IZEA Worldwide Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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August 14, 2023

There are 3 speakers on the call.

Operator

Welcome to the IZEA Worldwide Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure I'll introduce your host, Ryan Schram, President and Chief Operating Officer.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to IZEA's Earnings Call covering the Q2 of 2023. I'm Ryan Schramm, President and Chief Operating Officer at IZEA. And joining me on the call are IZEA's Chief Financial Officer, Peter Biere and IZEA's Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ted Murphy. Thanks for being with us today. Earlier this afternoon, the company issued a press release detailing our performance for the Q2 of 2023.

Speaker 1

If you'd like to review those details, all of our investor information can be found online on our Investor Relations website atizea.com/investors. Before we begin, please take note of the Safe Harbor paragraph included in today's press covering IZEA's financial results. And be advised that some of the statements that we make today regarding our business, Operations and financial performance may be considered forward looking and such statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. We encourage you to consider the disclosures contained in our SEC filings for a detailed discussion of these factors. Our commentary today will also include the non GAAP financial measure of adjusted EBITDA.

Speaker 1

Reconciliations between GAAP and non GAAP metrics for our reported results can also be found in our earnings release issued earlier today and in our publicly available filings. And with that, I'm pleased to introduce IZEA's Chief Financial Officer, Peter Biere. Peter?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Ryan, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll review our operating results for the quarter ended June 30, 2023 compared to the prior year's quarter and discuss balance sheet highlights. Total revenue for the Q2 of 2023 was $7,700,000 15 percent or $1,900,000 lower than the prior year quarter. Our net cash loss or EBITDA was negative $637,000 for the quarter compared to a gain of $254,000 for the prior year quarter. Our net loss in the current quarter totaled $1,000,000 or $0.07 per share on 15,500,000 shares compared to a loss of $170,000 or $0.01 per share on 15,600,000 shares.

Speaker 2

These share counts are adjusted for our June 2023 4 for 1 reverse split. Managed services bookings for the Q2 of 2023 totaled $7,300,000 compared to $9,300,000 for the prior year quarter, a 21% decline. Earlier this year, we announced that we are parting ways with 1 large customer, which I'll refer to as our nonrecurring Customer. Bookings from this non recurring customer were approximately $70,000 for the current quarter and totaled $3,500,000 in the prior year's Q2. Stripping out bookings from this non recurring customer, ongoing customer bookings, which include both new and existing customers, Totaled $7,300,000 in the current quarter, 24% above the prior year's 2nd quarter total of $5,800,000 and which represented 99% of total bookings in the current quarter.

Speaker 2

Our order count from these ongoing customers was 25% above the prior year quarter and the average order size was unchanged. Importantly, bookings from ongoing customers also grew 25% sequentially from Q1 2023 showing strength in our core demand and that we're well on our way to replacing the sizable historic Demand from our non recurring customer. Managed services revenue totaled $10,600,000 during the Q2 of 2023, which was $1,600,000 or 13% below the Q2 of 2022. Revenue from our non recurring customer totaled $3,300,000 in the current quarter $5,300,000 in the prior year's 2nd quarter, Declining 37% and explaining more than the comparative revenue decline for the current quarter. Managed services revenue from our ongoing customers totaled $7,300,000 during the quarter, 6% higher than the previous year's 2nd quarter, Which totaled $6,900,000 Gross margins are still impacted by the mix of revenues from our non recurring customer, Which has depressed our overall margin by about 20% on average for the last six quarters.

Speaker 2

We expect our average gross margin to improve over the next 2 quarters As we complete the backlog related to this non recurring customer. The delivery time between bookings and revenues, Which has averaged 9 months during the past 7 quarters has improved to about 7.5 months currently. Our managed services backlog, which represents the total of unrecognized revenue for contracts that are underway as well as recent bookings that we haven't started Total $12,700,000 on June 30, 2023. Approximately $1,000,000 of this backlog is related to our non recurring customer And we expect to recognize the majority of this amount as revenue in the Q3. SaaS services revenue totaled $71,000 in the current quarter 2023, down 82% from 400,000 in the prior year quarter.

Speaker 2

We previously announced that our IZEAx platform will be sunset during the Q2 of 2023 in favor of a new feature rich platform we call Flex, which together with the Creator Marketplace launched in October of 2022 will provide IZEA with license and transaction fee revenue growth opportunities. The cost of license access is considerably cheaper, which means that as our subscriber base grows, revenues will grow at a slower pace. Our total cost of revenue was $6,300,000 in the Q2 of 2023 or 59% of revenue compared to $7,200,000 or 57 percent of revenue in the prior year quarter. Gross margins were flat as a percentage of revenue, The contribution margin fell with a higher revenue mix from our non recurring customer in the current quarter. Expenses other than the cost of revenue totaled $6,100,000 for the Q2 of 2023, up 5% from $5,800,000 in the prior year quarter.

Speaker 2

Sales and marketing costs totaled $2,800,000 during the Q2, up 24% compared to the prior year General and administrative costs totaled $3,200,000 during the 2nd quarter, down 6% from the prior year quarter, Due primarily to lower overall compensation costs, partly offset by an increase in professional fees. Our net loss was $1,000,000 for the Q2 of 2023 or negative $0.07 per share compared to a net loss of $170,000 in the prior Adjusted EBITDA was negative $637,000 for the Q2 of 2023 compared to a positive $254,000 for the prior year quarter. The change in EBITDA was primarily due to lower gross margin dollars. As of June 30, 2023, we had 65 $100,000 in cash and investments. That's $2,700,000 lower than at the beginning of the quarter, primarily due to additions to working capital, our share buyback and negative EBITDA.

Speaker 2

We earned $638,000 in interest in our investments during the Q2. Lastly, we do not have any debt on our balance sheet. With cash on hand and liquidity from our investment portfolio as required, we believe we're in a solid position to execute on business growth And with that, I'll turn the call back over to Ryan.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Peter, and hello again, everyone. In our last two earnings updates, I shared that our management team was focused squarely on finding signals from the noise surrounding our broader advertising industry and keeping the organization accountable for things that we could control Amidst contradictory macroeconomic indicators and our understandably distracted brand clients who are being faced with many of the same challenges. Yes, budgets unexpectedly shifted or paused on certain initiatives and timelines were challenged by these factors overall. However, our long term view on the creator economy, paired with our resolve to meet our clients at their respective need state With an unmatched level of flexibility and value has made a meaningful difference in the front half of twenty twenty three. Our team utilized the 1st 2 quarters of the year to drive new logo acquisition for our managed service business in particular.

Speaker 1

Said simply, we were not satisfied with our client concentration risk coming out of the 2022 fiscal year, And our sales leadership believe there is greater opportunity for IZEA to expand our team, our geographic footprint And categorical breadth and depth if we took advantage to prudently invest when others in our space were pulling back. These efforts include recruiting senior level sales personnel along with added investment in higher profile demand generation activities, many of which we highlighted in our last earnings call. We're pleased with the initial results that we're seeing from the front half of twenty twenty three With 40% year over year bookings growth from new clientele and an average deal size increase for first time projects Nearly doubling in that same period. IZEA also produced an increase in sales pipeline Or the total dollar value of proposals placed in front of clients in the first half of nearly 50% year over year With the month of May setting an all time record for pipeline creation in our business. Various industry analysts are now optimistic that advertising growth will improve in the second half of this year, With data largely showing the economy is moving in the right direction overall and that second quarter GDP data underscore that business investment spending increased over 7%, which has historically been A relevant leading indicator of advertising spend overall.

Speaker 1

Still, it's our expectation that there will be sector specific or company specific factors that IZEA will need to be highly mindful of and proactive against in order to capitalize on the opportunities in front of us. For instance, there's improved spending in categories such as consumer packaged goods And OEM automotive compared to 2022, in contrast to the challenges that we're seeing in sectors such as consumer technology and strategies. For example, our robust managed service business as we know it today in North America, China and the UK. 2nd, the company's continued investment and expansion via emerging markets growth, where IDEA identifies opportunities in markets whereby our approach to influencer marketing can be both differentiated and scalable. 3rd, Our innovative and affordable SaaS and creator marketplace businesses and last but not least, through opportunities for inorganic growth From competitive acquisitions in this space, IZEA remains an interested and opportunistic prospective buyer for the right scenarios.

Speaker 1

As we believe that the tightest turn within the greater economy to be in a buyer's market compared to 1 to 2 years ago. Speaking of emerging markets, we had another exciting announcement a few days ago with the launch of IZEA into the South Korean market. We're extremely fortunate to have Edward Choi joining us to lead those efforts and believe his 25 plus years of experience across brand, Product and digital marketing roles in Korea will be keenly beneficial to our success. If you'd like to learn more about our Korean offering, Feel free to visit its website at kr.izea.com. And now to share his perspective on IZEA's 2nd quarter As well as for additional commentary on what's next for the back half of twenty twenty three, I would like to turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Ted Murphy.

Speaker 1

Ted? Thank you, Ryan. 2023 continues to be a period of transition on multiple fronts As we lay the foundation for our next phase of growth. In the first half of this year, we made a strategic decision involving trade offs Regarding near term revenue and customer counts in order to focus on more sustainable, diversified and profitable growth long term. We are early into the back half of the year, but have growing optimism that our changes are going to bear fruit, particularly in managed services, Where we are seeing large year over year pipeline growth as Ryan mentioned.

Speaker 1

Managed services is what drives nearly All the revenue for our company today. We will continue to make investments in our team in the U. S. And see significant global growth opportunities as well Via our emerging markets work group. Foundational to our managed services team success It's the technology that powers our campaigns from identifying influencers and benchmarking brands to making payments and measuring results, But we do not intend for our managed services to be our only significant business unit of IZEA.

Speaker 1

Earlier this year, we decided to accelerate the transition from IDEAx for our managed services team and SaaS customers, which was originally slated for the end of 2023. We made this decision with the long view in mind. It was our decision to deal with the challenges in a period of economic downturn, so we could be unencumbered when strength returned to the market. The IZEAx managed services and SaaS customer transition completed at the end of Q2 And it had an outsized impact on our SaaS revenue this quarter. The drop in SaaS revenue was due to a Combination of materially lower licensing fees for customers who made the transition, refunds to customers who had IDEAx licensing agreements into the future as well as customers who turned in the transition for a variety of reasons.

Speaker 1

It has been a challenging transition for us, but we are now through it. We have reduced our SaaS product sales, support And engineering group headcount by 38% since December of 2021. We are running a much leaner product team, while at the same time delivering more innovation. We believe that SaaS revenue will hit bottom in Q3, after which we expect to grow. It will take some time to grow the SaaS revenue base back up to previous levels, But we believe this customer base will be more sustainable and valuable in the long run.

Speaker 1

In mid June, we launched Form AI as part of the marketplace. It has had a very positive impact on user sign ups, Overall traffic and there's been a halo effect that has increased inbound managed services leads as well. Traffic to izea.com has increased 30% in July versus May. More importantly, Monthly user sign ups for izea.com has increased 3 60% during the same period. We are seeing record site traffic with more organic search traffic, more direct traffic and lower acquisition costs For paid traffic, Form AI is a freemium model based on a credit system.

Speaker 1

We allow creators and marketers to come in We are rolling out new Form AI features designed to both increase conversion rates and functionality moving forward. Some of these new features will only be available to paid users. This is all being accomplished with small passionate product teams, Leveraging a variety of open source software combined with our own software to create something unique and powerful. I see a future where influencers and brands will work together to create new sponsored content through the magic of AI. We are calling this practice generative sponsorships and we are building foundational experience for those sponsorships now.

Speaker 1

So as the technology catches up, we have a built in base of both marketers and creators using our AI tools The impacts of AI on influencer marketing will be profound and I believe largely positive. Based on the speed of improvement with AI, I see generative sponsorships beginning to take off in a material way within the next 18 to 24 months. During our Q2 conference call, I announced that we were prepared to move forward With our $1,000,000 share repurchase plan after our blackout period ended, we began buying shares At an average price of $2.73 per share. After the share repurchase, we ended the quarter with $65,000,000 in Cash and cash equivalents. We are now evaluating ways to deploy that capital in investments that can meaningfully increase near term revenue and EBITDA for IZEA.

Speaker 1

Part of that growth will come from investments new organic initiatives such as our leasing expansion in the South Korea, but we are also seeking inorganic growth through M and A. With the transition to IDEAx behind us and new team members in leadership position throughout the org, We are now ready to pursue these opportunities. It is our intention to catalyze a more aggressive growth curve and believe that meaningful top line revenue is paramount to achieve sustainable profitability Thank you all for your support and for joining us today. I will now open up the call for any questions

Operator

Thank you. I would like to turn the floor over to Ryan for closing remarks.

Speaker 1

We'd like to thank each of you for joining us this afternoon. And as a friendly reminder, you can find all of IZEA's investor information Online on our Investor Relations website, that's at izea.com/investors. Have a nice evening.

Operator

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. And thank you for your participation.

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Earnings Conference Call
IZEA Worldwide Q2 2023
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