Sold before it exists: the company is already taking committed orders or reservations for output it cannot yet produce
The model's full reasoning — Q2 2023 call → NOWe need to determine if the transcript describes a situation where counterparties have already committed to take output/product/capacity/service that the company is not yet able to deliver, i.e., the company has sold something it hasn't built yet. Let's analyze the transcript. The company is Sprout Social, a social media management platform. They discuss their business, growth, and an acquisition of Tagger for influencer marketing. Key points: - They talk about strong demand, enterprise growth, record new business ACVs, etc. - They mention that they have removed non-core ARR from their plan, and that they are focusing on higher-end customers. - They discuss the acquisition of Tagger, which is an influencer marketing platform. They say they have incorporated $3 million of revenue from Tagger into guidance for the remainder of 2023. They also say they have made no cross-selling assumptions, and that Tagger will be accretive to ARR and ACV growth. - They talk about their product roadmap, AI, etc. Now, the question: Does management describe that counterparties have already committed to take output, product, capacity, or service that the company is not yet able to deliver? That is, have buyers signed up for something that doesn't exist yet? Looking at the transcript, there is no mention of customers committing to purchase something that is not yet built. The company is selling its existing software platform. They have a pipeline, but that's not a commitment. They talk about "record new business ACVs" and "enterprise new business up more than 50%", but these are actual sales of existing products. They also talk about the Tagger acquisition, but they are acquiring an existing company with an existing product. They are not selling something they haven't built yet. They mention that they have "removed non-core ARR from our plan" and that they are "deliberately deprioritized and removed resources from this part of our business." That's about their own business decisions, not about commitments. They also talk about their Salesforce partnership, but that's about onboarding customers, not about pre-selling unbuilt capacity. There is no mention of customers reserving future capacity, or offtake agreements, or anything like that. The company is a SaaS company, so they sell subscriptions to software that already exists.
| Ticker | Company | Call | Date | Call grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SYM | Symbotic Inc. | Q3 2022 | 2022-08-01 | B+ |
| BXP | Boston Properties, Inc. | Q1 2022 | 2022-05-03 | A |
| CPK | Chesapeake Utilities Corporation | Q3 2017 | 2017-11-10 | A |
| GOGO | Gogo Inc. | Q1 2016 | 2016-05-06 | C+ |
GOGO · Q1 2016 → YESThe question is: Does management describe that counterparties have already committed to take output, product, capacity, or service that the company is not yet able to deliver? YES Management describes real commitments (Delta >600, IAG 130+, Shareco 50, Air Canada wide-body fleet, total 2Ku awarded >1000) already made by counterparties. They also state the company is not yet able to deliver at scale ("begin the enviable task of installing the 1000 2Ku awarded aircraft", "we expect to install the majority of our awarded aircraft by the end of 2018", "STCs... will keep us on track to exceed our 75 2Ku installation target this year", "supply chain is there", "aggressive STC program...
SYM · Q3 2022 → YESThe question is: Does management describe that counterparties have already committed to take output that the company is not yet able to deliver? Like a backlog of things they haven't built yet. YES The transcript shows management describing a $11.3 billion contracted revenue backlog (more than doubled) with customers having "voted with their wallets," alongside 13 systems currently in deployment (plus 6 fully ramped) that will take roughly 18 months to acceptance.
BXP · Q1 2022 → YESThe question is about whether management describes counterparties that have already committed to take output that the company is not yet able to deliver, like pre-leased developments that aren't built...YES The transcript shows multiple instances where management describes counterparties having already signed leases for space in developments that have not yet been completed or even commenced construction.