Squarespace, Inc. (NYSE:SQSP) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Nathan Gooden: On total active subscriptions, we are still mixing at 75% annual, 25% monthly. We’ve talked about previously that there’s been some mix on new, but it’s not mix on new to monthly, but it’s not moving the total active sub number from the 75-25 that we previously reported.

Naved Khan: Got it. Thank you, guys.

Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Chris Zhang with UBS. Your line is now open.

Chris Zhang: Hi, thanks for taking our question. So I think a lot of great questions have been answered, but I guess just on the potential tiered pricing for different website plans, there seems to be one increased capability to target some of the larger customers and also, I guess, just maybe from the incrementality of investment perspective, what are you thinking about potentially going up market and getting bigger customers or would you say the focus still remains the same just across all your existing customer base?

Anthony Casalena: I would say, as a blunt statement, that our current commercialization of our commerce products is wrong. And what we need to do is get payments, well, payments is out, and what we need to now do is get it integrated with the plan tiers and enable commerce across all selling, but differentiate via fees, not via SaaS to unlock commerce functionality. The current personal plan does not have commerce functionality. The business plan doesn’t have a particularly compelling take rate if you’re a consumer. And then up from there, we don’t get you into a sub 2.9% take rate automatically. Now, we can do that for customers, but it’s not automatic based on your SaaS tier. So by adding the payments take rates into the SaaS tier, it actually does two things, one on the low end and one on the high end.

On the low end, you can now use all the commerce functionality and pay a slightly higher fee for doing it. On the high end, if you upgrade your SaaS tier, you’ll get a lower fee without having to negotiate anything with anyone. It’s currently my feeling that large customers are probably looking at our SaaS tiers and going, not for me. And I think that we have finally an opportunity to correct that. So that’s exciting. And then it’s exciting on the low end too to say, look, you don’t have to pay more to get started with commerce. Try it out. Try it out. Try everything out. And if something works for you, great, we’re here with you when you grow.

Chris Zhang: All right. Thank you, Anthony. That’s very helpful. I guess just a quick follow up on the macro. Do you feel like — does it feel to you like this is kind of the new normal post pandemic? Or do you think there are different pockets or different segments or industries, verticals, where you can still see some improvement or some recovery?

Anthony Casalena: So I wouldn’t have any commentary on a vertical by vertical basis. I would say that the macro right now, again, as somebody who doesn’t know anything about macro and can’t possibly predict it for you, seems to be not detrimental. I think it feels normal and positive. I guess from our end, we don’t see anything that is a huge headwind. But it’s hard for me to call out what that, like if there was a specific tailwind to point to, it just feels normal. I don’t know, which is great, because we’re seeing great results in what I would call a normal environment. Certainly, the Squarespace has proven to be counter cyclical, if you will, to a lot of the things like financial recessions and pandemics where people go home, they start businesses and they adapt. So that has always been sort of a boon to us. But right now it’s sort of like strong performance in what I would call normal macro environment.

Chris Zhang: All right. Appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Alexei Gogolev with JP Morgan. Your line is now open.

Ella Smith: Hi, this is Ella Smith on for Alexei Gogolev. Thank you so much for taking our question. So first, so you posted the second quarter of reacceleration and unique subs growth. And Anthony, I was hoping, oh, sorry, and you said that Google Domains is a big driver there. Are these customers typically coming to Squarespace organically or via a referral link from Google?

Anthony Casalena: Yes, it’s a great question. So to model Google is very hard because you have a giant ecosystem change, right? People who are previously doing the Google Domains, if they go there, it will be a referral link to Squarespace. If the domain is transferred to Squarespace, they will be within Squarespace. If they’re on SEO looking for things, they might find Squarespace instead of Google. If their account is transferred, they will have an email from Squarespace saying you’re now at Squarespace customer, you can log into this account, sign up to things, blah, blah, blah. So yes, some part of it is a direct link, but it’s a seismic ecosystem change that we’ll be absorbing for a period of time. But it’s just really a good position for us to have such strong sustained organic growth in the funnel and to also see lower than expected churn in the customers coming over and just — we haven’t even begun like mark it.

So it’s early days for the Google thing, but highly encouraging.

Ella Smith: Got it. Very clear, Anthony. Thank you. And Nathan, I think this next one would be for you. So the guidance for CapEx in 2024 is much lower than what you printed in 2023. Can you remind us why that is?