Item 1. Business
Sprout Social — Driving Smarter, Faster Business Impact
With more than 5.22 billion global users consuming and sharing billions of posts per day, social media has fundamentally changed the customer experience and the way the world communicates. Social media has become mission-critical to the way organizations reach, engage and understand their target audience and customers. Billions of users are sharing their interests, opinions and values with their social networks every day and are using social media to communicate with and about businesses, organizations and causes on an unprecedented scale. Virtually every aspect of business has been impacted by social media, from marketing, sales, commerce and public relations to customer service, product and strategy, creating a need for an entirely new category of software and an entirely new system of record. We offer our customers a centralized, secure and powerful platform that can scale horizontally across an organization to drive maximum business value.
For almost 15 years, Sprout Social has helped companies command their market on social media. Our human-centric AI and advanced analytics deliver real-time insights from more than 1 billion daily messages, driving impact quickly and boosting productivity. With straight-forward onboarding, powerful integrations, and ease of use, our platform is designed to scale to meet even the largest enterprise needs. Our AI-led suite of solutions helps brands maximize the value of social, connect meaningfully with their audience, and leverage insights to enhance business strategies and customer retention. Currently, approximately 30,000 customers across more than 100 countries rely on our platform.
The exceptional value we deliver is bolstered by our recognition as a Leader by IDC in the 2024 Marketscape for Social Marketing software for large enterprises, and our consistently high user ratings on G2.
We have proven success in the SMB, Mid-market and Enterprise segments. However, we expect that our current and future growth will likely be driven by outsized contributions from Mid-market and Enterprise. We estimate that less than 5% of businesses have adopted social media management software, providing a large, nascent opportunity to drive significantly increased market adoption of our solution.
We have an efficient, product-driven go-to-market strategy that has enabled us to scale rapidly, attracting customers from small businesses to global brands as well as marketing agencies and government, non-profit and educational institutions. With over 99% of our revenue in 2024 from software subscriptions, we have experienced strong unit economics across all customer segments as we continue to grow and refine our sales and marketing efforts. In 2024, the majority of our inbound trials were generated through unpaid marketing due to the strength of our brand, content marketing, and search engine optimization. The scale of these trials allows us to rapidly test, adapt and optimize our go-to-market approach for sustained, capital-efficient growth.
Increased adoption of our platform across functions within an organization also represents a large growth opportunity within our existing customer base. Our platform is licensed on a per-user basis with numerous upsell opportunities through additional users and product modules. As social becomes a critical channel for virtually all aspects of the customer experience, including brand awareness, influencer marketing, customer acquisition, social customer care, commerce, advocacy and reputation management, we expect that our customers will increase adoption of our platform across departments.
Our success and innovation are driven by an experienced leadership team and award-winning culture with a reputation for caring deeply about the success of our customers and employees. This strong employer brand allows us to attract and retain high-quality talent and deliver a premium experience for our customers. In 2024, we were recognized as a Built In “Best Place to Work” for the sixth consecutive year. Glassdoor has recognized us as one of the “Best Places to Work” in 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. In 2023, we were also recognized by Great Place to Work and PEOPLE magazine on the 2023 PEOPLE Companies that Care list, which is based on data from companies representing more than 7.5 million U.S. employees. Sprout Social was also recognized as the #2 Best Workplace in Chicago and #18 Best Workplace for Parents by Great Place to Work.
Our strong culture, world-class management team, leading platform and efficient go-to market strategy have led to revenue of $405.9 million, $333.6 million and $253.8 million during the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively, representing growth of 22% from 2023 to 2024 and representing growth of 31% from 2022 to 2023. We generated net losses of $62.0 million, $66.4 million and $50.2 million during the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively.
Our Industry
Social media began as a way for individuals to connect and share experiences. Networks like X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, LinkedIn and subsequent major networks allowed individuals to more easily communicate with friends, family, colleagues and those who shared common interests. As social media grew, savvy businesses recognized its power as a channel to market to consumers at scale. A new form of advertising was born and brands rushed to establish a presence and following on social media as a powerful new way to connect with their customers.
We believe social media plays a central role across several key dimensions of consumer behavior and business dynamics:
•social media is a facilitator of shared human experiences;
•social media is shaping our perception of the world around us;
•social media is driving consumer trends and influencing purchases;
•social media is shifting power to consumers;
•social media is holding brands to higher standards;
•social media is replacing existing communication channels; and
•social media is an unprecedented source of business intelligence.
While businesses have begun to adapt by establishing a presence on social media and incorporating social media into advertising strategies, we believe the adjustments necessary to remain competitive and relevant amidst this disruption are substantial and require new software solutions, business processes and approaches.
Social Media’s Impact on Business
Businesses must face the reality that social media is not simply another marketing channel. Social media now plays a crucial role across the entirety of an organization, from marketing and communications to sales, customer relationships, customer service, product feedback, and more. Social media is an invaluable layer that is embedded in the digital technology stack:
•Consumer influence has expanded. The ubiquity and ease of social media has enabled a new, public form of casual opinion, observation, endorsement or criticism. Social media has
given consumers a powerful, public voice that can reward or penalize organizations. Organizations must listen and respond to this voice.
•The balance of power has shifted from brands to consumers. For as long as media and commerce have existed, brands have largely been in control of their message. Brands determined how and when to communicate with their audience, giving them significant control over their reputation. With the rise of social media, the balance of power has shifted to the consumer. Nearly half of the world’s population is sharing opinions across social media daily, shaping public perception and influencing purchasing decisions at enormous scale.
•Social media is driving trends and purchasing decisions. A significant number of purchasing decisions are originating from, influenced by or transacted through social media. According to The 2025 Sprout Social Index™, 81% of consumers say social drives them to make impulse purchases and about one-third of all consumers anticipate making more purchases from social networks in 2025.
•Consumer expectations are high. Consumers demand that brands be present and responsive across social networks, with nearly three-quarters of consumers expecting a response to a social media message within 24 hours or sooner, according to The 2025 Sprout Social Index™. The same report also found that 73% of consumers say they’ll buy from a competitor if a brand doesn’t respond on social media.
•All aspects of business communication are shifting to social. Billions of conversations that were previously taking place via email or over the telephone are now occurring over social media. Customers are turning to social for customer service, sales inquiries, product feedback and virtually all aspects of the customer experience. Business systems that were built around telephone and email communication cannot adequately address this shift, requiring a new system of record.
•Unprecedented business intelligence. We believe social media provides the largest source of business intelligence that has ever existed. This represents a real time pulse of consumer sentiment that is unbiased and includes a broad universe not only of current customers, but of potential future customers. Real-time consumer opinions, market trends, competitive insights, product performance and market research can be measured and analyzed using social data. Business decisions and strategy can be derived and validated more efficiently with data available at a larger scale than ever before.
Challenges Facing Our Target Market
The global adoption of social media requires a fundamental shift in business processes and practices across an organization. It requires recalibration and retooling on the same scale as were mandated by the historical shifts to email and telephone.
There are several challenges facing businesses trying to adapt to this new reality:
•Consumers are forcing adoption. Social media is becoming the default communication channel for consumers in coveted demographics. Consumers are expressing their opinions and talking to and about brands through billions of posts per day. Organizations may know they need to adapt to this new reality and adjust their business processes and implement tools to manage this new communication channel, but are unsure how to mine value from social.
•The alternative is irrelevance. A failure to solve the challenges posed by the shift to social communication would mean disconnecting from large and growing demographics and losing
out on market share and business growth. Organizations seeking to engage and connect with their audience without utilizing social tools and strategies are at a severe disadvantage.
•The stakes are incredibly high for brands. Social media gives consumers the power to put everything a brand does into the public eye and under a microscope. A misstep on social media is magnified and can lead to boycott or brand erosion overnight. In this high-stakes environment, the need for an intuitive platform that empowers brands to create exceptional customer experiences, maintain a competitive edge and drive efficiency has never been more critical. Embedded AI, enterprise-grade security, permissions, and reliable network and business APIs are essential to navigate this landscape. A mistake over email or the telephone is typically isolated to the sender and recipient. A mistake on social is public, permanent and can be catastrophic.
•Social touches every aspect of business. While marketers and advertisers were the early adopters of social media, its impact and importance have spread across the entire organization to customer acquisition, support, retention and growth. Like email and the telephone before it, social is not constrained to a particular business purpose. It touches the entire customer experience and impacts virtually every part of a business.
•Managing social is highly complex. Billions of social media interactions occur every day across various platforms, requiring businesses to engage across all channels simultaneously. Organizations are forced to manage dozens to hundreds of social profiles, a multitude of public and private conversations and billions of data points in real time. Managing this complex landscape in an efficient, secure and scalable manner while fueling growth is not viable without a comprehensive, AI-driven platform.
•It is difficult to gather intelligence. Social media has become one of the largest and most dynamic sources of business intelligence in the world, offering invaluable insights that can answer critical questions and shape strategic decisions. From real-time customer sentiment to emerging market trends, social data often holds the key to understanding consumer behavior and staying ahead of the competition. Yet, despite its potential, most organizations lack the advanced tools needed to harness, analyze, and unlock the full value of this wealth of information.
•Significant data privacy and security concerns aren’t going away. As data privacy and security concerns continue to dominate the social media landscape, businesses must act quickly to navigate increasing complexity, risk, and regulation. To stay ahead, brands need to take charge of their market by adopting social media management platforms that safeguard customer data across multiple social profiles and networks. Addressing these challenges with agility is critical not only for maintaining security and trust, but also for staying competitive in an increasingly fast-evolving environment.
•On social media, every second matters for brands. In the fast-paced world of social media, delivering a seamless customer experience requires quick, coordinated action across multiple departments. A single social media message often requires input from multiple teams, and without a platform providing clear social insights and streamlining workflows, timely and effective responses are compromised. The right platform must deliver value quickly and enable teams to achieve fast, impactful results with minimal complexity. Without an intuitive platform that drives rapid adoption, organizations fail to meet the pace their customers demand, risking a disjointed and inconsistent customer experience.
Our Platform
Brands can no longer afford to overlook the importance of social media, where every interaction has the potential to influence their reputation and expand their reach. Sprout Social offers an intuitive
platform designed to scale with organizations of all sizes and to help empower teams to secure a competitive advantage and boost their market position.
Customers can rapidly activate Sprout Social and expedite the implementation process to access analysis-ready AI. Social profiles are efficiently connected, and software integrations are configured to deliver rapid results, starting as soon as a customer’s trial, which was a key driver of new customer revenue in 2024. Our platform is built to reduce the need for extensive training, custom AI builds, and external specialists, leading to lower implementation and services costs and faster time to value. We believe our product is the industry standard for product quality, design and user experience, taking the complexity out of social and putting it in one, intuitive platform so our customers can focus on growing their business.
We believe that when businesses have access to better information, everyone benefits. Our platform aggregates and delivers vast amounts of business intelligence to the right teams, enabling customers to leverage social insights, competitive intel, peer benchmarking, market research, and consumer trend information. By analyzing billions of data points, our platform empowers customers to measure performance, identify growth opportunities, and gain a deeper understanding of their market and competitive landscape.
Our platform leverages a unified codebase that facilitates efficient deployment of new features, updates, and bug fixes. This approach allows us to deliver continuous innovation at an accelerated pace, giving our customers access to the latest tools to drive growth and improve return on investment (ROI). This single codebase architecture not only optimizes performance but also enables our company to maintain a customer-first approach, responding to market changes with agility and enabling scalability without inefficient resource allocation. While solutions such as Employee Advocacy and Influencer Marketing are distinct technologies, they operate on underlying codebases similar to that of Sprout Social.
We have cultivated strong, strategic relationships with leading social networks—including Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X (formerly Twitter), Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Reddit, Tumblr and TikTok. These premier partnerships provide access to the most reliable social data and first-in-line API updates, empowering our customers to make informed, confident decisions that drive sustained growth and innovation.
Additionally, our platform is built to seamlessly integrate social throughout our customers' existing operations. Whether streamlining social workflows, optimizing customer experiences, or enhancing business decision-making, our integrations empower teams to drive measurable results and maximize ROI. By enabling customers to embed social where they need it the most, we help them achieve their strategic objectives and accelerate success.
We offer a robust suite of AI-powered solutions:
•Publishing and Scheduling
•Social Customer Care
•Reporting and Analytics
•Social Listening and Business Intelligence
•Reputation Management
•Social Commerce
•Influencer Marketing
•Employee Advocacy, and
•Automation and Workflows.
These solutions serve a broad range of use-cases for our customers, including but not limited to: social and community management, public relations, marketing, brand advocacy and management, customer service and care, commerce, sales and customer acquisition, recruiting and hiring, product development, and business strategy.
Our Competitive Strengths
Sprout Social’s market has significant barriers to entry. The technical complexities of social media platforms, the need for established network relationships, and increasing customer demands for data privacy and security have made it more difficult for new competitors to enter the space. Over the past several years, these barriers have grown considerably. As an early leader in the social media management market, we believe we are uniquely positioned to help customers drive meaningful business impact.
The competitive strengths of our platform include:
•Our platform is growth-oriented. Our AI-driven solutions enable customers to take control of their market presence and drive growth through social media. Our human-centric AI is embedded across much of our platform, helping teams unlock significant value. According to Forrester’s 2025 study “The Total Economic Impact of Sprout Social”, our platform leads to a potential ROI of up to 268%. Customers can amplify this growth further by integrating social with business intelligence to uncover key opportunities through Sprout Social’s API, integrations, and business intelligence (BI) connectors. Our advanced analytics also then demonstrate the measurable impact of social media on business performance.
•Our intuitive platform drives rapid adoption. Our platform can be quickly deployed to provide valuable data across an organization through AI-powered workflows, streamlined onboarding, and intuitive usability, all of which can scale to meet the needs of even the largest enterprises. Leveraging advanced AI and automation, Sprout Social processes over 1 billion messages daily, enabling customers to access critical insights and drive impactful results from day one. The platform is designed for ease of use, requiring no specialized certifications or expertise in Boolean queries. Customers can quickly harness the power of AI to gain insights and manage campaigns effectively.
•Our AI is human-centric. Our AI and automation doesn’t just support teams - it amplifies their strengths and supercharges their capabilities, empowering them to think outside the box when it comes to social. We intentionally build our AI to be human-centric, to complement and empower the people behind the brand. Our proprietary AI and automation access more than 10 years of historical social data sets and 15 years in sentiment and textual analysis to elevate insights and deliver precise recommendations. Paired with our secure AI integrations, our AI-powered features are designed to be intuitive, making it easy for your teams to harness the full potential of social and to focus on high-impact work.
•We act as a trusted partner to support our customers. Sprout Social helps customers transform their social media presence through our platform, combining powerful integrations, expert insights, and exceptional support to drive measurable results. Our customer satisfaction (CSAT) score has been consistently high, with a 95% score over the past five years and 98%+ in the last two years. The CSAT score is determined based on an internal survey of customers following the resolution/closure of a support case. We prioritize customer-driven innovation, using feedback from our approximately 30,000 customers to guide our product roadmap. This helps us identify the features and products most important to our customers, enabling us to deliver a platform that creates compelling, user-focused experiences. Additionally, customers receive exclusive access to The Arboretum, a dynamic
community of over 10,000 members, where they receive ongoing support and social expertise needed to drive impact.
•Our social media network partner relationships are strong. Sprout Social has established strong relationships with all the leading social media platforms. These partnerships facilitate close collaboration, enabling our team to address evolving customer needs and introduce innovative solutions to the market. These relationships provide access to valuable insights and opportunities for product development and improvement.
•Our platform is purpose-built and comprehensive. Our platform is designed to bring every aspect of the social experience together into a single, elegant and robust solution. From social customer care, publishing, and reporting and analytics to reputation management, influencer marketing, business intelligence, advocacy, and workflow and collaboration, our customers can manage their entire social experience more effectively through a single interface. Our platform was built with a flexible infrastructure, enabling rapid adaptation to market changes, with some updates and new features that can be deployed quickly. This flexibility relieves customers of operational burdens and allows us to foster innovation through regular platform enhancements.
•Our platform is proven to be scalable, reliable and secure. With around 30,000 customers, our platform is built to scale and to deliver exceptional performance, reliability, and insights into emerging market trends. Sprout Social’s software supports businesses of all sizes, including enterprises, with 99.99% uptime. We hold ourselves to the highest standards for success with robust security and compliance measures.
•Our market leadership and premium brand are excellent. Our solution is highly regarded and recognized in the industry. Our robust content marketing engine is designed to deliver thought leadership to all decision makers in the buying process, from practitioners to executives. As a result of our strong brand and reputation for quality and service, we generated more than 80% of our revenue from new customers in 2024 from unpaid channels.
•We foster a world-class culture. Our success is possible because of our award-winning culture, which allows us to attract and retain top talent. We have a deep commitment to our people and our customers that compounds our competitive advantages as we continue to grow.
Components of our Platform
AI and automation: ignite creativity by breaking free from limits
We believe AI should be our customers’ secret weapon – helping them work faster and uncover insights that let brands focus on more impactful work. Clunky AI that requires intensive investment to get up and running only slows teams down and blocks them from taking charge of their market.
At Sprout Social, we believe the best solutions make it easier for teams to drive growth. By embedding our AI throughout our intuitive platform, Sprout Social’s AI and automation seek to bring order to the chaos on social, freeing teams to think beyond limits and unleash creativity to become market leaders.
From content creation and social customer care to data analysis and creating strategic insights – AI on our platform can save teams time, fast-track business outcomes, and unlock creativity. Designed with people in mind, our AI acts as a personal assistant, empowering teams to leverage, rather than complicate or replace, their own strengths.
With more than ten years of collecting social data and trends across industries and networks and more than 15 years in sentiment and textual analysis powered by natural language processing (NLP), we
believe we can uniquely build models that provide precise outputs tailored to our customers’ social media needs. Our proprietary social data, AI models, and secure AI integrations prioritize rigorous privacy and compliance to protect customer data.
Publishing: plan and publish effective content
Publishing effective, compelling content on social media is critical to growing an audience and keeping them engaged. Sprout Social’s Publishing transforms social content calendars into a vibrant collaboration hub. With Sprout Social, teams can publish at the right time and streamline planning thanks to customizable approval workflows, shareable links that don’t require logins, and calendar notes that empower teams to strategize efficiently.
•Centralized content planning, creation and publishing. We enable customers to create text and multimedia content to be sent across multiple social networks using an intuitive publishing interface, as well as a shared publishing calendar and campaign organization for collaboration across teams and departments.
•Automated scheduling. Our platform allows content to be scheduled across social networks immediately or at specific dates and times. Content can also be drafted, added to an automated queue or sent using our patented Viralpost technology for optimal reach. Viralpost uses machine learning to determine the best times to reach a customer’s most engaged audience.
•Content performance reporting. We provide reporting and analytics on the performance of content and campaigns to help our customers better understand their performance and increase the effectiveness of their publishing efforts.
•Suggested content. We help customers identify compelling content to share with their audience based on global trends. We surface content such as posts that have been shared widely across major social networks so that customers can better understand what content is resonating with their audiences.
•Message approval workflows. Publishing content to social media often requires approvals from within an organization. We provide the workflows to obtain these approvals from single or multiple parties prior to posting to social media.
•Publishing permissions & governance. Maintaining control over social media publishing permissions and records of publishing activity is critical for security and compliance. Our granular permissions allow customers to grant access as needed without sharing critical social profile credentials and records all publishing and approval activity.
•Content and asset libraries. Social media content and campaigns are often shared and repurposed across an organization. We provide libraries for shared content and assets that can be used across teams, locations or departments.
Engagement: outsmart the competition with proactive customer care
With customer expectations soaring, social media management platforms emerged as the holy grail for driving ROI from customer engagement. Sprout Social gives teams a competitive edge for mastering customer connections, using a complete customer snapshot and personalization. Sprout Social’s Engagement is designed to optimize customer experiences with AI-driven solutions that humanize customer connections and elevate care. Thanks to Sprout Social’s quick implementation and AI-powered features, our customers can proactively manage brand crises and get ahead of customer expectations in record time.
•Smart inbox. We bring public and private messages from across social networks and profiles into a single, unified inbox. This allows our customers to centralize interactions with their audiences
and customers and provides the necessary tools and workflows to deliver seamless customer experiences.
•Comprehensive case management: Social Customer Care by Sprout Social empowers care teams to overcome organizational complexities and deliver timely, exceptional brand experiences. Sprout Social consolidates billions of social conversations across social networks and review sites so teams can efficiently manage customer inquiries and go beyond customer expectations at scale through a robust Case management solution and AI-powered capabilities.
•Social CRM. When interacting across social channels, context is important. We provide historical conversations, notes and user information in-line so teams can generate responses that are relevant and productive.
•Social monitoring and alerts. In addition to messages sent to our customers, our platform also captures messages relating to our customers, for awareness and response when needed. We also provide an alerts engine to notify our customers when critical messages are received.
•Customer service tools. Many of the messages received through social media are customer service related. We provide tools to route and assign messages, and to measure the performance of our customer’s customer service efforts through social media.
•Automation. We provide our customers the ability to automate alerts and categorization of messages, as well as a bot-builder technology that can automate high-volume customer conversations in private social channels.
Analytics: solve business problems faster with social insights
Social media reporting promised a clear connection between social engagement and real business impact, yet many teams still find themselves lost in a tangled web. Sprout Social’s analytics are designed to decode the value of social, transforming data into clear insights that help brands drive business impact, stay ahead of the competition and demonstrate real ROI. Our robust reporting suite is designed for effortless customization, giving teams the power to showcase metrics that align with their organization’s unique objectives. Thanks to Sprout Social’s proprietary algorithms that easily compare organic and paid reporting, teams can trust their insights are spot-on – essential for igniting adoption for shaping business strategies quickly.
•Comprehensive social media reporting. Our customers can measure and analyze their performance across all major social networks through rich experiences designed to extract actionable insights from data. Reporting can be done across networks, analyzing paid and organic performance compared to historic and peer or competitor performance.
•Content performance reporting. Measuring the effectiveness, reach and reaction to published content allows our customers to optimize their social publishing efforts to drive incremental value for their audiences.
•Customer service and team reporting. Customer service conducted through social media requires rapid response and resolution. Our service- and support-focused reports allow our customers to understand their response rates and times, measure team member activity, measure net promoter scores and benchmark against peers.
•Custom report builder. In addition to our presentation-ready reports, customers can customize reports to meet their needs, and export those reports in several formats to share with peers and stakeholders across their business.
•Reporting API. Data provided in our reporting suite can be delivered via API for integration with existing business intelligence tools.
Social Listening: power growth and set the industry standard with business intelligence at scale
Social is an indispensable source of business intelligence, where billions of data points are created across social networks that contain information that can help businesses better understand their markets, their customers and their competition. Sprout Social provides real-time insights that can turn social listening into a competitive edge, empowering customers to anticipate trends and drive growth before the competition can react.
•Market research. We provide dynamic visualizations of historical and real-time analysis of our customer’s social data so they can extract actionable insights and make better business decisions.
•Brand health. Our customers can monitor their brand’s general health, analyze campaign performance and gain visibility into consumer needs and sentiment drivers to help them understand and improve their brand performance.
•Competitive insights. Our customers can identify opportunities to differentiate their brand, products and services through competitor comparison, sentiment research and share of voice analysis. This can help them to keep ahead of their competition.
•Consumer trends. We provide a cross-channel conversational analysis to help our customers uncover emerging trends and identify influencers to fine-tune campaigns to strengthen market positioning.
•Product feedback. Social conversations often point to product related feedback. Our customers can leverage these consumer insights to upgrade their customer experiences and refine products and services.
Influencer Marketing by Sprout Social: streamline end-to-end influencer campaign management
Sprout Social’s Influencer Marketing platform is designed to help brands and agencies grow, reach new audiences, and build authentic connections with customers. Our platform makes it easy to launch and manage influencer marketing campaigns through customizable workflows.
With Affinity, our proprietary algorithm powered by machine learning and audience psychographics, brands can find the right influencers for their campaigns. Affinity matches influencers to brands by analyzing similarities in audience interests across thousands of profiles, with the goal of ensuring that both the influencer and their audience are a good fit for the campaign. The right influencer can drive authenticity, engagement, and stronger ROI.
When combined with Sprout Social, our Influencer Marketing platform helps brands boost targeted engagement, increase reach, and maximize business impact as part of their overall social strategy.
Employee Advocacy: the fastest way to extend social reach
Sprout Social’s Employee Advocacy solution is designed to enable organizations to leverage the trust and influence of their employees to extend brand reach on social media. By empowering employees to become authentic brand advocates, the solution can enhance an organization’s marketing efforts and provide a competitive edge through meaningful connections and streamlined workflows.
Employee Advocacy is built to simplify the process of content sharing and customizable newsletter creation, allowing employees to easily share relevant brand messages with their social networks. The integration with Sprout Social's platform provides social teams with the tools that allow them to streamline operations and assess performance through actionable data.
Built for quick adoption, the Employee Advocacy solution is designed to support businesses in unlocking new opportunities, accelerating growth, and scaling success in the fast-moving digital landscape.
Additional capabilities:
As social media use expands throughout our customers’ organizations, their use cases and needs do too. We respond to these increasing demands by continuously enhancing our platform and expanding our offering.
•Social Commerce. Commerce transactions are shifting to social, now a primary point of product discovery for consumers. We allow brands to easily link their commerce platforms, including Facebook Shops, Shopify, and WooCommerce, to Sprout Social to drive more sales opportunities and foster loyalty. This eliminates unnecessary steps and shortens response times with personalized offers, thanks to a unified view of product catalogs, SKU availability and purchase history.
•Reputation and review management. Brand perception is largely influenced by social media and customer review platforms. Customers can quickly address any issues as they arise by responding promptly and building trust through thoughtful communication. By actively monitoring reviews across key platforms—such as the Apple App Store, Facebook, Glassdoor, Google My Business, Google Play Store, Tripadvisor, Trustpilot, and Yelp—brands can gain valuable insights into customer sentiment and identify areas for improvement. This proactive approach not only helps resolve crises but also strengthens relationships with customers and enhances brand loyalty.
•Mobile applications. Social media operates around the clock, extending well beyond traditional work hours. To meet the needs of our customers, we offer mobile applications that provide full access to our platform on both Android and iOS devices. This allows customers to manage and engage with their social media operations anytime, anywhere, enabling continuous responsiveness and support for their social media strategies.
•Chatbot creation and management. To manage high volumes of customer messaging, we provide our customers with an intuitive interface to build and deploy chat experiences to help their audience get the information they need quickly and efficiently.
Our Market Opportunity
Due to social media’s rapidly growing strategic importance, we believe all organizations of adequate scale around the globe would benefit from using a social media management solution to engage with their consumers and drive insights from social data. We also believe our platform addresses this significant capability gap, serving what we refer to as the social media management market.
We estimate that, based on our current average customer spending levels, the annual served addressable market (SAM) for our platform in 2023 exceeded $55 billion. We estimate that our SAM opportunity will exceed $120 billion by 2025, an annual market growth rate of greater than 25%.
We calculated our current SAM estimate as follows: (i) utilized data from The U.S. Small Business Administration, The U.S. Census Bureau, The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and Statista to estimate the total number of businesses in the United States and globally in each of our served market segments (Enterprise, Mid-Market, SMB) with a social media presence; (ii) utilized internal data and estimates to estimate the number of such businesses that require a social media management platform (the “Target Businesses”); (iii) calculated the average of our annual contract value (ACV) and our estimate of our primary competitors’ ACVs in each segment; and (iv) multiplied the estimated average segment ACVs by the estimated number of Target Businesses in each segment. We then used internal
estimates informed by research from the Harris Poll to determine the projected business presence on social media in 2025 that will require a social media management platform, multiplied by our internal projected average segment ACVs in 2025 for Sprout Social and its direct competitors in the applicable segment.
Our Growth Strategies
We intend to capitalize on our large market opportunity with the following key growth strategies:
•Win with Enterprise customers. We believe there is substantial opportunity to drive increased pipeline and strategic customer wins in accounts over $50,000 in annualized recurring revenue (ARR). We plan to accomplish this through a product roadmap that is increasingly focused on the requirements of Enterprise customers and within our go-to-market strategy, by driving more awareness with senior executives. We intend to release more features that will allow us to continue to meet the evolving needs of the largest enterprises and drive larger ACV transactions. This includes more scale in our customer care product, deepening our listening analytics features and support for larger scale deployments. We intend to drive increased accountability in the field, ensure we have appropriate resource allocation across our different customer and geographic segments, and strengthen the operational cadence of the go-to-market teams and their intersection with the rest of the company.
•Increase customer health by driving improved onboarding and adoption behaviors. We want our customers to discover and deploy all of the deep value within our platform so they can leverage our most sophisticated capabilities, can integrate our platform into their core tech stack, and can leverage Sprout Social data to better understand their Social ROI. We intend to deliver more strategic expert services, build and support more integrations, and help our customers to better measure and understand the impact of their work.
•Invest in our partnerships. We will continue to invest in partnerships with strategic partners. Relationships with global partners bring our team into larger, strategic accounts and expand our reach into some of the largest digital marketing budgets. In addition, our go-to-market alignment with agencies remains a central component of our push into the enterprise market. We continue to view this channel as a key contributor to ACV expansion.
•Further penetrate our customer base. We intend to drive deeper penetration into our customer base, for both new and existing customers, with use case expansion and premium modules. Seat expansion, both inside of departments and across use cases, AI capabilities, professional services and premium models such as Influencer Marketing, Listening, Premium analytics, and Advocacy serve as key growth levers. We know social is incredibly horizontal and has wide utility and applicability across a business, and we believe we have a tremendous opportunity to help our customers capitalize on opportunities they haven’t tackled yet.
Pricing
We offer a variety of subscription-based plans to provide customers with flexibility in accessing the full value of Sprout Social based on their specific needs. To facilitate rapid adoption and demonstrate the platform’s impact on business growth, we encourage the majority of our customers to participate in an initial 30-day free trial. This allows them to experience firsthand how Sprout Social can drive efficiency and performance.
For enterprise customers and organizations with large-scale social media operations, we offer managed trials that provide personalized support to help them realize the full value of the platform. These
enterprises receive white-glove onboarding, a customized implementation plan, dedicated assistance for single sign-on (SSO) setup, and priority customer support.
Our platform is licensed on a per-user, per-month basis, providing scalability to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes.
Here is how it works:
1.Customers choose a core plan and license the platform per-user.
2.Customers add users, social profiles, and use-cases.
3.Customers add product modules (e.g., Listening) for an additional monthly rate depending on their needs.
Customers
We have a highly diverse base of approximately 30,000 current customers across SMBs, Mid-market companies, Enterprises and marketing agencies, as well as government, non-profit and educational institutions. We have been increasingly focused on the Mid-market and Enterprise segments, and we expect that our current and future growth will likely be driven by outsized contributions from Mid-market and Enterprise. Aligning to this focus, we announced a price increase in November 2022, which values our software consistent with the expectations of these segments of the market. As a result, our total number of customers or the number of net new customers we have added each quarter following the price increase has decreased while the average spend of each new customer has increased. We expect this trend to continue as we remain focused on our most sophisticated customers.
Sales and Marketing
Our go-to-market strategy continues to be driven by the strength and innovation of our platform, complemented by an expanded multi-product approach and deeper market segmentation. We leverage a product-led strategy, allowing potential customers to engage with our platform through free trials and product demonstrations. A significant portion of customers subscribing without direct sales intervention.
In 2025, we plan to enhance our go-to-market execution by prioritizing enterprise growth, multi-threaded sales motions, and targeted regional expansion. Our strategic focus includes high-value enterprise deals, verticalized go-to-market strategies, and deeper customer engagement across industries. We believe investments in influencer marketing, expanded partnerships, and international market development will further strengthen our ability to scale globally.
As customers recognize the value of our platform, adoption naturally expands across the departments of their organizations through word-of-mouth and demonstrated impact. By aligning sales, marketing, and product teams around key growth initiatives, we continue to drive lead generation, increase conversion rates, and scale our platform's adoption across diverse customer segments.
We serve a large number of customers across industry and customer segments. With our self-serve, inside and field sales strategies, we seek to efficiently provide each customer segment with an exceptional experience and efficient scalability.
Our marketing team is focused on generating awareness of our social media management platform and on inbound marketing through our industry leading blog and other social content, including our own large social media following. The majority of inbound trials and demonstration requests are generated from unpaid marketing, allowing us to rapidly test, adapt and optimize our go-to-market motion.
As of December 31, 2024, our sales and marketing department had 700 employees. Our sales and marketing expenses were $184.1 million, $168.1 million and $123.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively.
Customer Service
Customer success is at the heart of our business, and our global support team is committed to providing exceptional service to all customers, regardless of size or segment. We prioritize delivering high-quality support in the channels that customers prefer, ensuring a seamless experience across email, phone, chat, and social media.
We offer 24/5 support for both phone and chat inquiries. Our team serves a global customer base in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. Customers consistently rate Sprout Social highly on the third-party review platform G2, where we have been consistently recognized for excellence in our category. In 2024, we were honored with the #1 spot on G2 across all software products, reflecting our commitment to delivering superior value and performance for customers.
Our focus on customer success extends beyond just support. With Sprout Social as their trusted partner, customers are able to gain deep insights into their social performance with exclusive access to The Arboretum, a dynamic community of over 10,000 members, where they can exchange insights and receive ongoing support. Customers also benefit from educational resources and strategic guidance from our Premier Success team. This holistic approach empowers customers to not only meet, but exceed their goals and drive the business impact they need from social. Additionally, our on-demand help center supports customers in becoming self-sufficient without requiring ongoing support.
As of December 31, 2024, our customer service department had 58 employees. Customer service costs are included in Cost of revenue within the Consolidated Statements of Operations.
Research and Development
We have a proven research and development team that rapidly delivers high-quality products, which has driven our customer growth. Our ability to lead in the social media management market depends on our introduction of new products and continuing to improve our current offerings. We work diligently to respond to our customers’ needs to create the best user experience possible.
Our research and development team is responsible for the design, development and testing of our products. We invest substantial resources in research and development to drive our technology innovation and bring new products to the market. As of December 31, 2024, our research and development department had 302 employees. Our research and development expenses were $102.8 million, $79.6 million and $61.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively.
Competition
There are a number of established and emerging competitors in the social media management software market. While new companies join the market frequently, barriers to entry are high, with increased consolidation in recent years. We consider the competitive differentiators in our market to be:
•Growth from social: How well the platform helps customers grow their brand or business through social.
•Speed of adoption: How quickly users can get started and feel comfortable using the platform.
•Human-centric AI and automation: How well the platform uses AI and automation to make tasks easier for teams.
•Customer support: The level of partnership and support the vendor provides to help customers succeed.
•Comprehensive solution: Whether the platform provides everything teams need to successfully drive ROI from social.
•Scalability: How easily the platform can grow with your business as it gets bigger.
•Ease of use, security and reliability: How intuitive the platform is, how secure data is, and how reliable the platform is day-to-day.
•Cost and deployment: How effortless it is to set up and run the platform, in a way that delivers financial ROI.
We believe we compete favorably on all of these factors.
We primarily face competition from other social media management companies such as Hootsuite, Khoros and Sprinklr, as well as a range of independent point solutions. In order to compete, we work tirelessly to innovate and improve our products, while at the same time, preserving our unique culture.
Intellectual Property
We rely on a combination of patent, trade secret, copyright and trademark laws, a variety of contractual arrangements, such as license agreements, assignment agreements, confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, and confidentiality procedures and technical measures to protect rights in our proprietary property.
We have three issued U.S. patents and two U.S. patent applications pending. We intend to pursue additional patent protection to the extent we believe it would be beneficial and cost-effective.
We actively pursue registration of our trademarks, logos, service marks and domain names in the United States and in other key jurisdictions. We are the registered holder of a variety of domain names that include the term “Sprout Social” and similar variations. We also own numerous trademarks, trade names, service marks, logos and design marks, including SPROUT SOCIAL and our leaf logo.
In addition to our registered intellectual property, we rely on trade secrets and confidential information to develop and maintain our competitive position. We seek to protect our trade secrets and confidential information through a variety of methods, including confidentiality agreements with employees and third parties who may have access to our proprietary information. We also require most employees to sign agreements, pursuant to which such they assign to us any inventions, developments and other technology generated by them on our behalf.
Accordingly, while we believe our intellectual property is sufficiently protected, the failure to obtain or the loss of some of these rights could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We protect and enforce our intellectual property rights, including through litigation as necessary. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Intellectual Property Matters—Inability or failure to protect our intellectual property rights could impair our business.”
Government Regulation
The legal environment of Internet-based businesses is evolving rapidly in the United States and elsewhere. The manner in which existing laws and regulations are applied in this environment, and how they will relate to our business in particular, both in the United States and internationally, is often unclear. For example, we sometimes cannot be certain which laws will be deemed applicable to us given the global nature of our business, including with respect to such topics as data privacy and security, pricing,
credit card fraud, advertising, taxation, content regulation and intellectual property ownership and infringement.
Our customers, and those with whom they communicate using our platform, upload and store data onto our platform, generally without any restrictions imposed by us. This presents legal challenges to our business and operations, such as rights of privacy or intellectual property rights related to the content loaded onto our platform. Both in the United States and internationally, we must monitor and comply with a host of legal concerns regarding the data stored and processed on our platform as well as the operation of our business. These laws include, without limitation, the following:
Data Privacy and Security Laws
In the ordinary course of our business, we collect and process personal data. Accordingly, we are, or may become, subject to numerous data privacy and security obligations, including federal, state, local, and foreign laws, regulations, guidance, and industry standards governing data privacy and security. Such obligations may include, without limitation, the Federal Trade Commission Act, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CPRA”) (collectively, the “CCPA”), the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“EU GDPR”), and the EU GDPR as it forms part of United Kingdom (“UK”) law by virtue of section 3 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (“UK GDPR”).
The CCPA and EU GDPR are examples of the increasingly stringent and evolving regulatory frameworks related to personal data processing that have, and may continue to, increase our compliance obligations and exposure for any actual or perceived noncompliance. For example, the CCPA imposes obligations on covered businesses to provide specific disclosures related to the business’s collection, use, and disclosure of personal data and to respond to certain requests from California residents related to their personal data (for example, requests to know of the business’s personal data processing activities, to delete or correct the individual’s personal data, and to opt out of certain personal data disclosures). Also, the CCPA provides for administrative fines and a private right of action for certain data breaches which may include an award of statutory damages.
European data privacy and security laws (including the EU GDPR and UK GDPR) impose significant and complex compliance obligations on entities that are subject to those laws. For example, these obligations include limiting personal data processing to only what is necessary for specified, explicit, and legitimate purposes; requiring a legal basis for personal data processing; requiring the appointment of a data protection officer in certain circumstances; increasing transparency obligations to data subjects; requiring data protection impact assessments in certain circumstances; limiting the collection and retention of personal data; increasing rights for data subjects; formalizing a heightened and codified standard of data subject consents; requiring the implementation and maintenance of technical and organizational safeguards for personal data; mandating notice of certain personal data breaches to the relevant supervisory authority(ies) and affected individuals; and mandating the appointment of representatives in the UK and/or the EU in certain circumstances.
See the sections titled “Risk Factors—Risks Related to the Use of Technology” and “Risk Factors—Legal and Regulatory Risks” for additional information about the laws and regulations to which we are or may become subject and about the risks to our business associated with such laws and regulations.
Copyright & Trademark
U.S. and international copyright and trademark laws protect the rights of third parties from infringement of their intellectual property. Our customers can use our platform to upload and present a wide variety of content. In general, our customer terms of service state that customers agree not to, nor
authorize or permit any third parties to use our products to post, upload, link to, send, distribute, or store any content that is protected by copyright, trademark, or any other proprietary right without first having obtained all rights, permissions, and consents necessary to make such content available on or through our products. As our business expands to other countries, we must respond to regional and country-specific intellectual property considerations, including takedown and cease-and-desist notices in foreign languages, and we must build infrastructure to support these processes. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, also applies to our business in the United States. This statute provides relief for claims of circumvention of copyright-protected technologies but includes a safe harbor that is intended to reduce the liability of online service providers for listing or linking to third-party websites or hosting content that infringes copyrights of others. The copyright infringement practices that we have implemented for our platform are intended to satisfy the DMCA safe harbor.
Culture and Workforce
At Sprout Social, we are proud to be recognized as a Built In “Best Place to Work” in 2024—a testament to the exceptional people who make up our team. This marks the sixth consecutive year we have received this honor, celebrating our commitment to fostering a workplace where employees feel inspired, valued, and empowered to thrive. The annual Built In awards recognize companies across all sizes and industries, including both remote-first organizations and those in major tech markets across the U.S. This recognition underscores the essence of our culture: one rooted in inclusivity, innovation, and genuine care for one another.
This year, we are thrilled to have been named to three Built In Best Places to Work lists for 2024: the 100 Best Large Places to Work in Chicago, the 100 Best Large Places to Work in Seattle, and the 100 Best Places to Work in Seattle. These accolades are particularly meaningful because they reflect what employees value most—culture, benefits, and opportunities for growth. They affirm that Sprout Social is not just a great place to work but a leader in shaping exceptional workplace experiences. This achievement speaks to our team’s dedication, collaboration, and shared commitment to living our values every day.
At the heart of these accomplishments is our unwavering commitment to transparency and aligning our people strategy with our values. Transparency in human capital management is not just a priority at Sprout Social; it’s a cornerstone of who we are. By integrating workforce strategies with business objectives, we strive to create an environment where people and businesses thrive together. Every decision we make—whether about our product, our people, or our business—is guided by our values and vision for the future. These principles keep us focused on making sustainable and equitable choices that drive meaningful outcomes for employees, customers, and stakeholders alike.
Our human capital initiatives are designed to empower every team member with the tools, support, and resources they need to succeed. As we continue to push boundaries in employee engagement, development, and inclusion, we remain steadfast in fostering a workplace that inspires excellence and brings out the best in all of us. Together, we are building a culture defined by trust, transparency, and shared success.
Our Workforce
As of December 31, 2024, Sprout Social employed 1,322 full-time team members, with an average tenure of 5.6 years. Geographically, our workforce spanned multiple locations, with 308 team members based outside the United States.
Sprout Social also aspires to create a world-class, flexible, and inclusive hybrid culture that enables exceptional work and fosters belonging. We prioritize opportunities to bring our distributed teams together through regional meetups, team gatherings at our offices twice a year, and local events such as Happy Hours and Breakfast Bars. These moments foster meaningful connections within our global community, strengthening bonds and enhancing engagement.
Employee Development
Sprout Social’s commitment to employee growth was evident in 2024 through our robust learning and development programs.
Our Grow@ platform provided employees with access to a wealth of digital, on-demand learning resources. Departments complemented these offerings with specialized training programs tailored to critical skills and competencies. These efforts underscored our dedication to creating personalized and impactful development experiences.
Performance management remained a key area of focus, with all managers completing annual performance reviews for their teams. In 2024, we reimagined our performance development framework, introducing biannual reviews, quarterly goal syncs, and structured talent reviews. This refreshed approach emphasized objective performance criteria and alignment with strategic priorities, laying a strong foundation for our 2025 initiatives.
Engagement & Recognition
In 2024, we launched Sprout Social’s first Culture Survey to gain deeper insights into our organizational culture. The survey achieved a 64% response rate, revealing high levels of trust and an Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) of 32. These metrics highlight the strength of our workplace: trust, measured at 77, places us in the second quartile of our survey provider’s benchmarks, demonstrating a solid foundation for employee confidence in leadership and the organization. Our eNPS score, exceeding the SaaS industry average by 1 point and landing in the first quartile of benchmarks, reflects strong employee advocacy and satisfaction. These findings informed our efforts to cultivate a culture aligned with our strategic goals and employee values.
Recognition remained a cornerstone of our engagement strategy. Through our Value Awards, we celebrated employees who exemplified Sprout Social’s values. Award recipients received a $2,000 prize and a $500 charitable donation to an organization of their choice, demonstrating our commitment to community impact. Additionally, milestone anniversaries were marked with custom branded swag, fostering pride and connection among employees.
Total Rewards
Sprout Social’s total rewards philosophy in 2024 was built on a foundation of fairness, competitiveness, and holistic well-being, ensuring our employees feel valued and supported at every stage of their personal and professional journeys. Our comprehensive benefits offerings reflect our commitment to enabling employees to thrive both inside and outside of work.
We provide globally competitive compensation packages, which include base salary, commission, and stock-based compensation. Salaries are reviewed annually using market-based data to facilitate fairness and alignment with industry standards. As part of our steadfast commitment to pay equity, we conduct annual global pay equity analyses to support fair and transparent employee compensation. Additionally, our Employee Stock Purchase Plan (currently available in the U.S.) allows employees to share in Sprout Social’s financial success by purchasing stock at a discounted rate, reinforcing their stake in our collective growth.
Our benefits offerings are designed to meet the diverse needs of our workforce, providing comprehensive healthcare, generous PTO, and retirement plans with company matching. To support employees in living fully and healthily, we offer income replacement plans, such as short- and long-term disability, as well as life insurance. These benefits are tailored to local markets, ensuring relevance and accessibility for our global team.
In 2024, we continued to prioritize support for growing families, offering a $5,000 family planning benefit for surrogacy and adoption, as well as a global parental leave program that provides equal time off
for all parents. Our global Lifestyle Spending Account empowers employees to prioritize their personal health and well-being, while new hire stipends for home office setups and ongoing Wi-Fi reimbursements enable productivity in our hybrid work environment.
Beyond the essentials, Sprout Social offers a range of additional well-being benefits that underscore our holistic approach to employee care. These resources include financial wellness tools, legal support, identity theft protection, pet insurance, and backup care for children and elders. By continually evaluating and evolving our rewards and benefits, we aim to provide an exceptional employee experience that drives engagement, retention, and long-term success.
Governance & Accountability
Ethical conduct and diverse representation among key decision-makers are at the heart of Sprout Social’s governance practices. Our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) committee, which includes several members of our executive team, guides our efforts intentionally and impactfully. We align our governance policies with stakeholder interests by adopting transparent practices, such as pay-for-performance disclosures and enhanced stock ownership guidelines for executive officers. Our board evaluations and risk management programs further promote accountability and efficiency at every level.
Health, Safety & Wellbeing
The safety and well-being of our employees continued to be a top priority in 2024. Our hybrid work model allowed employees to choose their ideal work environment, supported by ergonomic office stipends and flexible schedules. We maintained rigorous safety protocols in our offices, equipping them with life-saving tools and ensuring secure access.
Sprout Social’s mental health resources included counseling services, financial wellness tools, and backup care options, reflecting our holistic approach to employee well-being. These initiatives are designed to support our workforce in achieving balance and resilience.
Refreshed Values
At the start of 2025, Sprout Social renewed its values to reflect our bold ambitions and commitment to achieving extraordinary things. But values don’t mean much if they’re just words. Whether we lead a team, manage a project, or shape group dynamics, we all play a key role in bringing our values to life. By actively embracing and demonstrating them, we strive to create an environment where we all thrive.
•Be a joy to work with. In every customer interaction, we deliver exceptional value.
•Put your name on it. We act with purpose, own our impact and consistently deliver exceptional results.
•Change the game. We redefine what’s possible, act boldly and transform challenges into breakthroughs.
•All in, All together. Collaboration, trust and inclusion power our success. Together, we achieve more than we ever could alone.
Our values are more than just words. They’re the foundation of our culture — the principles that guide our decisions and the behaviors that shape how we show up every day. By integrating them into our daily work, meetings, feedback, recognition, and decision-making, we keep them alive and thriving. When we live our values, we strengthen our culture and move Sprout Social forward, together.
Our Website and Availability of SEC Reports and Other Information
We maintain a website at the following address: www.sproutsocial.com. The information on our website or our social media profiles is not incorporated by reference in this Annual Report.
We make available on or through our website certain reports and amendments to those reports we file with or furnish to the SEC pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act. These include our annual reports on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and our current reports on Form 8-K. We make this information available on our website free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file the information with, or furnish it to, the SEC.
Investors and others should note that we routinely announce material information to investors and the marketplace using SEC filings, press releases, public conference calls, webcasts and the Sprout Social Investors website. We also intend to use certain social media profiles (including www.twitter.com/SproutSocial, www.facebook.com/SproutSocialInc, www.linkedin.com/company/sprout-social-inc-/, www.instagram.com/sproutsocial/) as a means of disclosing information about us to our customers, investors and the public. While not all of the information that we post to the Sprout Social Investors website or to social media profiles is of a material nature, some information could be deemed to be material. Accordingly, we encourage investors, the media and others interested in Sprout Social to review the information that we share at the Investors link located at the bottom of the page on sproutsocial.com and to regularly follow our social media profiles. Users may automatically receive email alerts and other information about Sprout Social when enrolling an email address by visiting "Request Email Alerts" on the website at investors.sproutsocial.com.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Investing in our Class A common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks described below, as well as the other information in this Annual Report and in our other public filings, including our audited consolidated financial statements and the related notes and the section entitled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” before deciding whether to invest in our Class A common stock. The occurrence of any of the events or developments described below could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects. In such an event, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations.
Risk Factors Summary
Risks Related to our Business Model and Other Operations Risks
•If we fail to attract new customers and retain and increase the spending of existing customers, our revenue, business, results of operations, financial condition and growth prospects would be harmed.
•Our historical revenue growth rates may not be indicative of our future growth.
•Our platform and products are dependent on APIs built and owned by third parties, including social media networks, and if we lose access to data provided by such APIs or the terms and conditions on which we obtain such access become less favorable, our business could suffer.
•If we are unable to attract potential customers through unpaid channels, convert this traffic to free trials and other leads or convert free trials and other leads to paid subscriptions, our business and results of operations may be adversely affected.
•If we fail to adapt and respond effectively to rapidly changing technology, new social media platforms, evolving industry standards or changing customer needs, requirements, tastes or preferences, our products may become less competitive.
•As more of our sales efforts target larger enterprise customers, our sales cycle has and may continue to become longer and more expensive and we may encounter increased pricing pressure and compliance challenges.
•We recognize subscription revenue ratably over the term of our customer contracts. Consequently, downturns or upturns in new sales may not be immediately reflected in our operating results and may be difficult to discern.
Risks Related to the Use of Technology
•Any cybersecurity-related attack, significant data breach or disruption of the information technology systems or networks on which we rely could negatively affect our business.
•We rely upon third parties to operate our platform and any disruption of or interference with our use of such third party providers would adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Market and Competition Risk
•Our business depends on a strong brand, and if we are not able to maintain, develop, and enhance our brand, our business and operating results may be negatively impacted. Moreover, our brand and reputation could be harmed if we were to experience significant negative publicity.
•Our estimates of market opportunity, forecasts of market growth and our operating metrics may prove to be inaccurate.
•The market in which we operate is competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our operating results could be harmed.
Legal and Regulatory Risks
•We are subject to stringent and changing laws and obligations related to data privacy and security. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such laws and obligations could lead to regulatory investigations or actions; litigation; fines and penalties; disruptions of our business operations; reputational harm; loss of revenue or profits; loss of customers or sales; and other adverse business consequences.
•If our information technology systems or data, or those of third parties with whom we work, are or were compromised, we could experience adverse consequences, including but not limited to regulatory investigations or actions; litigation; fines and penalties; disruptions of our business operations; reputational harm; loss of revenue or profits; loss of customers; and other adverse consequences.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock
•Our actual operating results may fluctuate from period to period and may differ significantly from any guidance provided.
•Our share price has been and may continue to be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
•The dual class structure of our common stock and the existing ownership of capital stock by our Co-Founders have the effect of concentrating voting control with our Co-Founders for the foreseeable future, which limits the ability of our other investors to influence corporate matters.
Risks Related to Tax and Accounting Matters
•Failure to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could result in our failure to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and stock price.
•Taxing authorities may successfully assert that we should have collected or withheld, or in the future should collect or withhold, sales and use, gross receipts, value-added, federal, state, or foreign employment, or similar taxes and may successfully impose additional obligations on us, and any such assessments or obligations could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
General Risk Factors
•Unstable market and economic conditions may have serious adverse consequences on our business, financial condition and share price.
•We may make acquisitions of, or invest in, other businesses or technologies, which may divert our management’s attention and result in the incurrence of indebtedness or dilution to our
stockholders. We may be unable to integrate acquired businesses or technologies successfully or achieve the expected benefits of such acquisitions and investments.
Risks Related to our Business Model and Other Operations Risks
If we fail to attract new customers and retain and increase the spending of existing customers, our revenue, business, results of operations, financial condition and growth prospects would be harmed.
We derive, and expect to continue to derive, substantially all of our revenue and cash flows from sales of subscriptions to our platform and products. Our ability to generate increasing revenue is dependent on our capacity to attract new customers and retain and increase the spending of existing customers. Demand for our platform and products is affected by a number of factors, many of which are beyond our control, such as:
•continued market acceptance of our platform and products for existing and new use-cases;
•the timing of development and release of new products and functionality introduced by us and our competitors;
•our ability to develop functionality and integrations with third parties, including social media networks, based on customer demand;
•the usability and time to value of our products;
•the pricing of our products and the impact of any future price increases;
•the level of customer service that we provide;
•technological change;
•growth or contraction in our addressable market; and
•macroeconomic factors and their impacts on our customers and their budgets for our platform and products.
Our current and prospective customers are impacted by unstable macroeconomic conditions to varying degrees. Such conditions include, but are not limited to the impact of fluctuations in inflation and interest rates and ongoing overseas conflict. We cannot predict the impact macroeconomic conditions will have on our existing or prospective customers and how that may impact their spending with us.
We have a number of federal government customers that may be impacted by any budget cuts implemented by the incoming administration. We cannot predict the impact any budget cuts will have on our existing or prospective customers and how that may impact their spending with us.
We have previously increased prices in the past and may effect additional price increases in the future. Any future pricing increase may cause our total number of customers to continue to decrease even when the average spend per customer increases over time. We may also experience softening demand or negative sentiment from our customers and prospective customers as a result of our increased pricing, which could impact our brand and competitiveness.
If we are unable to meet customer demands and manage customer experiences through flexible solutions designed to address their needs or otherwise achieve more widespread market acceptance of our platform and products, our revenue, business, results of operations and financial condition and growth prospects will be adversely affected.
In order for us to maintain or improve our operating results, it is important that our existing customers renew their subscriptions, maintain or increase the level of their plans and add additional users, social profiles and products to their subscriptions. Our customers have no obligation to renew their subscriptions, and we cannot assure you that our customers will renew subscriptions with a similar or increased subscription term or plan level or with the same or a greater number of users, social profiles or products. Some of our customers have elected not to renew their agreements with us and we may not be
able to accurately predict renewal rates. Moreover, while our contracts are generally non-cancellable during the contractual subscription term, certain customers have the right to cancel their agreements prior to the expiration of the subscription term. Our renewal rates may decline or fluctuate and our cancellation rates may increase as a result of a number of factors, including customer satisfaction with our platform and products, our customer success and support experience, the price and functionality of our solutions relative to those of our competitors, mergers and acquisitions affecting our customer base, the effects of global economic conditions, or reductions in our customers’ spending levels. This may also cause our calculation of the lifetime value of our customers to decline or fluctuate between periods as this calculation assumes the subscription renewal rate for a given year will remain consistent in future years. If our customers cancel or do not renew their subscriptions, renew on less favorable terms, fail to add more users or products or fail to purchase additional products, our revenues and growth prospects may decline.
Our historical revenue growth rates may not be indicative of our future growth.
We have experienced revenue growth in the past, but the rate of our growth has varied. For example, in 2024, our revenue was $405.9 million, an increase of 22% as compared to our revenue of $333.6 million in 2023, which was an increase of 31% as compared to our revenue of $253.8 million in 2022. We may not continue to grow at similar or faster rates in the future, and our revenue growth rates may decline. Our revenue growth may slow or our revenue may decline for a number of other reasons, including declining customer count, the maturation of our company, reduced demand for our products, increased competition, a decrease in the growth or reduction in size of our overall market, failure to capitalize on growth opportunities, and the impacts to our business from macroeconomic factors such as fluctuations in inflation and interest rates, ongoing overseas conflict, volatility in the capital markets and related market uncertainty. Our current and prospective customers are impacted by volatile macroeconomic conditions to varying degrees and as a result, in some cases we are experiencing slower growth of existing customers most impacted by these conditions. If we are unable to maintain consistent revenue or revenue growth, our stock price could be volatile or decline, and we may not achieve or maintain profitability. You should not rely on our revenue for any prior quarterly or annual periods as any indication of our future revenue or revenue growth.
Our platform and products are dependent on APIs built and owned by third parties, including social media networks, and if we lose access to data provided by such APIs or the terms and conditions on which we obtain such access become less favorable, our business could suffer.
Our platform and products depend on the ability to access and integrate with third-party APIs. In particular, we have developed our platform and products to integrate with certain social media network APIs and the third-party applications of other parties. Generally, APIs and the data we receive from the APIs are written and controlled by the application provider. Any changes or modifications to the APIs or the data provided could negatively impact the functionality of, or require us to make changes to, our platform and products, which would need to occur quickly to avoid interruptions in service for our customers.
To date, we have not relied on negotiated agreements to govern our relationships with most data providers and, in many cases, we rely on publicly available APIs. As a result, we are often subject to the standard terms and conditions for application developers of such providers, which govern the distribution, operation and fees of such integrations and which are subject to change by such providers from time to time. In other cases, we rely on negotiated agreements with social media networks and other data providers. These negotiated agreements may provide increased access to APIs and data that may allow us to provide a more comprehensive solution for our customers. These agreements are subject to termination and renewal according to their terms.
There can be no assurance that we will be able to renew any of our agreements with social media networks and other data providers, or that the terms of any such renewal, including pricing and levels of service, will be favorable. We cannot accurately predict the potential impact of any modification or termination of such agreements, including the impact on our access to the related APIs. There can be no
assurance that following any such modification or termination, we would be able to maintain our platform’s current level of functionality in such circumstances, as a result of more limited access to APIs or otherwise, which could adversely affect our results of operations. For example, we are currently a member of the X (formerly known as Twitter) Official Partner Program. There can be no assurance that X will maintain this program in its current form or at all and any change to the program, our access or the terms of our membership, including pricing, may have a negative impact on our business. In addition, there can be no assurance that we will not be required to enter into new negotiated agreements with data providers in the future to maintain or enhance the level of functionality of our platform, or that the terms and conditions of such agreements, including pricing and levels of service, will not be less favorable, which could adversely affect our results of operations.
Our business, cash flows or results of operations may be harmed if any data provider:
•changes, limits or discontinues our access to its APIs and data;
•modifies its terms of service or other policies, including fees charged or restrictions on us or application developers;
•changes or limits how customer information and other data is accessed by us or our customers;
•changes or limits how we can use customer information and other data collected through the APIs;
•establishes more favorable relationships with one or more of our competitors; or
•experiences disruptions of its technology, services or business generally.
If we are unable to attract potential customers through unpaid channels, convert this traffic to free trials and other leads or convert free trials and other leads to paid subscriptions, our business and results of operations may be adversely affected.
Our primary go-to-market strategy is an inbound marketing funnel designed to drive traffic to our web properties that offer prospective customers the ability to sign up for free trials or demonstrations of our platform and certain products. We utilize various unpaid content marketing strategies, including webinars, blogs, thought leadership and social media engagement, as well as paid advertising, to attract visitors to our web properties, free trials and demonstrations. We cannot assure you that these unpaid or paid efforts will continue to attract the same volume and quality of traffic to our web properties and free trials and demonstrations and, in the future, we may be required to increase our marketing spend to maintain the same volume and quality of traffic. The conversion rate of free trials and other lead sources to paid subscriptions is impacted by a number of factors, including our ability to promptly demonstrate value to trial and other prospective customers, drive trial customer adoption deeper into our product capabilities and deliver a favorable trial and demonstration customer experience with our sales and customer support teams. Any change in the number or quality of prospective customers entering free trials or requesting demonstrations or the conversion rates for such free trials or demonstrations to paid subscriptions could have an adverse impact on our business and results of operations.
If we fail to adapt and respond effectively to rapidly changing technology, new social media platforms, evolving industry standards or changing customer needs, requirements, tastes or preferences, our products may become less competitive.
Social media and the software industry are each subject to rapid technological change, evolving industry standards and practices, developing regulatory requirements and changing customer and user needs, requirements, tastes and preferences. The success of our business will depend, in part, on our ability to adapt and respond effectively to these changes on a timely basis. A significant example of these changes is the rapid advancement of AI technologies. If we are unable to develop and sell new products that satisfy our customers and provide enhancements and new features for our existing platform and products that keep pace with the rapid change in social media and the software industry, our revenue and operating results could be adversely affected. Our platform must also integrate with a variety of network, hardware, browser, mobile and software platforms, and technologies, and we must continuously modify and enhance our products to adapt to changes and innovation in these technologies. If new technologies
emerge or our competitors are able to deliver solutions at lower prices or more efficiently, conveniently or securely, such technologies or solutions could adversely affect our ability to compete.
The social media industry has experienced and is likely to continue to experience rapid change due to the evolving trends, tastes and preferences of users, changing policies and the evolving regulatory landscape. If consumers widely adopt new social media networks and other third-party platforms or our customers’ use cases require new integrations with third-party platforms, we may need to develop integrations and functionality related to these new networks and platforms. This development effort may require significant research and development and sales and marketing resources, as well as licensing fees, all of which could adversely affect our business and operating results. In addition, new social media networks and other third-party platforms may not provide us with sufficient access to data from their platforms, preventing us from building effective integrations with our platform and products. Regulatory requirements, including potential bans, and changing consumer tastes may also render our current integrations or functionality obsolete and the financial terms, if any, under which we obtain such integrations or functionality unfavorable. Any failure of our products to operate effectively with the social media networks and other third-party platforms used most frequently by consumers or customers could reduce the demand for our products. If we are unable to respond to these changes in a cost-effective manner, our products may become less marketable and less competitive or obsolete, and our operating results may be negatively affected. In addition, the technology industry has experienced, and may continue to experience, leadership changes, layoffs and other corporate changes that could have a negative impact on our ability to work effectively with these partners.
As more of our sales efforts target larger enterprise customers, our sales cycle has and may continue to become longer and more expensive and we may encounter increased pricing pressure and compliance challenges.
As we continue to target more of our sales efforts toward larger enterprise customers, we expect to face continued heightened costs, longer sales cycles, greater competition and less predictability in completing some of our sales. A large customer’s decision to use our services may require broad consensus within their organization, requiring multiple levels of sign off. Such sales require considerable time for the customer to evaluate and test our platform prior to making a purchasing decision. In addition, we may face stronger competition to attract larger customers, resulting in the need to reduce our pricing or offer additional incentives in order to complete a sale. Also, such customers may require greater levels of education regarding the use and benefits of our services, as well as addressing concerns regarding data privacy and security obligations, and international law. As a result of these factors, these sales opportunities may require us to devote greater resources to individual customers, driving up costs and time required to complete sales and diverting our resources to a smaller number of larger transactions. If we fail to effectively manage these risks associated with sales cycles and sales to larger enterprise customers, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be harmed.
We recognize subscription revenue ratably over the term of our customer contracts. Consequently, downturns or upturns in new sales may not be immediately reflected in our operating results and may be difficult to discern.
We generally recognize subscription revenue from customers ratably over the terms of their contracts, which can range from monthly to one-year or multi-year arrangements. As a result, a substantial portion of the subscription revenue we report in each period is derived from the recognition of deferred revenue relating to subscriptions entered into during previous periods. Consequently, a decline in new sales or renewals in any one period may not be immediately reflected in our results of operations for such period. However, the cumulative impact of such declines could negatively impact our business and results of operations in future periods. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales and market acceptance of our solutions, and potential changes in our pricing policies or rate of expansion or retention, may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. We also may be unable to adjust our cost structure to reflect the changes in revenue, resulting in lower margins and earnings. In addition, our subscription-based model also makes it difficult to rapidly increase our revenue
through additional sales in any period, as revenue from new customers generally will be recognized over the term of the applicable agreement.
If we do not adequately fund our research and development efforts, or use research and development teams effectively, we may not be able to compete effectively, and our business and operating results may be harmed.
To remain competitive, we must continue to develop new product offerings, as well as features and enhancements to our existing platform and products. Maintaining adequate research and development personnel and resources to meet the demands of the market is essential. If we experience high employee turnover, lack of management ability or a lack of other research and development resources, we may miss market opportunities. The success of our business is dependent on our research and development teams developing a roadmap that allows us to retain and increase the spending of our existing customers and attract new customers. Social media is quickly evolving and we may invest significantly in particular functionality or integrations that may become obsolete in the future. In addition, in the future, new functionality may be required or networks may emerge and gain popularity with social media users, requiring us to quickly develop integrations. Further, many of our competitors may expend a considerably greater amount of funds on their research and development programs, and those that do not may be acquired by larger companies that would allocate greater resources to our competitors’ research and development programs. Our failure to maintain adequate research and development resources, to use our research and development resources efficiently or to compete effectively with the research and development programs of our competitors could materially adversely affect our business.
If we fail to offer high-quality customer support, or if the cost of such support is not consistent with corresponding levels of revenue, our business and reputation may be harmed.
Our customers rely on our customer support organization to respond to inquiries and resolve issues related to their use of our platform quickly and effectively. Our customer support relies on third-party technology platforms, which may become unavailable or otherwise prevent our customers and customer support team from interacting on a timely basis. Our response times to customers and prospects may be impacted for reasons outside our control, such as changes to social media networks and other third-party APIs, which may interrupt aspects of our service to our customers. From time to time, we experience spikes in the number of customer support tickets that we receive, which may result in an increase in customer requests and significant delays in responding to our customers’ requests. We have experienced high customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores. We achieved a 13% completion rate for our recent CSAT surveys. As a result, the recent scores may not be reflective of our broader customer base, and customer satisfaction and the related scores could decrease in the future. Increased customer demand for our support services, without corresponding revenue increases, could increase our costs and harm our operating results. As we continue to grow our operations and support our global user base, we need to continue to provide efficient and high-quality support that meets our customers’ needs globally at scale. Our sales process is highly dependent on the ease of use of our platform and products, our business reputation and positive recommendations from our existing customers. Any failure to maintain a high-quality customer support organization, or a market perception that we do not maintain such levels of support, could harm our reputation, our ability to sell to existing and prospective customers and our business.
Technological advances in AI may in the future disrupt the social media industry, which could significantly reduce the demand for our services or otherwise adversely impact our business or reputation if we are unable to successfully keep pace and navigate this evolving environment.
Our failure to invest in AI technologies and incorporate them into various facets of our business and product offerings in a timely, effective and compliant manner may place us at a competitive disadvantage, reducing demand for our offerings and adversely affecting our business, financial condition and results of operations. Our competitors may more effectively internally utilize AI, enabling their
business to run more efficiently than Sprout Social, placing us at a competitive disadvantage, and they may better incorporate AI into their product offerings, negatively impacting demand for our products.
AI advances have the potential to enable the development of alternative competitive services or enable our customers to reduce or bypass the use of our services, such as a reduction of seats used by our customers. If any of our customers, social network partners, competitors or new market entrants were to develop algorithms or other AI tools capable of replicating or better competing against our services, our services and solutions could, over time, become obsolete or unnecessary, or demand for our services could be significantly reduced, particularly if any such AI alternative proved to be more accurate, more efficient or more cost-effective. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We use machine learning and AI technologies in our business, and we are making investments in expanding AI capabilities in our products, services and tools, including improving existing and developing new AI technologies. However, AI technologies are complex and rapidly evolving, and we face significant competition from other companies as well as an evolving regulatory landscape. The proliferation of new and emerging AI technologies, such as generative AI, may require additional investment in the development of proprietary datasets and machine learning models, new approaches and processes to provide attribution or remuneration to creators of training data and appropriate protections and safeguards for handling the use of customer data with AI technologies, which may be costly and could impact our expenses if we decide to further expand AI technologies in our product offerings.
The introduction of AI technologies into new or existing products may result in new or enhanced governmental or regulatory scrutiny, confidentiality or security risks, ethical concerns, legal liability or other complications that could adversely affect our business, reputation and financial results. For example, our employees and personnel may use AI technologies to perform their work, and the disclosure and use of personal data in AI technologies is subject to various laws, including data privacy and security laws and AI-specific laws and other privacy obligations. Furthermore, AI technologies incorporated into our product offerings may use algorithms, datasets or training methodologies that may be flawed or contain deficiencies that may be difficult or impossible to proactively detect which, in turn, may suggest content that is factually inaccurate, biased or otherwise flawed. We also use AI to assist us in making certain decisions, which is similarly regulated by certain laws, including data privacy laws. Due to inaccuracies or flaws in the inputs, outputs, or logic of the AI, the model could be biased and could lead us to make decisions that could bias certain individuals (or classes of individuals), and adversely impact their rights, employment, and ability to obtain certain pricing, products, services, or benefits. If such AI and machine learning-based outputs are deemed to be biased, we could face adverse consequences, including exposure to reputational and competitive harm, customer loss, and legal liability.
If our customers or others rely on or use such content to their detriment, it may lead to adverse outcomes, which may expose us to reputational harm, competitive harm or legal liability. Additionally, the use of certain AI technologies, including generative AI, may place our and our customers’ information at risk if adequate security measures are not employed. Further, the intellectual property ownership and license rights, including copyright and open source license liability, surrounding AI technologies has not been fully addressed by U.S. courts or other federal or state laws or regulations, and the use or adoption of third-party AI technologies into our products and services may result in exposure to claims of copyright infringement or other intellectual property misappropriation.
Furthermore, AI is subject to data privacy and security laws, as well as increasing regulation and scrutiny. Several jurisdictions around the globe, including Europe and certain U.S. states, have proposed enacted, or are considering laws governing AI, including the EU’s AI Act. We expect other jurisdictions will adopt similar laws. Additionally, certain privacy laws extend rights to consumers (such as the right to delete certain personal data) and regulate automated decision making, which may be incompatible with our use of AI technologies and machine learning. These obligations may make it harder for us to conduct our business using AI technologies and machine learning, lead to regulatory fines or penalties, require us
to change our business practices, retrain our AI technologies and machine learning, or prevent or limit our use of AI technologies and machine learning. For example, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has required other companies to turn over (or disgorge) valuable insights or trainings generated through the use of AI technologies and machine learning where they allege the company has violated privacy and consumer protection laws. If we cannot use AI technologies and machine learning or that use is restricted, our business may be less efficient, or we may be at a competitive disadvantage.
Additionally, any sensitive information (including confidential, competitive, proprietary, or personal data) that we input into a third-party generative AI technologies and machine learning platform could be leaked or disclosed to others, including if sensitive information is used to train the third parties’ AI technologies and machine learning models. Additionally, where an AI technologies and machine learning model ingests personal data and makes connections using such data, those technologies may reveal other personal or sensitive information generated by the model.
If we are unable to develop and maintain successful relationships with channel partners, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.
We have established relationships with certain channel partners, including resellers and referral partners, to distribute our platform. We believe that continued growth in our business is dependent upon identifying, developing and maintaining strategic relationships with our existing and potential channel partners that can drive substantial revenue and provide additional value-added services to our customers. We expect channel partners to become increasingly important as we expand within the United States and internationally. Although a small portion of our revenue is currently derived from our channel partners, loss of or reduction in sales through these third parties could reduce our revenue. Our competitors may, in some cases, be more effective than we are in utilizing channel partners to increase sales of their products and services. Recruiting and retaining qualified resellers in our network and training them in our technology and product offerings requires significant time and resources. If we fail to maintain relationships with our resellers, fail to develop relationships with new resellers in new markets or expand the number of resellers in existing markets or fail to manage, train or provide appropriate incentives to our existing resellers, our ability to increase the number of new customers and increase sales to existing customers could be adversely impacted, which would harm our business. In addition, if resellers do not effectively market and sell our products, or fail to meet the needs of our customers, our reputation and ability to grow our business may also be harmed.
Our international sales and operations subject us to additional risks and costs, including exposure to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, that can adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
For each of the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, we derived 27%, 28% and 28%, respectively, of our revenue from customers located outside of the United States. There are a variety of risks and costs associated with our international sales and operations, which include making investments prior to the proven adoption of our products, the cost of conducting our business internationally and hiring and training international employees and the costs associated with complying with local law. Furthermore, we cannot predict the rate at which our platform and products will be accepted in international markets by potential customers. We believe our ability to attract new customers to subscribe to our platform or to attract existing customers to renew or expand their use of our platform is directly correlated to the level of engagement we obtain with the customer. To the extent we are unable to effectively engage with non-U.S. customers due to our limited international sales force capacity, we may be unable to grow in international markets effectively.
Due to our international presence, we have some exposure to the effects of fluctuations in currency exchange rates. While we have primarily transacted with customers and vendors in U.S. dollars historically, we expect to conduct some transactions with our customers that are denominated in foreign currencies in the future. Fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar and foreign currencies may make our subscriptions more expensive for international customers, which could harm our business. Additionally,
we incur expenses for employee compensation and other operating expenses at our non-U.S. locations in the local currency for such locations. Fluctuations in the exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and other currencies could result in an increase to the U.S. dollar equivalent of such expenses. These fluctuations could cause our results of operations to differ from our expectations or the expectations of our investors. Additionally, such foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations could make it more difficult to detect underlying trends in our business and results of operations.
We do not currently maintain a program to hedge transactional exposures in foreign currencies. However, in the future, we may use derivative instruments, such as foreign currency forward and option contracts, to hedge certain exposures to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. The use of such hedging activities may not offset any or more than a portion of the adverse financial effects of unfavorable movements in foreign exchange rates over the limited time the hedges are in place. Moreover, the use of hedging instruments may introduce additional risks if we are unable to structure effective hedges with such instruments.
We have a history of losses and may not achieve profitability in the future.
We have incurred net losses since inception and expect to incur net losses in the future. We incurred net losses of $62.0 million, $66.4 million and $50.2 million in 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. As of December 31, 2024, we had an accumulated deficit of $354.4 million. We have never achieved profitability on an annual or quarterly basis and we do not know if we will be able to achieve or sustain profitability. We plan to continue to invest in our research and development and sales and marketing efforts, and we anticipate that our operating expenses will continue to increase as we scale our business and expand our operations.
Risks Related to the Use of Technology
Any cybersecurity-related attack, significant data breach or disruption of the information technology systems or networks on which we rely could negatively affect our business.
Our operations rely on information technology systems for the use, storage and transmission of sensitive and confidential information with respect to our customers, content creators, our customers’ consumers or other social media audiences, the third-party technology platforms of other parties and our employees. A cybersecurity-related attack, malicious internet-based activity, online and offline fraud, and intrusion or disruption by either an internal or external source or other breach of the systems on which our platform and products operate, and on which our employees conduct business, could lead to unauthorized access to, use of, loss of or unauthorized disclosure of sensitive and confidential information, disruption of our services, and resulting regulatory enforcement actions, litigation, indemnity obligations and other possible liabilities, as well as negative publicity, which could damage our reputation, impair sales and harm our business. In addition to traditional computer “hackers,” malicious code (such as viruses and worms), compromised accounts with elevated privileges (phishing), credential stuffing, credential harvesting, employee misconduct or error, theft or misuse, and denial-of-service attacks, sophisticated nation-state and nation-state supported actors now engage in attacks (including advanced persistent threat intrusions) and attacks are now enhanced or facilitated by AI.
Despite efforts designed to create security barriers to such threats, it is not feasible, as a practical matter, for us to entirely mitigate these risks. If our security measures are compromised as a result of third-party action, employee, customer, or user error, malfeasance, stolen or fraudulently obtained log-in credentials or otherwise, our reputation would be damaged, our data, information or intellectual property, or those of our customers, may be destroyed, stolen or otherwise compromised, our business may be harmed and we could incur significant liability. We have not always been able in the past and may be unable in the future to anticipate or prevent techniques used to obtain unauthorized access to or compromise of our systems because they change frequently and are generally not detected until after an incident has occurred. For example, we have been, and expect to continue being, the target of
unsuccessful phishing and social engineering attacks, SQL and malformed input attacks, card testing attacks, and credential stuffing attacks targeting employee and customer access. We also cannot be certain that we will be able to prevent vulnerabilities in our software or quickly address vulnerabilities that we may become aware of in the future. While we have implemented security measures designed to protect against security incidents, there can be no assurance that these measures will be effective. We take steps designed to detect, mitigate, and remediate vulnerabilities in our information systems (such as our hardware and/or software, including that of third parties with whom we work). We may not, however, detect and remediate all such vulnerabilities on a timely basis. Further, we may experience delays in developing and deploying remedial measures and patches designed to address identified vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities could be exploited and result in a security incident. As we rely on third-party cloud infrastructure and SaaS services, we depend in part on third-party security measures to protect against unauthorized access, cyberattacks and the mishandling of data and information. Any cybersecurity event, including any vulnerability in our software, cyberattack, intrusion or disruption, could result in significant increases in costs, including costs for remediating the effects of such an event, lost revenue due to network downtime, and a decrease in customer and user trust, increases in insurance premiums due to cybersecurity incidents, increased costs to address cybersecurity issues and attempts to prevent future incidents, and harm to our business and our reputation because of any such incident.
We employ a shared responsibility model where our customers are responsible for using, configuring and otherwise implementing security measures related to our platform, services and products in a manner that meets applicable cybersecurity standards, complies with laws, and addresses their information security risk. As part of this shared responsibility security model, we make certain security features available to our customers that can be implemented at our customers’ discretion, or identify security areas or measures for which our customers are responsible. For example, our customers can avail of Single Sign-On (SSO) integration with our platform, services and products to enforce their Identity Provider (IdP) settings. In certain cases where our customers choose not to implement, or incorrectly implement, those features or measures, misuse our services, or otherwise experience their own vulnerabilities, policy violations, credential compromise or security incidents, even if we are not the cause of a resulting customer security issue or incident, our customer relationships reputation, and revenue in the future may be adversely impacted.
There can be no assurance that any limitation of liability provisions in our subscription agreements would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from any such liabilities or damages with respect to any claim related to a cybersecurity incident. We also cannot be sure that our existing general liability insurance coverage and coverage for cyber liability, errors, or 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 the insurer will not deny coverage of any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, would harm our business.
Many governments have enacted laws requiring companies to provide notice of data security incidents involving certain types of personal data. In addition, some of our customers or other relevant stakeholders may require us to notify them of data security breaches. Such notifications are costly, and the notification or the failure to comply with such requirements could lead to adverse consequences. Security compromises experienced by our competitors, by our customers or by us may lead to public disclosures, which may lead to widespread negative publicity. Any security compromise in our industry, whether actual or perceived, could harm our reputation, erode confidence in the effectiveness of our security measures, negatively affect our ability to attract new customers, encourage consumers to restrict the sharing of their personal data with our customers or the social media networks, cause existing customers to elect not to renew their subscriptions or subject us to third-party lawsuits, regulatory fines or other action or liability, which could materially harm our business.
We rely upon third parties to operate our platform and any disruption of or interference with our use of such third party providers would adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We outsource the majority of our cloud infrastructure to Amazon Web Services, or AWS, which hosts our platform and products. In addition, we outsource a small portion of our cloud infrastructure to other providers, which, together with AWS, we refer to as our Hosting Providers. Our customers must have the ability to access our platform at any time, without interruption or degradation of performance. Our Hosting Providers run their own platform upon which our platform and products depend, and we are, therefore, vulnerable to service interruptions at our Hosting Providers. We have experienced, and expect that in the future we may experience interruptions, delays and outages in service and availability from time to time due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software errors, website hosting disruptions and capacity constraints. Capacity constraints could be due to a number of potential causes including technical failures, natural disasters, fraud or security attacks. In addition, if our security, or that of our Hosting Providers, is compromised, our platform or products are unavailable or our users are unable to use our products within a reasonable amount of time or at all, then our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected. We note that our ability to conduct security audits on our Hosting Providers is limited and our contracts do not contain strong indemnification terms in our favor. In some instances, we may not be able to identify and/or remedy 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 products become more complex and the usage of our products increases. To the extent that we do not effectively address capacity constraints, either through our Hosting Providers or an alternative provider of cloud infrastructure, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected. In addition, any changes in service levels from our Hosting Providers may adversely affect our ability to meet our customers’ requirements.
The substantial majority of the services we use from AWS are for cloud-based server capacity, storage, and, to a lesser extent, certain other proprietary offerings. AWS enables us to order and reserve server capacity in varying amounts and sizes distributed across multiple availability zones and regions. We access AWS infrastructure through standard internet protocol, or IP, connectivity. AWS provides us with computing and storage capacity pursuant to an agreement that continues until terminated by either party. If any of the AWS data centers become unavailable to us without sufficient advance notice, we would likely experience delays in delivering our platform and products until we could migrate to an alternate data center provider. Our disaster recovery program contemplates transitioning our platform and products to our backup data centers or regions in the event of a catastrophe, but we have not yet fully tested the procedure, and our platform and products may be unavailable, in whole or in part, during any transition procedure. Although we expect that we could receive similar services from other third parties, if any of our arrangements with AWS are terminated, we could experience interruptions on our platform and in our ability to make our products available to customers, as well as delays and additional expenses (including research and development expenses) in arranging alternative cloud infrastructure services.
Any of the above circumstances or events may harm our reputation, cause customers to stop using our products, impair our ability to attract new customers and increase revenue from existing customers, subject us to financial penalties and liabilities under our service level agreements and otherwise harm our revenue, business, results of operations and financial condition.
We are subject to subscription and payment processing risk from our third-party vendors and any disruption to such processing systems could adversely affect our business and results of operations.
We rely on a third-party subscription management platform to process the subscription plans and billing frequencies of our customers. In addition, we rely primarily on a single third party for credit card payment processing services for the portion of our customers paying by credit card. If any of these third-party vendors were to experience an interruption, delay or outages in service and availability, we may be
unable to process new and renewing subscriptions or credit card payments. In addition, if any of these third-party vendors experience a cybersecurity breach affecting data related to services provided to us, we could experience reputational damage or incur liability. Although alternative providers may be available to us, we may incur significant expense and research and development efforts to deploy any alternative providers. To the extent there are disruptions in our or third-party subscription and payment processing systems, we could experience revenue loss, accounting issues and harm to our reputation and customer relationships, which would adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Real or perceived errors, failures or bugs in our platform or products could materially and adversely affect our operating results and growth prospects.
The software underlying our platform and products is highly technical and complex. Our software has previously contained, and may now or in the future contain, undetected errors, bugs or vulnerabilities. In addition, errors, failures and bugs may be contained in open source software utilized in building and operating our products or may result from errors in the deployment or configuration of open source software. Some errors in our software may only be discovered after the software has been deployed or may never be generally known. Any errors, bugs or vulnerabilities discovered in our software after it has been deployed, or never generally discovered, could result in interruptions in platform availability, product malfunctioning or data breaches, and thereby result in damage to our reputation, adverse effects upon customers and users, loss of customers and relationships with third parties, including social media networks, loss of revenue or liability for damages. In some instances, we may not be able to identify the cause or causes of these problems or risks within an acceptable period of time.
Market and Competition Risk
Our business depends on a strong brand, and if we are not able to maintain, develop, and enhance our brand, our business and operating results may be negatively impacted. Moreover, our brand and reputation could be harmed if we were to experience significant negative publicity.
We believe that maintaining, developing, and enhancing our brand is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our platform and products, attracting new customers, retaining existing customers, persuading existing customers to adopt additional products and use-cases, and hiring and retaining our employees. We believe that the importance of our brand will increase as our awareness and business continue to expand. Successful promotion of our brand will depend on a number of factors, including the effectiveness of our marketing efforts, our thought leadership, our ability to provide a high-quality, reliable and cost-effective platform, the actions of our employees, executives, and board members, the perceived value of our platform and products, and our ability to provide quality customer success and support experience. The promotion of our brand, however, may not directly generate customer awareness or increase revenue, and any increase in revenue may not offset the expenses we incur in building and maintaining our brand.
We operate in a public-facing industry in which every aspect of our business is impacted by social media. Negative publicity, whether or not justified, can spread rapidly through social media. To the extent that we are unable to respond timely and appropriately to negative publicity, our reputation and brand could be harmed. Moreover, even if we are able to respond in a timely and appropriate manner, we cannot predict how negative publicity may affect our reputation and business. We and our employees also use social media to communicate externally. There is risk that the use of social media by us, our employees, executives, or board members to communicate about our business or other matters may give rise to liability, damage our brand, or result in public exposure of personal data of our employees or customers, each of which could affect our revenue, business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our estimates of market opportunity, forecasts of market growth and our operating metrics may prove to be inaccurate.
Market opportunity estimates and growth forecasts, including those we have generated ourselves, are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions and estimates that may not prove to be accurate. The variables that go into the calculation of our market opportunity are subject to change over time, and there is no guarantee that any particular number or percentage of the total number of businesses in the United States or globally that we estimate will require a social media management platform, as set forth in our market opportunity estimates, will purchase our products at all or generate an amount of revenue indicated by our estimates of the average of our segment ACVs and our estimate of our direct competitor’s segment ACVs, as set forth in our market opportunity estimates. Any expansion in the markets in which we operate depends on a number of factors, including the cost, performance, and perceived value associated with our platforms and those of our competitors. Even if the markets in which we compete meet the size estimates, our business could fail to grow at similar rates. Our growth is subject to many factors, including our success in implementing our business strategy, which is subject to many risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, our forecasts of market growth should not be taken as indicative of our future growth. For more information regarding the estimates of market opportunity and the forecasts of market growth, see “Business—Our Industry”.
The market in which we operate is competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our operating results could be harmed.
The market for our social media management platform is fragmented, rapidly evolving, and competitive. In addition to competing with comprehensive social media management platforms with diverse capabilities, we compete with point solutions for influencer marketing, social listening, content management and distribution, employee advocacy, relationship management and social commerce, among others, as well as native use of individual social media networks. To remain competitive, we must deliver features and functionality that enhance the utility of our platform to our new and prospective customers, without the presence of software defects, adapt to changing functionality and APIs of the social media networks and other third party platforms, maintain and develop integrations with third parties that provide value to our customers, ensure our platform and products are easy to use and deliver value to our customers, provide a superior customer success and support experience and demonstrate value to our current and prospective customers across multiple functions within their organizations. We may not be successful in delivering on some or all of the foregoing or doing so while maintaining competitive pricing of our platform and products, which could result in customer dissatisfaction and adversely affect our business.
Some of our current and future competitors may benefit from competitive advantages over us, such as greater name recognition, longer operating histories, more varied products and services, larger sales and marketing or research and development budgets, more established relationships with social media networks and different or a greater number of third-party integrations. In addition, some of our competitors may make acquisitions or enter into strategic relationships to offer a broader range of products and services than we do. These combinations may make it more difficult for us to compete effectively. We expect this to continue as competitors attempt to strengthen or maintain their market positions.
Many factors, including our marketing, customer acquisition and technology costs, and the pricing and marketing strategies of our competitors, can significantly affect our pricing strategies. Certain competitors offer, or may in the future offer, lower-priced products or services that compete with our platform or may bundle and offer a broader range of products and services. Similarly, certain competitors may use marketing strategies that enable them to acquire customers at a lower cost than we can. Even if such products do not include all the features and functionality that our platform provides, we could face pricing pressure to the extent that users find such alternative products to be sufficient to meet their needs. There can be no assurance that we will not be forced to engage in price-cutting initiatives or other discounts or to increase our sales and marketing and other expenses to attract and retain customers in response to competitive pressures, either of which would harm our business and operating results.
Legal and Regulatory Risks
We are subject to stringent and changing obligations related to data privacy and security. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such laws and obligations could lead to regulatory investigations or actions; litigation; fines and penalties; disruptions of our business operations; reputational harm; loss of revenue or profits; loss of customers or sales; and other adverse business consequences.
In the ordinary course of business, we collect and process personal data and other sensitive data, including proprietary and confidential business data, intellectual property, and other third-party data. For example, we process personal data about our customers’ consumers, content creators, and other social media users that interact with our customers’ social media pages. Our data collection and processing activities subject us to certain data privacy and security obligations, such as various laws, regulations, guidance, industry standards, external and internal privacy and security policies, contracts, and other obligations that govern the processing of personal data by us and on our behalf. While we contractually prohibit our customers from using our platform to process, store, or collect sensitive information (such as personal health information or credit card information), our customers may breach these use prohibitions and cause us to inadvertently violate laws, rules, or regulations regarding the use and protection of personal data, which in turn may adversely impact our business.
In the United States, federal, state, and local governments have enacted numerous data privacy and security laws, including data breach notification laws, personal data privacy laws, and consumer protection laws (e.g., Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act), and other similar laws (e.g., wiretapping laws). Numerous U.S. states have enacted comprehensive privacy laws that impose certain obligations on covered businesses, including providing specific disclosures in privacy notices and affording residents with certain rights concerning their personal data. As applicable, such rights may include the right to access, correct, or delete certain personal data, and to opt-out of certain data processing activities, such as targeted advertising, profiling, and automated decision-making. The exercise of these rights may impact our business and ability to provide our products and services. Certain states also impose stricter requirements for processing certain personal data, including sensitive information, such as conducting data privacy impact assessments. These state laws allow for statutory fines for noncompliance. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) applies to personal data of consumers, business representatives, and employees who are California residents and requires businesses to provide specific disclosures in privacy notices and honor requests of such individuals to exercise certain privacy rights. The CCPA provides for statutory fines for intentional violations and allows private litigants affected by certain data breaches to recover significant statutory damages. Similar laws have passed and are being considered in several other states, as well as at the federal and local levels.
Additionally, under various privacy laws and other obligations, we may be required to obtain certain consents to process personal data. For example, some of our data processing practices may be challenged under wiretapping laws, if we obtain consumer information from third parties through various methods, including chatbot and session replay providers, or via third-party marketing pixels. These practices may be subject to increased challenges by class action plaintiffs. Our inability or failure to obtain consent for these practices could result in adverse consequences, including class action litigation and mass arbitration demands.
Outside the United States, an increasing number of laws, regulations, and industry standards apply to data privacy and security. For example, the EU GDPR and the equivalent law in the UK GDPR impose strict requirements for processing the personal data of individuals. Under the EU GDPR, government regulators may impose temporary or definitive bans on data processing, as well as fines of up to 20 million euros or 4% of annual global revenue, whichever is greater. Similar processing penalties and fines exist under the UK GDPR, and the variations in the application of GDPR in the UK following Brexit has increased the complexity of our compliance efforts. Further, individuals may initiate litigation related to our processing of their personal data. As another example, Brazil’s General Data Protection
Law (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais, or “LGPD”) (Law No. 13,709/2018) applies to our operations. The LGPD broadly regulates processing of personal data of individuals in Brazil and imposes compliance obligations and penalties comparable to those of the EU GDPR. In Canada, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) applies to our operations. We also process personal data about our customers’ consumers in Asia and therefore, may become subject to new and emerging data privacy regimes in Asia, including China’s Personal Information Protection Law, Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information, and Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act.
Additionally, we are subject to the EU’s Digital Services Act, or DSA, which imposes additional legal requirements on certain types of digital service providers, including online marketplaces. The DSA aims to prevent illegal and harmful activities online and combat the spread of disinformation and sets out a framework of layered responsibilities targeted at different types of services and imposes certain additional obligations on intermediary services, including a requirement to inform consumers of any illegal products or services being offered through the relevant digital platform. Depending on how the DSA and any similar laws are implemented and interpreted, we may have to adapt our business practices, contractual arrangements, and services to comply with such obligations.
In addition, some of our customers may be subject to the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and similar UK regulatory requirements on operational resilience, which aim to protect against severe disruptions caused by cyberattacks and ICT issues. These laws may obligate our customers to impose contractual provisions on us, including certain mandatory third-party risk management provisions. If we fail to materially comply with these contractual requirements, we may be subject to investigations, audits or other adverse consequences.
Furthermore, in Europe, the Network and Information Security Directive (“NIS2”) regulates resilience and incident response capabilities of entities operating in a number of sectors, including the health sector. Non-compliance with NIS2 may lead up to administrative fines of a maximum of 10 million Euros or up to 2% of the total worldwide revenue of the preceding fiscal year.
Certain jurisdictions have enacted data localization laws and cross-border personal data transfer laws. For example, absent appropriate safeguards or other circumstances, the EU GDPR, UK GDPR, and laws in Switzerland generally restrict the transfer of personal data to countries that these jurisdictions consider to not provide an adequate level of personal data protection. Although there are currently various mechanisms that can be used to transfer personal data from the EEA and UK to the United States in compliance with law, such as the EEA’s standard contractual clauses, the UK’s International Data Transfer Agreement / Addendum, and the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and the UK extension thereto (which allows for transfers to relevant U.S.-based organizations who self-certify compliance and participate in the Framework), these mechanisms are subject to legal challenges, and there is no assurance that we can satisfy or rely on these measures to lawfully transfer personal data to the United States.
In addition to European restrictions on cross-border transfers of personal data, other jurisdictions, such as China’s Personal Information Protection Law and Brazil’s LGPD, have enacted or are considering similar cross-border personal data transfer laws and local personal data residency laws, any of which could increase the cost and complexity of doing business in foreign jurisdictions. If we cannot implement valid compliance mechanisms for cross-border personal data transfers, we may face increased exposure to regulatory actions, substantial fines, and injunctions against processing or transferring personal data from Europe or elsewhere. The inability to import personal data to the United States could significantly and negatively impact our business operations; limit our ability to collaborate with parties that are subject to European and other data privacy and security laws; or require us to increase our personal data processing capabilities and infrastructure in Europe and/or elsewhere at significant expense.
In addition to data privacy and security laws, we are contractually subject to industry standards adopted by industry groups, and we are, or may become in the future, subject to such obligations. For
example, we may be subject to compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (“PCI DSS”). The PCI DSS requires companies to adopt certain measures to ensure the security of cardholder information, including using and maintaining firewalls, adopting proper password protections for certain devices and software, and restricting data access. We are also bound by other contractual obligations related to data privacy and security, and our efforts to comply with such obligations may not be successful.
We publish privacy policies, marketing materials, and other statements, related to compliance with certain certifications or self-regulatory principles, regarding artificial intelligence, data privacy and security. Regulators in the United States are increasingly scrutinizing these statements, and if these policies, materials or statements are found to be deficient, lacking in transparency, deceptive, unfair, misleading, or misrepresentative of our practices, we may be subject to investigation, enforcement actions by regulators, or other adverse consequences.
Our obligations related to data privacy and security are quickly changing in an increasingly stringent fashion, creating some uncertainty as to the effective future legal framework. These obligations may be subject to differing applications and interpretations, which may be inconsistent or in conflict among jurisdictions. As our platform and products evolve and the ways we use personal data change to meet the complex needs of our customer base, we continue to become subject to additional privacy and security obligations. Even if we believe we have satisfied compliance requirements in our activities, regulators may disagree with our compliance posture and issue high penalties and fines for noncompliance. Additionally, our sales cycles may increase due to increasingly rigorous privacy and security assessments that must be completed prior to purchasing our platform and products as a result of increased regulation. Preparation for and compliance with these obligations require us to devote significant resources (including, without limitation, financial and time-related resources). For example, the increased consumer control over the sharing of their personal data afforded by the CCPA may affect our customers’ ability to share such personal data with us or may require us to delete or remove consumer information from our records or data sets, which may result in considerable costs for our organization. Further, these obligations may necessitate changes to our information technologies, systems, and practices and to those of any third parties that process personal data on our behalf. In addition, these obligations may require us to change our business model or our products. For example, social media networks (which are integral third-party services to our platform) are under heightened scrutiny from international regulators as well as individuals seeking to bring claims for alleged non-compliance. If the interpretation or application of data privacy or security laws or regulations adversely impact social media networks, this may change the APIs and data made available to us from the social media networks. Although we endeavor to comply with all applicable data privacy and security obligations, we may at times fail (or be perceived to have failed) to do so. Despite our efforts, our personnel or third parties with whom we work may fail to comply with such obligations, which could negatively impact our business operations and compliance posture. For example, any failure by a third-party that processes personal data on our behalf to comply with applicable law, regulations, or contractual obligations could result in adverse effects, including inability to operate our business and proceedings against us by governmental entities or others.
If we fail, or are perceived to have failed, to address or comply with data privacy and security obligations, we could face significant consequences. These consequences may include, but are not limited to, government enforcement actions (e.g., investigations, fines, penalties, audits, inspections, and similar); litigation (including class-related claims); additional reporting requirements and/or oversight; bans on collecting or processing personal data; and orders to destroy or not use personal data. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, or financial condition, including but not limited to, loss of customers; interruptions or stoppages in our business operations; inability to process personal data or to operate in certain jurisdictions; limited ability to develop or commercialize our platform and services; expenditure of time and resources to defend any claim or inquiry; adverse publicity; or revision or restructuring of our operations.
The public’s increasing concerns about data privacy and the use of social media may negatively affect the use or popularity of social media networks, and, in turn, adversely affect our business. For example, negative publicity surrounding particular forums of social media may have an adverse effect on our customers’ and prospective customers’ perceived value of our solution and willingness to purchase subscriptions or expand such subscriptions to more users or additional departments across their organizations. Similarly, enhanced scrutiny may lead to an increase in regulation of social media, which in turn could change the data or the manner in which data is shared by social media networks to social media management providers and other developers. Any change to the data we receive from social media networks or other third parties may negatively affect the functionality of our platform and products.
If our information technology systems or data, or those of third parties with whom we work, are or were compromised, we could experience adverse consequences resulting from such compromise, including but not limited to regulatory investigations or actions; litigation; fines and penalties; disruptions of our business operations; reputational harm; loss of revenue or profits; loss of customers; and other adverse consequences.
In the ordinary course of our business, we may collect, store, use, transmit, disclose, or otherwise process sensitive information. We may rely upon third party service providers and technologies to operate critical business systems to process confidential and personal data in a variety of contexts, including, without limitation, third-party providers of cloud-based infrastructure, encryption and authentication technology, employee email, content delivery to customers, and other functions. Our ability to monitor these third parties’ cybersecurity practices is limited, and these third parties may not have adequate information security measures in place. We may inadvertently share or receive sensitive information with or from third parties.
We and the third parties with whom we work may be subject to a variety of evolving threats, including but not limited to social-engineering attacks (including through deep fakes, which may be increasingly more difficult to identify as fake, and phishing attacks), malicious code (such as viruses and worms), malware (including as a result of advanced persistent threat intrusions), denial-of-service attacks (such as credential stuffing), personnel misconduct or error, ransomware attacks, supply-chain attacks, software bugs, server malfunctions, software or hardware failures, loss of data or other information technology assets, adware, telecommunications failures, earthquakes, fires, floods, and other similar threats. Ransomware attacks, including those perpetrated by organized criminal threat actors, nation-states, and nation-state-supported actors, are becoming increasingly prevalent and severe and can lead to significant interruptions in our operations, loss of data and income, reputational harm, and diversion of funds. Extortion payments may alleviate the negative impact of a ransomware attack, but we may be unwilling or unable to make such payments due to, for example, applicable laws or regulations prohibiting such payments. Similarly, supply-chain attacks have increased in frequency and severity, and we cannot guarantee that third parties and infrastructure in our supply chain or our third-party partners’ supply chains have not been compromised or that they do not contain exploitable defects or bugs that could result in a breach of or disruption to our information technology systems (including our platform) or the third-party information technology systems that support us and our services. Our ability to monitor these third parties’ information security practices is limited, and these third parties may not have adequate information security measures in place. If the third parties with whom we work experience a security incident or other interruption, we could experience adverse consequences. While we may be entitled to damages if the third parties with whom we work fail to satisfy their privacy or security-related obligations to us, any award may be insufficient to cover our damages, or we may be unable to recover such award. During times of war and other major conflicts, we and the third parties with whom we work may be vulnerable to a heightened risk of these attacks, including retaliatory cyber-attacks, that could materially disrupt our systems and operations, supply chain, and ability to produce, sell and distribute our services.
Our remote workforce poses increased risks to our information technology systems and data, as more of our employees work from home, utilizing network connections outside our premises. Future business transactions (such as acquisitions or integrations) could expose us to additional cybersecurity
risks and vulnerabilities, as our systems (including our platform) could be negatively affected by vulnerabilities present in acquired or integrated entities’ systems and technologies. Furthermore, we may discover security issues that were not found during due diligence of such acquired or integrated entities, and it may be difficult to integrate companies into our information technology environment and security program.
We expend significant resources or modify our business activities in an effort to further protect against security incidents. Certain data privacy and security obligations require us to implement and maintain specific security measures to protect our information technology systems, including our platform, and data. While we have implemented security measures designed to protect against security incidents, there can be no assurance that these measures will be effective.
Applicable data privacy and security obligations may require us to notify relevant stakeholders of security incidents impacting the confidentiality or integrity of their data and we have processes to ensure timely notifications, which have been utilized when required. Such disclosures are costly, and the disclosures or the failure to comply with such requirements could lead to adverse consequences. If we (or a third party with whom we work) experience a security incident or are perceived to have experienced a security incident, we may experience material adverse consequences. These consequences may include: government enforcement actions (for example, investigations, fines, penalties, audits, and inspections); additional reporting requirements and/or oversight; restrictions on processing data (including personal data); litigation (including class claims); indemnification obligations; negative publicity; reputational harm; monetary fund diversions; interruptions in our operations (including availability of data); financial loss; and other similar harms. Security incidents and attendant material consequences may prevent or cause customers to stop using our platform, products, or services, deter new customers from using our platform, products, or services, and negatively impact our ability to grow and operate our business. In addition to experiencing a security incident, third parties may gather, collect, or infer sensitive data about us from public sources, data brokers, or other means that reveals competitively sensitive details about our organization and could be used to undermine our competitive advantage or market position.
Indemnity provisions in various agreements potentially expose us to substantial liability for intellectual property infringement and other losses.
Our agreements with customers and other third parties may include indemnification or other provisions under which we agree to indemnify or otherwise be liable to them for losses suffered or incurred as a result of claims of intellectual property infringement, damages caused by us to property or persons, or other liabilities relating to or arising from our platform, products or other acts or omissions. For some of our larger customers, we sometimes negotiate additional indemnity provisions which may include indemnification for breaches of our obligations, representations or warranties in the subscription agreement, gross negligence or willful misconduct, breaches of confidentiality, losses related to security incidents, breach of the data processing addendum or violations of applicable law. The term of these contractual provisions often survives termination or expiration of the applicable agreement. Large indemnity payments or damage claims from contractual breach could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
From time to time, third parties may assert infringement claims against our customers. These claims may require us to initiate or defend protracted and costly litigation on behalf of our customers, regardless of the merits of these claims. If any of these claims succeed, we may be forced to pay damages on behalf of our customers or may be required to obtain licenses for the platform or products they use or modify our platform or products. If we cannot obtain all necessary licenses on commercially reasonable terms or make such modifications to avoid a claim, our customers may be forced to stop using our platform or products. Further, customers may require us to indemnify or otherwise be liable to them for breach of confidentiality or failure to implement adequate security measures with respect to their data stored, transmitted or processed by our employees, platform or products. Although we normally contractually limit our liability with respect to breach of those obligations, we may still be responsible for substantial damages related to claims. Any dispute with a customer with respect to such obligations could
have adverse effects on our relationship with that customer and other current and prospective customers, reduce demand for our platform or products, and harm our revenue, business and operating results.
Our use of “open source” software could negatively affect our ability to offer and sell access to our platform and products and subject us to possible litigation.
We use open source software in our platform and products and expect to continue to use open source software in the future. There are uncertainties regarding the proper interpretation of and compliance with open source licenses, and there is a risk that such licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to use such open source software, and consequently to provide or distribute our platform and products. Although use of open source software has historically been free, recently several open source providers have begun to charge license fees for use of their software. If our current open source providers were to begin to charge for these licenses or increase their license fees significantly, this would increase our research and development costs and have a negative impact on our results of operations and financial condition.
Additionally, we may from time to time face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or seeking to enforce the terms of, an open source license, including by demanding release of source code for the open source software, derivative works or our proprietary source code that was developed using or that is distributed with such open source software. These claims could also result in litigation and could require us to make our proprietary software source code freely available, require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our platform or incur additional costs and expenses, any of which could result in reputational harm and would have a negative effect on our business and operating results. In addition, if the license terms for the open source software we utilize change, we may be forced to reengineer our platform or incur additional costs to comply with the changed license terms or to replace the affected open source software. Further, 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 or indemnification for third party infringement claims. Although we have implemented policies to regulate the use and incorporation of open source software into our platform and products, we cannot be certain that we have not incorporated open source software in our platform and products in a manner that is inconsistent with such policies.
We are currently subject to, and may become in the future, subject to litigation, disputes or regulatory inquiries for a variety of claims, which could adversely affect our results of operations, harm our reputation or otherwise negatively affect our business.
Securities-related class action lawsuits and/or derivative lawsuits have often been brought against companies that experience volatility in the market price of their securities. We are currently, and may become in the future, subject to securities class actions, derivative suits or other securities-related legal actions. For example, as described further in Note 11 of the Notes to the Financial Statements (Part I, Item 8 of this Annual Report), beginning in May 2024, securities class action litigation and related stockholder derivative lawsuits (the “Securities Actions”) were filed against us and certain of our executives alleging violations of the federal securities laws for allegedly making false and misleading statements and omissions of fact. It is possible that additional lawsuits will be filed, or allegations received from stockholders, with respect to these same or other matters and also naming us and/or our officers and directors as defendants. The outcomes of the Securities Actions and any other related lawsuits are subject to inherent uncertainties, and the actual defense and disposition costs will depend upon many unknown factors. We could be forced to expend significant resources in the defense of the Securities Actions and any additional lawsuits, and we may not prevail. In addition, we may incur substantial legal fees and costs in connection with such lawsuits. We currently are not able to estimate the possible cost to us from these matters, as the Securities Actions are currently at an early stage, and we cannot be certain how long it may take to resolve the Securities Actions or the possible amount of any damages that we may be required to pay. Monitoring, initiating and defending against legal actions is time-consuming for our management, is likely to be expensive and may detract from our ability to fully focus our internal resources on our business activities. We could be forced to expend significant resources in the settlement
or defense of the Securities Actions and any potential future lawsuits, and we may not prevail in such lawsuits. Additionally, we may not be successful in having any such lawsuits dismissed or settled within the limits of our insurance coverage. We have not established any reserve for any potential liability relating to the Securities Actions or any potential future lawsuits. It is possible that we could, in the future, incur judgments or enter into settlements of claims for monetary damages. A decision adverse to our interests in the Securities Actions, or in similar or related litigation, could result in the payment of substantial damages, or possibly fines, and could have a material adverse effect on our business, our stock price, cash flow, results of operations and financial condition.
From time to time, we may also be involved in other types of litigation, disputes or regulatory inquiries that arise in the ordinary course of business. These may include claims, lawsuits and proceedings involving labor and employment, wage and hour, and commercial. We generally expect that the number, type and significance of claims, lawsuits, disputes and/or regulatory inquiries involving the Company may increase as our business expands and our company grows larger. While our agreements with customers generally limit our liability for damages arising from our platform, we cannot assure you that these contractual provisions will protect us from liability for damages in the event we are sued. Additionally, although we carry general liability insurance and director and officer liability insurance, these policies may not apply to cover all claims to which we are (or could be) exposed and/or may be inadequate to fully cover damages and/or liabilities resulting from such claims. Any claims against us, whether meritorious or not, could result in costly litigation, require significant amounts of management and employee time, adversely affect our reputation and/or result in the diversion of significant operational resources. Because litigation is inherently unpredictable, we cannot assure you that the results of any of these actions will not have a material adverse effect on our revenue, business, brand, results of operations and financial condition.
We are subject to U.S. economic sanctions and export control and anti-corruption laws and regulations that could impair our ability to compete in international markets or subject us to liability if we violate such laws and regulations.
We are subject to U.S. economic sanctions and export control laws and regulations that prohibit the provision of certain products and services to certain countries, governments, and persons targeted by U.S. sanctions. We have taken precautions to prevent our services from being exported in violation of U.S. export control and U.S. sanctions laws and regulations. However, we cannot be certain that the precautions we take will prevent violations of these laws. Currently, we do not allow users with IP addresses associated with countries that are the target of comprehensive U.S. economic sanctions to access our platform on a subscription or free trial basis. In the past, parties who self-identified as being in a country that is the target of comprehensive U.S. sanctions signed up for our free trial offering. However, we believe the free-trial features of our offering are consistent with the general licenses issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, authorizing access to personal communication tools by parties in countries subject to comprehensive sanctions. If in the future we are found to be in violation of U.S. sanctions or export control laws, we may be fined or other penalties could be imposed. Finally, changes in export control or economic sanctions laws and enforcement could also result in increased compliance requirements and related costs, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and/or cash flows.
We are also subject to various U.S. and international anti-corruption laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act, as well as other similar anti-bribery and anti-kickback laws and regulations. These laws and regulations generally prohibit companies and their employees and intermediaries from authorizing, offering or providing improper payments or benefits to officials and other recipients for improper purposes. Our exposure for violating these laws may increase as we continue to expand our international presence, and any failure to comply with such laws could harm our business.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock
Our actual operating results may fluctuate from period to period and may differ significantly from any guidance provided.
Our guidance, including forward-looking statements about our business, is prepared by management and is qualified by, and subject to, a number of assumptions and estimates that, while presented with numerical specificity, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Many of these uncertainties and contingencies are beyond our control and are based upon specific assumptions with respect to future events. We generally state possible outcomes as high and low ranges, which are intended to provide a sensitivity analysis as variables are changed, but are not intended to represent that actual results could not fall outside of the suggested ranges or otherwise fluctuate from period to period. Factors that may cause fluctuations in our results of operations include, without limitation, those listed below:
•variability in our sales cycle, including as a result of the budgeting cycles and internal purchasing priorities of our customers;
•our limited history with key features of our platform;
•our ability to collect on accounts receivable;
•our ability to attract new customers;
•customer renewal rates;
•the timing of sales and recognition of revenue, which may vary as a result of changes in accounting rules and interpretations;
•the amount and timing of operating expenses related to the maintenance and expansion of our business, operations and infrastructure;
•network outages or actual or perceived security breaches or other incidents;
•general economic, market and political conditions; and
•the timing and success of introductions of new platform features and services by us or our competitors or any other change in the competitive dynamics of our industry, including consolidation among competitors, customers or strategic partners.
Guidance is necessarily speculative in nature, and it can be expected that some or all of the assumptions of the guidance furnished by us will not materialize or will vary significantly from actual results. In particular, guidance offered in periods of extreme uncertainty, such as the uncertainty caused by macroeconomic conditions, is inherently more speculative in nature than guidance offered in periods of relative stability. We have in the past, and may in the future, generate financial results that are below our stated guidance and/or lower or otherwise revise our guidance to reflect changes in our expected financial results. Accordingly, any guidance with respect to our projected financial performance is necessarily only an estimate of what management believes is realizable as of the date the guidance is given. Actual results may vary from the guidance and the variations may be material. In addition, the reliability of any forecasted financial data will diminish the farther in the future that the data is forecasted.
Actual operating results may be different from our guidance, and such differences may be adverse and material. In light of the foregoing, investors are urged to not to place undue reliance on our guidance. In addition, the market price of our Class A common stock may reflect various market assumptions as to the accuracy of our guidance. If our actual results of operations fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts, the price of our Class A common stock could decline substantially.
Our share price has been and may continue to be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.
The market price of our Class A common stock has been, and may continue to be, volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations in light of the many risk factors listed in this section, as well as others beyond our control, including:
•variations in our financial results or those of our competitors;
•changes in earnings estimates, recommendations or coverage of our common stock by securities analysts;
•our failure to meet the estimates and projections of the investment community or that we may otherwise provide to the public;
•rumors, announcements or articles regarding our or our competitors’ operations, management, organization, products, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, capital commitments, financial condition or financial statements;
•additions or departures of key personnel;
•future sales of our common stock or other securities;
•litigation or regulatory actions involving us, including Securities Actions;
•general economic, industry, and market conditions;
•political developments in the United States, including potential implications from the recent elections; and
•other events or factors, including resulting from natural disasters, pandemics or responses to such events.
Furthermore, the stock markets and software and technology stocks have experienced price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many companies. These fluctuations often have been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies, as recently illustrated by the impact on stock markets from shifting macroeconomic conditions. In the past, following periods of volatility in the overall market and the trading price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted against these companies. For example, as described above, we are currently party to the Securities Actions. These broad market and industry fluctuations may negatively impact the market price of our Class A common stock and the resulting litigation could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management’s attention and resources, which could, in turn, harm our business.
The dual class structure of our common stock and the existing ownership of capital stock by our Co-Founders have the effect of concentrating voting control with our Co-Founders for the foreseeable future, which limits the ability of our other investors to influence corporate matters.
Our Class B common stock has ten votes per share and our Class A common stock has one vote per share. As of December 31, 2024, our outstanding Class B common stock represented approximately 55.8% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock. In addition, as a result of our dual class stock, the holders of Class B common stock, our Co-Founders, collectively control all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval. This concentrated control limits the ability of our other investors to influence corporate matters for the foreseeable future. For example, these stockholders will control elections of directors, amendments of our certificate of incorporation or bylaws, increases to the number of shares available for issuance under our equity incentive plans or adoption of new equity incentive plans, and approval of any merger, sale of assets or other major corporate transaction for the foreseeable future. This may also prevent or discourage unsolicited acquisition proposals or offers for our common stock that you may feel are in your best interest as one of our stockholders. This control may adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock.
In addition, future transfers by holders of Class B common stock will generally result in those shares converting to Class A common stock, subject to limited exceptions, such as certain transfers effected for estate planning purposes. The conversion of Class B common stock to 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.
We cannot predict the effect our dual class structure may have on the market of our Class A common stock.
We cannot predict whether our dual class structure will result in a lower or more volatile market price of our Class A common stock, 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 addition, several stockholder advisory firms have announced their opposition to the use of multiple class structures. As a result, the dual class structure of our common stock may cause stockholder advisory firms to publish negative commentary about our corporate governance practices or otherwise seek to cause us to change our capital structure. Any such exclusion from indices or any actions or publications by stockholder advisory firms critical of our corporate governance practices or capital structure could adversely affect the value and trading market of our Class A common stock.
Future sales of our common stock in the public market could cause our share price to fall.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our 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. As of December 31, 2024, we had 51,277,740 shares of Class A common stock outstanding and 6,480,638 shares of Class B common stock outstanding.
We may issue our shares of common stock or securities convertible into our common stock from time to time in connection with financings, acquisitions, investments, equity incentive plan awards or otherwise. Any such issuance could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders and cause the trading price of our Class A common stock to decline.
We have never paid dividends on our capital stock and we do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.
We have never declared or paid any dividends on our Class A common stock and do not intend to pay any dividends in the foreseeable future. We anticipate that we will retain all of our future earnings for use in the operation and growth of our business and for general corporate purposes. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors. Accordingly, investors must rely on sales of their Class A common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investments. Furthermore, any debt agreement we may enter into may contain negative covenants that limit our ability to pay dividends.
Our charter documents and Delaware law could prevent a takeover that stockholders consider favorable and could also reduce the market price of our stock.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated bylaws contain provisions that could delay or prevent a change in control of our company. These provisions could also make it more difficult for stockholders to elect directors and take other corporate actions. These provisions include:
•providing for a classified board of directors with staggered, three-year terms;
•authorizing our board of directors to issue preferred stock with voting or other rights or preferences that could discourage a takeover attempt or delay changes in control;
•prohibiting cumulative voting in the election of directors;
•providing 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;
•prohibiting the adoption, amendment or repeal of our amended and restated bylaws or the repeal of the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation regarding the election and removal of directors without the required approval of at least 66.67% of the shares entitled to vote at an election of directors;
•prohibiting stockholder action by written consent;
•limiting the persons who may call special meetings of stockholders; and
•requiring advance notification of stockholder nominations and proposals.
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, we are subject to the anti-takeover provisions contained in Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, or the DGCL. Under Section 203 of the DGCL, a corporation may not, in general, engage in a business combination with any holder of 15% or more of its capital stock unless the holder has held the stock for three years or, among other exceptions, the board of directors has approved the transaction.
These and other provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated bylaws and under Delaware law could discourage potential takeover attempts, reduce the price investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our Class A common stock and result in the market price of our Class A common stock being lower than it would be without these provisions.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable 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:
•any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf;
•any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by, or other wrongdoing by, any of our current or former directors, officers, employees or our stockholders;
•any action asserting a claim against us arising under the DGCL, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, or our amended and restated bylaws (as either may be amended from time to time) or as to which the DGCL confers jurisdiction on the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware; and
•any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal-affairs doctrine.
By becoming a stockholder in our Company, you are deemed to have notice of and have consented to the provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation related to choice of forum. This exclusive forum provision 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, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. This provision does not apply to claims arising under the Securities Act, the Exchange Act or other federal securities laws for which there is exclusive federal or concurrent federal and state jurisdiction. If a court were to find the exclusive forum provision in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving the dispute in other jurisdictions, which could seriously harm our business.
If securities or industry analysts do not continue to publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.
The trading market for our Class A common stock depends, in part, on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our Class A common stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our Class A common 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 Class A common stock price and trading volume to decline.
Risks Related to Tax and Accounting Matters
Failure to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could result in our failure to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and stock price.
The rapid growth of our operations and becoming a publicly traded company have created a need for additional resources within the accounting and finance functions due to the increasing need to produce timely financial information and to ensure the level of segregation of duties customary for a U.S. public company. We continue to reassess the sufficiency of finance personnel in response to these increasing demands and expectations.
We have and expect to continue to deploy resources in developing the necessary documentation and testing procedures required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. However, we cannot be certain that the actions we have taken and may in the future take to improve our internal controls over financial reporting will be sufficient, or that we will be able to implement our planned processes and procedures in a timely manner. Furthermore, as we grow as a business, including through
acquisitions, our internal controls may become more complex and require additional resources to implement and be effective. We have in the past, and may in the future, fail to maintain adequate internal controls. The existence of any material weakness or significant deficiency could result in errors in our financial statements. If we are unable to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis, investors could lose confidence in the reliability of our financial statements, which could cause the market price of our Class A common stock to decline and make it more difficult for us to finance our operations and growth.
Taxing authorities may successfully assert that we should have collected or withheld, or in the future should collect or withhold, sales and use, gross receipts, value-added, federal, state, or foreign employment, or similar taxes and may successfully impose additional obligations on us, and any such assessments or obligations could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The application of indirect taxes, such as sales and use, value-added, goods and services, business, gross receipts taxes, and employment taxes to businesses like ours is a complex and evolving issue. Many of the fundamental statutes and regulations that impose these taxes were established before the adoption and growth of the internet or remote work. In many cases, the ultimate tax determination is uncertain because it is not clear how new and existing statutes might apply to our business. Significant judgment is required on an ongoing basis to evaluate applicable tax obligations and, as a result, amounts recorded are estimates and are subject to adjustments. Additionally, we often rely on third-party technology and consulting firms for tax advice and compliance tools, both of which could fail to work as intended.
Our business is, or may be, subject to such indirect taxes in the United States and various foreign jurisdictions, and we may face indirect tax audits in various U.S. and foreign jurisdictions. In certain jurisdictions, we collect and remit indirect taxes. However, taxing authorities may raise questions about or challenge or disagree with our calculation, reporting or collection of such taxes and may require us to collect and remit such taxes in jurisdictions in which we do not currently do so, and could impose associated interest, penalties and fees. For example, after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc., certain states have adopted, or started to enforce, laws that may require us to calculate, collect and remit taxes on sales in their jurisdictions, even if we do not have a physical presence in such jurisdictions.
A successful assertion by one or more tax authorities requiring us to collect indirect taxes in jurisdictions in which we do not currently do so, to collect additional indirect taxes in a jurisdiction in which we currently collect such taxes, or to withhold additional employment taxes, could, among other things, result in substantial tax liabilities (including taxes on past sales, as well as penalties and interest), create
significant administrative burdens for us, discourage users from utilizing our products or otherwise harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our ability to utilize our net operating loss carryforwards may be limited.
As of December 31, 2024, we had gross U.S. federal and state net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $308.5 million and $215.8 million, respectively. Our ability to utilize our federal net operating loss carryforwards may be limited under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code. The limitations apply if we experience an “ownership change,” which is generally defined as a greater than 50 percentage point change (by value) in the ownership of our equity by certain stockholders over a rolling three-year period. Similar provisions of state tax law may also apply to limit the use of our state net operating loss carryforwards. Future changes in our stock ownership, which may be outside of our control, may trigger an ownership change and, consequently, the limitations under Section 382 of the Code. As a result, if or when we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our pre-change net operating loss carryforwards to offset such taxable income may be subject to limitations, which could adversely affect our future cash flows.
Risks Related to Intellectual Property Matters
Inability or failure to protect our intellectual property rights could impair our business.
Our success and ability to compete depend in part upon our intellectual property. We attempt to protect our intellectual property rights through a combination of trademark, patent, copyright and trade secret laws, as well as licensing agreements and third-party nondisclosure and assignment agreements. However, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property rights may be inadequate. Additionally, because of the differences in foreign intellectual property laws, our intellectual property rights may not receive the same degree of protection in foreign countries as they would in the United States.
Furthermore, it is not always possible to predict where our business will expand to adequately secure our intellectual property rights or obtain protection in countries where we do not currently do business. The inability or failure to obtain or maintain adequate protection of our intellectual property rights for any reason could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
In order to protect our intellectual property, we may be required to spend resources to monitor and protect our rights. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time-consuming and distracting to management, and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Our failure to secure, protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could adversely affect our brand and adversely affect our business.
We rely on our intellectual property to distinguish our products, services, inventions and works of authorship, including software, from those of our competitors and to create competitive advantages in the marketplace. We have applied for and registered parts of this intellectual property in the United States and also applied for trademark protection in certain foreign countries. We cannot assure you that our intellectual property applications will be approved. Additionally, although we rely on copyright laws to protect our works of authorship, including our software, we do not apply to register the copyrights in any of our works.
We also rely on unpatented proprietary technology that is only protected to the extent that it is copyrightable, and kept secret from and not independently developed by others. To protect our trade secrets and other proprietary technology and information, we have entered into confidentiality agreements with most of our employees and consultants. We cannot assure you that these agreements will provide
meaningful protection against unauthorized use, misappropriation or unlawful disclosure of such trade secrets, know-how or other proprietary technology information. In addition, the rapid adoption of AI software has made it increasingly difficult to keep proprietary information secret. If we are unable to maintain the proprietary nature of our technologies and information, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be harmed.
Third party intellectual property infringement claims could impair our business.
From time to time, our competitors or other third parties may claim, and it may be found, that we are infringing upon or otherwise violating their intellectual property rights, which we may not be aware of prior to such claims. Third parties have and may in the future challenge, attempt to invalidate or attempt to circumvent our intellectual property rights or applications, or may use and register similar intellectual properties in the United States and in other jurisdictions. We cannot assure you that our intellectual property may be of sufficient scope or strength to provide us with any meaningful protection or commercial advantage.
Any claims of intellectual property infringement or other intellectual property violations or challenges, even those without merit, could be expensive and time consuming to defend. Any licensing agreements to use any third party’s intellectual property, if required, may not be available to us on acceptable terms. A successful claim of infringement against us could result in our being required to pay significant damages, enter into costly settlement agreements, or prevent us from offering our platform or products in their present form or at all, or under their current trademarks, any of which could have a negative impact on our results of operations and financial condition and harm our future prospects.
We may also be obligated to indemnify our customers or business partners in connection with any such litigation or refund subscription fees, which could further exhaust our resources. Disruptions to our platform or products from such claims could adversely affect our customer satisfaction and ability to attract customers. In the event that our intellectual property is successfully challenged, we could be forced to amend, revise or rebrand our products and services, which could result in loss of brand recognition, and could require us to devote resources to advertising and marketing new brands.
General Risk Factors
Unstable market and economic conditions may have serious adverse consequences on our business, financial condition and share price.
The global economy, including credit and financial markets, has experienced extreme volatility and disruptions, including severely diminished liquidity and credit availability, declines in consumer confidence, declines in economic growth, increases in unemployment rates, fluctuations in inflation, interest rates and uncertainty about economic stability. For example, ongoing overseas conflict has created volatility in the global capital markets, including disruptions of the global supply chain and energy markets. In addition, fluctuations in inflation and other macroeconomic pressures in the United States and the global economy could exacerbate extreme volatility in the global capital markets and heighten unstable market conditions. Any such volatility and disruptions may have adverse consequences on us, our customers, partners or other third parties on whom we rely. If the equity and credit markets continue to deteriorate, including as a result of global geopolitical tension or a global or domestic recession or the fear thereof, it may make any necessary debt or equity financing more difficult to obtain in a timely manner or on favorable terms, more costly or more dilutive. High levels of inflation can adversely affect us by increasing our costs, including labor and employee benefit costs. In addition, high inflation also could increase our customers’ operating costs, which could result in reduced social media budgets for our customers and potentially less demand for our platform and products. Any significant increases in inflation and related increases in interest rates could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We may make acquisitions of, or invest in, other businesses or technologies, which may divert our management’s attention and result in the incurrence of indebtedness or dilution to our stockholders. We may be unable to integrate acquired businesses or technologies successfully or achieve the expected benefits of such acquisitions and investments.
We may evaluate and consider potential strategic transactions, including acquisitions of, or investments in, businesses, technologies, services, products and other assets in the future. We also may enter into relationships with other businesses to expand our platform and products, which could involve preferred or exclusive licenses, additional channels of distribution, discount pricing or investments in other companies.
Any investment, business relationship or acquisition, including our acquisitions of Repustate in January 2023 and Tagger Media in August 2023, may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures or business liabilities. In particular, we may encounter difficulties integrating the businesses, technologies, products, personnel or operations of the acquired companies, particularly if key personnel of the acquired company choose not to work for us, the acquired platform, products or services are not easily adapted to work with our platform or products or we have difficulty retaining the customers of any acquired business due to changes in ownership, management or otherwise. Acquisitions may also disrupt our business, divert our resources and require significant management and research and development attention that would otherwise be available for development of our existing platform and products. Moreover, the anticipated benefits of any acquisition, investment or business relationship may not be realized, we may be exposed to unknown risks or liabilities. Furthermore, our ability to complete these transactions may often be subject to approvals that are beyond our control. Consequently, these transactions, even if announced, may not be completed.
In connection with such strategic transactions, we may:
•issue additional equity securities that would dilute our existing stockholders;
•use cash that we may need in the future to operate our business;
•incur large charges or substantial liabilities;
•incur indebtedness on terms unfavorable to us or that we are unable to repay;
•encounter hidden liabilities, defects, bugs, vulnerabilities, or past or future data breaches within any acquired company’s code or technical environment;
•encounter additional legal and compliance risk and expenses;
•encounter difficulties retaining key employees of the acquired company or integrating diverse software codes or business cultures; and
•become subject to adverse tax consequences, substantial depreciation or deferred compensation charges.
The occurrence of any of the foregoing could adversely affect our revenue, business, results of operations and financial condition.
We depend largely on the continued service of our senior management and other key employees, the loss of any of whom could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our future performance depends on the continued service and contributions of our senior management and other key employees to execute on our business plan, to develop our platform and products, to attract and retain customers and to identify and pursue strategic opportunities. The loss of service of senior management or other key employees could significantly delay or prevent the achievement of our development and strategic objectives. In particular, we depend to a considerable degree on the vision, skills, experience and effort of our Chief Executive Officer, Ryan Barretto, and our Co-Founder and Executive Chair, Justyn Howard. The replacement of any of our senior management personnel would likely involve significant time and costs, and such loss could adversely affect our revenue, business, results of operations and financial condition.
If we cannot attract and retain qualified personnel or maintain our culture as we grow, we may be unable to execute our business strategy.
We believe that a critical component of our success has been our company culture and values. We have invested substantial time and resources in building our team and we believe our strong employer brand has been instrumental in our ability to attract and retain highly qualified personnel. Competition for executives, software engineers, product managers, sales personnel and other key personnel in the software industry is intense. We have experienced and may in the future experience difficulty attracting and retaining qualified candidates to fill open positions. To remain competitive, we must also retain and motivate existing employees through compelling compensation practices, career development opportunities and our company culture and values. As we continue to expand our presence and offer remote work options, it will be essential to preserve our company culture and values across an increasingly dispersed workforce. Any failure to preserve the company culture and values we have created could negatively affect our future success, including our ability to retain and recruit personnel and to effectively focus on and pursue our corporate objectives.
As a federal government contractor, we are required to maintain plans to ensure compliance with nondiscrimination and regulatory requirements for qualified employees in compliance with Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act. Previously, federal contractors were obligated to comply with Executive Order 11246, which mandated the development of affirmative action programs focused on race and gender. Recent executive orders have eliminated this requirement.
This change in law may present several risks, including the perception among internal and external stakeholders that the company is moving away from its commitment to equal opportunity for race and gender. This perception could lead to challenges in hiring or retaining employees and other adverse operational impacts. However, failure to comply with changes in the law could expose Sprout to administrative, civil, or criminal liabilities, including fines, penalties, repayments, or suspension or debarment from eligibility for future U.S. government contracts. Additionally, Sprout’s effort to build an inclusive workforce in compliance with the law could lead to legal challenges.
Our recent growth and any future growth in headcount may be difficult to manage effectively.
We have recently experienced, and anticipate that we will continue to experience, a period of rapid growth in our operations and headcount. Our growth has placed, and future growth will place, a significant strain on our management, technical, administrative, operational and finance, tax, and accounting infrastructure. Our success will depend in part on our ability to manage this growth effectively. To manage the expected growth of our operations and personnel, we will need to continue to improve our management, technical, administrative, operational, finance, tax, and accounting controls and our reporting systems and procedures. Failure to effectively manage our growth could result in difficulty or delays in effectively scaling our platform or products, declines in quality or customer satisfaction, increases in costs, difficulties in introducing new features, regulatory and legal action, or other difficulties. Any of these difficulties could adversely affect our revenue, business, results of operations and financial condition.
We may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service our indebtedness, and may be forced to take other actions to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness, which may not be successful.
Our ability to make scheduled payments on or to refinance our debt obligations depends on our financial condition and results of operations, which in turn are subject to prevailing economic and competitive conditions and to certain financial, business and other factors beyond our control. We may not be able to maintain a level of cash flows from operating activities sufficient to permit us to pay the principal, premium, if any, and interest on our indebtedness.
If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt service obligations, we could face substantial liquidity problems and may be forced to reduce or delay investments and capital expenditures, or to sell assets, seek additional capital or restructure or refinance our indebtedness. Our ability to restructure or refinance our debt will depend on, among other things, the condition of the capital markets and our financial condition at such time. Any refinancing of our debt could be at higher interest rates and may require us to comply with more onerous covenants, which could further restrict our business operations. The terms of existing or future debt instruments may restrict us from adopting some of these alternatives. In addition, any failure to make payments of interest and principal on our outstanding indebtedness on a timely basis would likely result in a reduction of our credit rating, which could harm our ability to incur additional indebtedness. In the absence of such cash flows and resources, we could face substantial liquidity problems and might be required to dispose of material assets or operations to meet our debt service and other obligations.
Further, our Credit Agreement contains, and any future credit facility or other debt instrument may contain, provisions that will restrict our ability to dispose of assets and use the proceeds from any such disposition. We may not be able to consummate those dispositions or to obtain the proceeds that we could realize from them and these proceeds may not be adequate to meet any debt service obligations then due. These alternative measures may not be successful and may not permit us to meet our scheduled debt service obligations.
If we cannot make the scheduled payments on our debt, we will be in default and, as a result, the lenders under our Credit Agreement could declare all outstanding principal and interest to be due and payable, the lenders under our credit facility could terminate their commitments to loan money and foreclose against the assets securing the borrowings under such credit facility, and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation, which could result in an adverse impact to your investment in our company.
We have incurred a substantial amount of debt, which could adversely affect our business, including by restricting our ability to engage in additional transactions or incur additional indebtedness, and prevent us from meeting our debt obligations.
We entered into the Credit Agreement with the lenders named therein and MUFG Bank, LTD. as administrative agent and collateral agent, in August 2023, which provides for a $100 million senior secured credit facility.
As of December 31, 2024, we had $25 million in secured indebtedness outstanding under the Credit Agreement. This substantial level of debt could have important consequences to our business, including, but not limited to:
•reducing the benefits we expect to receive from our prior and any future acquisition transactions;
•making it more difficult for us to satisfy our obligations;
•requiring a substantial portion of our cash flows from operations to be dedicated to the payment of principal and interest on our indebtedness, therefore reducing our ability to use our cash flows to fund acquisitions, capital expenditures, R&D and future business opportunities;
•exposing us to the risk of increased interest rates to the extent of any future borrowings, including borrowings under our Credit Agreement, are at variable rates of interest;
•increasing our vulnerability to, and reducing our flexibility to respond to, changes in our business or general adverse economic and industry conditions;
•limiting our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, capital expenditures, debt service requirements, acquisitions, and general corporate or other purposes and increasing the cost of any such financing;
•limiting our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and the industry in which we operate; and placing us at a competitive disadvantage as compared to our competitors, to the extent they are not as highly leveraged and who, therefore, may be able to take advantage of opportunities that our leverage may prevent us from exploiting; and
•restricting us from pursuing certain business opportunities.
The Credit Agreement contains, and the terms of any future indebtedness may impose, various restrictive covenants, including, among other things, restrictions on the Company’s ability to incur liens, incur indebtedness, make or hold investments, execute certain change of control transactions, business combinations or other fundamental changes to their business, dispose of assets, make certain types of restricted payments, including dividends and other distributions to shareholders, or enter into certain related party transactions, subject to customary exceptions. In addition, the Credit Agreement contains financial covenants as to (i) minimum liquidity requiring the maintenance, at all times and measured at the end of each fiscal quarter, of cash and cash equivalents of not less than the greater of (x) $30 million and (y) 30% of the total revolving commitments, and (ii) minimum recurring revenue growth, requiring recurring revenue growth for the trailing four fiscal quarter period, measured at the end of each fiscal quarter, of not less than 115% of the actual recurring revenue for the same period in the prior fiscal year. Pursuant to the Credit Agreement, we granted the lenders thereto a security interest in substantially all of our assets. See the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Liquidity and Capital Resources” for additional information.
Our ability to comply with these restrictive and financial covenants can be impacted by events beyond our control and we may be unable to do so. The Credit Agreement provides that our breach or failure to satisfy certain covenants constitutes an event of default. Upon the occurrence of an event of default, the administrative agent, at the direction of the lenders, could elect to declare all amounts outstanding under the Credit Agreement to be immediately due and payable. In addition, the administrative agent would have the right to proceed against the assets we provided as collateral pursuant to the Credit Agreement. If the debt under our Credit Agreement were to be accelerated, we may not have sufficient cash on hand or be able to sell sufficient collateral to repay such debts, which would have an immediate adverse effect on our business, liquidity, and financial condition.
We may not be able to secure additional financing on favorable terms, or at all, to meet our future capital needs.
We have funded our operations since inception primarily through sales of equity securities, bank loans and subscription payments by our customers for use of our platform and products. We do not know when or if our operations will generate sufficient cash to fund our ongoing operations. In the future, we may require additional capital to respond to business opportunities, challenges, acquisitions, a decline in the level of subscriptions for our platform or products or unforeseen circumstances. We may not be able to timely secure additional debt or equity financing on favorable terms, or at all. Changing macroeconomic conditions, including fluctuations in interest rates and volatility in the capital markets, exacerbate this risk. If we raise additional funds through further issuances of equity, convertible debt securities or other securities convertible into equity, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution in their percentage ownership of our company, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of holders of our Class A common stock. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us, when we require it, our ability to continue to grow or support our business and to respond to business challenges could be significantly limited.
There are risks associated with potential future indebtedness that may adversely affect our financial condition and future financing agreements may contain restrictive operating and financial covenants that could limit our operating flexibility.
Future financing agreements may contain restrictive operating and financial covenants that could limit our operating flexibility, including covenants that limit our ability to incur additional indebtedness or liens, merge with other companies or consummate certain changes of control, acquire other companies, engage in new lines of business, add new offices or business locations, make certain investments, pay dividends, transfer or dispose of certain assets, liquidate or dissolve, amend certain material agreements and enter into various specified transactions. Our ability to remain in compliance with the covenants under any future debt instruments, and to pay fees, interest and principal on our indebtedness will depend on,
among other things, our operating performance and market conditions. Accordingly, our cash flow may not be sufficient to allow us to pay principal and interest on future indebtedness and meet our other business obligations.