DocuSign, Inc. (DOCU) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary
January 11, 2021
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Scott Berg
analystHi, everyone. Welcome to joining us at our 2020 Needham Growth Conference here. For those that are less familiar, my name is Scott Berg. I lead all of our SaaS and enterprise software research here at the firm. Today with us, we have DocuSign. We have the company's CFO, Cynthia Gaylor. Hello, Cynthia.
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveHi there.
Scott Berg
analystAnd Annie who runs IR. She's on mute at the moment. But we can get stuff, I guess, started here. I guess, Cynthia, how about an overview of the company for the one person watching here that might not know who DocuSign is.
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveSure. Yes. Happy to be here, and thanks for having us. So DocuSign, I mean, as I think most people know, is the #1 player in the eSignature market. And we're #1 by a lot. We spend more in R&D than the next eSignature player has in revenue. And we have a big opportunity. We're focused on the Agreement Cloud, which is a $50 billion market opportunity, about which half of that is eSignature. We're growing really quickly. We have a trailing 12-month revenue of just over $1.3 billion that's growing north of 40%. And we have strong operating margin at 10% last quarter. And I think from a customer perspective, it's good to know that we kind of reach the biggest of the big customers to the smallest of the small, to the mom and pops. So we have 822,000 enterprise customers across all industries, all geographies. And we span, as I said, the biggest enterprises to the smallest mom and pops. And so I think those are probably the key points, but happy to kind of dive into any questions you might have.
Scott Berg
analystSure. We have several of them here. From a housekeeping perspective, one thing I did not mention, for those that want to ask questions in the audience, Cynthia and I's questions will run about 30 minutes. Then we'll have about 10 minutes for audience Q&A. [Operator Instructions] And we're happy to take those as we get through here. I guess let's start with taking a look back at the pandemic, Cynthia. I'm starting all my fireside chats here as, it's been well documented that the benefit DocuSign saw as the pandemic unfolded. Businesses still needed to get done. And of course, eSignatures was a key solution to facilitate this business requirement. But I guess, bigger scale, how should we think about the pandemic accelerating the overall use of the eSignature functionality?
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveYes. We've been getting that question quite a bit as you might imagine. And I think we've been certainly a beneficiary in many ways of the demand curve associated with kind of the pandemic-like buying. I would say we saw that particularly earlier this year where there was kind of an immediate need for folks to digitize faster. I think the great news for DocuSign is we believe that the acceleration to digital is, it's just the pandemic really accelerated what people were otherwise going to do. And so it's not kind of a one and done sort of mentality. It's really a kind of progression of things that were going to happen over a period of time. So we saw, and we talked about this on the Q3 earnings call, we saw more frenetic buying earlier in the year, kind of in mid-Q1 when a lot of companies went into lockdown, kind of stay-at-home, work-from-anywhere type of mentality. We saw that kind of in mid-Q1 into Q2 and some in Q3 as well, and we kind of continue to see that accelerated demand. But we believe it's kind of once people move from manual processes, pen and paper, they're not going to go back once they kind of have the DocuSign experience and are in the kind of more digitized experience. So we've certainly been a beneficiary of that demand, but we also believe that, that demand will continue. It may just not continue at the pace that we saw earlier this year.
Scott Berg
analystGot it. I know one of the questions, I think, that's been interesting that I've asked over the last 9 to 10 months was trying to understand how company solutions are being used differently in the pandemic. I guess if you look back over the last, those 9 or 10 months, are customers driving new use cases for eSignature solutions?
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveYes. I would say that definitely we've seen that in some pockets and in some verticals. I would also say that the use cases can be just an acceleration of demand within a company. Maybe they were using it for one use case, but there's multiple use cases within industries or within companies. Within the public sector, we certainly saw increased use in use cases or even just increased use in general. The small business loans is probably a really good example of that, right, where a lot of those loans were being done in a digital environment. And the eSignature piece of that was quite important. I think within existing customers, and again, we talked about this a little bit on the Q3 call, we did also see accelerated demand or accelerated usage. That led to very strong net expansion rates. In Q3, we had 122% dollar net retention rate with customers. And so we saw kind of expansion within existing customers into additional use cases. I also like to use the example of just even employee onboarding. There are so many companies that still prior to the pandemic would do manual pen and paper type of printing out reams of paperwork when you join a new company. And we've seen a lot of that digitized, not only with companies, but I think education is a great space that's kind of embraced now online or onboarding in a digital way, kind of teachers and employees. And so we would expect to see those type of use cases continue and then also kind of permeate into companies that may still be doing it offline.
Scott Berg
analystI know one of the, I think, key questions that we're getting across a lot of companies is trying to understand if the pandemic just pulled forward massive amounts of demand and or is there some revolution, I guess, in some of these businesses. But how do you think we should think about demand for eSignature software over the next several years? Was this purely the pandemic just pulled forward maybe 6, 12, 24 months' worth of demand? Or maybe businesses have actually take a step back as some of the economy opens up? Or kind of a third angle is, does it just spur maybe even a faster evolution of some of these technologies? Not sure how you guys are thinking about that, but I think the audience would love to hear.
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveYes. I think it's certainly top of mind for us as kind of we look at, not only the customer dynamic, but where we're investing, right, from an innovative perspective. I mean DocuSign has the most innovative product out there in terms of the breadth of the platform and the things you can do. Certainly, during the pandemic, we saw heightened demand in eSignature for very specific needs, right, or people needing to get something done that they couldn't otherwise get done. But we would expect kind of that demand to continue. I mean we don't have a crystal ball, but we're looking very closely at kind of the customer cohorts and the dynamic within our existing customer base but also how our new customer is engaging. And we have found strategically across the Agreement Cloud when folks see the kind of the value and the benefits of digitizing the signature part of the agreement, you're having more strategic dialogues across the Agreement Cloud because the ROI in terms of time savings and avoidance of errors and things like that really lead to pretty high ROI within companies. But then the pandemic overlay over that is it's just a better, faster, cheaper way to get an agreement done, right? So whether it's the prepare, the sign, the act or the managed part of the agreement, it's better, faster, cheaper to do on the DocuSign platform than elsewhere. So we're really focused on what are the components of the use cases, but what are also the components of the agreement that we can help digitize for customers. And so when you think about things, notary is a great example. We acquired a company called Liveoak earlier this year and kind of we're in beta on the notary product that uses some of the technology that we have in-house but also some of the technology that we acquired. And when you think about notary, even in a post-pandemic or pre-pandemic world, nobody wants to go to the notary, right? You don't want to go. You have to bring all your paperwork, your ID. You have to get fingerprinted. And so if you can do that in a digitized way, you save a ton of time, but it's a ton of hassle as well. And so we're looking for areas like that where we're investing in the technology in the platform, where there are obvious use cases across the agreement, but then kind of extending that out to kind of the smart Agreement Cloud with things like AI and our Analyzer product.
Scott Berg
analystNice to see customer demand for the broader product help get spurred by the pandemic, for sure. I guess are you hearing from customers at all that the pandemic exposed deficiencies or flaws in a company's contract processes that may be manual today or leveraging legacy technologies that are less flexible? And then and/or you maybe -- have you heard of any particular anecdotes of eSignature or signature enabling things previously unable to do this during the pandemic or before?
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveYes. I think we're seeing a lot of different use cases and use cases that we probably wouldn't have come up on our own that have been kind of spurred by the pandemic. But I think more broadly just given the breadth of our product and the breadth of our reach across verticals, across industries and across geos, we've really seen strength across the board. So I wouldn't say there's a particular use case that's really taken off, but I think it's kind of more and better across the board, which is a really great position to be in. And a lot of that is attributable to the innovation that we have and the investment we've made in R&D over time, kind of have a comprehensive platform that, not only reaches all these use cases, but is secure, is trusted and meets a lot of the needs of our customers in many, many different scenarios.
Scott Berg
analystGreat. I guess enough with the pandemic because I believe most of us have had enough with the pandemic, at least most that I speak to certainly do. Let's move to products. eSignature, of course, is the largest chunk of revenue and new bookings today. That's clearly what the company was founded on, as I think most know. But the company has really pressed to build out the broader Agreement Cloud over the last couple of years with 2 large acquisitions in SpringCM and Seal Software, large relative basis at least from what we've seen historically in some areas, small in revenue contribution. But first question is, are you seeing customers purchase all these modules or the entire Agreement Cloud as it stands today? Or do they predominantly take a more modular approach with CLM and maybe the analytics for a couple of quarters out?
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveSure. So the acquisitions that we've done, I would say, probably, they have been, the last few, Seal and Spring, have been larger than the company has historically done, but I'd still very much put them into the product technology team and talent type of category versus a broad business type of acquisition. And they're really important for us because I think they help extend our product portfolio, but they also accelerated our product road map on things that we had been working on. And they really complemented that product portfolio. And I think it really demonstrates DocuSign's investment in the technology, in the innovation and in the platform. And I would expect that we will continue to do those types of deals going forward where we see opportunity to kind of extend the platform and the technology. So I would put that kind of first. In terms of how the customers are buying, I would say, and we talked about this earlier in the year. When the pandemic kind of started, it did slow some of the enterprise buying, particularly around CLM. But as you said, it's a very small percentage of the revenue. And I think the pandemic-like buying, certainly for eSignature, has heightened kind of over this period of time. That being said, and Dan likes to say this. I think he said it on every earnings call and every time he's on something like CNBC. We start our sale with the DocuSign Agreement Cloud. And we talk to customers about what the platform can provide and the innovation across the platform and the product portfolio. However, if a customer then says, "That's all well and good, but what I need is eSignature." We say -- I forget, Annie, what he says. But he says, "Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am, like we will give you eSignature, right?" And so I think there is some of that dynamic that probably has been heightened by the pandemic-like buying. But by the same token, in the last quarter or so, we have seen good pipeline traction with the broader portfolio of products. And I would just also say, we are growing at scale, right? We have $1.3 billion or so of trailing 12-month revenue, growing north of 40%. That's a pretty big base to be growing off of, and eSignature is the vast majority of that revenue. And so even when you think of a revenue base in some of these other products in the broader portfolio, even if they may be growing faster at times, eSignature can dwarf them from a contribution of revenue. So it will take a while for the broader other products to become a bigger percentage of revenue, but we're certainly on that trajectory. And remember, eSignature is a $25 billion market opportunity on its own. We are the largest by far. And earlier this year, we just crossed the $1 billion mark of revenue. So we just have a lot of runway, a lot of greenfield opportunity across eSignature and all of the technology embedded there that we believe will continue to grow at scale for the foreseeable future. But the Agreement Cloud gives us a broader platform and also a more strategic sale to customers over time.
Scott Berg
analystSure. I guess now that you've had a couple of those or at least the SpringCM technology for a couple of years now, the customers that you've seen at least purchase the entire Agreement Cloud, is there a profile of a customer that seems to be gravitating towards it maybe the most quickly?
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveI wouldn't say the profile of customer. I think part of it depends on where the customer is in their digital journey, right? And digital transformation can be an overused word. But I think customers that are more in tune with the value of digitizing manual processes are more apt to be kind of on the bleeding edge of early adoption. I would say, though, that we do see customers who may adopt CLM first before they've really used eSignature. So we do see some of that type of buying. So I think mainly, I would say the leading indicator is kind of where is the company and their thinking around the benefits of digitizing the overall agreement, and that may influence where they start. But the vast majority of our customers do start with eSignature just given the leadership position there and the brand recognition, quite frankly.
Scott Berg
analystSure. I'd like to focus a little bit on the broader platform only because it really speaks to long-term growth obviously. And I like how enterprise software applications can get really embedded into business processes because they make it much more difficult to rip out over time. So definitely like to hear about the broader platform. But I think the last question, specifically in the Agreement Cloud is, are you having more success selling it to customers on the sales side with sales teams or any transaction maybe on the demand side of a business-like procurement? CLM is a product area at least that has often historically sold to both entities. Just didn't know what you've had the most success on.
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveYes. I think we're seeing, I would say that it's probably not one or the other. It's both. Like we kind of see the buying pattern kind of across companies, and it's probably more use case dependent in terms of who the buyer is. So we could sell to CIOs. We can sell to GCs. We could sell to CFOs. But it also could be kind of departments and kind of lower into the organization. And so part of it depends, are we talking about the biggest enterprises? Are we talking about more kind of a commercial sale within kind of an SMB or digital, the digital piece, which is a web-based kind of digital-first motion, which I think is really unique to the DocuSign story and not only enhances the brand but also enhances kind of lead gen across the platform.
Scott Berg
analystGot it. I think somewhat lost in the hectic COVID environment, at least a little, was the company's acquisition of Liveoak. You mentioned it a short time ago that occurred in July. This platform will help accelerate the company's kind of new notary solution, as you mentioned. But can you talk about the functionality Liveoak brought to the company and the opportunity you really have with the new notary platform? And maybe when do you expect to release the product and if there would be any kind of third-party products that might wrap around it?
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveYes. It's a great question. So I'm not going to preannounce any launch dates on this call. But the product is in beta, and the general release is expected soon. So I think from a timing perspective, I think that's probably all I can say before Annie reaches through the screen. And then in terms of the product, I do think that this is an extension. Notary is an extension of eSignature. And I kind of gave you a little bit of color, at least how I think about notary, like nobody wants to go to the notary. So we're excited about this product. But again, I think it's probably a product extension versus a stand-alone product is kind of how I would think about it. And we think it is a big opportunity to really continue to innovate around the Agreement Cloud and around eSignature. We're constantly innovating different components on the platform. And I think this is a demonstration of kind of the team and talent and technology around Liveoak really plugging into our product portfolio and extending what we were already doing and really accelerating the time to market that we could bring a notary product to market. When I joined the Board of DocuSign a couple of years ago, as soon as folks heard I joined the Board, I can't tell you how many e-mails I got saying, I love DocuSign, but they really need a notary product, right? And so I think customers are quite excited. And I think it will open new opportunity for us as well.
Scott Berg
analystGot it. Last question on at least the notary solutions because I've been asked several times is around pricing. Are you looking to price it similarly to how you do eSignatures, which is obviously based on envelopes or leverage something different? And then does that pricing model change at all if it's first or third-party delivery?
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveYes. I think more to come on that. I don't want to speak out of turn. I don't think we've talked publicly about kind of the pricing, but I would expect it to kind of be in line with how we've done things in the past in terms of the pricing associated with it. So I probably don't want to get into too much detail on this call around the specific pricing until we're closer to kind of the release date there.
Scott Berg
analystCertainly. Moving on to go-to-market at least a little bit. Has the company had to make any adjustments to its go-to-market strategy during COVID and does the current market change how you view your go-to-market investments moving into the new fiscal year '22?
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveYes. So go-to-market is outside of the R&D, the technology and innovation. Go-to-market is a big investment area for us. Those are the 2 that we're really focused on. And if you think about back to kind of the March time frame, the demand for our products outstripped our go-to-market capacity. And so we've spent the year really doubling down in investment across our go-to-market motion across the field to make sure that we can kind of meet the demand but also grow quickly and continue to grow at scale, right? Because as you said, you kind of, in some ways, have done -- pick your time period, but you've done a lot more business this year than you probably expected, right? And so I think our team has done a really great job of meeting the challenge. But we're definitely playing catch-up in some of the investments just given how quickly the demand accelerated to make sure that we're positioned going forward to continue to grow at scale, which is an execution task within itself. I think the other area is really the back office and making sure that our back-office infrastructure and all kind of the investments that are needed to operate at scale around the globe are there and in place. So that's more of kind of the plumbing. But it's important operationally to make sure that's all in place given the size and the growth rate that we're at.
Scott Berg
analystOkay. I think one area the company, in particular, is making some changes to on the go-to-market side is on the international opportunity. You all recently promoted former CFO, Mike Sheridan, to head up your international efforts. So it's kind of a subtle yet not-so-subtle change, obviously. But what has changed specifically in the international markets to seemingly dictate an increased focus? And then maybe what is Mike focused on specifically?
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveYes. Yes. So I mean we're excited that Mike has taken on this new international role. International is probably one of our biggest growth opportunities. And in some ways, it hasn't been a focus area for us in the past or it hasn't been enough of a focus area. When you think about the size of the company relative to the percent of revenue that comes from international, we're probably lagging other companies that are at our size and scale. So we have, we're in 180 countries around the globe. So we're doing a lot internationally. But I think we also want to make sure that it has the right focus just given the tremendous opportunity that it is. And so Mike is excited to take on this new role. And in Q3, we posted 20% of our revenue coming from international. That's the highest percentage that we've posted to date, and so we would expect that to continue to grow over time. That being said, U.S. is growing really strongly as well. And so international is growing faster but off of a smaller base. So it's kind of some of the similar dynamic between U.S./international revenue in percent as when we were talking about the product portfolio and how long does it take for the rest of the platform to catch up there. So we view both of those as big opportunities. And I think Mike is first focused on making sure the countries that we are in, we are successful in and then helping the team prioritize the go-to-market strategy and how to think about entering new regions, new countries, new geos. And so those are really his focus areas, and more to come on that as he's in the seat.
Scott Berg
analystOkay. I guess moving to financials a little bit. The company has seen a nice uptick in its net revenue retention metric from kind of the low -- it's bounced around obviously a little bit since you've been public, but kind of the low 110% range, plus or minus, 110% to 112%. And it was as high as 122% in the third quarter of the year. And I don't think that's probably a surprise given how customers have bought more capacity upfront knowing that their needs have probably increased during the pandemic. But how should we think about this metric settling back going forward as the pandemic subsides? Is this something that probably reverts to the mid-teens range, plus or minus, or is this maybe a new level and the new norm to look out for?
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveYes. So we did have very strong dollar net retention in Q3 of 122%, and we have been trending above the range that we gave when we went public. So it's a metric that we're looking at very closely. And I would expect on our Q4 call, where we're giving kind of the guide for next year, we'll be better positioned to talk about it specifically. But it goes back to what I said earlier around kind of customer cohorts, making sure we're looking to see, are there changes in the dynamic in the cohorts and how to think about that going into next year but also over the next few years. So we're really encouraged by the expansion rates that we're seeing relative to the dollar rates. And we'll be looking at that more closely going forward. But we're not in a position right now to kind of change that range, but we'll be looking at it more closely.
Scott Berg
analystSure. One of the things that Cynthia and I were talking about before we went live here is the fact that I'm in an office building. I've got a big bright window here at least. But wanted to get your thoughts on the return of the workforce to an office setting, both at DocuSign and for your customers. As some return, do you anticipate any use cases or businesses that maybe -- have some elevated churn over the near term as the economy maybe opens up a little bit more? Or is what we've seen recently, hopefully, the new level?
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveYes. I think it's a really interesting question, one that we're certainly thinking through as we think through our employee base and how employees return to work. And I'm sure there's other companies as well. I think what I said at the top of the call around kind of work from anywhere and the acceleration of demand that we've seen, we would expect going forward we may not see that type of, the same rate of demand, but we still expect very strong demand, right? And we still expect growth in demand. As I said, people, once they move on to our platform and into kind of our product portfolio, they don't tend to go back to pen and paper. And so I'm not sure DocuSign is so much of a kind of work from home. We're kind of more a work from anywhere. And I think the DocuSign product and portfolio can really be used anywhere, whether you're in an office or in a home environment or on the beach in Tahiti with your laptop. So I just think it really is a work-from-anywhere type of product. And I wouldn't expect the use cases to be all that different, although customers are quite imaginative in terms of how they can use the product. And so as people return to the office, I can certainly see new use cases emerging around that. And similarly, Scott, I would say, with COVID, we definitely saw industries that were harder hit in their businesses, right, and maybe had fewer use cases just because their business was struck, similarly to how we had other customers who had more use cases. And so I would expect that dynamic to kind of continue with kind of a yin and yang of people who are using more and people who are using less dependent on the macro environment more generally. But the good news is, we have a really great diversity of customers, diversity of use cases and diversity of kind of verticals and geos that they tend to offset each other at any point in time.
Scott Berg
analystOkay. Last question for me and then we'll open it up to audience Q&A. [Operator Instructions] I guess my last question is within your government operations, specifically kind of on the state, federal level. Any areas or use cases in particular that you're seeing more movement there or given some of the challenges that at least some government entities have had with funding, has that maybe impacted the business at all?
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveSo we're pretty excited about kind of federal, but I would say the government vertical, in general, we've made a lot of investments that we've talked publicly about around federal in particular and kind of the FedRAMP and turning on that channel in that vertical. So that's an important investment for us. I would say it's early days, but we're encouraged by kind of the early signs of the investments we've made there. I also think the public sector and kind of government sector more generally has been one that's been quite active due to the pandemic and I think is one that is a very fragmented market in general, but one where there's just lots of opportunity when you look at the market opportunity, right? There's still a lot being done in kind of that public sector, whether it's government or education or other pockets that I think can be turned on over time. It is an area we're really excited about. So we'll continue to invest in those areas. It's certainly a focus area from our go-to-market perspective and kind of our sales teams. But we think there's lots of opportunity, and we think we've made a lot of really great investments to set those up for success because they are a little bit different than enterprise or commercial or kind of the mid-market. And so making the investments and kind of setting yourself up there does take some time. But once you're in and you start getting traction, it can really be a terrific growth driver over time.
Scott Berg
analystOkay. We do have some questions from the audience here. Again, if anyone else wants to submit some, feel free. The first question is, it looks like in the notary area or just general M&A strategy. Are there any other product areas to bolster via acquisition similar to accelerating notary with Liveoak?
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveYes. So our acquisition strategy, I would expect it to be quite consistent with what you've seen us do in the past, kind of the technology-team-talent type of deals that can help accelerate our road map. And again, we're making a ton of investment across R&D in the product portfolio. So I could see us doing things similar to what you've seen us do in the past. I don't think there's particular areas that I would flag or call out here. However, when you think about the broader Agreement Cloud, there's definitely opportunities to consolidate in some areas and help kind of, I want to say, plug-and-play and bring things to market faster. So we'll look to do that. We're a pretty disciplined buyer, as you probably noticed, right, in terms of how we go about doing acquisitions. We have a team that has a lot of experience in that area. So I think you'll continue to see us do the type of deals that we've been doing and building out the portfolio and helping accelerate kind of our time to market on some of those things.
Scott Berg
analystAll right. Next question is around the competitive environment, specifically with the Agreement Cloud. Who do you typically run to from a competitive dynamic? And how do you talk about your differentiation when someone's hitting you up against someone else for the broader Agreement Cloud?
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveYes. For sure. And so I think our biggest competition kind of across the board, whether it's eSignature or the Agreement Cloud is really pen and paper and kind of manual processes to digital processes. And I touched on this a little bit in the beginning, but I think our product platform really is the most comprehensive platform out there, whether it's the signature piece; the prepare piece, which is some of the CLM type of products; the act or the manage. And so we're really at the leading edge in this space of kind of product innovation and the most comprehensive platform. I think the other thing that we haven't touched on, on this call that really differentiates DocuSign is the integrations across the ecosystem. So we've made a lot of investments in the ecosystem, but we're integrated into kind of all the big platforms that customers are using, particularly in the enterprise and commercial and mid-market spaces. And so when you think about being a customer and using DocuSign, oftentimes, if you're using these other products that are pretty ubiquitous across the landscape, DocuSign is integrated so it makes it really easy to use our products and to get up and running quickly without big implementation cycle. So I think that's a really important differentiator for us in terms of we've made those investments in the technology and in the platform to be integrated kind of across the ecosystem. And we also have really compelling APIs out there for folks who want to do more of it themselves. And so I would say that comprehensive product suite and being integrated into the ecosystem are probably 2 of the key differentiators and then the innovation, which I've talked about quite a bit on this call, just innovating across that technology and across the platform really makes the product suite more comprehensive. And then trusted. We're a trusted brand. Our NPS score is quite high. Customers love using us because their customers love that they use DocuSign. And so I think we're a trusted brand across blue-chip customers but also kind of down to the smallest customers. We have hundreds of millions of signers. So we have a lot of brand recognition, but we also have a lot of people using the product. And then if you just think about kind of security and privacy and all of the technology and investment that we've made in those areas, we think those are key differentiators as well.
Scott Berg
analystAll right. Last question here, only because we have a couple of minutes remaining, is about your growth profile. Given the investments in M&A that the company has undertaken over the last couple of years, have you conveyed kind of a minimum growth level or maybe an expected growth rate over the next several years into the intermediate term?
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveYes. I think we're, I mean we're looking at that closely just given how quickly we grew this year and how much bigger scale we're at than we were this time 12 months ago. It's certainly a metric that we're looking at. We're very focused on growth. Our margin is improving quite substantially, but we'll continue to invest to grow the business. We think the opportunity is really large, and we think we're best positioned to kind of go after it. And so you will see us continuing to invest in growth. And I wouldn't expect kind of the margin to improve at the same rate that it improved year-on-year this year. However, we'll talk about the growth rates more specifically when we get to the Q4 call in, I guess it's no longer 90 days, maybe 70 days for now or so, whatever it is, since we reported earnings. But I think we have a little bit of time. And we're looking at our customers similar to other companies who have seen this type of growth looking into next year and trying to level set on what the new normal or the new not normal will look like and what that means for our growth numbers. But we'll continue to invest in growth, and I think that's probably the key takeaway there.
Scott Berg
analystWell, good luck with the quarter end. Cynthia, Annie, thank you so much for your time today. Look forward to talking with you soon. And thanks, everyone, for joining us on this presentation.
Cynthia Gaylor
executiveTerrific. Thank you. Have a good day. Bye-bye.
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