or partners, may harm our reputation and brand. We may introduce new modules or terms of service that our customers or consumers do not like, which may negatively affect our brand. Additionally, if our customers or consumers have a negative experience using our modules or third-party solutions integrated with our platform, such an experience may affect our brand, especially as and if we continue to attract multi-location restaurant customers to our platform.
We receive significant media coverage in the United States, especially in the restaurant trade press. Any unfavorable media coverage or negative publicity about our company, for example, the quality and reliability of our platform, our privacy and security practices or the loss or misuse of our customer data or consumers’ personal information, our platform changes, litigation, or regulatory activity, or regarding the actions of our partners or our customers, could seriously harm our reputation. Such negative publicity could also adversely affect the size, demographics, engagement, and loyalty of our customers, and result in decreased revenue, which could seriously harm our business.
We believe that the importance of brand recognition will increase as competition in our market increases. In addition to our ability to provide reliable and useful modules at competitive prices, successful promotion of our brand will depend on the effectiveness of our marketing efforts. While we primarily market our platform through direct sales efforts, our platform is also marketed through a number of free traffic sources, including customer referrals and word-of-mouth. Our efforts to market our brand have involved significant expenses, which we intend to increase, and as our market becomes increasingly competitive, these marketing initiatives may become increasingly difficult and expensive. Our marketing spend may not yield increased revenue, and even if it does, any increased revenue may not offset the expenses we incur in building and maintaining our brand.
Activities of customers or partners or the content of our customers’ websites or mobile applications could damage our brand, subject us to liability, and harm our business and financial results.
Our terms of service and acceptable use policy prohibit our customers and partners from using our platform to engage in illegal or otherwise prohibited activities and our terms of service and acceptable use policy permit us to terminate a customer’s or partner’s account if we become aware of such use. Customers or partners may nonetheless engage in prohibited or illegal activities including in connection with their use of our products and services, which could subject us to civil or governmental liability or enforcement. We do not proactively monitor or review the appropriateness of the content of our customers’ websites or mobile applications and we do not have control over such content or our customers’ activities. The safeguards we have in place may not be sufficient for us to avoid liability, including through litigation, or avoid harm to our brand, especially if such inappropriate or illegal use is high profile, which could adversely affect our business and financial results. In addition, if we expand internationally, we may be subject to similar actions in foreign jurisdictions alleging that customers’ store content violates laws in foreign jurisdictions.
Unfavorable conditions in our industry or the global economy, or reductions in digital ordering transaction volume or technology spending, could adversely impact the health of our customers and limit our ability to grow our business and negatively affect our results of operations.
Our results of operations may vary based on the impact of changes in our industry or the global economy on us or our customers and potential customers. Negative conditions in the general economy both in the United States and abroad, including conditions resulting from changes in gross domestic product growth, decreases in restaurant and digital ordering spending, availability of continued federal economic stimulus and other governmental efforts, financial and credit market fluctuations, international trade relations, political turmoil, natural catastrophes, epidemics, warfare and terrorist attacks on the United States, Canada, or elsewhere, could cause a reduction in customer locations and digital ordering transaction volumes, a decrease in business investments, including spending on technology, business interruptions resulting from a destruction of our headquarters, and negatively affect the growth of our business.
More specifically, we are heavily reliant on the restaurant, food, and delivery industries and any downturn or fundamental shift in those industries could significantly impact our results. Reports, whether true or not, of foodborne illnesses and injuries caused by food tampering have severely injured the reputations of participants in the food business and could do so in the future. The potential for acts of terrorism on the United States’ food supply also exists and, if such an event occurs, it could harm our business and results of operations. In addition, reports of foodborne illnesses or food tampering could, as a result of negative publicity about the restaurant industry, harm our business and results of operations.
In addition, we contract directly with our DSPs to provide delivery services to our restaurant customers through Dispatch and then invoice our restaurant customers for the cost associated with DSP services. As a result, we may be required to make payments to DSPs prior to receiving payment from our restaurant customers for DSP transactions, which could reduce the amount of cash and cash equivalents we have available for the period between payment to the DSPs and receipt of payment from the restaurant customer. In addition, if any of our restaurant customers were to go out of business, become insolvent, or
otherwise be unable to pay for DSP transactions, we would be responsible for making payments to the DSPs that our customers otherwise would have made, which could adversely affect our business.
Lastly, the increased pace of consolidation in certain industries may result in reduced overall spending on our platform and modules. We cannot predict the timing, strength, or duration of any economic slowdown, instability, or recovery, generally or within any particular industry.
Increases in food, labor, rent, energy, and occupancy costs could adversely affect results of operations.
Our financial success is dependent, in part, on the ability of our restaurant customers to increase digital ordering and maintain profitability. These customers may experience increased operating costs, including as a result of changes to food, labor, rent, energy, occupancy, insurance, and supply costs, as well as costs of safety equipment related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and they may be unable to recover these costs through increased menu prices, and as a result, may cease operations. Additionally, if our restaurant customers raise prices in light of these factors, order volume may decline, which could harm our revenue and results of operations.
Various factors beyond our control, including government regulations relating to independent contractor classifications, price controls on food delivery logistics platforms, labor shortages, and minimum wage increases, may also affect the total cost of digital food orders to consumers. If our current or future customers and/or partners are unable to maintain or increase digital orders, or maintain profitability, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be harmed.
We rely on software licensed from, and services rendered by, third parties in order to provide our modules and run our business.
We rely on software licensed from, and services rendered by, third parties in order to provide our modules and run our business. Third-party software and services may not continue to be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Any loss of the right to use, or any failures of, third-party software or services could result in delays in our ability to provide our modules or run our business until equivalent software or services are developed by us or, if available, identified, obtained and integrated, which could be costly and time-consuming and may not result in an equivalent module, any of which could cause an adverse effect on our business and operating results. Further, customers could assert claims against us in connection with such service disruption or cease conducting business with us altogether. Even if not successful, a claim brought against us by any of our customers would likely be time-consuming and costly to defend and could seriously damage our reputation and brand, making it harder for us to sell our modules.
Our pricing decisions and pricing models may adversely affect our ability to attract new customers and retain existing customers.
In 2015 and 2017, we launched our Dispatch and Rails modules, respectively, and in 2016 we began to offer a transactional-based pricing model for our Ordering module. As a result, we have limited experience determining the optimal prices for our modules and may be unable to convert existing customers from a flat-fee model to our transactional based pricing models. We have changed our pricing model from time to time and expect to do so in the future or sell new modules. However, given our limited experience with selling new modules, it may turn out that the new pricing models, or the pricing for any other modules we may develop, is not optimal, which may result in our modules not being profitable or not gaining market share. As competitors introduce new solutions that compete with ours, especially in the digital ordering and delivery spaces where we face significant competition, we may be unable to attract new customers at the same price or based on the same pricing models that we have used historically. Pricing decisions and pricing models may also impact the mix of adoption among our modules and negatively impact our overall revenue. Moreover, restaurant brands may be sensitive to price increases or to the prices offered by competitors. As a result, in the future we may be required to reduce our prices, which could adversely affect our revenue, profitability, financial position, and cash flows.
Provisions of our financial instruments may restrict our ability to pursue our business strategies.
We currently have a credit facility, which requires us, and any debt instruments we may enter into in the future may require us, to comply with various covenants that limit our ability to, among other things:
•dispose of or encumber assets;
•complete mergers or acquisitions;
•incur additional indebtedness;
•pay dividends or make other distributions to holders of our shares;
•make specified investments;
•change certain key management personnel; and
•engage in any business other than the businesses we currently engage in; and engage in transactions with affiliates.
These restrictions could inhibit our ability to pursue our business strategies. If we default under our credit facility, and such event of default is not cured or waived, the lender could terminate commitments to lend and cause all amounts outstanding with respect to the debt to be due and payable immediately. Our assets and cash flow may not be sufficient to fully repay borrowings under our outstanding debt instruments if some or all of these instruments are accelerated upon a default.
We may also incur additional indebtedness in the future. The instruments governing such indebtedness could contain provisions that are as, or more, restrictive than our existing debt instruments. If we are unable to repay, refinance, or restructure our indebtedness when payment is due, the lenders could proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure such indebtedness, as applicable, or force us into bankruptcy or liquidation.
Changes in our effective tax rate or tax liability may have an adverse effect on our results of operations.
Our effective tax rate could increase due to several factors, including:
•changes in the relative amounts of income before taxes in the various jurisdictions in which we operate that have differing statutory tax rates;
•changes in tax laws, tax treaties, and regulations or the interpretation of them, including the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act;
•changes to our assessment about our ability to realize our deferred tax assets that are based on estimates of our future results, the prudence and feasibility of possible tax planning strategies, and the economic and political environments in which we do business;
•the outcome of current and future tax audits, examinations, or administrative appeals; and
•limitations or adverse findings regarding our ability to do business in some jurisdictions.
Any of these developments could adversely affect our results of operations.
We could be required to collect additional sales taxes or be subject to other tax liabilities that may increase the costs our customers would have to pay for our modules and adversely affect our results of operations.
An increasing number of states have considered or adopted laws that attempt to impose tax collection obligations on out-of-state companies. Additionally, the Supreme Court of the United States recently ruled in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. et al, or Wayfair, that online sellers can be required to collect sales and use tax despite not having a physical presence in the buyer’s state. In response to Wayfair, or otherwise, states or local governments may adopt, or begin to enforce, laws requiring us to calculate, collect, and remit taxes on sales in their jurisdictions. A successful assertion by one or more states requiring us to collect taxes where we presently do not do so, or to collect more taxes in a jurisdiction in which we currently do collect some taxes, could result in substantial tax liabilities, including taxes on past sales, as well as penalties and interest. The imposition by state governments or local governments of sales tax collection obligations on out-of-state sellers could also create additional administrative burdens for us, put us at a competitive disadvantage if they do not impose similar obligations on our competitors, and decrease our future sales, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Our ability to use our net operating losses to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations.
As of December 31, 2020 and 2019, we had approximately $31.7 million and $46.8 million of federal net operating losses, or NOLs. Approximately $12.6 million of the federal NOLs will expire at various dates beginning in 2035 through 2037 if not utilized, while the remaining amount will have an indefinite life. As of December 31, 2020 and 2019, we had approximately $26.2 million and $38.0 million of state NOLs. Of the state NOLs, some may follow the Tax Cut and Jobs Act and are indefinite life and most are definite life with various expiration dates beginning in 2025 through 2039. The federal research and development tax credits were approximately $1.3 million as of each of December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. The federal research credits will begin to expire in 2026. In general, under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change,” as defined under Section 382 of the Code and applicable Treasury Regulations, is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change NOLs to offset future taxable income. We may experience a future ownership change, including, potentially, in connection with our IPO, under Section 382 of the Code that could affect our ability to utilize the NOLs to offset our income. Furthermore, our ability to utilize NOLs of companies that we have acquired or may acquire in the future may be subject to limitations. There is also a risk that due to regulatory changes, such as suspensions on the use of NOLs or other unforeseen reasons, our existing NOLs could expire or otherwise be unavailable to reduce future income tax liabilities, including for state tax purposes. For these reasons, we may not
be able to utilize a material portion of the NOLs reflected on our balance sheet, even if we attain profitability, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us and could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.
Our reported financial results may be adversely affected by changes in accounting principles generally accepted in the United States.
U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, the SEC, and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported results of operations and could affect the reporting of transactions already completed before the announcement of a change.
If our estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies prove to be incorrect, our results of operations could be adversely affected.
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in our condensed financial statements and accompanying notes appearing elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as provided in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates.” The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities and equity, and the amount of revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant estimates and judgments involve revenue recognition, and the valuation of our stock-based compensation awards, including the determination of fair value of our Class A common stock, among others. Our results of operations may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our results of operations to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the market price of our Class A common stock.
We identified a material weakness in our internal control over our financial reporting process. If we are unable to remediate this material weakness, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations.
A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of a company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. We identified a material weakness in our internal control over our financial statement close process specifically related to insufficient written policies and procedures for accounting and financial reporting and the lack of properly designed controls related to accounting for revenue recognition in accordance with standards under Accounting Standards Codification Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. These control deficiencies could result in a misstatement of our accounts or disclosures that would result in a material misstatement of our financial results that would not be prevented or detected, and accordingly, we determined that these control deficiencies constitute a material weakness.
We are working to remediate this material weakness through the development and implementation of processes and controls over the financial reporting process. Specifically, we have:
•initiated the process of implementing a new revenue recognition system which will significantly reduce the number of manual controls currently required to recognize revenue;
•engaged external resources to assist with remediation efforts and internal control execution as well as to provide additional training to existing personnel; and
•hired additional internal resources with appropriate knowledge and expertise to effectively operate financial reporting processes and internal controls.
While we have designed and are implementing new controls to remediate this material weakness, they have not operated for a sufficient period of time to demonstrate the material weakness has been remediated. We cannot assure you that the measures we have taken to date will be sufficient to remediate the material weakness we identified or avoid the identification of additional material weaknesses in the future. If the steps we take do not remediate the material weakness in a timely manner, there could continue to be a reasonable possibility that this control deficiency or others could result in a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements that would not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
Furthermore, investors’ perceptions that our internal controls are inadequate or that we are unable to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis may harm our stock price.
As a result of being a public company, we are obligated to develop and maintain proper and effective internal controls over financial reporting, and any failure to maintain the adequacy of these internal controls may adversely affect investor confidence in our company and, as a result, the value of our Class A common stock.
We are required, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Section 404, to furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2021. This assessment will need to include disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. In addition, our independent registered public accounting firm will be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in our first annual report required to be filed with the SEC following the date we are no longer an “emerging growth company” or after we are no longer a “smaller reporting company.” We have recently commenced the costly and challenging process of compiling the system and processing documentation necessary to perform the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404, but we may not be able to complete our evaluation, testing, and any required remediation in a timely fashion once initiated. Our compliance with Section 404 will require that we incur substantial expenses and expend significant management efforts. We have only recently established an internal audit group, and we will need to hire additional accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge and compile the system and process documentation necessary to perform the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404.
During the evaluation and testing process of our internal controls, if we identify one or more material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we will be unable to certify that our internal control over financial reporting is effective. We cannot assure you that there will not be material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting in the future. As we have had a material weakness in the past, any failure to maintain internal control over financial reporting could severely inhibit our ability to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations. If we are unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm determines we have a material weakness or significant deficiency in our internal control over financial reporting, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the SEC or other regulatory authorities. Failure to remedy any material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or to implement or maintain other effective control systems required of public companies, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets.
We may require additional capital, which additional financing may result in restrictions on our operations or substantial dilution to our stockholders, to support the growth of our business, and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms, if at all.
We have financed our operations since inception primarily through sales of our equity securities including our completed IPO, payments received from customers, and borrowings under our credit facility. We cannot be certain when or if our operations will generate sufficient cash to fully fund our ongoing operations or the growth of our business. We intend to continue to make investments to support our business, which may require us to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds. Additional financing may not be available on terms favorable to us, if at all. In particular, the current COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruption in the global financial markets, which may reduce our ability to access capital and negatively affect our liquidity in the future. If adequate funds are not available on acceptable terms, we may be unable to invest in future growth opportunities, which could harm our business, operating results, and financial condition. If we incur additional debt, the debt holders would have rights senior to holders of common stock to make claims on our assets, and the terms of any debt could restrict our operations, including our ability to pay dividends on our Class A common stock. Furthermore, if we issue additional equity securities, stockholders will experience dilution, and the new equity securities could have rights senior to those of our Class A common stock. Because our decision to issue securities in the future will depend on numerous considerations, including factors beyond our control, we cannot predict or estimate the amount, timing, or nature of any future issuances of debt or equity securities. As a result, our stockholders bear the risk of future issuances of debt or equity securities reducing the value of our Class A common stock and diluting their interests.
We recognize revenue from customer subscriptions over the term of the subscription agreement and, therefore, a significant downturn in our business may not be immediately reflected in our operating results.
We recognize revenue from subscription agreements monthly over the terms of these agreements, which is typically three years or longer. As a result, a significant portion of the revenue we report in each quarter is generated from customer agreements entered into during previous periods. Consequently, a decline in new subscriptions or renewed subscriptions in any one quarter may not impact our financial performance in that quarter, but might negatively affect our revenue in future quarters. If a number of contracts expire and are not renewed in the same quarter, our revenue may decline significantly in that quarter
and subsequent quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant declines in sales of our platform or modules may not be reflected in our short-term results of operations.
We experience significant seasonal fluctuations in our financial results, which could cause our stock price to fluctuate.
Our business is highly dependent on the behavior patterns of restaurant brands and consumers. We may experience a relative increase or decrease in the use of our Ordering, Rails, and Dispatch modules depending on the season and customer type, which may be difficult to assess. Additionally, our revenue can also be impacted by sales cycles and seasonality, which vary depending on customer type. Finally, even after we have executed a contract with a customer, deployment of our platform and the related modules is typically lower than average in the fourth quarter. As a result, seasonality will likely cause fluctuations in our financial results on a quarterly basis, and other seasonality trends may develop may similarly impact our results of operation.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock
Our stock price may be volatile, and the value of our Class A common stock may decline.
The market price of our Class A common stock may be highly volatile and may fluctuate or decline substantially as a result of a variety of factors, some of which are beyond our control, including:
•price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market from time to time, including fluctuations due to general economic uncertainty or negative market sentiment, in particular related to the COVID-19 pandemic;
•actual or anticipated fluctuations in our financial condition or results of operations;
•variance in our financial performance from expectations of securities analysts;
•changes in the pricing of our modules;
•changes in our projected operating and financial results;
•changes in laws or regulations applicable to our platform and modules;
•investor sentiment and the public’s reaction to announcements by us or our competitors of significant business developments, acquisitions, or new offerings;
•our involvement in litigation;
•future sales of our Class A common stock by us or our stockholders, as well as the anticipation of lock-up releases;
•significant data breaches, disruptions to or other incidents involving our software;
•changes in senior management or key personnel;
•the trading volume of our Class A common stock;
•changes in the anticipated future size and growth rate of our markets; and
•general economic conditions and slow or negative growth of our markets.
Broad market and industry fluctuations, as well as general economic, political, regulatory, and market conditions, may also negatively impact the market price of our Class A common stock. In addition, technology stocks have historically experienced high levels of volatility. In the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their securities have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future, which could result in substantial expenses and divert our management’s attention.
The dual-class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with our existing stockholders, executive officers, directors, and their affiliates, which will limit your ability to influence the outcome of important transactions and to influence corporate governance matters, such as electing directors, and to approve material mergers, acquisitions, or other business combination transactions that may not be aligned with your interests.
Our Class B common stock has ten votes per share, whereas our Class A common stock has one vote per share. As of September 30, 2021, holders of our Class B common stock collectively owned shares representing approximately 95% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock. As of September 30, 2021, our directors and executive officers and their affiliates collectively beneficially owned, in the aggregate, shares representing approximately 87.7% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock.
As a result, the holders of our Class B common stock are able to exercise considerable influence over matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of our company or our assets, even if their stock holdings represent less than a majority of the outstanding shares of our capital stock. This concentration of ownership limits the ability of other stockholders to influence corporate matters and
may cause us to make strategic decisions that could involve risks to you or that may not be aligned with your interests. This control may adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock.
Further, future transfers by holders of our Class B common stock will generally result in those shares converting into shares of our Class A common stock, subject to limited exceptions, such as certain transfers effected for tax or estate planning purposes. The conversion of shares of our Class B common stock into shares of our Class A common stock will have the effect, over time, of increasing the relative voting power of those holders of Class B common stock who retain their shares in the long-term.
In addition, while we do not expect to issue any additional shares of Class B common stock, any future issuances of Class B common stock would be dilutive to holders of Class A common stock. Such issuances would also reduce the voting power of our Class A common stock as compared to Class B common stock and could further concentrate the voting power of holders of our Class B common stock relative to holders of our Class A common stock.
We cannot predict the impact our dual-class structure may have on the market price of our Class A common stock.
We cannot predict whether our dual-class structure, combined with the concentrated control of our stockholders who held our capital stock prior to the completion of our IPO, including our executive officers, employees, and directors and their affiliates, will result in a lower or more volatile market price of our Class A common stock or in adverse publicity or other adverse consequences. For example, certain index providers have announced restrictions on including companies with multiple class share structures in certain of their indices. In July 2017, FTSE Russell and Standard & Poor’s announced that they would cease to allow most newly public companies utilizing dual or multi-class capital structures to be included in their indices. Under the announced policies, our dual class capital structure would make us ineligible for inclusion in any of these indices. Given the sustained flow of investment funds into passive strategies that seek to track certain indexes, exclusion from stock indexes would likely preclude investment by many of these funds and could make our Class A common stock less attractive to other investors. As a result, the market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected.
An active public trading market may not develop or be sustained.
Prior to our IPO, there was no public market for our Class A common stock. An active public trading market for our Class A common stock may not continue to develop or, if further developed, it may not be sustained. The lack of an active market may impair your ability to sell your shares at the time you wish to sell them or at a price that you consider reasonable. The lack of an active market may also reduce the fair value of your shares. An inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital to continue to fund operations by selling shares and may impair our ability to acquire other companies or technologies by using our shares as consideration.
Future sales of our Class A common stock in the public market could cause the market price of our Class A common stock to decline.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock in the public market, or the perception that these sales might occur, could depress the market price of our Class A common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. Many of our existing equity holders have substantial unrecognized gains on the value of the equity they hold, and therefore they may take steps to sell their shares or otherwise secure the unrecognized gains on those shares. We are unable to predict the timing of or the effect that such sales may have on the prevailing market price of our Class A common stock.
There were 39,815,982 shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of options outstanding as of September 30, 2021. We have registered all of the shares of Class A common stock and Class B common stock issuable upon exercise of outstanding options or other equity incentives we may grant in the future, for public resale under the Securities Act. The shares of Class A common stock and Class B common stock will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent such options are exercised, subject to compliance with applicable securities laws.
As of September 30, 2021, holders of a substantial number of shares of our capital stock outstanding as of such date, had rights, subject to some conditions, to require us to file registration statements covering the sale of their shares or to include their shares in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or other stockholders.
Our issuance of additional capital stock in connection with financings, acquisitions, investments, our equity incentive plans, or otherwise will dilute all other stockholders.
We expect to issue additional capital stock in the future that will result in dilution to all other stockholders. We expect to grant equity awards to employees, directors, and consultants under our equity incentive plans. We may also raise capital through equity financings in the future. As part of our business strategy, we may acquire or make investments in companies, products, or technologies and issue equity securities to pay for any such acquisition or investment. Any such issuances of additional capital stock may cause stockholders to experience significant dilution of their ownership interests and the per share value of our Class A common stock to decline.
If our operating and financial performance in any given period does not meet the guidance that we provide to the public or the expectations of investment analysts, the market price of our Class A common stock may decline.
We may, but are not obligated to, provide public guidance on our expected operating and financial results for future periods. Any such guidance will comprise forward-looking statements, subject to the risks and uncertainties described in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and in our other public filings and public statements. Our ability to provide this public guidance, and our ability to accurately forecast our results of operations, may be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our actual results may not always be in line with or exceed any guidance we have provided, especially in times of economic uncertainty, such as the current global economic uncertainty being experienced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. If, in the future, our operating or financial results for a particular period do not meet any guidance we provide or the expectations of investment analysts, or if we reduce our guidance for future periods, the market price of our Class A common stock may decline as well. Even if we do issue public guidance, there can be no assurance that we will continue to do so in the future.
If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish unfavorable or inaccurate research about our business, the market price and trading volume of our Class A common stock could decline.
The market price and trading volume of our Class A common stock is heavily influenced by the way analysts interpret our financial information and other disclosures. We do not have control over these analysts. If few securities analysts commence coverage of us, or if industry analysts cease coverage of us, our stock price would be negatively affected. If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, downgrade our Class A common stock, or publish negative reports about our business, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our Class A common stock could decrease, which might cause our stock price to decline and could decrease the trading volume of our Class A common stock.
We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future and, as a result, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of our Class A common stock.
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our capital stock, and we do not intend to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors. Accordingly, you may need to rely on sales of our Class A common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on your investment.
We are an “emerging growth company” and a “smaller reporting company,” and we cannot be certain if the reduced reporting and disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies and smaller reporting companies will make our Class A common stock less attractive to investors.
We are an “emerging growth company” and a “smaller reporting company,” as defined in the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies” and “smaller reporting companies,” including the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. Pursuant to Section 107 of the JOBS Act, as an emerging growth company, we have elected to use the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. As a result, our condensed financial statements may not be comparable to the financial statements of issuers who are required to comply with the effective dates for new or revised accounting standards that are applicable to public companies, which may make our Class A common stock less attractive to
investors. In addition, if we cease to be an emerging growth company, we will no longer be able to use the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards.
We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of: (1) December 31, 2026; (2) the last day of the first fiscal year in which our annual gross revenue is $1.07 billion or more; (3) the date on which we have, during the previous rolling three-year period, issued more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt securities; and (4) the last day of the fiscal year in which the market value of our equity securities, which includes Class A common stock and Class B common stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of June 30 of such fiscal year.
We may continue to be a smaller reporting company even after we are no longer an emerging growth company. We may take advantage of certain of the scaled disclosures available to smaller reporting companies and will be able to take advantage of these scaled disclosures for so long as (i) the market value of our voting and non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates is less than $250 million measured on the last business day of our second fiscal quarter or (ii) our annual revenue is less than $100 million during the most recently completed fiscal year and the market value of our voting and non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates is less than $700 million measured on the last business day of our second fiscal quarter.
We cannot predict if investors will find our Class A common stock less attractive if we choose to rely on these exemptions. For example, if we do not adopt a new or revised accounting standard, our future results of operations may not be as comparable to the results of operations of certain other companies in our industry that adopted such standards. If some investors find our Class A common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our Class A common stock, and our stock price may be more volatile.
Our management team has limited experience managing a public company.
Our management team has limited experience managing a publicly-traded company, interacting with public company investors and securities analysts, and complying with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies. These new obligations and constituents require significant attention from our management team and could divert their attention away from the day-to-day management of our business, which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We will incur increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to compliance with our public company responsibilities and corporate governance practices.
As a public company, we will incur significant legal, accounting, and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company, which we expect to further increase after we are no longer an “emerging growth company.” The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the listing requirements of the NYSE and other applicable securities rules and regulations impose various requirements on public companies. Our management and other personnel devote a substantial amount of time to compliance with these requirements. Moreover, these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. We cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we will incur as a public company or the specific timing of such costs.
Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of our company more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management, and limit the market price of our Class A common stock.
Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws, may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws include provisions that:
•authorize our board of directors to issue, without further action by the stockholders, shares of undesignated preferred stock with terms, rights, and preferences determined by our board of directors that may be senior to our common stock;
•require that any action to be taken by our stockholders be affected at a duly called annual or special meeting and not by written consent;
•specify that special meetings of our stockholders can be called only by our board of directors, the chairperson of our board of directors, or our chief executive officer;
•establish an advance notice procedure for stockholder proposals to be brought before an annual meeting, including proposed nominations of persons for election to our board of directors;
•establish that our board of directors is divided into three classes, with each class serving three-year staggered terms;
•prohibit cumulative voting in the election of directors;
•provide that our directors may be removed for cause only upon the vote of at least 66 2/3% of our outstanding shares of common stock;
•provide that vacancies on our board of directors may be filled only by a majority of directors then in office, even though less than a quorum; and
•require the approval of our board of directors or the holders of at least 66 2/3% of our outstanding shares of voting stock to amend our bylaws and certain provisions of our certificate of incorporation.
These provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our board of directors, which is responsible for appointing the members of our management. In addition, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which generally, subject to certain exceptions, prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in any of a broad range of business combinations with any “interested” stockholder for a period of three years following the date on which the stockholder became an “interested” stockholder. Any of the foregoing provisions could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our Class A common stock, and they could deter potential acquirers of our company, thereby reducing the likelihood that you would receive a premium for your shares of our Class A common stock in an acquisition.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation designates the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and, to the extent enforceable, the federal district courts of the United States of America as the exclusive forums for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which may restrict our stockholders’ ability to choose the judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for the following types of claims or causes of action under Delaware statutory or common law: any derivative claims or causes of action brought on our behalf; any claims or causes of action asserting a breach of a fiduciary duty; any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, or our amended and restated bylaws; or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. The provisions would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act, subject to and contingent upon a final adjudication in the State of Delaware of the enforceability of such exclusive forum provision.
These choice of forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees. If a court were to find either choice of forum provision contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions. For example, the Court of Chancery of
the State of Delaware recently determined that the exclusive forum provision of federal district courts of the United States of America for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act is not enforceable.
Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds.
Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities
Wisely Acquisition
On October 21, 2021, we entered into an Agreement and Plan of Reorganization, or the Merger Agreement, with Sparty Merger Sub I, Inc., a Delaware corporation and our wholly owned subsidiary, Sparty Merger Sub II, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and our wholly owned subsidiary, Wisely Inc., a Delaware corporation, or Wisely, and Fortis Advisors LLC, solely in its capacity as the representative of Wisely’s securityholders. The transaction, which we refer to as the Wisely Acquisition, closed on November 4, 2021 pursuant to the terms set forth in the Merger Agreement.
On November 4, 2021, as part of the consideration for the Wisely Acquisition, we issued 3,460,168 unregistered shares of our Class A common stock. Such shares of Class A common stock were issued in a private placement pursuant to an exemption from registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, provided by Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act.
Use of Proceeds
On March 19, 2021, we closed our IPO of 20,700,000 shares of our Class A common stock at a price to the public of $25.00 per share, including the full exercise by the underwriters of their option to purchase up to an additional 2,700,000 shares of Class A common stock, resulting in net proceeds to us of approximately $485.5 million, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions. All of the shares issued and sold in our IPO were registered under the Securities Act pursuant to a registration statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-253314), which was declared effective by SEC on March 16, 2021.
There has been no material change in the planned use of proceeds from our IPO from those disclosed in our Prospectus.