monday.com Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
November 13, 2023

There are 18 speakers on the call.

Operator

Thank you

Speaker 1

for standing by, and welcome to the monday.com Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. I would now like to welcome Byron Stephen, Head of Investor Relations to begin the call. Byron, over to you.

Speaker 2

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's Conference Call to discuss the financial results for monday.com's Q3 fiscal year 2023. Joining me today are Roy Mann and Aaron Zimmerman, Co CEOs of monday.com and Eleron Glaser, monday.com's CFO. We released our results for the Q3 earlier today. You can find our quarterly shareholder letter, along with our investor presentation and a replay of today's webcast under the News and Events section of our IR website atir.monday.com. Certain statements made on the call today will be forward looking statements, which reflect management's best judgment based on the currently available information.

Speaker 2

These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from our expectations. Please refer to our earnings release for more information on the specific factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our forward looking statements. Additionally, non GAAP financial measures will be discussed on the call. Reconciliations to our most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are available in the earnings release and the earnings presentation for today's call, which are posted on our Investor Relations website. Now, let me turn the call over to Roy.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Byron, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. As we reflect on our most recent quarter, It is with heavy hearts that we acknowledge the recent tragic events that have unfolded in Israel. Our thoughts are with all those affected by recent This time, the impact on the current situation of our global operation is minimal, and we remain confident in our ability to meet all Our business and financial targets. In terms of revenue, Israel accounts for a low single digit percentage of our total ARR. While only approximately 7% of our global workforce have been called up for reserve duty, our global employees have gone above and beyond to All of our data server are distributed globally across North America, Europe and Australia, ensuring our operations will continue seamlessly.

Speaker 3

We are monitoring the situation closely and will make necessary adjustment to our plans as needed. Now let me turn to our results this quarter. We are pleased to share that we have achieved another quarter of strong growth, impressive margin improvement and amazing cash generation. In Q3, we continued to demonstrate our ability to scale with efficiency, posting record non GAAP operating margin of 13% And a record free cash flow margin of 34%. I'll now turn it over to Eran to walk you through some of our product highlights this quarter.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Roy. We remain focused on our multi product strategy and ensuring that our products can successfully enable cross functional work management account adopting one of our new products. We are dedicated to providing exceptional solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers and we believe that our new product will play a pivotal role in achieving this. Our target is to open access to our new MandeSale CRM and money debt products to all customers by the end of Q1 of next year. In Q2, we've successfully completed Mannindb1.0.

Speaker 4

With the completion of that phase, all Manninde customers have been transitioned to our new cutting edge infrastructure and initial feedback has been amazing. Users are noticing a meaningful boost in performance and capabilities of the WorkOS platform. Our next phase, MoneyDB 1.1 dashboards is now live and already showing significant improvements in load times We're also beginning to see great initial results from our new Monday AI capabilities, Specifically, the AI for Formula Builder and the AI Solution Builder. Formula Builder is already saving users time and effort and to date has helped over 5,000 users build advanced formulacabilities. We're excited that the opportunities we see ahead as we seek to generate meaningful value for our customers through the power of AI.

Speaker 4

The AI solution builder is also receiving very positive feedback from customers. We're utilizing it to easily set up fully operational and personalized boards. As always, we are very proud of the money.com team achievement in this quarter, And we remain highly confident in our opportunities ahead. As a reminder, we will be hosting our 1st Investor Day as a company at our New York City Elevate Conference on December 6. We look forward to seeing many of you in person and sharing our vision, strategy and product roadmap And I need to gain deeper insights into our operations and future plans.

Speaker 4

With that, I'll now turn it over to Eliron to cover our

Speaker 5

Thank you, Eran, and thank you to everyone for joining our call. Today, I'll review our Q3 fiscal 2023 results in detail and provide updated guidance. We reported strong results in Q3 with record quarterly free cash flow and non GAAP operating income for the 3rd consecutive quarter. Our results in the quarter demonstrate our consistent execution as well as the healthy customer demand we see for the monday.com work operating system platform and our products. Total revenue came in at $189,200,000 in Q3, up 38% from the year ago quarter.

Speaker 5

Our overall net dollar retention rates remained steady in Q3, reflecting our continued resilience through a more challenging macroeconomic environment. While our full year 2023 guidance Still assumes NDR to be slightly below 110%. We're encouraged by the signs of stabilization that we witnessed during the most recent quarter. As a reminder, our net dollar retention rate is trailing 4 quarter weighted average calculation. For the reminder of the financial metrics disclosed, Unless otherwise noted, I will be referencing non GAAP financial measures.

Speaker 5

We have provided a reconciliation of GAAP to non GAAP financials in our earnings release. 3rd quarter gross margin was 89%. In the medium to long term, we continue to expect gross margin to be in the high 80s range. Research and development expense was $28,100,000 or 15% of revenue compared to 19% in Q3 2022. In the medium to long term, we anticipate R and D expense as a percentage of revenue to be in the high teens as we build out Our product suite and scale our work operating system platform both horizontally and vertically.

Speaker 5

Sales and marketing expense was $101,500,000 or 54% of revenue compared to 60% in Q3 2022. G and A expense was $15,200,000 or 8% of revenue compared to 11% in Q3 2022. Net income was $33,000,000 up from $2,600,000 In Q3 2022, diluted net income per share was 0 point 6 $4 based on 51,500,000 fully diluted shares Outstanding. Total employee headcount was 1744, an increase of 98 employees since Q2 2023. We expect to continue hiring over the next year with the focus on our R and D product and sales teams as we build out our platform and product suite.

Speaker 5

Moving on to the balance sheet and cash flow, we ended the quarter with $1,050,000,000 in cash and cash equivalents at the end of Q3 'twenty three, up from $989,000,000 at the end of Q2 'twenty three. Free cash flow for Q3 'twenty three was $64,900,000 and free cash flow margin as defined as free cash flow as a percentage of revenue was 34%. Free cash flow is defined as net cash from operating activities less cash used for property and equipment and capitalized software costs. Now let's turn to our updated outlook for fiscal year 2023. For the Q4 of fiscal year 2023, we expect our revenue to be in the range of 100 $96,000,000 to $198,000,000 representing growth of 31% to 32% year over year.

Speaker 5

We expect non GAAP operating income of $7,000,000 to $9,000,000 and an operating margin of 4% to 5%. For the full year 2023, now expect revenue to be in the range of $723,000,000 to $725,000,000 representing growth of 39% to 40% year over year. We expect full year non GAAP operating income of $47,000,000 to $49,000,000 and an operating margin of approximately 7%. I'll now turn it over to the operator for your questions. Operator?

Speaker 1

We ask that you limit yourself to 1 question and one follow-up question, please. We'll pause for just a moment to compile any questions. Our first question comes from the line of Kash Rangan with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hi, thank you very much. And I'm happy to hear that your employees are safe and I wish that Your workforce continues to be very safe with the turmoil that's going on. With respect to the business, first of all, congratulations on the quarter. I'm curious to hear your further expand the thoughts on the stabilization you saw in the net expansion rate in the quarter. And also as you take a step back with the broadening out of the platform and the capabilities and the different buying centers and the personas that you can go after such as dev, CRM and who knows what's in store in the future, how is the go to market approach of the company changing?

Speaker 6

You You're good entrepreneurs. You've been through multiple businesses before and you can understand the nuances of how go to market might have to evolve given the broadening of the product. Just curious to hear your thoughts on those two things. Thank you so much.

Speaker 5

Hi, Kash. This is Eliran. I will answer your first question and then I will refer To Eran, to address your second question. So with regards to the stabilization of the NDR, as a reminder, we are looking at NDR as a weighted average of the last four quarters. So what we saw when you are looking at the trailing 12 months, basically, is that it's flattening.

Speaker 5

We saw a decline in the past that was as part of also the macro And the fact that expansion was lower than we anticipated or what we saw in the past, but over the last few months, we saw that on a month by month basis basically And this is encouraging us to believe that there is going to be potentially stabilization to the long term. And this is also driven by the fact that we see a very healthy top of funnel demand and additional new customers that are joining the platform.

Speaker 7

Yes. And this is Iran Kash. So regarding the new products, product ecosystem and how it helps in terms of our go to market. So definitely having multiple personas and multiple verticals really helps In two ways, really. One is our ability to do both performance marketing across multiple verticals, just make our Acquisition much more efficient and this goes all the way to events and exhibitions and we have different Basically, personas that can buy the software.

Speaker 7

But more than that, it can allow us to be more aggressive because our LTV for each customer is much greater. We don't just compete in one vertical, but a customer might start with a CRM and then expand into work management or vice versa. So The total LTV of each customer is much greater, which allows us to be potentially more aggressive going forward in how we acquire customers. So It definitely opened us our ability to acquire customers and expand them over time.

Speaker 6

Wonderful. Many thanks and congratulations again.

Speaker 1

Our next question comes from the line of Pidjalim Bora with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Thanks and congrats on the quarter from me as well. Can I Asking on the top of the funnel comment that you just made, maybe help us understand that momentum going into Q4 so far And if the conversion rates of the top of the funnel so far in Q4 that you have seen has been consistent or not versus Q3?

Speaker 7

Yes. So in terms of customer acquisition and top of funnel activity, we see still very strong demand, very stable. It's across all customer size, both SMB and more enterprise customers. We continue to grow our enterprise segment. It grew 57% year over year in

Speaker 5

the last

Speaker 7

quarter. And like we've mentioned, like the only impact that we're seeing right now is Last seat expansion from existing customers, but apart from that, our customer acquisition, the momentum that we see with new customers across all products It's very stable and strong.

Speaker 8

Understood. Thank you for that. And if I can ask you on the regional structure, the hybrid regional structure Yes, you have kind of embarked upon. A few questions on that, just on that change that you're making. Can you help us understand what portion of your sales is given the outbound today?

Speaker 8

And where do you see that kind of going? And as these regional heads start building their teams, should we expect kind of an acceleration in the sales rep hiring going into next And how are you layering in kind of the CRM and the dev go to market in that outbound motion?

Speaker 7

Yes, Puneet, this is Arun. You were breaking up a little bit. You were asking about the outbound momentum that we see. Is that correct? Yes, the regional I was

Speaker 8

talking to the regional sales structure.

Speaker 7

Yes. Okay. Yes. So basically

Speaker 5

yes, sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 8

The regional sales structure that you highlighting, right, the

Speaker 5

original leadership.

Speaker 7

Yes. Yes. So basically, we announced last quarter that promoted both Jameson to be Regional Manager for North America and Dean for APAC region. And definitely, It's part of a movement that we're seeing stronger presence in both of those regions, but also scaling those regions dramatically. As we said, we're also doing a lot of outbound sales, reaching larger customers, Fortune 500 customers, in addition to our performance marketing.

Speaker 7

So for us, it's a continuum of that momentum as a company, and it just gives us over time more access to larger and larger enterprises, we continue to scale that effort.

Speaker 8

Thank you.

Speaker 1

Our next question comes from the line of Steve Enders with Citi. Please go ahead.

Speaker 9

Okay, great. Thanks for taking the question and glad to hear I guess maybe just would like to kind of start on that part. You call 7% of employees have been called up to reserves at this point. I guess, how do you go about managing the organization when you have That level of disruption and I guess secondarily, like as you think about hiring and it seems like there's continued expectations that going into next year, how do you think about what that means for future hiring plans and backfilling some of those Call that individuals

Speaker 3

there. Hey, it's Roy. So the impact We have right now on the plans we have is minimal. There is an impact, but it's It's something we're dealing with and it has a very short term effect. Regarding hiring, we Have a very strong hiring plan for next year and also this year.

Speaker 3

So we're on track and that's been going well.

Speaker 7

Yes. Maybe, Stephen, this is Eran. I can add that Israel only accounts for low single digit percentage of our ARR and There's very little impact over there, although we see a little bit, but very small impact and it's a small part of our revenue. And also in terms of Data servers, it's all distributed globally. We don't have currently any data centers in Israel across North America, Europe, Australia.

Speaker 7

So in terms of data integrity, servers, operations, we see no impact. And as we mentioned on the business side, it's minimal impact mostly To Israeli customers.

Speaker 9

Okay, got you. That's helpful. And then just on the free cash flow in the quarter, I mean really, really strong there. I guess anything to call out That was either one time in nature. How should we be thinking about maybe some of the puts and takes there as we think about Going into next quarter and next year.

Speaker 5

Hi, Steve. It's Eliran. Yes, so 34% obviously is a very high And we would like to think about it as a one off. Although we said that we are going to be slightly above 20% originally when we gave Q2 guidance, so by the end of the year. It's mostly about, I would say, disciplined spending As part of the improving efficiency and even though with the macro environment, We have a very consistent customer collections and billings.

Speaker 5

We don't come across any significant issues. Actually, it's very healthy. And also, just to be fair, with over $1,000,000,000 in bank in the bank on the balance, we continue to generate nice returns with the environment of inflation. So all of the above is very healthy for us in terms of efficient free cash flow.

Speaker 9

Okay, perfect. Thanks for taking the questions.

Speaker 1

Our next question comes from the line of Brent Bracelin with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Speaker 10

Good morning here. I We'll echo the best wishes and support here for you, your family and colleagues impacted by the tragedy in Israel. Maybe Roy, obviously, super impressed with the strong execution given some of the challenges. Obviously, we're seeing some mix Trends in SMB, I wanted to pivot a little bit towards the future product, specifically the monday.comai assistant. Can you just talk a little bit about what you're seeing there in that beta?

Speaker 10

What the early response has been? And then

Speaker 5

I have one quick follow-up.

Speaker 3

Yes. Hi, it's Roy. So the AI was very nicely accepted With building boards, so we used the assistant to kind of help customers build Things that are usually complex, like the Formula Builder and like the Board and the workflow itself. And we saw that people kind of were surprised about the suggestions they got and said like they were really happy with the boards they got from the AI. So it's kind of like it's really an assistant that onboards customers and help them get the most out of the system right now.

Speaker 10

Very encouraging. And then I guess as a follow-up for you, El Eran, Impressed here by continued improvement in margins. It sounded like you're leaning a little bit in on performance marketing, The LTV to CAC sounds like it's improving. Can you continue to kind of sustain margins here even while getting a little aggressive With performance marketing spend, just given the returns you're seeing right now?

Speaker 5

So Brent, hi. I think that the lever that is most, I would say, impactful of the numbers on a quarter It's definitely the performance marketing because it allows us either to spend when we see the return or to hold back if we don't see the return. From our perspective, things have not really changed from the last few quarters. So we kind of manage the And in accordance with the returns that we see, we don't see anything it's not getting any better, but it's not getting any worse In terms of what the returns that we are seeing, maybe some of the competitors has already started to spend more on the performance marketing. But for us, it's pretty much what we anticipated or what we saw in prior quarters.

Speaker 5

We actually thought that When the year goes by, we might see more aggressive behavior from other players, but we didn't so far. So as long as it meets our return criteria, we continue to spend. And if it will be that More aggressive spend will provide us better results, then we are going to do it.

Speaker 10

Great to see impressive execution here, guys. Thanks.

Speaker 1

Our next question comes from the line of Arjun Bhatia with William Blair. Please go ahead.

Speaker 11

Perfect. Thank you, guys, and all of my best wishes to you all in Israel. First, maybe just to start on, I noticed that the upmarket trends look very strong, right, especially The percentage of ARR that you're getting from your large 50 ks plus customers, can you just talk a little bit about if you're seeing any difference in Customer behavior between those larger enterprise customers that are deployed on Monday versus smaller customers, whether it's in terms of Upsell or seat expansion, etcetera. Thank you.

Speaker 7

Yes. Hi, Arjun. This is Arun. So, yes, overall in terms of our enterprise accounts, As I've mentioned, we see great momentum. Those enterprise accounts tend to upgrade more and increase their CIT kind more over time.

Speaker 7

So definitely, we see higher levels of MDR. In terms of usage, there's a little bit of a difference between the way SMBs use it and SMBs, what we see is they usually consolidate on Monday, managing a lot of departments and almost their entire operation on Monday. In enterprise customers, usually we solve 2 or 3 kind of main business use case for them and then over time they might add more department, But it's more of a gradual process. But definitely, in terms of retention, stability, growth, We invest a lot in enterprise customers because over time, we generate more revenue and tend to expand more.

Speaker 11

Okay. Got it. Perfect. That's very helpful. And then just going on to Funday DB, it sounds like the next Phase here is going to be on API enhancements and then improving scalability.

Speaker 11

How much is that impacting Your ability to go after these larger customers and show them the scalability and the improvements you're making in infrastructure to get them to use Monday, is that something that you're seeing already or something that we anticipate further down the road as more DB versions get rolled out?

Speaker 7

Yes, this is Ron again. So definitely you touched on the point here because I think one of the things that really help us accelerate Scale with the enterprise customers is MongoDB. We mentioned this during the beginning of the earnings call, but we got great feedback from version 1.0. We saw customers already scaling their operation and how they use Monday. And now with the release of 1.1, we've really accelerated a major part, Which a lot of enterprise use, which is dashboards.

Speaker 7

It's been a significant boost to how they use the platform. And usually, It's managers and high level management that use dashboards. So definitely this is a huge game changer for our ability to scale within the enterprise. And we have a lot of other subversions that we aim to launch in terms of MongoDB, and we feel that each iteration will help us accelerate Our penetration into larger enterprises.

Speaker 11

All right, perfect. Thank you and congrats on the strong execution here, guys.

Speaker 1

Our next question comes from the line of Derrick Wood with TD Cowen. Please go

Speaker 12

ahead. Great. Thanks. It's Andrew, and I'll echo my our thoughts to everyone in Israel. Elmeron, on the sales CRM, strong net new growth, 11,000 customers is about 6% of your total base.

Speaker 12

As that keeps growing, do you think you could see this become a material contributor to revenue next year and also moving into the mid market?

Speaker 5

Hi, Derek. It's Elijan. Yes, so CRM is growing really nicely. And just as a reminder, we plan to finish opening access to the CRM and to all customers by the end of Q1 next year. So definitely, we expect this to continue to grow.

Speaker 5

Although it's still early days, we just announced it earlier this year, but cross Opportunity looks very encouraging. And since we have introduced the product to it, we have 2,500 ish Work management accounts that have added to the additional product. So I think that over time, with the fact that we are increasing the sales reps number And we are going to focus on cross selling and up selling. I think that we are going to see a more proactive sales motion and it's going to be Resulted in further growth next year.

Speaker 12

Great. And then also for you, Elriana, The ARR from 50 ks plus a nice uptick to 31% of ARR, any color on what drove That and is that mostly existing expansions? Are you seeing larger lands too? And should this kind of continue to uptick into next year?

Speaker 5

Derek, I think it's all of the above. It's we are landing bigger. We are we have a multi product strategy that now customers Find us to be part of their core business operation. The fact that we are growing the sales team and we bring people who are to enterprise accounts. So all of the above, I think once you unlock the value of Monday and you see how it contributes to Bigger organizations and a bigger audience within the organizations, this is something that continue to drive the upmarket motion, Together with, of course, the Mann ADB.

Speaker 12

Awesome. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Our next question comes from the line of Brent Thill with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Operator

Thanks. Eliron, can you just walk us through what you're seeing through the start of the quarter in the last month? Have you seen any change in customer behavior? Or is it the same consistency you're speaking to that you saw in the last quarter?

Speaker 5

Hey, Brent. We're still seeing what we saw in prior quarters. As I said earlier, it's not getting any better, but it's I think there is still a lot of pressure on the economy. I would say sometimes choppy. Customers are still Very cautious on their spend.

Speaker 5

Sales cycles are still taking longer. But on the other end, we are still seeing a very Healthy customer demand and top of funnel activity. So I think these are kind of setting one another and contributing to our execution.

Operator

And just back on the enterprise, that momentum looks really encouraging. If there are 1 or 2 customer data points, not necessarily naming the customer, but maybe what you've been shocked at or has been significant in terms of milestones. Is there in terms of C count or in terms of how they're deploying, can you

Speaker 7

Yes, Brent. So still our larger deployment is about 7,000 seats, but maybe I can share more color that we are seeing Very interesting deals in the pipeline. We see more momentum of larger enterprise interested in buying Monday and do a much wider deployment. So Definitely, we see this momentum within our customer interest and customer pipeline that we're seeing. So that gives us a lot of Inside that, we're evolving and it opens the door to bigger and bigger deals going forward.

Speaker 5

And maybe Brent, just to add to Eliran, this The level of engagement that we see, we have some internal metrics like active paying people and Active seats, then we are seeing strong momentum as well. So this is something that is encouraging for us to believe that we are going to see continued growth in the enterprise Usage within the existing customers and new customers.

Operator

Good to hear. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Our next question comes from the line of George Iwanyc with Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Thank you for taking my question and I'll have my best questions for everyone's safety. Maybe going back to the AI topic, Can you give some perspective on how you feel this maybe changes the competitive environment?

Speaker 3

Hi, it's Roy. So I think like customers don't really know what to From AI, it's not as if like everyone is demanding this or that. I think we're in a phase that everyone is trying to explore What works and it's not the easiest thing to make to turn AI into a really great product for customers and I think we're On a really good track with the results we've seen and shared. So

Speaker 7

I don't

Speaker 3

think it's still like something that is materially competitive, but it might be in the future.

Speaker 6

And then just following up on all the new product additions that you're putting into the platform. Can you maybe

Speaker 3

Yes. So We're experimenting with things and seeing what are we going to do with pricing. We feel that like The introduction of new product will allow us to cross sell and then extract and give more value to customers And like allow us to have like a higher dollar value for each customer Alongside other improvements that we're making to the platform in various advancement in every area, in the work management, in the CRM, That will also expose us to new customers and new use cases and again like improve that cycle of expansion.

Operator

Thank you.

Speaker 1

Our next question comes from the line of DJ Heinz with Canaccord. Please go ahead.

Speaker 13

Hey, guys. I'll echo the sentiment of others and add my congrats on the quarter. I'm curious what you're seeing in terms of activity and engagement in the marketplace ecosystem. It seems like as you make improvements in scalability and continue to roll out new product, there's Just that much more surface area for partners to build around. So curious if you're seeing any signs of that playing out and what it can mean for the model over time?

Speaker 7

Yes. Hi, D. J, it's Arun. So definitely we good momentum there. We're starting to see more and more kind of more significant ARR coming from our marketplace.

Speaker 7

The partnership with both Upfire and Adaptivist are growing really nicely. It takes time, but currently those Two partners have some of the most popular apps in our marketplace. So definitely we see the momentum that they bring and their experience, it's definitely helpful. So we're very encouraged with everything we see. We see some very cool applications built, not just for the platform, but for each one of our Apps, so for CRM, for work management, for dev.

Speaker 7

So definitely this really enriches the marketplace and the opportunity for each one of them. In addition to the bigger partners, we continue to see large momentum of smaller and indie developers that build in the marketplace. So All in all, like we're very encouraged with the development and the type of applications that are being built.

Speaker 6

Yes. Okay. Good to hear. And then how do

Speaker 13

you think about sizing the opportunity for Monday Dev, maybe relative to CRM? I mean, I assume it's probably narrower, but trying to get an understanding of Kind of the composition of your customer base, how big that developer footprint is and kind of what it means for the serviceable opportunity for dev in the base realizing it's a multiyear journey.

Speaker 7

Yes. So this is Arun again. Yes. So Look, I mean, that is it has great momentum. It's a little bit younger compared to CRM.

Speaker 7

But again, if we compare it to How we grew as a company, like it is growing faster than Monday itself. So also has great momentum as a product. And I think there's great players right now in this market that prove that you can build a huge business out of it. So we're definitely Encouraged by the growth. We're encouraged by seeing the type of customers that adopt the product.

Speaker 7

Still, we have a lot of features we need to complete. But All in all, it looks very promising as promising, I would say, as CRM a year ago. So Definitely something we invest a lot into and very encouraged with the results we see so far.

Speaker 13

Great. Thanks for the color.

Speaker 1

Our next question comes from the line of Scott Berg with Needham and Company. Please go ahead.

Speaker 14

Hi, everyone. Nice quarter and I will certainly echo the concerns with all What you all are dealing with right now, good luck. A couple of questions for me. El Aron, you talked about sales and marketing expecting to be in the high teens In the intermediate term, your spend in sales or excuse me, R and D in the high teens, your R and D spend Really hasn't been in the high teens for several quarters. How should we think about your investments there?

Speaker 14

Are we going to see kind of a ramp back up to the high teens? Or what does that kind of balance look

Speaker 5

So it's a great question. I would say that in fiscal year 'twenty three, to your point, we probably are now looking at more mid So first of all, when you think about hiring, we continue to hire in R and D, we continue to invest in R and D. The reason why we see lower cost to a certain extent on the short term, because on the longer term, we believe it's going to continue to grow. It's first of all the FX currencies, the R and D team is mostly based in Israel, all of the people. So we took advantage or we benefit from the fact that The dollar was strong versus the Israeli shekel.

Speaker 5

We had some accounting things like allocation that impacted both costs Of sales as well as R and D, and it is mostly going to be dependent on the recruitment progress. So we continue to hire aggressively. R and D people are not easy to find. Always there is a good fight for them, but we will continue to hire And expand the

Speaker 7

team, and

Speaker 5

we believe that for the next year, we're going to see this number grow.

Speaker 14

Understood. Helpful. Thank you. And then from a follow-up perspective, You talked about net revenue retention trends starting to trough out the last couple of quarters. I know items like CRM and dev tools are still reasonably new in terms of customer adoption and how you're selling them.

Speaker 14

But from your early statistics, how are those Modules or tools impacting your net revenue retention rate, are you seeing some different trends there versus the overall Work management platform. Thank you.

Speaker 7

Yes, this is Eran. So look, it's still early days in terms of Just amount of revenue and our experience with it, but I can share that overall in terms of engagement and potential extension, We see an upside there. I think it's just because of the nature of the products that some of them are more sticky than others and Once you get a team start using it, you get the whole department potentially using that tool. So definitely we see an option there for higher NDR both in dev and CRM. But again, it's still early days, so we don't have a lot of cohort data yet.

Speaker 7

But just judging by the nature of usage right now, it definitely has an upside there.

Speaker 14

Excellent. Thanks again.

Speaker 1

Our next question comes from the line of Taylor McGinnis with UBS. Please go ahead.

Speaker 15

Yes. Hi. Thanks for taking the question. And like everyone else, I want to extend thoughts to you all and everyone at Monday in Israel. And well done on the execution this quarter considering the circumstances.

Speaker 15

So just looking at the 4Q rep guide, it looks really solid and assuming some upside, we could actually So first, can you maybe talk about what you've seen in terms of the demand environment that's giving you comfort in this outlook? And then second, there's been some evidence within other software companies this quarter of softening SMB trends and Some other macro events. So can you talk about some of can you just provide more color on the assumptions being embedded in the guide

Speaker 7

Hi, Taylor. This is Arun. Thanks for joining. So I can comment on the demand and maybe Arun can talk a little bit about guidance for next quarter or so. So in terms of demand, like we mentioned, we see very strong demand, Not just in SMBs, but also in enterprise customers.

Speaker 7

And in terms of usage and expansion, we also see positive signs overall. Like everyone mentioned, although the environment is still kind of choppy, like in the beginning of the year, in terms of demand and stability of demand, Like we feel very comfortable. So that's in terms of what we see in the market. I don't know if you want to add anything around in terms of guidance for Q4 or?

Speaker 5

Yes. So I would say that with regards to guidance, we always report what we know when we do the guidance. So it takes into account the latest trend that we are seeing. And they're not they haven't really changed much over the year. As I said earlier, we still have Challenging macroeconomic conditions with some moderate pressure on NDR.

Speaker 5

And as we mentioned, we continue to expect NDR to be slightly below 110%, but we do expect it to level off at the end of this year. With regards to the top of funnel demand and strong new customer growth, it's offset some of the trends that we are seeing. And I believe this is taking into account the fact that we introduced Firstman ADB as well as the CRM and dev and Other multiple use cases, so while there is to summarize, while there is some pressure Coming from the macro economy, it is definitely offset by the top of funnel strong demand that we are seeing from new customers.

Speaker 15

Great. Thanks so much.

Speaker 1

Our next question comes from the line of Jason Celino with KeyBanc Capital Please go ahead.

Speaker 16

Great. Thanks for taking my question. I'll start with maybe a philosophical question. Roy, I know you said that it's too early and no one really knows yet, but a lot of software companies, including your content collaborative work management peers Now, we're rolling out these AI features and bundling them in the core products, but it seems like AI might become table stakes. Yes.

Speaker 16

If this is the case, how do you think AI can still be a differentiator?

Speaker 3

Hi. I appreciate the philosophical question. So I'll tell you what, like the AI, we can divide into 2 areas. 1 is the table stakes area, right, like making AI improve the software itself and its usability. And I think that's less monetizable, but like improved performance overall of everything.

Speaker 3

The other part is Adding more productivity components with AI that customers will pay for, and I think there is a good upside. We're looking at what everyone is doing across the field, not only in productivity and AI, and we're putting a lot of emphasis on it. We have a strong team working on it. And I feel we have a lot to say because Monday is

Speaker 16

Great. Thank you. And then, El Aron, you mentioned having a lot of cash, crossing the $1,000,000,000 mark, and you're generating more. Maybe can you speak to some of your capital deployment strategy?

Speaker 5

Yes. So with regards to cash, obviously, it's going to be used for Great initiative. We're going to continue to invest in investing in the business, bringing and hiring people, expanding the Leadership team, the management team, as well as thinking about non organic growth We are going to look potentially next year at companies thinking about M and A. Again, mostly tuck in, Acquihiring, complementary products, but this is something that we definitely starting

Speaker 7

to think

Speaker 5

about And to deploy potentially in the next 12 to 18 months.

Speaker 11

Excellent. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Our next question comes from the line of Robert Simmons with D. A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Speaker 17

Hey, thanks for taking the question. So it's great to see the app CRM and scaling so well. I'm wondering Where are we seeing the most kind of uptake for those by vertical or by geography?

Speaker 7

Yes, Robert, this is Arun. So you're asking where do we see the most what do you mean like uptake? Just

Speaker 17

Like where are you seeing the strongest adoption by customers for sales and in-depth?

Speaker 7

In terms of vertical, like we see adoption across all verticals and also across different sizes. I would say In terms of company sizes, we don't see large enterprise currently adopting Mande Sales CRM or Mande Debt, but definitely we see the bar rising. It started with small teams and expanding to hundreds of people and it will continue to grow as we add more features and more complexity. In terms of industry, it's really across the industry, both tech companies and non tech. Obviously, dev is more focused on tech, but in terms of sales CRM, We really see a wide variety of verticals and different kinds of companies that adopt the products pretty similar to what we saw And Monday work management product.

Speaker 7

Yes, so this is the color we have right now.

Speaker 17

Okay, got it. And then the 2 other apps you launched at the same time, how are those performing so far?

Speaker 7

Can you repeat the question? Sorry, how is what?

Speaker 17

You had 2 other apps you launched At the same time as those 2, how are those performing so far? Are those starting to ramp to expectations or is there a little bit earlier, but

Speaker 5

Well, we have a bunch of products

Speaker 7

that we launched. We had Monday Work Forms and Monday Work Canvas that we launched as part of that. We had initial product called Monday Marketing, but we kind of discontinued that and merged that into Monday Work Management. And in terms of the other products, Work Canvass and Workforms, they're still kind of in their initial phase. We see nice momentum there, but it's Still kind of in the small scale compared to the other products that we have.

Speaker 17

Great. Thanks.

Speaker 1

There are no further questions at this time. I would like to thank our speakers for today's presentation and thank you all for joining us. This now concludes today's call and you may now disconnect.

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Earnings Conference Call
monday.com Q3 2023
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