Wishpond Technologies Ltd. (TSX-V:WISH, OTCQX:WPNDF)'s CEO Ali Tajskandar and new CFO Adrian Lim joined Proactive this week to talk through the company’s latest financial results.
For Q2, the company saw significant revenue growth and a 151% year-over-year increase in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), which Tajskandar attributed to Wishpond's strategic focus on improving cash flow, managing headcount, and introducing innovative solutions like Propel IQ and Sales Closer AI.
Proactive: Alright, Adrian, we'll get to you in just a second. But first, Ali, we’re here to talk about what was a record-breaking second quarter for the company once again. We've talked about this in the past—how you’re continually building, quarter after quarter. And this one was no different.
Ali Tajskandar: Yes, I'm very excited and very proud of the company’s achievements. Q2 2024 was a record in terms of revenue compared to other second quarters for us. It was also a record in terms of adjusted EBITDA. We grew our adjusted EBITDA by 151% year-over-year compared to the second quarter of last year. That reflects our efforts and focus on improving cash flow, increasing revenue, and keeping costs under control, including headcount. Because of that, the company is doing quite well.
Adrian, I mentioned you're the new CFO, but you've been with the company for the past four years, so you know it intimately. Talk to me a little bit about some of the numbers you're seeing. What are you especially proud of?
Adrian Lim: Yes, for sure. We've had good year-over-year organic revenue growth. We've successfully implemented a lot of cost reductions across the board, leading to some really positive trends in our metrics, including revenue per headcount, which has been increasing over time. This has also resulted in very strong adjusted EBITDA and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 9% for this quarter alone. It’s also worth noting that all earn-out payments are now fully completed, which will positively impact our cash flows moving forward. We're in a very good position after this quarter and expect continued improvements in our adjusted EBITDA and EBITDA margins.
Ali, is it the success you’re seeing with Propel IQ and Sales Closer that you really see as the driver for the company moving forward, and is it highlighted in these numbers?
Ali Tajskandar: Absolutely. Over the past year, we announced Propel IQ, which is our all-in-one bundled offering that provides everything a business needs to succeed with online marketing in one platform and makes it affordable. We also announced Sales Closer AI in Q2, which is our AI sales agent that can handle phone calls or Zoom calls and help our customers without necessarily increasing headcount. These two products are putting us on a solid platform for growth in the coming quarters and into 2025.
How about opportunities in the pipeline? Is that something you're still looking at for the rest of this year and beyond?
Ali Tajskandar: Yes, we are in a very good place. Our account executives are fully booked with demos. There’s a lot of interest—more interest in our products and offerings at this point than we have availability of salespeople to give demos. There are plenty of opportunities for us to leverage, and our plans are to expand selling Sales Closer AI through all of our account executives, which will only accelerate growth.
And lastly, Adrian, a lot of this was fueled by organic expansion. Is that something you like to see, or do you want to have more of a mix moving forward with different areas contributing?
Adrian Lim: Probably a bit of a mix. Organic growth and revenue is, of course, a goal of ours. We also want to stay disciplined with our cost spend to ensure we continue contributing to our adjusted EBITDA.
As always, Ali, I know you’re pretty excited about where the company’s at and what the trajectory looks like.
Ali Tajskandar: Absolutely, absolutely. I think we’re in a really good place. Our gross margins have been constantly increasing, our adjusted EBITDA is increasing, and a lot of our costs are behind us in the first half of the year. We have a lot of good things going for us in the future quarters.
Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and style