Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Anushtha Mittal: Hi. This is Anuskha from Matt Hedberg. Thanks for taking my questions here. Maybe just to start with, can you talk about your high-level thoughts on 2024? And what you think would be the building blocks there? And then could revenue growth potentially accelerate in 2024, given easy comps and the investments you’ve been making over the past year?

Joo Mi Kim: I think it’s a little early for us right now. We are going through the planning cycle. And I think taking a look at what we do today, Q4 is a huge quarter for us. So what we’re trying to do is understand the current dynamics and what it will translate to our Q4 bookings, and then we’ll be able to share more color in 2024, in terms of where we think that we’ll be able to land for revenue growth. And — but right now, what we see is if you take a look at our trajectory and the growth, we do see that even though the environment has stabilized, the market appears to be challenging for us. So with our net dollar expansion rate at 106%, we do see room where that could tick up a few percentage points in the coming quarters, but it’s a little too early.

Anushtha Mittal: Got it. And then can you talk about the federal vertical a little bit. I realize it’s a small vertical for you, but it looks like you’ve been seeing traction with it over the past few quarters. So just given the federal year end, how did that vertical perform in the quarter?

Sumedh Thakar: Yes. Great question. We do have increasing focus on our federal side of the business. As you said, it’s not a big part of our business today. But what we’re seeing is the federal agencies are also looking for a refresh or really looking for a new approach to managing the risk there, having the same challenges that through any vulnerability findings coming their way. And so when they kind of look at the Qualys platform and the ability for us to showcase the inventory, one of the management, risk management and then remediation capabilities — those are really resonating well with them. And so as we recently got on a federal leader, we’re getting through the process of getting out of a rent high certification completed, which makes us one of the only program high ready platforms for vulnerability and patch management, we do see — as we continue to make our investments in the federal going to market, we do see a good opportunity for us in the next couple of years really to accelerate the growth for our federal business from where we are today.

Anushtha Mittal: Got it. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. And one moment, please for our next question. The next question will come from Jonathan Ho of William Blair. Your line is open. Pardon me, Jonathan Ho, you’re line is open. If your phone is no mute, please un-mute your line. If you are using a headset, please put on your headphone ahead phone. Hello? Mr. Ho, your line is open.

Jonathan Ho: Can you hear me?

Operator: Yes. You’re allowed and clear.

Jonathan Ho: Okay. Sorry. Just in terms of your channel partner progress, Can you talk a little bit about what you’re seeing there? And maybe what some of the lower-hanging fruit can be just given the hiring of your new CRO?

Sumedh Thakar: Look, we started down this sort of investment about a year — a little bit over a year ago, taking a different approach lead to how we’re working with partners. So we’re pleased with the early feedback we’re getting, you see some of the mix of our business also changing a bit to the partner side. And I think we do see that there is a good amount of opportunity for us to invest and increase how we work with all partners. So right now, as we look at the low-hanging fruit in terms of better deal registration, better incumbency protection that we have provided is showing some of the early impact of partners building the trust with us and working with us on some of these deals that we are working on. But then as we have Dino come on board and through the rest of the year, we look through what are the more specific opportunities for the short term with certain partners to work on investing with them so that we can get that benefit not only in the short term, but then also sort of continued focus on the partner strategy for the longer term as well.