Yext, Inc. (NYSE:YEXT) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Rohit Kulkarni: And then in terms of — I think, last question about headcount going forward. But as it stands right now, are there any big buckets of where the headcount could be adjusted, or any specific operating line items you feel that they could be further fine tuned to the extent now that you almost have a new team for anywhere between three to seven months. So maybe just talk about how are you thinking as far as the current state of headcount or structure reporting hierarchies. Do you feel they are very much set and now you can build them out from here on out into ’23?

Mike Walrath: I mean I think we’re getting a lot closer, right? I feel great about the team that we have in place. But again, in fairness to Tom and Rand, they’ve been here in a very short period of time, and I think it would be unfair to characterize their work as — it’s closer to the beginning than it is to complete, right? And I think the second part of that is that the work is really never complete, right? Because there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity at any given time and where we place our focus and how we constantly reallocate the portfolio of investments that we’re making, not just in sales and marketing and R&D and G&A, but also within all the sub buckets of those things. So I think it harkens back to the the early question about the partner channel versus the direct channel, like I think a disciplined company has to prioritize opportunities.

And while we do think that there are opportunities in the partner channel and we will pursue them, we might pursue them less aggressively in the near term, because we think the bigger, at the moment, opportunity is on the direct side of the business. And so the process that the team and I are running is a never ending process of evaluating where our investments are working and where they’re not working and where we can be more efficient as a business. I think we’re pleased with the progress that we’ve made. We’ve made huge strides, I think, on sales and marketing as a percentage of revenue. And I think we’ve got the R&D and G&A buckets a lot closer to where we want them to be on a long term basis. But I’m not going to tell you that process ever ends, because I think part of our responsibility is to always be evaluating what’s working and what’s not.

Rohit Kulkarni: And one quick one. I think you mentioned competitive RFPs and you were able to win a couple during this recent quarter. Maybe talk about how competitive environment has evolved? Are you seeing any specific new entrant in there or again, at least historically, kind of the point of view, many people on the Street had was a bit — there are not too many direct competitors, but again, there is probably a price versus demand elasticity that the company can work on. But perhaps just address competitive environment, has that evolved in your point of view?

Mike Walrath: So I’ll start, but I know Marc is chomping at the bit to talk about the competitive environment. So I’m going to let him talk about some of the competitive situations. I think as our — I will say this, as our platform has broadened and as the range of solutions that we’re offering across the platform has grown, it’s not as simple as our position as the clear leader in listings, which is important to us and which we’re going to continue to defend through innovation. In other areas, the search solutions, for example, we’re going up against competitors who are larger than we are. And not to steal Marc’s thunder, but I’ll tell you, we’re very happy to get in the room with our competitors and go head to head.