908 Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:MASS) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Kevin Knopp: Yes, sure, sure. About as you mentioned, about 2/3 of that guidance adjustment of $6 million is we attribute more to the handhelds and about 1/3 to our desktops, which will be led by REBEL there. And as from a customer sentiment, I would say that it — as I mentioned a little bit earlier on the Q&A here for Dan, but we’re just seeing a general slowdown for people to adopt new technology. I think you’re right, we’ve got a pretty compelling offering in REBEL in terms of what it can do and the fact that it can do things at line and really speed it up. And we’re so excited to showcase things now out with our customers like the CPI data that demonstrates that. So I think what we’re seeing and what we’re feeling is that we really have to double down on that type of messaging and making sure that we’re explaining that value prop and how this does save time and money and efficiency to those customers.

Because as, today, they’ll send it out to a central lab, but that’s what they do. And today, we’re trying to work with them to adjust their feeding strategies, change how they’re approaching their bioreactor monitoring, so they can get better outcomes and better efficiency. So we’re working with groups to showcase that. Some of that we’ve done at our critical mass event, some with the CPI data. From a rep perspective, you’re right, across the world here across handhelds and desktops. We’ve got 80 people in our sales and marketing team. We are chasing to end around that 80%. Today, we’re close to that number. But we do have some ebbs and flows in that number. So whether we’re ending at 75% or 82%, we’re really trying to be very thoughtful, planned and making sure we’re spreading across the right regions.

We are focused on growth there, and we don’t want to be too lean or too heavy. And we do see rep churn on occasion, and I don’t think we’re seeing more than the industry is feeling, but that’s not 0. And we are a small company, so you don’t have a lot of redundancy across your different geographies there. But in the normal year, it’s a little easier to predict that, as you said, rep productivity and that after a particular period, the top line impact, we’ve certainly seen reps where our desktops and hand heads contribute big, very new reps to it. But we’ve also seen and maybe just after 9 months. But we’ve also seen other reps that we’re sure are going to be great, just not having out of the part success yet this year. So there’s definitely a macro overlay there as you work to get new products and get it out and adopt it.

Puneet Souda: Okay. That’s helpful. And actually, a quick follow-up on REBEL. In terms of the new product launch, the online product that is expected to correct me if I’m wrong, till 2023. What is the timing of that? And what can you tell us about that? I don’t know if Chris is on the call, but what can you tell us about that product and how that’s setting up?