MarketWise, Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTW) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Lee Harris: Yes, I’ll start this off and see if anyone wants to jump in Alex. So listen, you’re right. It’s one day left in the quarter. I think if you get from our comments, I think you can refer that, we’ve seen people coming but they’re not converting at the same rates. Okay. So to think that we’re going to be at the same level of given what we’ve seen is probably not 100%. So we’re seeing some decline in some — in conversion so that transfers into buildings etcetera. We’ve been, we’ve obviously been active on the cost efficiency front we continue to be active we’re obviously looking to maintain cash flows and profitability. We feel confident that we’re going to be able to do that. Without getting too specific, I think, I think the general themes that we’ve seen, and I just mentioned a moment, moment ago, continue to impact our business.

It’s not like there’s been a rush of, of paid subscribers as you saw. And it’s not like it’s been a rush of market sentiment in one way or the other. And we continue to get hit just like everybody on this call with volatile news divergent themes, whether it’s from the Fed or from the markets or from the banking world, and we’re reacting. So I think, I think that could give you a, a tone?

Stephen Park: And just, and just to reinforce what I said earlier, we continue to, to keep our marketing spend limited, which helps us stay profitable. It helps us generate cash flow and, we’re continuing to look for further expense reductions in ways we can continue to just add on to that while we weather the storm, so to speak.

Lee Harris: Yes, and honestly, at the, at the, as we hit the end of the quarter, it’s starting to feel there may be some sentiment, but I don’t want to get way ahead of ourselves. We’re hoping that there’s some, capitulations to a team, so.

Alex Kramm: All right. Understood. Figured I, I need to at least ask thinking then maybe a little bit more. For the, for the full year very much hear the message of controlling what you can control. So again, I don’t know, I know you don’t provide guidance, but as you think about the full year in particular, on the cash flow and margin line, I guess depending on how the environment shakes out, is there, is there a certain minimum margin or a certain minimum cash flow that you think you can deliver no matter what? I know again, it’s a fluid environment, but obviously you’re taking all the necessary steps, so you hopefully have something in your mind where you, where you think you can get to, no matter what. So just, just wondering how you think about the full year from that perspective.

Amber Mason: So I don’t think we can commit to a number, but I can tell you that we weren’t pleased with last year’s results and that we are absolutely working to do everything we can to improve over last year. And even in the worst of times, this business is cash flow positive. So I expect that we’ll be working to have that cash at the end of the year too.

Lee Harris: Yes. And Alex, part of our business, and we’ve talked about it before, is that there’s a significant amount of recurring revenue, right? And so people have been with us for a long time are members subscriptions. They, they buy and buy. And even though we’ve seen some decrease in the, in the rapidity or the velocity of their buying this year, we’re still seeing that recurring. So if you look at like our chart that’s in our investor deck, it kind of shows what you think about is almost a minimum level. And then of course there’s more that we get every year on new subscriptions and memberships that on. I don’t, we don’t want to commit to a, to a number obviously, but we feel comfortable there’s a certain level of recurring revenue, which is a key portion of our business that is still going to be there.

And in margins as, as I would just say as Amber said, we’ve improved the margin. Again, this is the cash flow margin, the adjusted cash flow margin. And we still don’t think it’s really where it should be. So we’re getting there. We continue to focus on the, on the, expense side of it. The revenue side, of course, we’re focused on as well. We’re trying to control, we control and then trying to make that even better than where it is today. There’s always puts and takes. We know that.

Alex Kramm: Then maybe just, just one last one on the same topic, because you just highlighted, I think you were referring to the chart of all the different cohorts. I mean, when I looked at that one just optically, I mean the 2020, 2021 cohorts obviously were huge and you kind of working against that churn. I guess. Again when I, when I compare the, that cohort, it’s just still looks like. That could be more, more churn to come maybe out of normal. So when you look at those last two years of new customers, paid customers that you gained, do you feel like that has stabilized now? Or is, is that still the biggest worry you have in terms of maybe incremental churn that you need to work through before you can actually start growing again?