Jack McDonald
Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please go ahead
Thanks, Mike. So I'm going to start today with a review of our strong Q1 performance, then discuss why Upland is well-positioned to navigate the headwinds of COVID-19. I'll talk about actions we've taken in response to the pandemic. And then, finally, I'll discuss some of the assumptions behind our outlook for 2020. But before I begin, on behalf of Upland, I want to extend our thanks to those risking their lives every day on the front lines, doctors, nurses and first responders and the people keeping critical services running. I also want to say how proud we are of the Upland workforce, who've spent countless hours working alongside our customers to make sure that they are well equipped for the road ahead. Onto our Q1 results. We had a strong Q1 that beat guidance and consensus for both revenue and adjusted EBITDA, 40% total revenue growth, 38% adjusted EBITDA growth, so a very strong Q1. This is our 23rd consecutive quarter of meeting or beating guidance, and again, that is every quarter since going public. What's notable among other things is that our organic growth in recurring revenues, reported recurring revenues came in at a strong 6%. So, 6% organic growth at the upper end of our target range of mid-single digits. Impressive, particularly given the COVID-19 headwinds at the end of the quarter. On the M&A front in Q1, we acquired Localytics, a great strategic acquisition that added mobile app and push messaging to our CXM Cloud. We are going to be pausing M&A for the short term, probably a couple of quarters while nurturing our pipeline. There is no need to rush in for M&A right now until things clear a bit. We're going to use this time to complete all ongoing integrations. You'll recall that we had a very busy 2019 on the acquisition front, and of course, a material deal, Localytics in the first quarter of 2020. So, we will use this time again to complete all ongoing integrations and to fortify our systems. My guess, based on prior experience is that 2021 could be a great and busy year for acquisitions. And maybe, things will start back up in Q4 of this year; we'll see. I want to talk about Upland's positioning relative to COVID-19, the pandemic and the fallout. I think we're extremely well-positioned to be a company that not only survives that comes out stronger than we went. Our Q1 performance demonstrates Upland's ability to successfully navigate this storm. Our products have helped our customers succeed in the new remote working environment. Our enterprise customer base, our high recurring revenue, high retention and high margins, our limited exposure to highly-impacted verticals, our strong balance sheet, our flexible cost structure and proven ability to rightsize expenses, position us well to emerge from this ready to capitalize on new growth opportunities. Let me drill down for a minute on just a couple of those points. On enterprise customer base, it's 1,600 major accounts, averaging 160,000 per year in ARR that drive 90% of our recurring revenue. We have limited exposure to highly-impacted verticals. Our total revenue exposure to travel and hospitality, leisure, retail and energy, in total, all of those verticals is only 7%. And of course, we are working with all of the valued customers in those verticals closely. And in many cases, there have been new opportunities to drive value and revenue by using our products to address the current COVID situation. For example, with major retailers, using our messaging products to help drive customers from brick-and-mortar to online. We've got a strong balance sheet because of the smart actions that we took in 2019, raising equity and putting in place a great new long-term credit facility. We are sitting today with over $150 million of cash and liquidity on the Upland balance sheet. Our debt is not due until 2026, not due until 2026. And our annual principal amortization is only 1%. And in addition to that, we have no financial covenants on current borrowings. So, not only do we have a strong balance sheet, but we're also generating comfortable positive cash flow for the remainder of the year. We've got a flexible cost structure and a proven ability to cut costs, if ever needed. We have proven that we can effectively manage and reduce costs. I mean, look, we've got a track record of 26 acquisitions, wherein each one of the those acquisitions we've taken out roughly 50% of operating expenses. And of course, near best-in-class adjusted EBITDA margins for a cloud software company in the public market in our size category. So, we've proven that capability. We've got a hardened business model for this kind of an environment. Our UplandOne operating model was built from the ground up to optimize a decentralized remote workforce using today's online technology and collaboration tools. 60% of our employees and contractors work remotely pre-COVID. So pre-COVID, we were 60% remote. And moving up to a 100% as we did a little over a month ago was pretty seamless for us. We've been doing virtual user conferences for years. Our customer engagement motions are largely remote with virtual user conferences and customer gathering, not large in-person events. I would also note that a substantial portion of our sales and renewal motions are both inside and virtual. And we've built a portfolio of products that are core to how companies accelerate and benefit from digital transformation and a remote working environment. In the past several weeks, many of our customers have had to rapidly enable every function in their business from sales to customer success, to professional services, to work remotely, and our products have helped them do so. It is clear that we provide the mission-critical solutions that our customers and our communities depend on, especially during this crisis. And as some analysts have noted, the system shock of COVID-19 may drive longer-term increased demand for a number of the cloud software categories where Upland plays, including customer experience management and messaging, digital sales enablement and workflow automation. In terms of our outlook assumptions, in just a moment, Mike will review our guidance in detail, but I wanted to share with you first a couple of notes about the assumptions underneath that guidance. Our working assumption is that bookings and renewals, the bookings and renewals environment will be challenged through the end of Q3 and will then begin a return to normal. Our guidance is obviously predicated on some factors that are beyond our control such as the pace of the pandemic, the response and the economic implications of that. But as our guidance indicates, we roughly see only a 4% reduction in revenue from our previous 2020 guidance midpoint. And I would note, so just a 4% reduction in revenue from our prior guidance midpoint and roughly 65 basis points of that reduction is from foreign currency exchange rate weakness as the dollar has appreciated in this crisis environment. And I would note that Upland's 2020 guidance still reflects the increased investment in go-to-market initiatives that we talked about earlier this year. We're going to persist in that important investment initiative, so that we can be at full fighting strength coming out of this. And we can do this because we've got a flexible cost structure, comfortable cash flow and $150 million in liquidity. We expect adjusted EBITDA margins to float back up over time as our revenues do as well. This management team has a proven track record in tough markets. We've navigated these types of market crashes in the past, most specifically at Perficient, where as Chairman and CEO, we weathered both the Dotcom Crash and the Great Financial Recession of 2008. Having experienced and respect for history and its ability to repeat itself, we've built the business at Upland which can reasonably withstand these shocks based on contractually recurring revenue contracts with large enterprise accounts in a high margin and high cash flow model in a mostly virtual operating environment, having raised capital when we could, not when we had to, and now being in a position of control to decide to dial back acquisition activity short term to generate more cash flow and invest in go-to-market initiatives. It's why we're in a strong position today and why we intend to emerge out of this market downturn even stronger than when we went in. So, with that, I'm going to turn the call over to Mike, who will give you a more detailed look at the Q1 numbers and share with you our guidance. Mike?