Someone else already paid for the growth: management describes an outside party bearing the cost, risk, or work that exp
The model's full reasoning — Q4 2021 call → NOWe need to determine if management describes an outside party already bearing cost/risk/work of expanding the company's business, with the payoff mostly ahead. Look for concrete examples: partnerships where outside party invests, funds, builds, etc. The transcript mentions several partnerships: GE Healthcare, Ambry Genetics, AstraZeneca, SOFIVA GENOMICS, etc. But need to see if management conveys that these outside parties are actually spending, building, deploying, funding, or selling now, and that the company is not paying for it, and that the business is still ahead. Key points: - GE Healthcare: "we entered an alliance with GE Healthcare to integrate data between GE's Edison platform and SOPHiA DDM platform, as well as commercial collaboration focused on co-marketing and pilot site recruitment... We are currently working together on a new statement of work to begin developing the software infrastructure and architecture that will enable the bidirectional exchange of data... Our partnership has been going well and we have already seen significant commercial traction in lead sharing." This suggests GE is doing co-marketing, lead sharing, but is GE bearing cost? Not explicitly. It's a collaboration, but not clear that GE is spending its own money to expand SOPHiA's business. It's more of a partnership. - Ambry Genetics: "we signed a letter of intent with Ambry Genetics... Our collaboration will be centered around our shared long-term focus of leveraging multimodal data... our focus will start on HRD." This is a LOI, not yet a full agreement. So it's planned, not in motion. - AstraZeneca: "we recently announced the partnership with AstraZeneca to expand access to in-house HRD testing across European laboratories and institutions." This is a partnership to expand access. But does AstraZeneca bear cost? It might be a collaboration where AZ helps promote, but not clear that AZ is funding or doing the work. It's more of a co-marketing or access expansion. - DEEP-Lung-IV study: "16 sites across six countries have signed up to participate... 13 centers, including UMass, have already been activated." These are sites that are participating in a study. Are they bearing cost? The study is observational, and sites are enrolling patients. But is that an outside party bearing cost to expand SOPHiA's business? The study is to validate a predictive model for CarePath.
| Ticker | Company | Call | Date | Call grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IMAX | IMAX Corporation | Q2 2023 | 2023-07-26 | B+ |
| FAT | FAT Brands Inc. | Q4 2021 | 2022-03-21 | F |
| VVV | Valvoline Inc. | Q1 2022 | 2022-02-09 | C+ |
| YUM | Yum! Brands, Inc. | Q2 2018 | 2018-08-02 | C |
| ILMN | Illumina, Inc. | Q1 2018 | 2018-04-24 | A |
| PCRX | Pacira BioSciences, Inc. | Q4 2017 | 2018-02-28 | C |
| INST | Instructure's | Q4 2017 | 2018-02-12 | B+ |
| AOSL | Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Limited | Q2 2018 | 2018-02-07 | B |
| MITK | Mitek Systems, Inc. | Q4 2017 | 2017-11-07 | C+ |
| SNA | Snap-on Incorporated | Q3 2017 | 2017-10-19 | B |
| PLAB | Photronics, Inc. | Q2 2017 | 2017-05-17 | C+ |
| IONS | Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | Q1 2017 | 2017-05-09 | C |
| MGNX | MacroGenics, Inc. | Q3 2016 | 2016-11-02 | D |
| CRIS | Curis, Inc. | Q1 2016 | 2016-05-09 | C |
INST · Q4 2017 → YESThe question is about whether management describes an outside party already bearing the cost, risk, or work of expanding the company's business, with the effort real and underway now, but the resultin...YES The transcript shows management describing the Paychex partnership as a white-label reseller arrangement where Paychex is already bearing the cost, risk, and work of expanding Instructure’s business by offering Bridge Learn to its 0.5 million customers (6 million users) using its own salesforce and customer base — a real, underway effort since the partnership was entered into and integration is already in progress. Management explicitly states Paychex owns the customers and will sell the product, while Instructure is only powering the backend, and the resulting revenue is still mostly ahead (they are optimistic about significant success by year-end). This matches 100% of the required criteria.
PLAB · Q2 2017 → YESThe question is about whether management describes an outside party already bearing the cost, risk, or work of expanding the company's business, with the effort real and underway now, but the resultin...YES The transcript shows management describing the DNP JV as an outside party already bearing the bulk of the expansion costs and risks for the new China facility (the $160 million Xiamen site, previously announced as a company-led greenfield build last August). Peter Kirlin notes they will "utilize all cash held in Taiwan and greater reduced to risk of ramping of our new factory in China," while Sean Smith confirms they are "sharing that total investment of 160 million as we in essence have a 50-50 partnership, however we will consolidate it" and will "share equitably the startup cost.
YUM · Q2 2018 → YESThe question is about whether management describes an outside party already bearing the cost, risk, or work of expanding the company's business, with the effort real and underway now, but the resultin...YES The transcript shows management describing real, ongoing outside efforts by franchisees and partners already bearing the cost, risk, and work of expansion. Franchisees are actively spending their own capital to open units (e.g., 482 net new units YTD vs. 317 last year; KFC opening nearly 200 2Q units; Pizza Hut 6% net new unit growth; Taco Bell 9 international units), with the company 97% franchised and on track for 98%. These efforts are already in motion and contributing to current results, while management highlights acceleration and future ramp (e.g.