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Weave Communications (WEAV)
NYSE:WEAV
US Market
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Weave Communications (WEAV) Risk Factors

175 Followers
Public companies are required to disclose risks that can affect the business and impact the stock. These disclosures are known as “Risk Factors”. Companies disclose these risks in their yearly (Form 10-K), quarterly earnings (Form 10-Q), or “foreign private issuer” reports (Form 20-F). Risk factors show the challenges a company faces. Investors can consider the worst-case scenarios before making an investment. TipRanks’ Risk Analysis categorizes risks based on proprietary classification algorithms and machine learning.

Weave Communications disclosed 76 risk factors in its most recent earnings report. Weave Communications reported the most risks in the “Finance & Corporate” category.

Risk Overview Q4, 2023

Risk Distribution
76Risks
36% Finance & Corporate
20% Tech & Innovation
16% Legal & Regulatory
14% Ability to Sell
9% Production
5% Macro & Political
Finance & Corporate - Financial and accounting risks. Risks related to the execution of corporate activity and strategy
This chart displays the stock's most recent risk distribution according to category. TipRanks has identified 6 major categories: Finance & corporate, legal & regulatory, macro & political, production, tech & innovation, and ability to sell.

Risk Change Over Time

S&P500 Average
Sector Average
Risks removed
Risks added
Risks changed
Weave Communications Risk Factors
New Risk (0)
Risk Changed (0)
Risk Removed (0)
No changes from previous report
The chart shows the number of risks a company has disclosed. You can compare this to the sector average or S&P 500 average.

The quarters shown in the chart are according to the calendar year (January to December). Businesses set their own financial calendar, known as a fiscal year. For example, Walmart ends their financial year at the end of January to accommodate the holiday season.

Risk Highlights Q4, 2023

Main Risk Category
Finance & Corporate
With 27 Risks
Finance & Corporate
With 27 Risks
Number of Disclosed Risks
76
+1
From last report
S&P 500 Average: 31
76
+1
From last report
S&P 500 Average: 31
Recent Changes
3Risks added
2Risks removed
8Risks changed
Since Dec 2023
3Risks added
2Risks removed
8Risks changed
Since Dec 2023
Number of Risk Changed
8
+5
From last report
S&P 500 Average: 3
8
+5
From last report
S&P 500 Average: 3
See the risk highlights of Weave Communications in the last period.

Risk Word Cloud

The most common phrases about risk factors from the most recent report. Larger texts indicate more widely used phrases.

Risk Factors Full Breakdown - Total Risks 76

Finance & Corporate
Total Risks: 27/76 (36%)Below Sector Average
Share Price & Shareholder Rights9 | 11.8%
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 1
Added
An active, liquid trading market for our common stock may not be sustained, which may limit your ability to sell your shares.
An active trading market for our common stock may not be sustained. Although our common stock is listed on the NYSE, the market for our shares has demonstrated varying levels of trading activity. A public trading market having the desirable characteristics of depth, liquidity and orderliness depends upon the existence of willing buyers and sellers at any given time, such existence being dependent upon the individual decisions of buyers and sellers over which neither we nor any market maker has control. If an active trading market is not maintained, you may have difficulty selling shares of our common stock due to our limited public float. The failure of an active and liquid trading market to continue would likely have a material adverse effect on the value of our common stock. An inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital to continue to fund operations by issuing shares and may impair our ability to acquire other companies or technologies by using our shares as consideration.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 2
Changed
The concentration of our share ownership in those stockholders who held our stock prior to our IPO, including our executive officers, directors and holders of more than 10% of our capital stock, may limit your ability to influence corporate matters.
Our executive officers, directors, holders of more than 10% of our capital stock and affiliated entities together beneficially owned approximately 49.6% of our total shares outstanding as of December 31, 2023. As a result, these stockholders, acting together, will have control over our management and affairs and over all matters requiring stockholder approval, including election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of us or our assets, for the foreseeable future. Corporate action might be taken even if other stockholders oppose them. This concentration of ownership could also delay or prevent a change of control of us that other stockholders may view as beneficial.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 3
Changed
We are an "emerging growth company" and any decision on our part to comply only with certain reduced reporting and disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies could make our common stock less attractive to investors.
We are an "emerging growth company" as defined in the JOBS Act. For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may choose to take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404, reduced Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) reporting requirements, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. Pursuant to Section 107 of the JOBS Act, as an emerging growth company, we have elected to use the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. As a result, our consolidated financial statements may not be comparable to the financial statements of issuers who are required to comply with the effective dates for new or revised accounting standards that are applicable to public companies, which may make our common stock less attractive to investors. In addition, if we cease to be an emerging growth company, we will no longer be able to use the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards. We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and the trading price of our common stock may be more volatile.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 4
Changed
America as the exclusive forums for certain disputes between us and our stockholders, which will restrict our stockholders' ability to choose the judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees.
Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for the following types of actions or proceedings under Delaware statutory or common law: any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, any action asserting a breach of a fiduciary duty, any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, or our amended and restated bylaws, or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. The provisions would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Securities Act, the Exchange Act or any other claim for which the U.S. federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. Furthermore, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all such Securities Act actions. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to entertain such claims. To prevent having to litigate claims in multiple jurisdictions and the threat of inconsistent or contrary rulings by different courts, among other considerations, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. Investors cannot waive compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. Accordingly, given the provision in Section 22 of the Securities Act for concurrent jurisdiction by federal and state courts, there is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce this forum selection provision with respect to claims arising under the Securities Act. We believe these provisions benefit us by providing increased consistency in the application of Delaware law and federal securities laws by chancellors and judges, as applicable, particularly experienced in resolving corporate disputes, efficient administration of cases on a more expedited schedule relative to other forums and protection against the burdens of multi-forum litigation. These choice of forum provisions may limit a stockholder's ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees. While the Delaware courts have determined that such choice of forum provisions are facially valid, a stockholder may nevertheless seek to bring such a claim arising under the Securities Act against us, our directors, officers, or other employees in a venue other than in the federal district courts of the United States of America. In such instance, we would expect to vigorously assert the validity and enforceability of the exclusive forum provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. This may require significant additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, and there can be no assurance that the provisions will be enforced by a court in those other jurisdictions. General Risks
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 5
The stock price of our common stock may be volatile or may decline regardless of our operating performance.
The market price of our common stock has and will likely continue to fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors in addition to the ones described in the preceding risk factors, many of which are beyond our control, including: - overall performance of the equity markets and the economy as a whole;- changes in the financial projections we may provide to the public or our failure to meet these projections;- actual or anticipated changes in our growth rate relative to that of our competitors;- changes in the anticipated future size or growth rate of our addressable markets;- announcements of new products and services, technological and platform updates or enhancements, or of acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital-raising activities or commitments, by us or by our competitors;- disruptions to our products and services or our other technology;- additions or departures of board members, management or key personnel;- failure of securities analysts to initiate or maintain coverage of us, changes in financial estimates by any securities analysts who follow our company or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;- rumors and market speculation involving us or other companies in our industry;- new laws or regulations or new interpretations of existing laws or regulations applicable to our business;- lawsuits threatened or filed against us or investigations by governmental authorities;- other events or factors, including those resulting from war, incidents of terrorism, or responses to these events;- health epidemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, influenza, and other highly communicable diseases; and - sales of shares of our common stock by us or our stockholders. In recent years, technology companies have experienced significant price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of stock prices of these companies. In the past, stockholders have instituted securities class action litigation following periods of market volatility. If we were to become involved in securities litigation, it could subject us to substantial costs, divert resources and the attention of management from our business and adversely affect our business. Further, we provide indemnification for our officers and directors for certain claims in connection with such litigation. Large indemnity payments would adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 6
You may incur dilution as a result of future equity issuances.
Any common stock that we issue under our existing equity incentive plans or other equity incentive plans that we may adopt in the future would dilute the percentage ownership held by our other equity holders. Also, in the future, we may issue securities in connection with investments, acquisitions, or capital raising activities. In particular, the number of shares of our common stock issued in connection with an investment or acquisition, or to raise additional equity capital, could constitute a material portion of our then-outstanding shares of our common stock. Any such issuance of additional securities in the future may result in additional dilution to you or may adversely impact the price of our common stock.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 7
Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock by existing holders in the public markets, or the perception that they might occur, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.
Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock into the public market, particularly sales by our directors, executive officers, and principal stockholders, or the perception that these sales might occur, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline and may make it more difficult for you to sell your common stock at a time and price that you deem appropriate. We have also filed registration statements to register shares reserved for future issuance under our equity incentive plans. As a result, subject to the applicable exercise periods and applicable volume and restrictions that apply to affiliates, the shares issued upon exercise of outstanding stock options are available for immediate resale in the United States in the open market. Further, certain of our stockholders have rights, subject to some conditions, to require us to file registration statements for the public resale of the common stock issuable upon conversion of such shares or to include such shares in registration statements that we may file for us or other stockholders. Any registration statement we file to register additional shares, whether as a result of registration rights or otherwise, could cause the trading price of our common stock to decline or be volatile and may make it more difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time and at a price that we deem appropriate.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 8
Our trading price and trading volume could decline if securities or industry analysts cease to publish research about our business, or if they publish unfavorable research.
The trading market for our common stock depends in part on research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. The analysts' estimates are based upon their own opinions and are often different from our estimates or expectations and we do not have any control over the content and opinions included in the analysts' reports. The trading price of our common stock could decline if one or more equity research analysts downgrade our stock or publish other unfavorable commentary or research. If one or more equity research analysts cease coverage of Weave, or fail to regularly publish reports on us, the demand for our common stock could decrease, which in turn could cause our trading price or trading volume to decline.
Share Price & Shareholder Rights - Risk 9
Certain provisions in our corporate charter documents and under Delaware law may prevent or hinder attempts by our stockholders to change our management or to acquire a controlling interest in us, and the trading price of our common stock may be lower as a result.
There are provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws that may make it difficult for a third-party to acquire, or attempt to acquire, control of our company, even if a change in control were considered favorable by our stockholders. These anti-takeover provisions include: - a classified board of directors so that not all members of our board of directors are elected at one time;- the ability of our board of directors to determine the number of directors and to fill any vacancies and newly created directorships;- a requirement that our directors may only be removed for cause;- a prohibition on cumulative voting for directors;- the requirement of a super-majority to amend some provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws;- authorization of the issuance of "blank check" preferred stock that our board of directors could use to implement a stockholder rights plan;- an inability of our stockholders to call special meetings of stockholders; and - a prohibition on stockholder actions by written consent, thereby requiring that all stockholder actions be taken at a meeting of our stockholders. Moreover, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which prohibit a person who owns 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock from merging or combining with us for a three-year period beginning on the date of the transaction in which the person acquired in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock, unless the merger or combination is approved in a prescribed manner. Any provision in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, our amended and restated bylaws or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our common stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our common stock.
Accounting & Financial Operations8 | 10.5%
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 1
We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock and do not intend to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. We anticipate that we will retain all of our future earnings for use in the development of our business and for general corporate purposes. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors. Accordingly, investors must rely on sales of their common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investments.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 2
Our business and financial performance may differ from any projections that we disclose or any information that may be attributed to us by third parties.
From time to time, we may provide guidance via public disclosures regarding our projected business or financial performance. However, any such projections involve risks, assumptions and uncertainties and our actual results could differ materially from such projections. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those identified in these risk factors, some or all of which are not predictable or within our control. Other unknown or unpredictable factors also could adversely impact our performance, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any projections, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. In addition, various news sources, bloggers and other publishers often make statements regarding our historical or projected business or financial performance, and you should not rely on any such information even if it is attributed directly or indirectly to us.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 3
Our ability to use our net operating losses ("NOLs"), to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations
As of December 31, 2023, we had NOL carryforwards for federal and state income tax purposes of $191.8 million and $139.6 million, respectively, which may be available to offset taxable income in the future, and which expire in various years beginning in 2038 for federal purposes and 2033 for state purposes if not utilized. U.S. federal NOLs incurred in 2018 and in future years may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such NOLs is limited to 80% of taxable income each year. States may or may not adopt similar changes. In addition, the federal and state NOLs carryforwards and certain tax credits may be subject to significant limitations under Section 382 and Section 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the "Code"), and similar provisions of state law. Under those sections of the Code, if a corporation undergoes an "ownership change," the corporation's ability to use its pre-change NOL carryforwards and other pre-change attributes, such as research tax credits, to offset its post-change income or tax may be limited. In general, an "ownership change" will occur if there is a cumulative change in our ownership by "5-percent shareholders" that exceeds 50 percentage points over a rolling three-year period. Similar rules may apply under state tax laws. We have not completed a Section 382 assessment to determine whether we have experienced an ownership change in the past, including as a result of our initial public offering ("IPO"). Additionally, we may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership, some of which may be outside of our control. If an ownership change occurs and our ability to use our NOL carryforwards and tax credits is materially limited, it would harm our business by effectively increasing our future tax obligations. Furthermore, our ability to utilize NOLs of companies that we may acquire in the future may be subject to limitations. There is also a risk that due to regulatory changes, such as suspensions on the use of NOLs or other unforeseen reasons, our existing NOLs could expire or otherwise be unavailable to reduce future income tax liabilities, including for state tax purposes. For these reasons, we may not be able to utilize a material portion of the NOLs reflected on our balance sheet, even if we attain profitability, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us and could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. We have recorded a full valuation allowance against the deferred tax assets attributable to our NOLs.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 4
A failure to establish and maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting could adversely affect our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable regulations, which in turn could harm investor confidence in our company and the trading price of our common stock.
The rules and regulations of the SEC require, among other things, that we establish and maintain internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. In particular, we must perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Our independent registered public accounting firm would also be required to report on our internal control over financing reporting after we cease being an emerging growth company. Our and our auditor's testing, as applicable, may reveal deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses and render our internal control over financial reporting ineffective. If any of these controls and systems do not perform as expected, we could experience material weaknesses in our controls. For example, we previously identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting that were remediated in 2022. We have incurred and we expect to continue to incur substantial accounting and auditing expense and expend significant management time in complying with the requirements of Section 404. If we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404 in a timely manner, or if we or our independent registered public accounting firm identify deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses, the market price of our stock could decline and we could be subject to investigations or sanctions by the SEC, the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE"), or other regulatory authorities or subject to litigation. To the extent any material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting are identified in the future, we could be required to expend significant management time and financial resources to correct such material weaknesses or to respond to any resulting regulatory investigations or proceedings.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 5
Changes in financial accounting standards or practices may cause adverse, unexpected financial reporting fluctuations and affect our results of operations.
A change in accounting standards or practices may have a significant effect on our results of operations and may even affect our reporting of transactions completed before the change is effective. New accounting pronouncements and varying interpretations of accounting pronouncements have occurred and may occur in the future. Changes to existing rules or the questioning of current practices may adversely affect our reported financial results or the way we conduct our business. For example, in May 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, issued new revenue recognition rules under Accounting Standard Codification 606 - Revenue from Contracts with Customers, or ASC 606, which became effective in January 2019 and included a single set of rules and criteria for revenue recognition to be used across all industries. Adoption of these types of accounting standards and any difficulties in implementation of changes in accounting principles, including the ability to modify our accounting systems, could cause us to fail to meet our financial reporting obligations, which result in regulatory discipline and harm investors' confidence in us.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 6
Changed
If our estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting estimates prove to be incorrect, our results of operations could be adversely affected.
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities and equity, and the amount of revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Assumptions and estimates used in preparing our consolidated financial statements include those related to revenue recognition and stock-based compensation, including the fair value of our common stock. Our results of operations may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our results of operations to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the trading price of our common stock. In addition to our results determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP, we believe certain non-GAAP measures may be useful in evaluating our operating performance. We present certain non-GAAP financial measures in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and intend to continue to present certain non-GAAP financial measures in future filings with the SEC and other public statements. Any failure to accurately report and present our non-GAAP financial measures could cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial and other information, which would likely have a negative effect on the trading price of our common stock.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 7
We have a history of losses and we may not achieve or sustain profitability in the future.
We have incurred net losses in each year since our inception, including net losses of $31.0 million and $49.7 million in 2023 and 2022, respectively. We had an accumulated deficit of 262.7 million as of December 31, 2023. While we have experienced significant revenue growth in recent periods, we are not yet profitable and our revenue growth rate may decline in future periods and you should not rely on the revenue growth of any given prior period as an indication of our future performance. Additionally, we are not certain whether we will be able to sustain or increase our revenue or whether or when we will attain sufficient revenue to achieve or maintain profitability in the future. We have experienced and expect to continue to experience increased costs and expenses in future periods, which could negatively affect our future results of operations if our revenue does not increase by amounts sufficient to offset such costs and expenses. We expect to continue to expend substantial financial and other resources on, among other things: - sales and marketing, including the continued expansion of our direct sales organization and marketing programs and expanding our programs directed at increasing our brand awareness among current and new customers;- increased labor and compensation expenses;- investments in our customer support teams;- improvements in regulatory compliance and risk management, including security and data protection;- investments in our engineering team and the development of new products, features and functionality and enhancements to our platform, including developing the features and functionality required by new vertical markets that we choose to address in the future;- expansion of our operations and technology infrastructure;- international expansion; and - general administration, including legal, accounting and other expenses related to being a public company. These investments may not result in increased revenue or growth of our business. We also expect that our revenue growth rate will decline over time. Accordingly, we may not be able to generate sufficient revenue to offset our expected cost increases and achieve and sustain profitability. If we fail to achieve and sustain profitability, then our business, results of operations and financial condition would be adversely affected.
Accounting & Financial Operations - Risk 8
Our quarterly results may fluctuate, and if we fail to meet securities analysts' and investors' expectations, then the trading price of our common stock and the value of your investment could decline substantially.
Our results of operations, including the levels of our revenue, cost of revenue, gross margin and operating expenses, have fluctuated from quarter to quarter in the past and may continue to vary significantly in the future. These fluctuations are a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control, and may be difficult to predict and may or may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business. If our quarterly results of operations or forward-looking quarterly and annual financial guidance fall below the expectations of investors or securities analysts, then the trading price of common stock could decline substantially. Some of the important factors that may cause our results of operations to fluctuate from quarter to quarter include: - inflation and interest rate trends and impacts on our customers and the U.S. economy in general;- our ability to retain and increase revenue from existing customers and attract new customers;- our ability to introduce new products and enhance existing products;- our success in penetrating new vertical markets;- competition and the actions of our competitors, including pricing changes and the introduction of new products, services and geographies;- changes in laws, industry standards, regulations or regulatory enforcement in the United States or internationally;- changes in network service provider fees that we pay in connection with the delivery of communications on our platform;- changes in payment processing network and partner fees;- increases in fees from integration partners, such as providers of practice management systems or accounting software;- changes in cloud infrastructure fees that we pay in connection with the operation of our platform;- changes in our pricing as a result of our optimization efforts or otherwise;- the rate of expansion and productivity of our sales force;- change in the mix of our product offerings that our customers use;- the amount and timing of operating costs and capital expenditures related to the operations and expansion of our business, including investments in research and development of new features and functionality for our platform, products and services, our international expansion and additional systems and processes;- costs associated with defending and resolving intellectual property infringement and other claims;- significant security breaches of, technical difficulties with, or interruptions to, the delivery and use of our products on our platform;- expenses in connection with mergers, acquisitions or other strategic transactions and the follow-on costs of integration;- the timing of customer payments and any difficulty in collecting accounts receivable from customers;- general economic conditions that may adversely affect a prospective customer's ability or willingness to adopt our products, delay a prospective customer's adoption decision, reduce the revenue that we generate from subscriptions to our platform and use of our products or affect customer retention;- sales tax and other tax determinations by authorities in the jurisdictions in which we conduct business;- the impact of new accounting pronouncements; and - fluctuations in stock-based compensation expense. The occurrence of one or more of the foregoing and other factors may cause our results of operations to vary significantly. As such, we believe that quarter-to-quarter comparisons of our results of operations may not be meaningful and should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance. In addition,a significant percentage of our operating expenses is fixed in nature and is based on forecasted revenue trends. Accordingly, in the event of a revenue shortfall, we may not be able to mitigate the negative impact on our loss and margins in the short term. If we fail to meet or exceed the expectations of investors or securities analysts, then the trading price of our common stock could fall substantially, and we could face costly lawsuits, including securities class action suits.
Debt & Financing2 | 2.6%
Debt & Financing - Risk 1
We may require additional capital to support the growth of our business, and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms, if at all.
Historically, we have financed our operations and capital expenditures primarily through sales of our capital stock and debt securities that are convertible into our capital stock. In the future, we may raise additional capital through additional debt or equity financings to support our business growth, to respond to business opportunities, challenges, or unforeseen circumstances, or for other reasons. On an ongoing basis, we are evaluating sources of financing and may raise additional capital in the future. Our ability to obtain additional capital will depend on our investor demand, the condition of the capital markets and other factors. Our capital needs will depend on our development efforts, business plans, expenditures to support the growth of our business and the enhancement of our platform and products, and financial performance. We cannot assure you that additional financing will be available to us on favorable terms when required, or at all. If we raise additional funds through the issuance of equity, equity-linked, or debt securities, those securities may have rights, preferences, or privileges senior to the rights of existing stockholders, and existing stockholders may experience dilution. Further, if we are unable to obtain additional capital when required or are unable to obtain additional capital on satisfactory terms, our ability to continue to support our business growth or to respond to business opportunities, challenges, or unforeseen circumstances would be adversely affected.
Debt & Financing - Risk 2
Our loan agreement contains certain restrictions that may limit our ability to operate our business.
The terms of our existing loan and security agreement and the related collateral documents with Silicon Valley Bank ("SVB") contain a number of restrictive covenants that impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us, including restrictions on our ability, and the ability of our subsidiaries, to take actions that may be in our best interests, including, among others, disposing of assets, entering into change of control transactions, mergers or acquisitions, incurring additional indebtedness, granting liens on our assets, declaring and paying dividends, and agreeing to do any of the foregoing. Our loan and security agreement requires that, at any time, if our total unrestricted cash and cash equivalents held at SVB, plus our short-term investments managed by SVB is less than $100 million, we must at all times thereafter maintain a consolidated minimum $20 million in liquidity, meaning unencumbered cash plus available borrowing on the line of credit, and that we meet specified minimum levels of EBITDA, as adjusted for stock-based compensation and changes in our deferred revenue. Our ability to meet financial covenants can be affected by events beyond our control, and we may not be able to continue to meet this covenant. A breach of any of these covenants or the occurrence of other events (including a material adverse effect) specified in the loan and security agreement and/or the related collateral documents could result in an event of default under the loan and security agreement. Upon the occurrence of an event of default, SVB could elect to declare all amounts outstanding, if any, under the loan and security agreement to be immediately due and payable and terminate all commitments to extend further credit. If we were unable to repay those amounts, SVB could proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure such indebtedness. We have pledged substantially all of our assets (other than intellectual property) as collateral under the loan documents. If SVB accelerates the repayment of borrowings, if any, we may not have sufficient funds to repay our existing debt. As of December 31, 2023, we had no outstanding borrowings under this loan and security agreement.
Corporate Activity and Growth8 | 10.5%
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 1
If we cannot maintain our company culture as we grow, we could lose the innovation, teamwork, passion and focus on execution that we believe contribute to our success and our business may be harmed.
We have experienced and may continue to experience rapid expansion and turnover of our employee ranks. From time to time, we have reduced our employee ranks and subsequently built them back up to support the growth of our business. We also have experienced transitions in our executive leadership team. These changes may yield unintended consequences and costs, such as additional attrition, the distraction of employees, reduced employee morale and could adversely affect both our reputation as an employer and our company culture, which could make it more difficult for us to hire new employees in the future. We believe that a critical component to our success to date has been our company culture, which is based on hunger for improvement, caring, creativity, accountability, and customer focus. We have invested substantial time and resources in building our team within this company culture. Any failure to preserve our culture could result in decreased employee satisfaction, and could negatively affect our ability to retain and recruit personnel, and to effectively focus on and pursue our corporate objectives. As we grow and continue to develop our infrastructure, we may find it difficult to maintain these important aspects of our company culture. If we fail to maintain our company culture, our business may be adversely impacted.
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 2
Growth may place significant demands on our infrastructure.
As our operations grow in size, scope, and complexity, we will need to improve and upgrade our systems and infrastructure to attract, service, and retain an increasing number of customers. For example, we expect the volume of simultaneous calls to increase significantly as our customer base grows. Our infrastructure may not be able to accommodate this additional simultaneous call volume. The expansion of our systems and infrastructure may require us to commit substantial financial, operational, and technical resources in advance of an increase in the volume of business, with no assurance that the volume of business will increase. Any such additional capital investments will increase our cost base.
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 3
We may engage in merger and acquisition activities, which would require significant management attention and could disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value, and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
As part of our business strategy to expand usage of our products and services, expand into additional markets, grow our business in response to changing technologies and customer demand, and competitive pressures, we may in the future make investments in, or acquisitions of, other companies, products, or technologies. The identification of suitable acquisition candidates can be difficult, time-consuming, and costly, and we may not be able to complete acquisitions on favorable terms, if at all. If we complete acquisitions, we may not ultimately strengthen our competitive position or achieve the goals of such acquisition, and any acquisitions we complete could be viewed negatively by customers or investors. We may encounter difficult or unforeseen expenditures in integrating an acquisition, particularly if we cannot retain the key personnel of the acquired company. In addition, if we fail to successfully integrate such acquisitions, or the assets, technologies, or personnel associated with such acquisitions, into our company, the business and results of operations of the combined company would be adversely affected. Acquisitions may disrupt our ongoing operations, divert management from their primary responsibilities, subject us to additional liabilities, increase our expenses, subject us to increased regulatory requirements, cause adverse tax consequences or unfavorable accounting treatment, expose us to claims and disputes by stockholders and third parties, and adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations. We may not successfully evaluate or utilize the acquired assets and accurately forecast the financial impact of an acquisition transaction, including accounting charges. We may pay cash for any such acquisition, which would limit other potential uses for our cash. If we incur debt to fund any such acquisition, such debt may subject us to material restrictions in our ability to conduct our business, result in increased fixed obligations, and subject us to covenants or other restrictions that would decrease our operational flexibility and impede our ability to manage our operations. If we issue a significant amount of equity securities in connection with future acquisitions, existing stockholders' ownership would be diluted.
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 4
The requirements of being a public company may strain our resources and divert management's attention.
As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), the NYSE listing standards, and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Compliance with the requirements of these rules and regulations have and will continue to increase our legal, accounting, and financial compliance costs, may make some activities more difficult, time-consuming, and costly, and may place significant strain on our personnel, systems, and resources. For example, the Exchange Act requires, among other things, that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and results of operations. As a result of the complexity involved in complying with the rules and regulations applicable to public companies, our management's attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Although we have hired employees to assist us in complying with these requirements, we may need to hire more employees in the future or engage outside consultants, which will increase our operating expenses. In addition, changing laws, regulations, and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure are creating uncertainty for public companies, increasing legal and financial compliance costs, and making some activities more time-consuming. These laws, regulations, and standards are subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. We intend to invest substantial resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management's time and attention from business operations to compliance activities. If our efforts to comply with new laws, regulations, and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to their application and practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our business may be harmed. As a public company subject to enhanced rules and regulations, it is also more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain coverage. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board of directors, particularly to serve on our audit committee and compensation committee, and qualified executive officers. As a result of disclosure obligations required in our public filings, our business and financial condition has become more visible, which may result in an increased risk of threatened or actual litigation, including by competitors and other third parties. If such claims are successful, our business and results of operations could be harmed, and even if the claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor, these claims, and the time and resources necessary to resolve them, could divert the resources of our management and harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 5
Our recent rapid growth may not be indicative of our future growth. Our rapid growth also makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and may increase the risk that we will not be successful.
Our revenue was $170.5 million, $142.1 million, and $115.9 million during the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively. Additionally, we have experienced significant growth and churn in our number of employees (including both full- and part-time employees) over the last few years creating operational challenges, particularly in our customer service and sales organizations. We have also expanded operations outside of the United States including establishing engineering and administrative operations in India in 2021, support operations in India in 2022, and outsourced supplemental customer support operations in the Philippines in 2023. Our revenue and number of customers have increased in recent periods, and we expect our growth rate will fluctuate from time to time. Overall growth of our revenue and number of customers depends on a number of factors, including, but not limited to, our ability to: - price our products and services effectively to attract new customers and increase sales to our existing customers;- manage inflation and interest rate trends and impacts on our business and operations;- expand the functionality and scope of the products we offer on our platform;- maintain the rates at which customers subscribe to, and adopt additional products, such as Weave Payments, to extend their use of our platform and retain our existing customers;- hire new sales personnel to support our growth, and reduce the time for new personnel to achieve desired productivity levels;- provide our customers with high-quality customer support that meets their needs;- introduce our platform and products to new markets, including to markets outside of the United States;- serve SMBs across a wide cross-section of vertical industries, such as those within specialized healthcare and to increase the number of vertical industries we serve;- successfully identify and acquire or invest in businesses, products, or technologies that we believe could complement or expand our platform; and - increase awareness of our brand and successfully compete with other companies. We may not successfully accomplish any of these objectives, which makes it difficult for us to forecast our future operating results. If the assumptions that we use to plan our business are incorrect or change in reaction to changes in our market, or if we are unable to maintain consistent revenue or revenue growth, our stock price could be volatile, and it may be difficult to achieve and maintain profitability. Additionally, due to our recent rapid growth, we have limited experience operating at our current scale and potentially at a larger scale, and as a result, it may be difficult for us to fully evaluate future prospects and risks. Our recent and historical growth should not be considered indicative of our future performance. We have encountered in the past, and will encounter in the future, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing industries. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties that we use to plan and operate our business are incorrect or change, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our financial condition and operating results could differ materially from our expectations, our growth rates may decline and our business would be adversely impacted.
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 6
Changed
We may not be able to continue to expand our share of our existing vertical markets or expand into new healthcare vertical markets, which would inhibit our ability to grow and increase our profitability.
Our future growth and profitability depend, in part, upon our continued expansion within the healthcare vertical markets, such as dentistry, optometry, veterinary, and other medical specialty services where our revenue is concentrated, as well as our ability to penetrate new healthcare vertical markets. Our expansion into new healthcare vertical markets also depends upon our ability to adapt our existing platform, develop additional features and functionality to meet the particular needs of each new vertical market, and may depend on our ability to integrate our platform with practice management software or other systems of record. For example, some new healthcare vertical markets may require greater mobile functionality than customers in our existing markets. Other new healthcare vertical markets may require additional functionality to address regulatory considerations. Specifically, in our existing vertical markets such as dentistry and optometry, we had to expend significant time and resources to integrate with dental practice management software and address the strict patient and other privacy regulations associated with those industries. We may not have adequate financial or technological resources to develop effective and secure enhancements to our platform and new products that will satisfy the demands of these new healthcare vertical markets. In addition, we will need to make sales and marketing investments to increase awareness of our platform and products in new healthcare vertical markets in which we have not historically had a presence. Further, as positive references from existing customers are vital to expanding into new vertical and geographic markets, any dissatisfaction on the part of existing customers may harm our brand and reputation and inhibit market acceptance of our platform and products. As part of our strategy to expand into new healthcare vertical markets, we may look for acquisition opportunities and partnerships that will allow us to enhance our offerings and distribution channels for those verticals and increase our market penetration. We may not be able to successfully identify suitable acquisition, partnership, or integration candidates in the future, and if we do, they may not provide us with the benefits we anticipated. Penetrating new healthcare vertical markets may also prove to be more challenging or costly or take longer than we may anticipate. If we fail to expand into new healthcare vertical markets and increase our penetration into existing vertical markets, we may not be able to continue to grow our revenue. Moreover, we will need to make investments to enter new markets in advance of deriving revenue from those markets, and, if we are unable to derive incremental revenue from new healthcare vertical markets in which we make investments to earn an adequate return on our investments, our business and results of operations will suffer. In addition, we cannot be sure that the time periods that have been required historically to identify, evaluate, develop and launch new product offerings to address specific healthcare vertical markets will be representative of the time that will be required to address new healthcare vertical markets in the future. Delays in addressing healthcare vertical markets may result in an increase in the investment required to address these markets, delay our ability to derive revenue from these markets and adversely affect our ability to address those markets if other companies are able to address those markets with competitive offerings before we are able to do so.
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 7
We may not be able to successfully manage our growth, and if we are not able to grow efficiently, our business, financial condition and results of operations could suffer.
We have significantly expanded our business and operations, and our business strategy contemplates that we will significantly expand our business and operations in the future. Our future operating results depend to a large extent on our ability to manage this expansion and growth successfully. Sustaining our growth will place significant demands on our management as well as on our administrative, operational, and financial resources, particularly while we continue to navigate relatively recent transitions in management and challenging macroeconomic conditions. If we are unable to manage our growth effectively, our revenue and profits could be adversely affected. To manage our growth, we must continue to improve our operational, financial, and management information systems and expand, motivate, retain and manage our workforce. These improvements will require significant investments in, among other things, sales and marketing, customer support, technology infrastructure, regulatory compliance and risk management and general and administrative functions. These investments may not result in increased revenue growth in our business. If we are unable to increase our revenue at a rate sufficient to offset the expected increase in our costs, or if we encounter difficulties in managing a growing number of customers, our business, financial position and operating results will be harmed, and we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability over the long term. Risks that we face in undertaking future expansion include: - effectively recruiting, integrating, training, and motivating a large number of new employees, including our customer services representatives, direct sales force, and engineering resources, while retaining existing employees and reducing the rate of employee turnover, maintaining the beneficial aspects of our corporate culture, and effectively executing our business plan;- successfully improving and expanding the capabilities of our platform and introducing new products and services;- controlling expenses and investments in anticipation of expanded operations; and - managing the expansion of operations in the United States and potentially in additional countries in the future, which will place additional demands on our resources and operations.
Corporate Activity and Growth - Risk 8
Our risk management strategies may not be fully effective in mitigating our risk exposure in all market environments or against all types of risk.
We operate in a rapidly changing industry. Accordingly, our risk management strategies may not be fully effective to identify, monitor and manage all risks that our business encounters. In addition, when we introduce new services, focus on expanding relationships with new types of customers, or begin to operate in new markets, we may be less able to forecast risk levels and reserve accurately for potential losses, as a result of fraud or otherwise. If our strategies are not fully effective or we are not successful in identifying and mitigating all risks to which we are or may be exposed, we may suffer uninsured liability or harm to our reputation, or be subject to litigation or regulatory actions, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Tech & Innovation
Total Risks: 15/76 (20%)Below Sector Average
Innovation / R&D4 | 5.3%
Innovation / R&D - Risk 1
Changed
If we are unable to develop and maintain successful integrations, such as integrations with providers of systems of record, including practice management systems ("PMS"), or accounting software, the value of our platform and products could decline and our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
We have built integrations with other vendors, such as systems of record providers, and we intend to pursue additional integrations in the future. Our integrations with these partners are typically structured as commercial and technical partnership agreements, pursuant to which we integrate certain aspects of our platform and products with the systems or software that are utilized by our customers, for agreed payments to such integration partners based on pricing models they have customarily offered us. The success of our business strategy relies, in part, on our ability to form and maintain these integrations with such partners on customary terms in order to facilitate and permit the integration of our platform and products into the systems or software used by our customers. For example, dental PMS product Dentrix provides critical functionality to our platform for a significant portion of our customer base, pursuant to a contract that provides for integration through July 2026, subject to certain conditions including third-party access approval and security protocols for data protection and system integrity. Providers of these systems or software may compete with certain of the functionality offered by our platform and products, and they may in the future expand their offerings to compete more directly with our platform and products or elect to partner with our competitors. If providers of these systems or software amend, terminate or fail to perform their obligations under their agreements with us, or if they elect to prioritize developing competing offerings or developing integration with offerings of our competitors, our platform and products may no longer integrate with the systems or software of our customers, which would lower the value of our platform and products to our customers and materially and adversely affect our business results. Additionally, if these providers change their pricing models in a manner adverse to us, our results of operations may be adversely impacted. We may also seek to create new integrations in the future, and we may not be successful in developing integrations or negotiating integration agreements on terms favorable to us. If we are not able to create integrations with other providers of systems or software used by our customers, the attractiveness of our products to customers may be diminished. In addition, any delay in creating integrations with providers of systems or software used by our customers or potential customers could delay or impair our ability to enter new healthcare vertical markets or enhance the functionality of our platform and products, and reduce their competitiveness. Any such delay could adversely affect our business.
Innovation / R&D - Risk 2
If we do not develop enhancements to our platform and products and introduce new products that achieve market acceptance, our business, results of operations and financial condition would be adversely affected.
Our ability to attract new customers and increase revenue from existing customers depends in part on our ability to enhance and improve our existing platform and products, increase adoption and usage of our products and introduce new products. The success of any enhancements or new products depends on several factors, including timely completion, adequate quality testing, actual performance quality, market-accepted pricing levels, overall market acceptance, ease of use of the new product and trained customer support personnel who can assist customers with the new product. Enhancements and new products that we develop may not be introduced in a timely or cost-effective manner, may contain errors or defects, may require reworking features and capabilities, may have interoperability difficulties with our platform or other products or may not achieve the broad market acceptance necessary to generate significant revenue. Our ability to generate usage of additional products by our customers may also require increasingly sophisticated and more costly sales efforts. In addition, adoption of new products or enhancements may put additional strain on our customer support and success teams, which could require us to make additional expenditures related to further hiring and training. We also may invest in the acquisition of complementary businesses, technologies, services, products and other assets that expand the products that we can offer our customers. We may make these investments without being certain that they will result in products or enhancements that will be accepted by existing or prospective customers. If we are unable to successfully enhance our existing platform and products to meet evolving customer requirements, increase adoption and usage of our products or develop new products, or if our efforts to increase the usage of our products are more expensive than we expect, then our business, results of operations and financial condition would be adversely affected.
Innovation / R&D - Risk 3
If we fail to adapt and respond effectively to rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards, changing regulations, and changing customer needs, requirements or preferences, our platform and products may become less competitive.
The market for vertically tailored customer experience and payments software in general, and cloud-based communications in particular, is subject to rapid technological change, evolving industry standards, changing regulations, as well as changing customer needs, requirements and preferences. Customers and consumers may choose to adopt other forms of electronic communications or alternative customer engagement platforms. The success of our business will depend, in part, on our ability to adapt and respond effectively to these changes on a timely basis. If we are unable to develop functionality for our platform or new products that satisfy our customers and provide enhancements and new features for our existing products that keep pace with rapid technological and industry change, including but not limited to applicable industry standards, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected. If new technologies emerge that are able to deliver competitive products and services at lower prices, more efficiently, more conveniently or more securely, such technologies could adversely impact our ability to compete effectively. Our platform must integrate with a variety of network, hardware, mobile and software platforms and technologies, and we need to continuously modify and enhance our products and platform to adapt to changes and innovation in these technologies if mobile phone operating system providers, network service providers, our customers or their end users adopt new software platforms or infrastructure, we may be required to develop new versions of our products to work with those new platforms or infrastructure. This development effort may require significant resources, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. We may need to devote significant resources to the creation, support, and maintenance of our mobile applications, and any failure of our platform and products to operate effectively with evolving or new platforms and technologies could reduce the demand for our platform and products. If we are unable to respond to these changes in a cost-effective manner, or at all, our platform and products may become less marketable and less competitive or obsolete, and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Innovation / R&D - Risk 4
Failure to effectively develop and expand our marketing and sales capabilities could harm our ability to increase our customer base and achieve broader market acceptance of our platform.
To increase total customers and achieve broader market acceptance of our platform and products, we will need to expand our marketing and sales operations, including our sales force. We will continue to dedicate significant resources to inbound and outbound sales and marketing programs and to increase and develop our digital marketing competencies. The effectiveness of our inbound and outbound sales and marketing and third-party channel partners has varied over time and may vary in the future. All of these efforts will require us to invest significant financial and other resources. We may not achieve anticipated revenue growth by expanding our sales force if, among other reasons, we are unable to hire, develop and retain talented sales personnel, if our new sales personnel are unable to achieve desired productivity levels in a reasonable period of time or if our sales and marketing programs are not effective. Our business will be seriously harmed if our investments in sales and marketing do not generate an increase in revenue that represents an appropriate return on our investment.
Trade Secrets3 | 3.9%
Trade Secrets - Risk 1
Failure to protect or enforce our intellectual property rights could impair our ability to protect our internally-developed technology and our brand, and our business may be adversely affected.
Our success is dependent, in part, upon obtaining, maintaining and protecting our intellectual property rights, internally-developed technology and other proprietary information. We rely and expect to continue to rely on a combination of trademark, copyright, and trade secret protection laws to protect our intellectual property rights, internally-developed technology and other proprietary information. Additionally, we maintain a policy requiring our employees, consultants, independent contractors, and other third parties who are engaged in developing any intellectual property for us to enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements to control access to and use of our technology and other proprietary information and to ensure that any intellectual property developed by such employees, contractors, consultants, and other third parties are assigned to us. However, we cannot guarantee that such confidentiality and proprietary agreements or other employee, consultant, or independent contractor agreements that we enter into will adequately protect our intellectual property rights, internally-developed technology and other proprietary information. In addition, we cannot guarantee that these agreements will not be breached, that we will have adequate remedies for any breach, or that the applicable counterparties to such agreements will not assert rights to our intellectual property rights, internally-developed technology or other proprietary information arising out of these relationships. Furthermore, the steps we have taken and may take in the future may not prevent misappropriation of our internally-developed solutions or technologies, particularly with respect to directors, officers and employees who are no longer employed by Weave. In addition, third parties may knowingly or unknowingly infringe or circumvent our intellectual property rights, and we may not be able to prevent infringement even after incurring substantial expenses. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights would be costly, time-consuming, and distracting to management and key personnel, and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims, and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. If the protection of our intellectual property rights is inadequate to prevent use or misappropriation by third parties, the value of our brand and other intangible assets may be diminished and competitors may be able to more effectively mimic our platform and methods of operations. Any of these events would have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Trade Secrets - Risk 2
We could incur substantial costs as a result of any claim of infringement of another party's intellectual property rights.
There is considerable activity in connection with the development of intellectual property, whether or not patentable, in our industry. Our competitors, as well as a number of other entities, including non-practicing entities and individuals, may own or claim to own intellectual property relating to our industry and our business. As we face increasing competition and our public profile increases, the possibility of intellectual property rights claims against us may also increase. We have in the past and may in the future be subject to legal proceedings and claims by our competitors or other third parties that we are infringing upon, misappropriating, or violating their intellectual property rights, even if we are unaware of such intellectual property rights. Such claims, regardless of merit, may result in litigation. The costs of defending such litigation are considerable, and such litigation may divert management and key personnel's attention and resources, which might seriously harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition. We may be required to settle such litigation on terms that are unfavorable to us. For example, a settlement may require us to obtain a license to continue practices found to be in violation of a third-party's rights, which may not be available on reasonable terms and may significantly increase our operating expenses. A license to continue such practices may not be available to us at all. As a result, we may also be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology or practices or discontinue the practices. The development of alternative non-infringing technology or practices would require significant effort and expense. Similarly, if any litigation to which we may be a party fails to settle and we go to trial, we may be subject to an unfavorable judgment. For example, the terms of a judgment may require us to cease some or all of our operations or require the payment of substantial amounts to the other party. Any of these events or other outcomes may: - materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations;- result in the loss of a substantial number of existing customers or prohibit the acquisition of new customers;- cause us to pay license fees for intellectual property we are deemed to have infringed;- cause us to incur costs and devote valuable technical resources to redesigning our products or platform;- cause our cost of revenue to increase;- cause us to accelerate expenditures to preserve existing revenue;- cause existing or new vendors to require pre-payments or letters of credit;- materially and adversely affect our brand in the marketplace and cause a substantial loss of goodwill;- cause us to change our business methods;- require us to cease certain business operations or offering certain products or features; and - lead to our bankruptcy or liquidation.
Trade Secrets - Risk 3
Indemnity provisions in various agreements potentially expose us to substantial liability for intellectual property infringement and other losses.
Our agreements with third parties may include indemnification or other provisions under which we agree to indemnify or otherwise be liable to them for losses suffered or incurred as a result of claims of intellectual property infringement, loss or exposure of confidential or sensitive data, damages caused by us to property or persons or other liabilities relating to or arising from our products or platform or other acts or omissions. The term of these contractual provisions often survives termination or expiration of the applicable agreement. Large indemnity payments or damage claims from contractual breach could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition. Although typically we contractually limit our liability with respect to such obligations, we may still incur substantial liability related to them. Any dispute with a customer with respect to such obligations could have adverse effects on our relationship with that customer and other current and prospective customers, demand for our products and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Cyber Security1 | 1.3%
Cyber Security - Risk 1
Breaches of our applications, networks or systems, or those of GCP or our service providers, could degrade our ability to conduct our business, compromise the integrity of our products, platform and data, result in significant data losses and the theft of our intellectual property, damage our reputation, expose us to liability to third parties and require us to incur significant additional costs to maintain the security of our networks and data.
We depend upon our information technology ("IT") systems to conduct virtually all of our business operations, ranging from the operation of our platform, our internal operations and research and development activities to our marketing and sales efforts and communications with our customers and integration partners. Individuals or entities may attempt to penetrate our network security, or that of our platform, and to cause harm to our business operations, including by misappropriating our proprietary information or that of our customers, employees and integration partners or to cause interruptions of our products and platform. In particular, cyberattacks (including ransomware) and other malicious internet-based activity continue to increase in frequency and in magnitude generally, and cloud-based companies continue to be targeted. In addition to threats from traditional computer hackers, malicious code (such as malware, viruses, worms, and ransomware), employee theft or misuse, password spraying, phishing, credential stuffing, and denial-of-service attacks, we also face threats from sophisticated organized crime, nation-state, and nation-state supported actors who engage in attacks (including advanced persistent threat intrusions) that add to the risk to our systems (including those hosted on GCP or other cloud services), internal networks, our customers' systems and the information that they store and process. Because the techniques used by such individuals or entities to access, disrupt or sabotage devices, systems and networks change frequently and may not be recognized until launched against a target, we may be required to make further investments over time to protect data and infrastructure as cybersecurity threats develop, evolve and grow more complex over time. We may also be unable to anticipate these techniques, and we may not become aware in a timely manner of such a security breach, which could exacerbate any damage we experience. Additionally, we depend upon our employees and contractors to appropriately handle confidential and sensitive data, including customer data, and to deploy our IT resources in a safe and secure manner that does not expose our network systems to security breaches or the loss of data. We have been and will continue to be subject to cybersecurity threats and incidents, including denial-of-service attacks, employee errors or individual attempts to gain unauthorized access to information systems. Any information security incidents, including internal malfeasance or inadvertent disclosures by our employees or a third-party's fraudulent inducement of our employees to disclose information, unauthorized access or usage, virus or similar breach or disruption of us or our service providers, such as GCP, could result in the loss of confidential or personal information, damage to our reputation, erosion of customer trust, loss of customers, litigation, regulatory investigations, fines, penalties and other liabilities. Furthermore, we are required to comply with laws and regulations, including stringent regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA"), that require us to maintain the security of personal information and we may have contractual and other legal obligations to notify customers, regulators or other relevant stakeholders of security breaches. Such disclosures could lead to negative publicity, may cause our customers to lose confidence in the effectiveness of our security measures and require us to expend significant capital and other resources to respond to and/or mitigate the security breach. Accordingly, if our cybersecurity measures or those of GCP or our service providers,fail to protect against unauthorized access, attacks (which may include sophisticated cyberattacks), compromise or the mishandling of data by our employees and contractors, then our reputation, customer trust, business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected. While we maintain errors, omissions, and cyber liability insurance policies covering certain security and privacy damages, we cannot be certain that our existing insurance coverage will continue to be available on acceptable terms, and in sufficient amounts, to cover the potentially significant losses that may result from a security incident or breach or that the insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim.
Technology7 | 9.2%
Technology - Risk 1
We depend on the interoperability of our platform or products with those of our integration partners.
We maintain integrations with various third-party applications, products and services to enhance our vertically tailored software platform. These third-party offerings are constantly evolving, and we may not be able to maintain or modify our platform to ensure its compatibility with these offerings. In addition, some of these third parties may have or introduce offerings that compete with our platform. These third parties or our competitors may take actions that disrupt the interoperability of our platform with their products or services, or they may exert strong business influence on our ability to, and the terms on which, we operate and distribute our platform. As our platform evolves, we expect the types and levels of competition we face to increase. Should any of our competitors modify their technologies, standards, or terms of use in a manner that degrades the functionality or performance of our platform or is otherwise unsatisfactory to us or gives preferential treatment to our competitors' products or services, our platform, business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Technology - Risk 2
Defects or errors in our platform or products could diminish demand for our products, harm our business and results of operations and subject us to liability.
Our customers use our platform and products for important aspects of their businesses, and any errors, defects or disruptions to our products and any other performance problems with our products could damage our customers' businesses and, in turn, hurt our brand and reputation and erode customer trust. We provide regular updates to our platform and products, which have in the past contained, and may in the future contain, undetected errors, failures, vulnerabilities and bugs when first introduced or released. Real or perceived errors, failures or bugs in our products could result in negative publicity, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our platform, loss of competitive position, lower customer retention or claims by customers for losses sustained by them. In such an event, we may be required, or may choose, for customer relations or other reasons, to expend additional resources to help correct the problem. In addition, we may not carry insurance sufficient to compensate us for any losses that may result from claims arising from defects or disruptions in our products. As a result, our reputation and our brand could be harmed, and our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.
Technology - Risk 3
Interruptions or performance problems associated with our technology and infrastructure may adversely affect our business and operating results.
Our continued growth depends in part on the ability of our existing and potential customers to access our platform at any time and within an acceptable amount of time. Our platform is proprietary, and we rely on the expertise of members of our engineering, operations, and product development teams for our platform's continued performance. We have experienced, and may in the future experience, disruptions, outages, and other performance problems related to our platform due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, introductions of new functionality, human or software errors, delays in scaling our technical infrastructure if we do not maintain enough excess capacity and accurately predict our infrastructure requirements, capacity constraints due to an overwhelming number of users accessing our platform simultaneously, denial-of-service attacks, human error, actions or inactions attributable to third parties, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, natural disasters, power losses, disruptions in telecommunications services, fraud, military or political conflicts, terrorist attacks and other geopolitical unrest, computer viruses, ransomware, malware or other events. Our systems also may be subject to break-ins, sabotage, theft, and intentional acts of vandalism, including by our own employees. Some of our systems are not fully redundant and our disaster recovery planning may not be sufficient for all eventualities. Further, our business or network interruption insurance may not be sufficient to cover all of our losses that may result from interruptions in our service as a result of systems failures and similar events. From time to time, we may experience limited periods of server downtime due to server failure or other technical difficulties. In some instances, we may not be able to identify the cause or causes of these performance problems within an acceptable period of time. It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve our performance, especially during peak usage times and as our platform becomes more complex and our user traffic increases. If our platform is unavailable or if our users are unable to access our platform within a reasonable amount of time, or at all, our business would be adversely affected and our brand could be harmed. In the event of any of the factors described above, or certain other failures of our infrastructure, customer or guest data may be permanently lost. Moreover, a limited number of our agreements with customers may provide for limited service level commitments from time to time, and it is possible that an increasing number of our agreements may include service-level commitments in the future. If we experience significant periods of service downtime in the future, we may be subject to claims by our customers against these service level commitments. System failures in the future could also result in significant losses of revenue. To the extent that we do not effectively address capacity constraints, upgrade our systems as needed, and continually develop our technology and network architecture to accommodate actual and anticipated changes in technology, our business and operating results may be adversely affected.
Technology - Risk 4
Added
The use of artificial intelligence ("AI") technologies in our platform and our business may not produce the desired benefits, and may result in increased liability, reputational harm, or other adverse consequences.
We continue to incorporate additional AI solutions and features into our platform and our business and these solutions and features may become more important to our operations or to our future growth over time. However, there can be no assurance that we will realize the desired or anticipated benefits from AI. Our investments in AI solutions and features may negatively impact our cost of revenue and gross margins until we are able to increase revenue enough to offset these investments. We may also fail to properly implement or market our AI solutions and features. Our competitors or other third parties may incorporate AI into their products, offerings, and solutions more quickly or more successfully than us, which could impair our ability to compete effectively and adversely affect our results of operations. Our ability to effectively implement and market our AI solutions and features will depend, in part, on our ability to attract and retain employees with AI expertise, and we expect significant competition for professionals with the skills and technical knowledge that we will require. Additionally, our offerings based on AI may expose us to additional claims, demands and proceedings by private parties and regulatory authorities and subject us to legal liability as well as brand and reputational harm. For example, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected if content or recommendations that AI solutions or features assist in producing are or are alleged to be deficient, inaccurate, or biased, or if such content, recommendations, solutions, or features or their development or deployment (including the collection, use, or other processing of data used to train or create such AI solutions or features) are found to have or alleged to have infringed upon or misappropriated third-party intellectual property rights or violated applicable laws, regulations, or other actual or asserted legal obligations to which we are or may become subject. The legal, regulatory, and policy environments around AI are evolving rapidly, and we may become subject to new and evolving legal and other obligations. These and other developments may require us to make significant changes to our use of AI, including by limiting or restricting our use of AI, and which may require us to make significant changes to our policies and practices, which may necessitate expenditure of significant time, expense, and other resources. AI also presents emerging ethical issues, and if our use of AI becomes controversial, we may experience brand or reputational harm.
Technology - Risk 5
Our use of "open source" and third-party software could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to commercialize our solutions and could subject us to possible litigation.
A portion of the technologies we use in our products incorporate "open source" software, and we may continue to incorporate open source software in our products in the future. From time to time, companies that use third-party open source software have faced claims challenging the use of such open source software and their compliance with the terms of the applicable open source license. We may be subject to lawsuits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software, or claiming noncompliance with the applicable open source licensing terms. Some open source licenses require end-users who distribute or make available software and services across a network that include open source software to make available all or part of such software, which in some circumstances could include valuable proprietary code, at no cost, or license such code under the terms of the particular open source license. While we employ practices designed to monitor our compliance with the licenses of third-party open source software and protect our valuable internally-developed source code, we may inadvertently use third-party open source software in a manner that exposes us to claims of non-compliance with the applicable terms of such license, including claims for infringement of intellectual property rights or for breach of contract. Additionally, if a third-party software provider has incorporated open source software into software that we license from such provider, we could be required to disclose source code that incorporates or is a modification of such licensed software. Furthermore, there is an increasing number of open-source software license types, almost none of which have been tested in a court of law, resulting in a dearth of guidance regarding the proper legal interpretation of such license types. If an author or other third-party that distributes open source software that we use or license were to allege that we had not complied with the conditions of the applicable open source license, we could expend substantial time and resources to re-engineer some or all of our software or be required to incur significant legal expenses defending against such allegations. Additionally, we could be subject to significant damages, enjoined from the use of our platform, products, or other technologies we use in our business that contain such open source software, and be required to comply with the foregoing conditions, including the public release of certain portions of our internally-developed source code. In addition, the use of third-party open source software typically exposes us to greater risks than the use of third-party commercial software because open-source licensors generally do not provide warranties or set up controls on the functionality or origin of the software. Use of open source software may also present additional security risks because the public availability of such software may make it easier for hackers and other third parties to exploit vulnerabilities in such software and determine how to compromise our platform. Any of the foregoing could be harmful to our business, financial condition or operating results. In the future, we may need to obtain licenses from third parties to use intellectual property rights associated with the development of our platform, products, and other internal tools, which might not be available on acceptable terms, or at all. Any loss of the right to use any third-party software required for the development and maintenance of our platform, products, or other internal tools could result in loss of functionality or availability of our platform, products, or other internal tools until equivalent technology is either developed by us, or, if available, is identified, obtained, and integrated. Any errors or defects in third-party software could result in errors or a failure of our platform, products, or other internal tools. Any of the foregoing would disrupt the deployment of our platform, products, or other internal tools and harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Technology - Risk 6
Our customers' and other users' violation of our policies or other misuse of our platform to transmit unauthorized, offensive or illegal messages, spam, phishing scams, and website links to harmful applications or for other fraudulent or illegal activity could damage our reputation, and we may face a risk of litigation and liability for illegal activities on our platform and unauthorized, inaccurate, or fraudulent information distributed via our platform.
The actual or perceived improper sending of text messages, pre-recorded messages, or voice calls may subject us to potential risks, including liabilities or claims relating to consumer protection laws and regulatory enforcement, including fines. For example, the TCPA and the Telemarketing Sales Rule restrict telemarketing and the use of automatic SMS text messages. The TCPA requires companies to obtain prior express written consent before making telemarketing calls or sending certain text messages and to not contact any number placed on either federal or state "do-not-call" registries or the company's internal do-not-call list. The FCC may take enforcement action against persons or entities that send "junk faxes," or make illegal robocalls, and individuals also may have a private cause of action. Although the FCC's rules prohibiting unsolicited fax advertisements or making illegal robocalls apply to those who "send" the advertisements or make the calls, fax transmitters or other service providers that have a high degree of involvement in, or actual notice of, unlawful sending of junk faxes or making of illegal robocalls and have failed to take steps to prevent such transmissions may also face liability under the FCC's rules, or in the case of illegal robocalls, Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") rules. We take significant steps designed to prevent our systems from being used to make illegal robocalls or send unsolicited faxes on a large scale, and we do not believe that we have a high degree of involvement in, or notice of, the use of our systems to broadcast junk faxes or make illegal robocalls. However, because fax transmitters and related service providers do not enjoy an absolute exemption from liability under the TCPA and related FCC rules, we could face FCC or FTC inquiry and enforcement or civil litigation, or private causes of action, if someone uses our system for such purposes. Because the TCPA provides for a private right of action under which a plaintiff may recover monetary damages, this may result in civil claims against Weave and requests for information through third party subpoenas. The scope and interpretation of the laws that are or may be applicable to the delivery of text messages or voice calls are continuously evolving and developing. If we do not comply with these laws or regulations or if we become liable under these laws or regulations due to the failure of our customers to comply with these laws by obtaining proper consent, we could face direct liability. Moreover, despite our ongoing and substantial efforts to limit such use, certain customers may use our platform to transmit unauthorized, offensive or illegal messages, spam, phishing scams, and website links to harmful applications, reproduce and distribute copyrighted material or the trademarks of others without permission, and report inaccurate or fraudulent data or information. These actions are in violation of our policies, in particular, our acceptable use policies. However, our efforts to defeat spamming attacks and other fraudulent activity will not prevent all such attacks and activity. Such use of our platform could damage our reputation and we could face claims for damages, regulatory enforcement, copyright or trademark infringement, defamation, negligence, or fraud. Moreover, our customers' and other users' promotion of their products and services through our platform might not comply with federal, state, and foreign laws. These risks may increase as we enter new healthcare vertical markets that rely more heavily on email marketing campaigns to obtain new customers. We rely on contractual representations made to us by our customers that their use of our platform will comply with our policies and applicable law, including, without limitation, our email and messaging policies. Although we retain the right to verify that customers and other users are abiding by certain contractual terms, our acceptable use policy and our email and messaging policies and, in certain circumstances, we review their email and distribution lists, our customers and other users are ultimately responsible for compliance with our policies, and we do not systematically audit our customers or other users to confirm compliance with our policies. We cannot predict whether our role in facilitating our customers' or other users' activities would expose us to liability under applicable law, or whether that possibility could become more likely if there are changes to current laws regulating content moderation, such as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. There have been various Congressional and executive efforts to eliminate or modify Section 230 over the past few years. Even if claims asserted against us do not result in liability, we may incur substantial costs in investigating and defending such claims. If we are found liable for our customers' or other users' activities, we could be required to pay fines or penalties, redesign business methods or otherwise expend resources to remedy any damages caused by such actions and to avoid future liability. Similar rules in Canada, such as CASL and Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules, may subject our company to similar risks, even if merely resulting in reputational or monetary harm associated with investigating and defending such claims, including if such claims do not result in liability.
Technology - Risk 7
The standards that Mobile Network Operators use to regulate the delivery of SMS text messages have in the past interfered with, and may in the future interfere with, the effectiveness of our platform and our ability to conduct business.
Our customers rely on SMS text messaging for communicating with their customers. To address requirements set forth in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 ("TCPA"), the Federal Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (the "CAN-SPAM Act"), the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association guidelines, and in other FCC rules regarding unwanted communications, the U.S. wireless communications industry and Mobile Network Operators, ("MNOs") have set forth standards governing the delivery of non-consumer messages via wireless provider networks with the primary objective of protecting consumers from unwanted messages. These standards include, but are not limited to, standards and registration for businesses sending messages to consumers from a 10-digit long code ("10DLC"). MNOs monitor non-consumer messages and block or limit throughput of messages if a sender does not adhere to industry and MNO-defined standards, or if a sender is not properly registered to send messages using a 10DLC. If non-conforming text messages are sent from a business' telephone number, that number may be blocked or limited from sending text messages, or charged additional fees by the MNOs. We work closely with our service providers in order to comply with the applicable laws and maintain our deliverability rates. However, as the popularity of text messaging increases over time, we expect the MNOs and the wireless communications industry to continue to implement additional requirements, restrictions, and fees for sending non-consumer messages. There are some exceptions to non-consumer messaging requirements, which apply to a large number of our customers, including exceptions for health care related messages and messages sent from "low-volume" senders, such as small businesses. However, if text messages originating from our customers are blocked or limited by MNOs, or if MNOs impose additional fees for certain text messages, the effectiveness of our customers' text message communications with their customers may be impacted, and our customers may question the effectiveness of our platform and discontinue service. This could result in harm to our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Legal & Regulatory
Total Risks: 12/76 (16%)Below Sector Average
Regulation5 | 6.6%
Regulation - Risk 1
The standards that private entities and email service providers use to regulate the use and delivery of email have in the past interfered with, and may in the future interfere with, the effectiveness of our platform and our ability to conduct business.
Some of our customers rely on email for commercial solicitation. In addition to legal requirements addressing spam, a variety of private entities such as email service providers advocate standards of conduct or practice that significantly exceed current legal requirements and classify certain solicitations that comply with current legal requirements as spam. Some of these entities maintain "blocklists" of companies and individuals, and the websites, email service providers and IP addresses associated with those entities or individuals that do not adhere to those standards of conduct or practices for commercial solicitations that the blocklisting entity believes are appropriate. If a company's IP addresses are listed by a blocklisting entity, emails sent from those addresses may be blocked if they are sent to any internet domain or internet address that subscribes to the blocklisting entity's service or uses its blocklist. Due to the nature of our customer base, we have not had significant issues related to this risk; however, as we continue to increase our customer base and expand into other vertical markets, we may have greater exposure to this risk. There can be no guarantee that we will be able to successfully remove ourselves from any blocklists. Because we fulfill email delivery on behalf of our customers, blocklisting of this type could undermine the effectiveness of our customers' transactional email, email marketing programs and other email communications, all of which could have a material negative impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, even if the emails we process are not blocklisted, email service providers from time to time block emails we process from reaching their users. For example, some email service providers categorize as "promotional" emails that originate from email service providers such as Weave, and, as a result, direct them to an alternate or "tabbed" section of the recipient's inbox. While we improve our own technology and work closely with email service providers to maintain our deliverability rates, the implementation of new or more restrictive policies by email service providers may make it more difficult to deliver our customers' emails, particularly if we are not given adequate notice of a change in policy or are unable to update our platform or products to comply with the changed policy in a reasonable amount of time. If email service providers materially limit or halt the delivery of our customers' emails, or if we fail to deliver our customers' emails in a manner compatible with email service providers' email handling or authentication technologies or other policies, or if the open rates of our customers' emails are negatively impacted by the actions of email service providers to categorize emails, then customers may question the effectiveness of our platform and downgrade or cancel their accounts. This, in turn, could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Regulation - Risk 2
Our products and services must comply with industry standards, FCC regulations, state, local, country-specific and international regulations, and changes may require us to modify existing services, potentially increase our costs or prices we charge customers, and otherwise harm our business.
As a provider of interconnected voice over internet protocol ("VoIP") services, we are subject to various international, federal, state and local requirements applicable to our industry. For example, our business is regulated by the FCC. The FCC is considering whether interconnected VoIP services should be treated as telecommunications services, which could subject interconnected VoIP services to additional common carrier regulation. The FCC's efforts may result in additional regulation of IP network and service providers, which may negatively affect our business. If we do not comply with applicable FCC rules and regulations, or rules and regulations of other governing regulatory agencies, we could be subject to enforcement actions, fines, loss of licenses, and possibly restrictions on our ability to operate or offer certain of our subscriptions. Any enforcement action by the FCC, which may be a public process, would hurt our reputation in the industry and could have a material adverse impact on our revenue. The failure of our platform and products to comply, or delays in compliance, with various existing and evolving standards could delay or interrupt our introduction of new products, subject us to fines or other imposed penalties, or harm our reputation, any of which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or operating results. Regulations to which we may be subject address the following matters, among others: - license requirements that apply to providers of communications services in many jurisdictions;- acceptable marketing practices;- our obligation to contribute to various Universal Service Fund ("USF") programs, programs for funding access to relay services and number administration, including at the state level;- monitoring on rural call completion rates;- safeguarding and use of Customer Proprietary Network Information;- U.S. and Canadian regulations concerning access requirements for users with disabilities;- our obligation to offer 7-1-1 abbreviated dialing for access to relay services;- compliance with the requirements of U.S. and foreign law enforcement agencies, including the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act and cooperation with local authorities in conducting wiretaps, pen traps and other surveillance activities;- the ability to dial 9-1-1 (or corresponding numbers in regions outside the U.S.), auto-locate E-911 calls (or corresponding equivalents) when required, and access emergency services;- the transmission of telephone numbers associated with calling parties between carriers and service providers like Weave;- regulations governing outbound dialing, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act; and - FCC and other regulators efforts to combat robo-calling, caller ID spoofing, and robo-texting. A number of states require us to register as a VoIP provider, contribute to state universal service and related programs, pay E-911 surcharges, and pay other surcharges and fees that fund various utility commission programs, while others are actively considering extending their public policy programs to include the subscriptions we provide. We pass USF, E-911 fees, and other surcharges through to our customers, which may result in our subscriptions becoming more expensive or require that we absorb these costs. In the future, state public utility commissions may expand their jurisdiction over VoIP subscriptions like ours. Regulation of our services as telecommunications services may require us to obtain authorizations or licenses to operate in additional states or foreign jurisdictions and comply with legal requirements applicable to traditional telephony providers. This regulation may impact our ability to differentiate ourselves from incumbent service providers and impose substantial compliance costs on us, negatively affecting our margins.
Regulation - Risk 3
United States federal legislation and international laws impose certain obligations on the senders of commercial emails, which could minimize the effectiveness of our platform, and establish financial penalties for non-compliance, which could increase the costs of our business.
Our text, voice and email messaging and management services, and our customers' use of these services, expose us to various regulatory risks. For example, the CAN-SPAM Act establishes certain requirements for commercial email messages and transactional email messages and specifies penalties for the transmission of email messages that are intended to deceive the recipient as to source or content. Among other things, the CAN-SPAM Act, obligates the sender of commercial emails to provide recipients with the ability to "opt-out" of receiving future commercial emails from the sender. In addition, some states have passed laws regulating commercial email practices that are significantly more restrictive and difficult to comply with than the CAN-SPAM Act. For example, Utah and Michigan prohibit the sending of email messages that advertise products or services that minors are prohibited by law from purchasing (e.g., alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, illegal drugs) or that contain content harmful to minors (e.g., pornography) to email addresses listed on specified child protection registries. Some portions of these state laws may not be preempted by the CAN-SPAM Act. In addition, certain non-U.S. jurisdictions have enacted laws regulating the sending of email that are more restrictive than U.S. laws, such as the Canadian Anti-Spam Law. If we were found to be in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act, applicable state laws governing email not preempted by the CAN-SPAM Act or foreign laws regulating the distribution of email, whether as a result of violations by our customers or our own acts or omissions, we could be required to pay large penalties, which would adversely affect our financial condition, significantly harm our business, injure our reputation and erode customer trust. The terms of any injunctions, judgments, consent decrees or settlement agreements entered into in connection with enforcement actions or investigations against our company in connection with any of the foregoing laws may also require us to change one or more aspects of the way we operate our business, which could impair our ability to attract and retain customers or could increase our operating costs.
Regulation - Risk 4
Changes in laws and regulations related to the internet or changes in the internet infrastructure itself may diminish the demand for our products, and could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Changes in laws or regulations relating to the use of the internet could require us to modify our products and platform in order to comply with these changes. In addition, government agencies or private organizations have imposed and may impose additional taxes, fees or other charges for accessing the internet or commerce conducted via the internet. These laws or charges could limit the growth of internet related commerce or communications generally or result in reductions in the demand for internet based products and services such as our products and platform. In particular, a re-adoption of "network neutrality" rules in the United States could affect the services used by us and our customers. In October 2023, the FCC voted to advance a proposal of reinstating "net neutrality" and to allow the FCC to regulate broadband internet access as a utility. A number of other states have likewise adopted or are adopting or considering legislation or executive actions that would regulate the conduct of broadband providers. If we are not able to adapt our platform and products to address any new laws or regulations, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Regulation - Risk 5
We are subject to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, and similar laws, and our failure to comply with these laws could subject us to criminal penalties or significant fines and harm our business and reputation.
We are subject to anti-corruption and anti-bribery and similar laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the USA PATRIOT Act, the India Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and other anti-corruption, anti-bribery, and anti-money laundering laws in countries in which we conduct activities. Anti- corruption and anti-bribery laws have been enforced aggressively in recent years and are interpreted broadly and prohibit companies and their employees and agents from promising, authorizing, making, offering, soliciting, or accepting, directly or indirectly, improper payments or other benefits to or from any person whether in the public or private sector. If we increase our international sales and business further, our risks under these laws may increase especially to the extent that we rely on sales to and through resellers and other intermediaries. Non-compliance with these laws could subject us to investigations, sanctions, settlements, prosecution, other enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, significant fines, damages, other civil and criminal penalties or injunctions, adverse media coverage and other consequences. Any investigations, actions, or sanctions could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Litigation & Legal Liabilities4 | 5.3%
Litigation & Legal Liabilities - Risk 1
Our emergency and E-911 calling services may expose us to significant liability.
The FCC requires VoIP providers, such as our company, to provide E-911 service in all geographic areas covered by the traditional wire-line 911 network. Under FCC rules, VoIP providers must transmit the caller's phone number and dispatchable location information to the appropriate public safety answering point ("PSAP") for the caller's registered location. We are also subject to similar requirements in Canada. In connection with the regulatory requirements that we provide access to emergency services dialing to our VoIP customers, we must obtain from each end customer, prior to the initiation of or changes to service, the physical locations at which the service will first be used for each VoIP line. We must be able to automatically transmit that physical location to the public safety answering point when a user dials 911. For subscriptions that can be utilized from more than one physical location, we must provide automated dispatchable location, if technically feasible, registered location information and provide end customers one or more methods of updating their physical location, or alternative location information. Because we are not able to confirm that the service is used at the physical addresses provided by our end customers, and because end customers may provide an incorrect location or fail to provide updated location information, it is possible that emergency services calls may be routed to the wrong PSAP. If emergency services calls are not routed to the correct PSAP, and if the delay results in serious injury or death, we could be sued and the damages could be substantial. The FCC requires providers of interconnected VoIP service to automatically provide with each 911 call, when technically feasible, more specific address information that can be used to adequately identify the location of the caller (such as a room or floor number). In addition to existing applicable 911/E-911 requirements, the CRTC requires telecommunications service providers (including VoIP providers) to support next generation 911. The FCC also requires that providers of multi-line telephone systems ("MLTS"), which are typically found in enterprises such as office buildings, have the ability to dial 911 without the addition of any prefix or other code, as well as provide a notification when 911 is called to a central location on-site or off-site where someone is likely to see or hear the notification, such as a reception desk. The notification must include the fact that 911 has been dialed, and where technically feasible, a valid callback number and information about the caller's location. Similar regulations exist in a number of states and Canada's CRTC recently finalized recommendations for MLTS owners, operators, providers, and/or resellers to adopt MLTS best practices. The ongoing implementation of these requirements may increase our costs and make our solutions more expensive, which could adversely affect our results of operations. We could be subject to enforcement action by the FCC or international regulators if we are unable to provide access to emergency services in accordance with regulatory requirements. Such an enforcement action could result in significant monetary penalties and restrictions on our ability to offer non-compliant subscriptions. In addition, end customers may attempt to hold us responsible for any loss, damage, personal injury or death suffered as a result of delayed, misrouted or uncompleted emergency service calls or text messages, subject to any limitations on a provider's liability provided by applicable laws, regulations and our customer agreements.
Litigation & Legal Liabilities - Risk 2
We incur chargeback liability when our customers refuse to or cannot reimburse chargebacks resolved in favor of their customers. While we have not experienced these issues to a significant degree in the past, any increase in chargebacks not paid by our customer may adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
In the event a dispute between a cardholder and a customer is not resolved in favor of the customer, the transaction is normally charged back to the customer and the purchase price is credited or otherwise refunded to the cardholder. If we are unable to collect such amounts from the customer's account or reserve account, if applicable, or if the customer refuses or is unable, due to closure, bankruptcy or other reasons, to reimburse us for a chargeback, we are responsible for the amount of the refund paid to the cardholder. The risk of chargebacks is typically greater with those customers that promise future delivery of goods and services rather than delivering goods or rendering services at the time of payment, as well as "card not present" transactions in which consumers do not physically present cards to customers in connection with the purchase of goods and services, such as e-commerce, telephonic and mobile transactions. While we have not experienced these issues to a significant degree in the past and do not view them to be material, we may experience significant losses from chargebacks in the future. A substantial increase in chargebacks not paid by our customers could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. We have policies and procedures to monitor and manage customer-related credit risks and often mitigate such risks by requiring collateral, such as cash reserves, and monitoring transaction activity. Notwithstanding our policies and procedures for managing credit risk, it is possible that a default on such obligations by one or more of our customers could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Litigation & Legal Liabilities - Risk 3
Added
business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects and could expose us to liability.
We process business and personal information belonging to our customers and employees and because of this, we are subject to numerous federal, state, local, and foreign laws, orders, codes, regulations, and regulatory guidance regarding privacy, data protection, information security, and the processing of personal information and other content (collectively, "Data Protection Laws"), the number and scope of which are changing, subject to differing applications and interpretations, and may be inconsistent among countries, or conflict with other rules, laws, or Data Protection Obligations (defined below). These laws and regulations include HIPAA, which establishes a set of national privacy and security standards for the protection of protected health information ("PHI") by health plans, healthcare clearinghouses and certain healthcare providers, referred to as covered entities, and individuals and entities that perform services for them which involve the use, or disclosure of, individually identifiable health information, known as business associates and their subcontractors. We are considered a business associate under HIPAA, and we execute business associate agreements ("BAAs") with our customers, subcontractors, and trusted suppliers. HIPAA requires covered entities and business associates, such as Weave, and their covered subcontractors to develop and maintain policies and procedures with respect to PHI that is used or disclosed, including the adoption of administrative, physical and technical safeguards to protect such information. Failure to comply with HIPAA could subject us to direct civil liability by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights ("OCR"). In the event of an information security incident affecting PHI or other violation, OCR could require us to pay a civil monetary penalty and enter into a Corrective Action Plan that could cause to incur substantial compliance costs. Similar Data Protection Laws are in place in Canada, including the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act ("PIPEDA"). Failure to comply could subject us to investigation and monetary penalty by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. In addition, experiencing a breach of personal information or PHI, or failing to comply with HIPAA could also subject us to contractual liability under our BAAs with our covered entity customers and damage our reputation which might hurt our ability to retain existing customers or attract new customers. We expect that there will continue to be new Data Protection Laws and Data Protection Obligations, and we cannot yet determine the impact such future Data Protection Laws may have on our business. We are also subject to the terms of our internal and external privacy and security policies, codes, representations, certifications, industry standards, publications, and frameworks, which we refer to as Privacy Policies, and obligations to third parties related to privacy, data protection, and information security ("Data Protection Obligations"). The requirements or obligations of the regulatory framework for privacy, information security, data protection, and data processing worldwide is, and is likely to remain, uncertain for the foreseeable future, and it is possible that these or other actual or alleged obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices. Any significant change in Data Protection Laws or Data Protection Obligations, including without limitation, regarding processing of our users' or customers' data, or regarding the manner in which the express or implied consent of users or customers for the use and disclosure of such data is obtained, could increase our costs and could require us to modify our products or operations, possibly in a material manner, and may limit our ability to develop new services and features that make use of the data that our users and customers voluntarily share, or may limit our ability to store and Process customer data and operate our business. Data protection legislation is also becoming increasingly common in the United States at both the federal and state level. For example, California enacted legislation, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the "CCPA"), which affords consumers expanded privacy protections. The potential effects of this legislation are far-reaching and have required Weave to implement enhanced practices and policies in an effort to comply. Specifically, the CCPA gives California residents expanded rights to request access to and deletion of their personal information, opt out of certain personal information sharing and receive detailed information about how their personal information is used. The CCPA also provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that may increase data breach litigation. In addition, the CCPA has prompted a number of proposals for new federal and state privacy legislation that, if passed, could increase our potential liability, increase our compliance costs, and adversely affect our business. It remains unclear how much private litigation will ensue under the data breach private right of action. Additionally, the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 ("CPRA"), which became fully effective on January 1, 2023, expanded the rights of California residents with respect to their personal information. The CPRA, among other things, gives California residents the ability to limit use of certain sensitive personal information, further restrict the use of cross-contextual advertising, establish restrictions on the retention of personal information, expand the types of data breaches subject to the CCPA's private right of action, provide for increased penalties for CPRA violations concerning California residents under the age of 16, and establish a new California Privacy Protection Agency to implement and enforce the new law which may result in increased regulatory scrutiny of California businesses in the areas of data protection and security. Similar laws have been proposed or enacted in other states and at the federal level. For example, Virginia enacted the Consumer Data Protection Act, Colorado enacted the Colorado Privacy Act, and Utah enacted the Utah Consumer Privacy Act. Compliance with any newly enacted privacy and data security laws or regulations may be challenging and cost and time-intensive, and we may be required to put in place additional mechanisms to comply with applicable legal requirements. In addition, the various state privacy laws may limit how we use personal information we collect, particularly with respect to marketing and the use of online advertising networks. Furthermore, the FTC and many state attorneys general continue to enforce federal and state consumer protection laws against companies for online collection, use, dissemination and security practices that appear to be unfair or deceptive. There are a number of legislative proposals in the United States, at both the federal and state level and more globally, that could impose new obligations in areas such as e-commerce and other related legislation or liability for copyright infringement by third parties. We cannot yet determine the impact that future laws, regulations, and standards may have on our business. Change in existing legislation or introduction of new legislation may require us to incur additional expenditures to ensure compliance with such legislation, which may adversely affect our financial condition. We strive to comply with Data Protection Laws and Data Protection Obligations to the extent possible, but we may at times fail, or may be perceived to have failed, to do so. Moreover, despite our efforts, we may not be successful in achieving compliance if our employees, partners, or vendors do not comply with applicable Data Protection Laws and Data Protection Obligations. A finding that our Privacy Policies are, in whole or part, inaccurate, incomplete, deceptive, unfair, or misrepresentative of our actual practices, a failure or perceived failure by us to comply with Data Protection Laws or Data Protection Obligations or any data compromise that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of business or personal information or other user or customer data, may increase our compliance and operational costs, limit our ability to market our products or services and attract new and retain current customers, limit or eliminate our ability to process data, and result in domestic or foreign governmental enforcement actions and fines, litigation, significant costs, expenses, and fees (including attorney fees), cause a material adverse impact to business operations or financial results, and otherwise result in other material harm to our business. In addition, any such failure or perceived failure could result in public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups, the media or others, which may cause us material reputational harm. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with Data Protection Laws, Privacy Policies, and Data Protection Obligations could also subject us to litigation, claims, proceedings, actions, or investigations by governmental entities, authorities, or regulators that could require changes to our business practices,diversion of resources and the attention of management from our business, regulatory oversights and audits, discontinuance of necessary processing, or other remedies that adversely affect our business.
Litigation & Legal Liabilities - Risk 4
Any legal proceedings or claims against us could be costly and time-consuming to defend and could harm our reputation regardless of the outcome.
From time to time we may be subject to legal proceedings and claims that arise in the ordinary course of business, such as disputes or employment claims made by our current or former employees. Any litigation, whether meritorious or not, could harm our reputation, will increase our costs and may divert management's attention, time and resources, which may in turn seriously harm our business. Insurance might not cover such claims, might not provide sufficient payments to cover all the costs to resolve one or more such claims, and might not continue to be available on terms acceptable to us. A claim brought against us that is uninsured or underinsured could result in unanticipated costs and could seriously harm our business.
Taxation & Government Incentives3 | 3.9%
Taxation & Government Incentives - Risk 1
We may have additional income tax liabilities, which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Significant judgments and estimates are required in determining our provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities. Our tax expense may be impacted, for example, if tax laws change or are clarified to our detriment or if tax authorities successfully challenge the tax positions that we take, such as, for example, positions relating to the arms-length pricing standards for our intercompany transactions and our indirect tax positions. In determining the adequacy of income taxes, we assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes that could result if our tax positions were challenged by the Internal Revenue Service (the "IRS"), and other tax authorities. Should the IRS or other tax authorities assess additional taxes as a result of examinations, we may be required to record charges to operations that could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.
Taxation & Government Incentives - Risk 2
We could be required to collect additional sales, value added or similar taxes or be subject to other tax liabilities that may increase the costs our customers would have to pay for subscriptions to our platform and products and adversely affect our results of operations.
We collect sales, value added or similar indirect taxes in a number of jurisdictions. An increasing number of states have considered or adopted laws that attempt to impose sales tax collection obligations on out-of-state companies. Additionally, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. et al. ("Wayfair"), that online sellers can be required to collect sales and use tax despite not having a physical presence in the buyer's state. In response to Wayfair, or otherwise, states or local governments may adopt, or begin to enforce, laws requiring us to calculate, collect and remit taxes on sales in their jurisdictions. Similarly, many foreign jurisdictions have considered or adopted laws that impose value added, digital service, or similar taxes, on companies despite not having a physical presence in the foreign jurisdiction. A successful assertion by one or more states, or foreign jurisdictions, requiring us to collect taxes where we presently do not do so, or to collect more taxes in a jurisdiction in which we currently do collect some taxes, could result in substantial tax liabilities, including taxes on past sales, as well as penalties and interest. The requirement to collect sales, value added or similar indirect taxes by foreign, state or local governments for sellers that do not have a physical presence in the jurisdiction could also create additional administrative burdens for us, put us at a competitive disadvantage if they do not impose similar obligations on our competitors, decrease our future sales and subject us to liabilities for future or historical periods, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. We continually monitor the ever-evolving tax landscape in the jurisdictions in which we operate and those jurisdictions where our customers reside. Effective in March 2017, we began collecting certain telecommunications-based taxes from our customers in certain jurisdictions. Since then, we have added more jurisdictions where we collect these taxes and we expect to continue expanding the number of jurisdictions in which we will collect these taxes in the future. In the event any of these jurisdictions disagree with our assumptions and analysis, the assessment of our tax exposure could differ materially from our current estimates. Some customers may question incremental tax charges that we may impose and some may seek to negotiate lower pricing from us, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Taxation & Government Incentives - Risk 3
Changes in U.S. and global tax legislation may adversely affect our financial condition, operating results, and cash flows.
We are unable to predict what U.S. or global tax reforms may be proposed or enacted in the future or what effects such future changes would have on our business. Any such changes in tax legislation, regulations, policies or practices in the jurisdictions in which we operate could increase the estimated tax liability that we have expensed to date and paid or accrued on our balance sheet; affect our financial position, future operating results, cash flows, and effective tax rates where we have operations; reduce post-tax returns to our stockholders; and increase the complexity, burden, and cost of tax compliance. We are subject to potential changes in relevant tax, accounting, and other laws, regulations, and interpretations, including changes to tax laws applicable to corporate multinationals.
Ability to Sell
Total Risks: 11/76 (14%)Below Sector Average
Competition1 | 1.3%
Competition - Risk 1
The market in which we participate is highly competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.
The market for our platform and products is evolving, significantly fragmented and highly competitive, with relatively low barriers to entry in some segments. In many cases, our primary competition is the combination of existing point solutions, such as messaging, phone service, marketing tools, payments, CRM and PMS platforms, analytics and reviews management, that potential customers may already use to manage their practices and in which they have made significant investments. The principal competitive factors in our market include platform breadth, ability to offer an all-in-one solution, ease of deployment and use, industry-specific capabilities and workflows with best-in-class product functionality, depth of integration with leading systems of record, ability to enable differentiated customer engagement, cloud-based delivery architecture, advanced payments capabilities, brand recognition and value and total cost of ownership. Our competitors fall into the following primary categories: - customer interactions management solutions;- customer experience management;- marketing solutions;- business intelligence;- integrated payment providers;- unified communications and telecommunications; and - customer relationship management. We also face competition from the systems of record, including systems of record providers, such as suppliers of PMS, that have significant market penetration and broad market acceptance in the markets that we address. Although these systems do not currently offer the broad functionality provided by our platform or products, if the providers of these systems were to seek to integrate some or all of the functionality offered by our platform or products in the future, either by building that functionality into their systems or through partnerships with third parties, existing or potential customers that use these systems may choose to use that functionality rather than to subscribe to our platform and products. This development could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. If one or more of our competitors were to merge or partner with another of our competitors, the change in the competitive landscape could also adversely affect our ability to compete effectively. For example, sales force automation and CRM vendors could acquire or develop applications that compete with our marketing software offerings. Some of these companies have in the past acquired social media marketing and other marketing software providers to integrate with their broader offerings, which may increase the competition we experience from those third parties. Some of our competitors and potential competitors are larger and have greater name recognition, longer operating histories, more established customer relationships, larger budgets and significantly greater resources than we do. In addition, they have the operating flexibility to bundle competing products and services at little or no perceived incremental cost, including offering them at a lower price as part of a larger sales transaction. As a result, our competitors may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards or customer requirements. In addition, some competitors may offer products or services that address one or a limited number of functions at lower prices, with greater depth than our products or in different geographies or in vertical markets. Customers utilize our products in many ways and use varying levels of functionality that our products offer or are capable of supporting or enabling within their applications. Customers that use only limited functionality in our platform or products may be able to more easily replace our products with competitive offerings. In addition, some of our customers may choose to use our platform and products and our competitors' products at the same time. Moreover, as we expand the functionality of our platform and products to include additional solutions, address new healthcare vertical markets and enter new markets outside the United States, we may face additional sources of competition. We cannot be sure that we will compete as successfully against companies with products that offer solutions in those markets as we have to date. In addition, we cannot be sure we will compete successfully against incumbent providers of solutions with established brands and market presence if we enter new healthcare vertical markets and new markets outside the United States. In addition, some of our competitors have lower list prices than us, which may be attractive to certain customers even if those products have different or lesser functionality. Our current and potential competitors may also develop and market new products and services with comparable functionality to our products, and this could lead to us having to decrease our prices in order to remain competitive. If we are unable to maintain our current pricing due to competitive pressures, our margins will be reduced and our business, results of operations and financial condition would be adversely affected. In addition, increased competition generally could result in reduced revenue, reduced margins, increased losses or the failure of our products to achieve or maintain widespread market acceptance, any of which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Demand2 | 2.6%
Demand - Risk 1
Changed
The market for our platform and products is evolving, may decline or experience limited growth and is dependent in part on businesses continuing to adopt our platform and use our products.
We believe that our future success will depend in part on the growth, if any, and evolution of the market for a platform that enables SMBs to attract, engage, and retain their customers. SMBs may not recognize the need for, or benefits of, our platform and products. SMBs may decide to adopt alternative products and services to satisfy their customer engagement needs. In order to grow our business and extend our market position, we intend to focus on educating SMBs about the benefits of our products and platform, expanding the functionality of our platform and products and bringing new technologies to market to increase market acceptance and use of our platform and to address additional markets. Our ability to expand the market that our platform and products address depends upon a number of factors, including the cost, performance, technology, IT infrastructure, and the perceived value associated with our platform and products. The market for our platform and products could fail to grow significantly or there could be a reduction in demand for our platform and products as a result of a lack of customer acceptance, technological challenges, competing products and services, decreases in spending by current and prospective customers, weakening economic conditions and other causes. If our market does not experience significant growth or demand for our platform and products decreases, then our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Demand - Risk 2
Our growth in revenue generated from Weave Payments depends on customers increasing their use of this product, and if our customers do not increase their use of this product, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
We generate revenue from our payments product, Weave Payments, based on customer usage. While this product has the potential to meaningfully diversify our sources of revenue, our ability to generate incremental revenue from this product depends not only on convincing customers who do not already subscribe to Weave Payments to become Weave Payments customers, but also on those who have already subscribed increasing their usage of it. If our customers do not increase their use of Weave Payments, then our results of operations and future prospects may be harmed. We cannot accurately predict customers' usage levels. Revenue from Weave Payments is generally calculated as a percentage of payment volume plus a per-transaction fee and, accordingly, varies depending on the total dollar amount processed through our platform in a particular period. This amount may vary, depending on, among other things, interchange and processor fees, the success of our customers' businesses, the proportion of our customers' payment volume processed through our platform, consumer spending levels in general, and overall economic conditions. In addition, the revenue and gross profit derived from Weave Payments varies depending on the particular type of payment processed on our platform. During the COVID-19 pandemic, card-not-present transactions, which are transactions for which the credit card is not physically present at the merchant location at the time of the transaction, accounted for a larger proportion of the total payment transactions processed through our platform, which contributed to higher gross margins on those transactions than in prior periods. We have seen this trend reverse in recent periods as card-present credit card transactions have increased as a percentage of total payment transactions, and we can provide no assurance that the mix of card-present and card-not-present transactions will be favorable in the future.
Sales & Marketing7 | 9.2%
Sales & Marketing - Risk 1
Failure to set optimal prices for our products could adversely impact our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We offer various subscription plans as well as other products for additional fees, which in the case of Weave Payments is based on usage. We expect that we may need to change our pricing from time to time, and we have limited experience with respect to determining the optimal prices for our platform and products. One of the challenges to our pricing is that the fees that we pay to network service providers over whose networks we transmit communications can vary daily or weekly and are affected by volume and other factors that may be outside of our control and difficult to predict. Additionally, regulatory developments may require us to incur additional costs to provide our services. Any of these changes could result in us incurring increased costs that we may be unable or unwilling to pass through to our customers, which could adversely impact our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, for customers who pay their subscriptions on an annual basis, we would not be able to increase the prices we charge to reflect these costs until the end of the contract term. Moreover, SMB healthcare practices, which comprise substantially all of our customers, may be quite sensitive to price increases or lower prices that our competitors may offer. Further, if we expand into new vertical or international markets, we also must determine the appropriate price to enable us to compete effectively in those markets. As a result, in the future we may be required to reduce our prices or change our pricing models, which could adversely affect our revenue, gross profit, profitability, financial position and cash flows.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 2
Efforts to address robo-calling and caller ID spoofing could cause us competitive harm.
In June 2019, the FCC ruled that providers of voice services may by default (subject to opt-out by subscribers) block voice traffic based on reasonable analytics designed to identify unwanted calls. Effective in June 30, 2022, the FCC required that all voice service providers implement the Secure Telephone Identity Revisited ("STIR") and Signature-based Handling of Asserted Information Using toKENs ("SHAKEN" and, together with STIR, "STIR/SHAKEN") caller ID authentication framework in the internet protocol ("IP"), portions of their networks and that non-facilities-based voice providers comply fully with STIR/SHAKEN. The STIR/SHAKEN framework is expected to be used throughout the world. Weave has implemented STIR/SHAKEN for voice traffic originating in the U.S. and we rely on our service providers to sign our voice traffic originating in Canada. However, it is likely that the standards to obtain STIR/SHAKEN signing authority in other countries will differ from the U.S. requirements and these differing standards may not be interoperable with the U.S. requirements. For example, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ("CRTC") required all telecommunications service providers implement STIR/SHAKEN to authenticate and verify caller identification information for IP-based voice calls, effective in November 2021, and file status reports every six months starting in May 2022. Despite initially denying non-facilities based providers access, the Canadian Secure Token Governance Authority ("CST-GA") created a process in November 2021 for such providers to obtain Service Provider Code Tokens and, in turn, Secure Telephone Identity Certificates ("STI Certificates") to allow higher (Level A or B) call attestation. Calls that are not attested at a higher level, either directly or by an underlying provider, are at a greater risk of being blocked or flagged and ignored by end users. Further, it is unclear how cross-border calls originating from U.S. service providers will be authenticated under Canada's framework or vice versa. In July 2022, the CST-GA signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Secure Telephone Identity Governance Authority to coordinate interconnection of SHAKEN in both the U.S. and Canada to allow providers to sign calls in one country and accept the signature in the other. However, the SHAKEN interconnection between the U.S. and Canada is not yet operational. Until operational, we may be required to obtain STI Certificates or otherwise incur costs to sign our calls in both the U.S. and Canada, which could impose substantial compliance costs and negatively affect our margins or could make our services less competitive than incumbent providers. In addition, foreign regulators have allowed terminating voice service providers to block voice traffic to address robo-calling or other unwanted calls. If our solutions are not interoperable with foreign regulators' requirements, if the SHAKEN interconnection between the U.S. and Canada does not become operational, or if we or our service providers are unable to authenticate originating calls from our customers' telephone numbers under STIR/SHAKEN then our business could be harmed. Call recipients would be less likely to answer non-authenticated calls. In addition, the terminating voice service providers may block calls that are not authenticated under STIR/SHAKEN as the lack of authentication could be viewed as a reasonable indication that the call is unwanted by the recipient. This would make our service less desirable for our customers.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 3
We focus on serving SMBs and are subject to risks associated with serving small businesses.
Our revenue is derived from SMBs, and the majority of our revenue is derived from small businesses. While we believe our core healthcare verticals in dental, optometry, veterinary services, and other medical specialty services have been more resilient than other types of small business, SMBs often have higher rates of business failures and limited budgets. Further, SMBs are fragmented in terms of size, geography, sophistication and nature of business and, consequently, are more challenging to serve at scale and in a cost-effective manner. Many of these SMBs are in the early stages of their development and there is no guarantee that their businesses will succeed. In addition, SMBs may be affected by economic uncertainty or downturns to a greater extent than enterprises and typically have more limited financial resources, including capital borrowing capacity, than enterprises. For example, inflation and interest rate trends have adversely impacted economies and financial markets globally, which particularly impacted many SMBs. SMBs are also typically restricted by factors other than price in their technology-related decisions. These factors may make us more susceptible to economic downturns and may limit our ability to grow our business and become profitable. If we are not able to effectively address the risks associated with serving SMBs, our revenue, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely impacted.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 4
We face risks in targeting medium-sized businesses for sales of our subscriptions and, if we do not manage these efforts effectively, our business and results of operations could suffer.
A majority of our current customer base consists of small businesses. In addition to pursuing continued customer growth among small businesses, we intend to pursue opportunities to expand our customer base among medium-sized businesses in various healthcare industries. As we target a portion of our sales efforts at larger and multi-location businesses, we may incur higher costs and longer sales and installation cycles, and we may be less effective at predicting when we will complete these sales. In these market segments, the decision to purchase our subscriptions may require the approval of more technical personnel and management levels within a potential customer's organization and, therefore, sales to larger and multi-location businesses may require us to invest more time educating potential customers about the benefits of our subscriptions. In addition, our customers may be acquired by or may consolidate into larger and multi-location businesses that may demand more features, integration services and customization, and may require more highly skilled sales and support personnel. These new businesses may also demand service-level agreements or other contractual terms that may introduce additional risk. Further, our investment in marketing our subscriptions to these potential customers may not be successful, which could adversely affect our results of operations and our overall ability to grow our customer base.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 5
If we do not attract new customers, retain existing customers, and increase our customers' use of our platform, our business will suffer.
Our ability to attract new customers, retain existing customers and increase the use of our platform by existing customers is critical to our success. Our future revenue will depend in large part on our success in attracting additional customers to our platform. Our ability to attract additional customers will depend on a number of factors, including the effectiveness of our sales team, the success of our marketing efforts, our levels of investment in expanding our sales and marketing teams, referrals by existing customers, our brand recognition within the markets we address, our efforts to provide satisfactory customer service, the stability and reliability of our platform, our ability to timely onboard new customers or timely expand functionality for our existing customers, the perceived value of our platform and the features and functionality it offers, our ability to leverage and scale our core sales efforts and marketing capabilities to focus on our core specialty healthcare verticals, and the nature and availability of competitive offerings. We may not experience the same levels of success in the future with respect to our customer acquisition strategies as we have experienced in the past, and if the costs associated with acquiring new customers were to materially increase in the future, our expenses may rise significantly. A majority of our customers pay their subscription on a monthly basis, while a significant number of our customers pay their subscriptions on an annual basis. Our customers have no contractual obligation to renew their subscriptions after their subscription term expires. As a result, even though the number of customers using our platform has grown rapidly in recent periods, there can be no assurance that we will be able to retain these customers. Renewals of subscriptions may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including dissatisfaction with our platform or support, the perception that a competitive platform, product or service presents a better or less expensive option or our failure to successfully deploy sales and marketing efforts towards existing customers as they approach the expiration of their subscription term. In addition, we may terminate our relationships with customers for various reasons, such as heightened credit risk, excessive card chargebacks, unacceptable business practices or contract breaches. We have historically experienced customer turnover as a result, in part, of our customers being SMBs, which are categorically more susceptible than larger businesses to general economic conditions, higher levels of churn, consolidation with other businesses and other risks affecting their businesses. In addition to attracting new customers and retaining existing customers, we seek to expand usage of our platform by broadening adoption by our customers of the various products available on our platform. We have experienced difficulties with, and cannot be certain that we will be successful in, increasing adoption of additional products by our existing customers. Our ability to increase adoption of our products by our customers will depend on a number of factors, including our customers' satisfaction with our platform, competition, pricing and our ability to demonstrate the value proposition of our products. Our costs associated with renewals and generating sales of additional products to existing customers are substantially lower than our costs associated with entering into subscriptions with new customers. Accordingly, our business model relies to a significant extent on our ability to renew subscriptions and sell additional products to existing customers, and, if we are unable to retain revenue from existing customers or to increase revenue from existing customers, our operating results could be adversely impacted even if such lost revenue were offset by an increase in revenue from new customers. Our ability to attract new customers and retain existing customers depends in part on our ability to timely onboard new customers or timely expand functionality for our existing customers. Our platform often requires integration and customization that can result in longer onboarding and ramping process times. New customers onboarding onto our platform or existing customers increasing functionality within our platform may require specific customizations that can delay lead times and may require onboarding efforts that take up to several months. Our onboarding and ramp times may be further delayed due to unanticipated complications with phone number porting or integrations with existing or new customers' systems, which could delay or prevent adoption of our platform for extended periods of time and may cause us to expend more resources than originally anticipated. These delays could limit our ability to attract and retain customers and may adversely affect our revenue and profits.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 6
If we are unable to attract new customers in a cost-effective manner, then our business, results of operations and financial condition would be adversely affected.
In order to grow our business, we must continue to attract new customers in a cost-effective manner. We use a variety of marketing channels to promote our products and platform, such as industry and customer events, trade shows, public relations initiatives and brand marketing, as well as search engine marketing and optimization. If the costs of the lead generation and marketing channels we use increase dramatically, then we may choose to use alternative and less expensive channels, which may not be as effective as the channels we currently use. As we add to or change the mix of our lead generation and marketing strategies, we may need to expand into more expensive channels than those we are currently in, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our in-person lead generation and marketing efforts have been significantly limited due to event cancellations and the related evolution in where our potential customers assemble, and we have had to further develop our inbound and outbound channels to make up for the absence of sales leads generated from trade shows and other industry events as noted above. To the extent that trade shows and other in-person lead generation activities continue to resume, there can be no assurance that those activities will attract new customers in a cost-effective manner or at levels that existed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. We will incur marketing expenses before we are able to recognize any revenue that the lead generation and marketing initiatives may generate, and these expenses may not result in increased revenue or brand awareness. We have made in the past, and may make in the future, significant expenditures and investments in new marketing campaigns, and we cannot guarantee that any such investments will lead to the cost-effective acquisition of additional customers. If we are unable to maintain effective marketing programs, then our ability to attract new customers could be adversely affected, our advertising and marketing expenses could increase substantially, and our results of operations may suffer.
Sales & Marketing - Risk 7
Any failure to offer high quality customer service and support may adversely affect our relationships with our customers and prospective customers, and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Many of our customers depend on our customer support and success teams to assist them in deploying our products effectively, to help them to resolve post deployment issues quickly and to provide ongoing support. As such, we believe our focus on customer service and support is critical to onboarding new customers and retaining our existing customers and growing our business. If we do not devote sufficient resources or are otherwise unsuccessful in supporting our customers effectively, our ability to retain existing customers could suffer and prospective customers may be less likely to adopt our platform and products. Accordingly, we expect to devote significant resources to maintaining and enhancing the effectiveness of our customer service and support function, and increased investments in customer service and support, without corresponding revenue, could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Our ability to provide effective customer service and support may be adversely affected by a variety of factors. We may be unable to respond quickly enough to accommodate short term increases in demand for service and support from our customer support and success teams. Approximately one-third of our current customer service and support staff has been employed with us for less than one year and therefore may be less familiar with our platform and products than our more tenured employees. In addition, as we add functionality to our platform or as customers begin to increase the ways in which they use our platform or products, customer service needs may become more time-consuming to meet. If our customers are not satisfied with the level of customer support we provide, they may stop using our platform or may not subscribe to additional products we offer. In addition, to improve our level of customer support and service and to meet increased customer demand for support, we may need to devote additional resources to hiring and training personnel, which will increase our costs and without additional corresponding revenue, could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Our ability to gain new customers is highly dependent on our business reputation and on positive recommendations from customers. Any failure to maintain high quality customer service and support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high quality customer service and support, could erode customer trust and adversely affect our reputation, business, results of operations and financial condition.
Brand / Reputation1 | 1.3%
Brand / Reputation - Risk 1
If we are not able to maintain and enhance our brand and increase market awareness of our company, platform and products, then our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.
We believe that maintaining and enhancing our brand identity and increasing market awareness of our company, platform and products are critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our platform, to strengthen our relationships with our existing customers and to our ability to attract new customers. The successful promotion of our brand will depend largely on our continued marketing efforts, our ability to continue to offer high quality products and support and our ability to successfully differentiate our platform and products from competing offerings. Our brand promotion activities may not be successful or yield increased revenue. As we seek to expand our customer base by targeting additional healthcare vertical markets in the future, we will need to establish brand awareness in new markets in which we have not historically had a presence. Although we have invested in promoting our brand generally, we may not have significant brand awareness in these new healthcare vertical markets, and will need to make additional investments to expand awareness of our brand in the new healthcare vertical markets we seek to address. In addition, as and to the extent we seek to expand our reach internationally, we will need to invest in establishing awareness of our brand in new international markets. From time to time, our customers have complained about our platform and products, such as complaints about our pricing and customer support. If we do not handle customer complaints effectively, then our brand and reputation may suffer, our customers may lose confidence in us and they may reduce or cease their use of our products. In addition, many of our customers post and discuss on social media about internet-based products and services, including our platform and products. Our success depends, in part, on our ability to generate positive customer feedback and minimize negative feedback on social media channels where existing and potential customers seek and share information. If actions we take or changes we make to our platform or products upset these customers, then their online commentary could negatively affect our brand, reputation and customer trust. Complaints or negative publicity about us, our platform or products could adversely impact our ability to attract and retain customers, our business, results of operations and financial condition. The promotion of our brand requires us to make substantial expenditures, and we anticipate that these expenditures will increase as our market becomes more competitive and as we expand into new markets. To the extent these activities increase revenue, this revenue may not be enough to offset the increased expenses we incur. In addition, attendance at trade shows and similar industry events, which had been a significant source of our customer pipeline in periods prior to the start of the pandemic, have not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels and may never return to these levels. We have typically relied on trade shows, industry events and other in-person meetings to facilitate customer sign-ups and generate leads for potential customers, and we cannot predict how long or the extent to which the lasting impact from the COVID-19 pandemic may continue to constrain our marketing, promotional and sales activities. If we do not successfully maintain and enhance our brand, then our business may not grow, we may have to lower our prices to compete and we may lose customers, all of which would adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Production
Total Risks: 7/76 (9%)Below Sector Average
Manufacturing1 | 1.3%
Manufacturing - Risk 1
If we do not successfully maintain the quality of the installation of our platform and products by third-party installers, our reputation could suffer and our sales could decline.
We leverage third-party independent contractors to install a portion of our customer premises equipment and implement integrations. These services are critical because a failure to properly install our product can lead to reduced operability and poor customer satisfaction. While we currently provide customers with a list of reputable independent installers from which they may select their installer of choice, a quality installation may not be delivered, which would impact customer experience. To the extent our third-party independent contractors perform low-quality installations, we may need to devote additional resources to the identification and monitoring of such independent installers. Additionally, if the installers used by customers fail to provide the quality of service that our customers expect, we may lose existing customers, our reputation and market acceptance of our platform and products could suffer, our sales could decline and we may experience increased warranty claims and costs, any of which would harm our business.
Employment / Personnel2 | 2.6%
Employment / Personnel - Risk 1
If we are unable to hire, retain and motivate qualified employees, our business will suffer.
Our future success depends, in part, on our ability to continue to attract and retain highly skilled employees. We believe that there is, and will continue to be, intense competition for highly skilled management, technical, sales and other employees with experience in our industry in Utah, where our headquarters are located, and in other locations where we maintain offices. We must provide competitive compensation packages and a high-quality work environment to hire, retain and motivate employees. If we are unable to retain and motivate our existing employees and attract qualified employees to fill key positions, we may be unable to manage our business effectively, including the development, marketing and sale of our platform and products, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Additionally, our U.S.-based employees, including our senior management team, work for us on an at-will basis and there is no assurance that any such employee will remain with us. Replacing key employees, including our Chief Executive Officer, and management personnel may be difficult or costly and may take an extended period of time because of the limited number of individuals in our industry and where we are located with the breadth of skills and experience that we require. To the extent we hire employees from competitors, we also may be subject to allegations that they have been improperly solicited or divulged proprietary or other confidential information. Volatility in, or lack of performance of, our stock price may also affect our ability to attract and retain key employees. Many of our key employees are, or will soon be, vested in a substantial number of shares of common stock or stock options. Employees may be more likely to terminate their employment with us if the shares they own or the shares underlying their vested options have significantly appreciated in value relative to the original purchase prices of the shares or the exercise prices of the options, or, conversely, if the exercise prices of the options that they hold are significantly above the trading price of our common stock. If we are unable to retain our employees, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Employment / Personnel - Risk 2
We depend on our senior management team and other key employees, and the loss of one or more of these employees or an inability to attract and retain qualified key personnel could adversely affect our business.
Our success depends largely upon the continued services of our senior management and other key personnel. We can provide no assurance that any of our executives or key employees will continue their employment with us. Our senior management and key employees are "at-will" employees and therefore may terminate employment with us at any time with no advance notice. In addition, we currently do not have "key person" insurance on any of our employees. We also rely on our leadership team in the areas of research and development, marketing, services and general and administrative functions. The loss and replacement of one or more of our members of senior management or other key employees, including our Chief Executive Officer, would likely involve significant time and costs and may significantly delay or prevent the achievement of our business objectives. Furthermore, volatility or lack of performance in our stock price may affect our ability to attract and retain replacements should key personnel depart. If we are not able to retain our key personnel, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.
Supply Chain4 | 5.3%
Supply Chain - Risk 1
We rely on hardware purchased or leased from, software licensed from, and services rendered by third parties in order to provide our platform and products and run our business, sometimes by a single-source supplier.
We rely on hardware, purchased or leased from, software licensed from, and services rendered by third parties in order to provide our solutions and run our business, sometimes by a single-source supplier. In particular, we rely on single-source suppliers for phones and point-of-sale terminals: Yealink to supply phones for our platform and Stripe to provide point-of-sale devices and payment processing services for Weave Payments. Additionally, Bandwidth and Telnyx power the text messaging functionality of our platform. We also rely on hosted SaaS technologies from third parties in order to operate critical internal functions of our business, including enterprise resource planning, customer support and customer relations management services. We do not have long-term supply agreements with our sole source hardware suppliers and we maintain only a small amount of inventory, making us vulnerable to price increases and supplier capacity and supply chain constraints. Third-party hardware, software and services have in the past and may in the future cease to be available on a timely basis, on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Any loss of the supply, right to use or any failures of third-party hardware, software or services, could result in delays in our ability to provide our platform and products or run our business. In addition, even if we are able to identify replacement hardware, software or services or are able to internally develop a replacement solution, integrating any new hardware, software or service could be costly and time-consuming and may not result in an equivalent solution, any of which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. In the event our customers' ability to use the functionality supplied by our platform is disrupted as a result of issues affecting the hardware, software or services provide by third parties, customers could assert claims against us in connection with such service disruption or cease conducting business with us altogether. Even if not successful, a claim brought against us by any of our customers would likely be time-consuming and costly to defend and could harm our reputation and brand, making it harder for us to sell our platform and products.
Supply Chain - Risk 2
We rely on a single supplier to provide the technology we offer through Weave Payments.
In order to provide Weave Payments, we have entered into payment service provider agreements with Stripe Inc. ("Stripe"). These payment service provider agreements provide for terms which expire at various dates after 2028, and in some cases, renew for subsequent 12-month terms unless we provide a notice of termination prior to the end of the then current term. These agreements are integral to Weave Payments, and any problems with Stripe or disruption affecting its services could have an adverse effect on our reputation, results of operations and financial results. If Stripe were to terminate its relationship with us, we could incur substantial delays and expense in finding and integrating an alternative payment service provider into Weave Payments, and the quality and reliability of such alternative payment service provider may not be comparable. Any temporary or permanent disruption in our ability to offer Weave Payments, whether as a result of an interruption in Stripe's services due to technical or other issues, or due to the termination of our agreement with Stripe, would decrease our revenue and adversely affect our business. We have in the past experienced limited interruptions with respect to payments processed through Stripe, which in some cases resulted in the temporary inability of some of our customers to collect payments through our platform. In the event that Stripe fails to maintain adequate levels of support, experiences interrupted operations, experiences a breach of their networks or systems, does not provide high quality service, or increases the fees they charge us, we may suffer additional costs and be required to pursue new third-party relationships, which could materially disrupt our operations. In addition, interruptions affecting payment processing by Stripe could result in periods of time during which Weave Payments cannot function properly, and therefore cannot collect payments for our customers, which could adversely affect our relationships with our customers and our business, reputation, brand, financial condition, and results of operations.
Supply Chain - Risk 3
To deliver our products, we rely on network service providers and internet service providers for our network service and connectivity and disruption or deterioration in the quality of these services could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We currently interconnect with network service providers to enable the use by our customers of our products over their networks and we rely on network service providers for these services. Where we do not have direct access to phone numbers, our reliance on network service providers has reduced our operating flexibility, ability to make timely service changes and control quality of service. In addition, the fees that we are charged by network service providers may change daily or weekly, while we do not typically change our customers' pricing as rapidly. At times, network service providers have instituted additional fees due to regulatory, competitive or other industry related changes that increase our network costs. Additionally, our ability to respond to any new fees may be constrained if all network service providers in a particular market impose equivalent fee structures, if the magnitude of the fees is disproportionately large when compared to the underlying prices paid by our customers, or if the market conditions limit our ability to increase the price we charge our customers. Furthermore, many of these network service providers do not have long-term committed contracts with us and may interrupt services or terminate their agreements with us without notice. If a significant portion of our network service providers stop providing us with access to their infrastructure, fail to provide these services to us on a cost-effective basis, cease operations, or otherwise terminate these services, the delay caused by qualifying and switching to other network service providers could be time-consuming and costly and could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Further, if problems occur with our network service providers, it may cause errors or poor quality communications with our products, and we could encounter difficulty identifying the source of the problem. The occurrence of errors or poor quality communications on our products, whether caused by our platform or a network service provider, may result in the loss of our existing customers or the delay of adoption of our products by potential customers and may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Further, we sometimes access network services through intermediaries who have direct access to network service providers. We expect that we will continue to rely on intermediaries for these services, but this may change in the future. These intermediaries sometimes have offerings that directly compete with our products and may stop providing services to us on a cost-effective basis. If a significant portion of these intermediaries stop providing services or stop providing services on a cost-effective basis, our business could be adversely affected. We also interconnect with internet service providers to enable the use of our communications products by our customers, and we expect that we will continue to rely on internet service providers for network connectivity going forward. Our reliance on internet service providers reduces our control over quality of service and exposes us to potential service outages and rate fluctuations. If a significant portion of our internet service providers stop providing us with access to their network infrastructure, fail to provide access on a cost-effective basis, cease operations, or otherwise terminate access, the delay caused by qualifying and switching to other internet service providers could be time-consuming and costly and could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. If problems were to occur with any of these third-party network or internet service providers, they may cause errors or poor call quality that could impact our customers, and we could encounter difficulty identifying the source of the problem. From time to time, these third-party network or service providers have been adversely impacted or overloaded by large increases in traffic for a variety of reasons. The occurrence of interruptions, errors or poor call quality, whether caused by our systems or a third-party network or service provider, may result in the loss of our existing customers and delay or loss of market acceptance of our platform and products, and harm our business and results of operations.
Supply Chain - Risk 4
We substantially rely upon GCP to operate our platform, and any disruption of or interference with our use of GCP would adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
GCP provides a distributed computing infrastructure platform for business operations, or what is commonly referred to as a cloud computing service. We outsource a substantial majority of our cloud infrastructure to GCP, which hosts our products and platform, and have designed our software and computer systems to utilize data processing, storage capabilities, and other services provided by GCP. We cannot easily switch our GCP operations to another cloud provider, and any disruption of, or interference with, our use of GCP could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition. Our customers need to be able to access our platform at any time, without interruption or degradation of performance. GCP runs its own platform that we access, and we are, therefore, vulnerable to service interruptions at GCP. We have experienced, and expect that in the future we may experience interruptions, delays and outages in service and availability due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes, human or software errors, website hosting disruptions and capacity constraints. Capacity constraints could be due to a number of potential causes, including technical failures, natural disasters, pandemics, fraud or security attacks. In addition, if our security, or that of GCP, is compromised, or our products or platform are unavailable or our users are unable to use our products within a reasonable amount of time or at all, then our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected. It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve our platform performance, especially during peak usage times, as our products become more complex and the usage of our products increases. To the extent that we do not effectively address capacity constraints, either through GCP or alternative providers of cloud infrastructure, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected. In addition, any changes in service levels from GCP may adversely affect our ability to meet our customers' requirements, result in negative publicity which could harm our reputation and brand and may adversely affect the usage of our platform. Our agreement with GCP is for a 60-month term (through 2027) with no renewal right thereafter. Although we have successfully transitioned cloud service providers in the past and we expect that we could receive similar services from other third parties in the future, if any of our arrangements with GCP are terminated, we could experience interruptions on our platform and in our ability to make our products available to customers, as well as delays and additional expenses in arranging alternative cloud infrastructure services. Any of the above circumstances or events may harm our reputation, erode customer trust, cause customers to stop using our products, impair our ability to increase revenue from existing customers, impair our ability to grow our customer base, subject us to financial penalties and liabilities under certain of our agreements and otherwise harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Macro & Political
Total Risks: 4/76 (5%)Below Sector Average
Economy & Political Environment2 | 2.6%
Economy & Political Environment - Risk 1
Unfavorable economic conditions and macroeconomic uncertainties have in the past and may continue to adversely impact our business, results of operations and financial performance.
Global economic and business activities continue to face widespread macroeconomic uncertainties, including supply chain disruptions, inflation, as well as recession risks, which may continue for an extended period, and which could result in decreased spending by our existing and prospective customers and business partners, reduced demand for our platform due to reduced budgets or for other reasons, and longer or delayed sales cycles, all of which could have an adverse impact on our business operations and financial condition. Furthermore, our revenue growth and potential profitability depend on demand for our platform. Historically, during economic downturns, there have been reductions in spending on IT and infrastructure as well as pressure for financial concessions. The adverse impact of economic downturns may be particularly acute among SMBs, which comprise the vast majority of our customer base. If current economic conditions persist or deteriorate further, our current and prospective customers may elect to decrease their budgets, which would limit our ability to grow our business and adversely affect our operating results. We may also experience adverse impacts from delayed sales and implementation cycles, including customers and prospective customers delaying contract signing or subscription renewals. In addition, a majority of our customers are on monthly subscription arrangements with us and could terminate their subscriptions on short notice. If potential customers determine not to enter into subscriptions or defer subscribing to our platform, or if customers terminate or fail to renew their subscriptions, fail to pay us or reduce their spending with us, our revenue may grow more slowly or decline, we may be unable to collect amounts due and we may incur costs in enforcing our contract terms. If unfavorable economic conditions and macroeconomic uncertainty persist, then we could experience adverse impacts to our business, results of operations and overall financial performance in future periods.
Economy & Political Environment - Risk 2
Changed
Unfavorable conditions in our industry or the global economy or reductions in spending on vertically tailored software by SMBs could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our results of operations may vary based on the impact of changes in our industry or the global economy on our customers. Our results of operations depend in part on demand for vertically tailored software. In addition, our revenue is dependent on the usage of our products, which in turn is influenced by the scale of business that our customers are conducting. To the extent that weak economic conditions, supply chain shortages, economic inflation, geopolitical developments, such as existing and potential trade wars, military conflicts, including the military conflicts between Russia and Ukraine as well as Israel and Palestine, and other events outside of our control, result in a reduced volume of business for, and communications and engagement by, our customers and prospective customers, demand for, and use of, our products may decline. Furthermore, weak economic conditions may make it more difficult to collect on outstanding accounts receivable. Additionally, we generate substantially all of our revenue from SMB healthcare practices, which may be affected by economic uncertainty or downturns to a greater extent than enterprises, and typically have more limited financial resources, including capital borrowing capacity, than enterprises. If our customers reduce their use of our platform or products, or prospective customers delay adoption or elect not to adopt our platform or products, as a result of a weak economy or recession or due to economic uncertainty, this could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Uncertain and adverse economic conditions may also lead to increased refunds and chargebacks, any of which could adversely affect our business.
International Operations1 | 1.3%
International Operations - Risk 1
We are continuing to expand our international operations, which exposes us to significant risks.
We currently market our platform and products only in the United States and Canada, which we entered for the first time in 2019. We may open additional international offices and hire employees to work at these offices in order to gain access to additional technical talent. For example, we opened an office in India in 2021 and as of December 31, 2023 had approximately 89 employees in India to further our engineering and administrative operations. Additionally, we outsourced supplemental customer support operations in the Philippines in 2023. Operating in international markets requires significant resources and management attention and will subject us to regulatory, economic and political risks in addition to those we already face in the United States. Because of our limited experience with international operations or with developing and managing sales in international markets, our international expansion efforts may not be successful. In addition, we will face risks in doing business internationally that could adversely affect our business, including: - the difficulty of managing and staffing international operations and the increased operations, travel, infrastructure and legal compliance costs associated with servicing international customers and operating numerous international locations;- our ability to effectively price our products in competitive international markets;- new and different sources of competition or other changes to our current competitive landscape;- understanding, reconciling and complying with different technical standards, telecommunications and payment processing regulations, registration and certification requirements outside the United States, which could prevent customers from deploying our platform and products and limit the features and functionality we may be able to provide or limit their usage;- potentially greater difficulty collecting accounts receivable and longer payment cycles;- higher or more variable network service provider fees outside of the United States;- the need to adapt and localize our products for specific countries;- the need to offer customer support in various languages;- difficulties in understanding and complying with local laws, regulations and customs in non-U.S. jurisdictions;- export controls and economic sanctions administered by the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security and the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control;- compliance with various anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act;- changes in international trade policies, tariffs and other non-tariff barriers, such as quotas and local content rules;- more limited protection for intellectual property rights in some countries;- adverse tax consequences;- fluctuations in currency exchange rates, which could increase the price of our products outside of the United States, increase the expenses of our international operations and expose us to foreign currency exchange rate risk;- fluctuations in exchange rates and the resulting impact on our business;- restrictions on the transfer of funds;- deterioration of political relations between the United States and other countries;- the impact of natural disasters and public health epidemics or pandemics on employees, contingent workers, partners, travel and the global economy and the ability to operate freely and effectively in a region that may be fully or partially on lockdown; and - political or social unrest or economic instability in a specific country or region in which we operate, which could have an adverse impact on our operations in that location. Also, due to costs from our international expansion efforts and network service provider fees outside of the United States, which can be higher than domestic rates, our gross margin for international customers may be lower than our gross margin for domestic customers. As a result, our gross margin may be adversely impacted and fluctuate as we expand our operations and customer base worldwide. Our failure to manage any of these risks successfully could harm our international operations, and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Natural and Human Disruptions1 | 1.3%
Natural and Human Disruptions - Risk 1
Our business is subject to the risks of pandemics, earthquakes, fire, floods and other natural catastrophic events, and to interruption by man-made problems such as power disruptions, computer viruses, data security breaches or terrorism.
A significant natural disaster, such as an earthquake, fire or flood, occurring at our headquarters, at one of our other facilities or where a business partner is located could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Further, if a natural disaster or man-made problem were to affect our network service providers or internet service providers, this could adversely affect the ability of our customers to use our platform and products. In addition, natural disasters, pandemics, and acts of terrorism could cause disruptions in our or our customers' businesses and national or regional economies. Health concerns or political or governmental developments in countries in which we or our customers, partners and service providers operate could result in economic, social or labor instability and could have an adverse effect on our business and our results of operations and financial condition. We also rely on our network and third-party infrastructure and enterprise applications and internal technology systems for our engineering, sales and marketing and operations activities. Although we maintain incident management and disaster response plans, in the event of a major disruption caused by a natural disaster or man-made problem, we may be unable to continue our operations and may endure system interruptions, reputational harm, delays in our development activities, lengthy interruptions in service, breaches of data security and loss of critical data, any of which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, computer malware, viruses and computer hacking, fraudulent use attempts and phishing attacks have become more prevalent in our industry, have occurred on our platform in the past and may occur on our platform in the future. Though it is difficult to determine what, if any, harm may directly result from any specific interruption or attack, any failure to maintain performance, reliability, security, integrity and availability of our platform and products and technical infrastructure to the satisfaction of our users may harm our reputation and our ability to retain existing users and attract new users.
See a full breakdown of risk according to category and subcategory. The list starts with the category with the most risk. Click on subcategories to read relevant extracts from the most recent report.

FAQ

What are “Risk Factors”?
Risk factors are any situations or occurrences that could make investing in a company risky.
    The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires that publicly traded companies disclose their most significant risk factors. This is so that potential investors can consider any risks before they make an investment.
      They also offer companies protection, as a company can use risk factors as liability protection. This could happen if a company underperforms and investors take legal action as a result.
        It is worth noting that smaller companies, that is those with a public float of under $75 million on the last business day, do not have to include risk factors in their 10-K and 10-Q forms, although some may choose to do so.
          How do companies disclose their risk factors?
          Publicly traded companies initially disclose their risk factors to the SEC through their S-1 filings as part of the IPO process.
            Additionally, companies must provide a complete list of risk factors in their Annual Reports (Form 10-K) or (Form 20-F) for “foreign private issuers”.
              Quarterly Reports also include a section on risk factors (Form 10-Q) where companies are only required to update any changes since the previous report.
                According to the SEC, risk factors should be reported concisely, logically and in “plain English” so investors can understand them.
                  How can I use TipRanks risk factors in my stock research?
                  Use the Risk Factors tab to get data about the risk factors of any company in which you are considering investing.
                    You can easily see the most significant risks a company is facing. Additionally, you can find out which risk factors a company has added, removed or adjusted since its previous disclosure. You can also see how a company’s risk factors compare to others in its sector.
                      Without reading company reports or participating in conference calls, you would most likely not have access to this sort of information, which is usually not included in press releases or other public announcements.
                        A simplified analysis of risk factors is unique to TipRanks.
                          What are all the risk factor categories?
                          TipRanks has identified 6 major categories of risk factors and a number of subcategories for each. You can see how these categories are broken down in the list below.
                          1. Financial & Corporate
                          • Accounting & Financial Operations - risks related to accounting loss, value of intangible assets, financial statements, value of intangible assets, financial reporting, estimates, guidance, company profitability, dividends, fluctuating results.
                          • Share Price & Shareholder Rights – risks related to things that impact share prices and the rights of shareholders, including analyst ratings, major shareholder activity, trade volatility, liquidity of shares, anti-takeover provisions, international listing, dual listing.
                          • Debt & Financing – risks related to debt, funding, financing and interest rates, financial investments.
                          • Corporate Activity and Growth – risks related to restructuring, M&As, joint ventures, execution of corporate strategy, strategic alliances.
                          2. Legal & Regulatory
                          • Litigation and Legal Liabilities – risks related to litigation/ lawsuits against the company.
                          • Regulation – risks related to compliance, GDPR, and new legislation.
                          • Environmental / Social – risks related to environmental regulation and to data privacy.
                          • Taxation & Government Incentives – risks related to taxation and changes in government incentives.
                          3. Production
                          • Costs – risks related to costs of production including commodity prices, future contracts, inventory.
                          • Supply Chain – risks related to the company’s suppliers.
                          • Manufacturing – risks related to the company’s manufacturing process including product quality and product recalls.
                          • Human Capital – risks related to recruitment, training and retention of key employees, employee relationships & unions labor disputes, pension, and post retirement benefits, medical, health and welfare benefits, employee misconduct, employee litigation.
                          4. Technology & Innovation
                          • Innovation / R&D – risks related to innovation and new product development.
                          • Technology – risks related to the company’s reliance on technology.
                          • Cyber Security – risks related to securing the company’s digital assets and from cyber attacks.
                          • Trade Secrets & Patents – risks related to the company’s ability to protect its intellectual property and to infringement claims against the company as well as piracy and unlicensed copying.
                          5. Ability to Sell
                          • Demand – risks related to the demand of the company’s goods and services including seasonality, reliance on key customers.
                          • Competition – risks related to the company’s competition including substitutes.
                          • Sales & Marketing – risks related to sales, marketing, and distribution channels, pricing, and market penetration.
                          • Brand & Reputation – risks related to the company’s brand and reputation.
                          6. Macro & Political
                          • Economy & Political Environment – risks related to changes in economic and political conditions.
                          • Natural and Human Disruptions – risks related to catastrophes, floods, storms, terror, earthquakes, coronavirus pandemic/COVID-19.
                          • International Operations – risks related to the global nature of the company.
                          • Capital Markets – risks related to exchange rates and trade, cryptocurrency.
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