Direct Digital Holdings, Inc.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to Direct Digital Holdings' first quarter 2026 earnings call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. I will now hand the conference over to Walter Frank, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

good morning everyone and welcome to direct digital holdings first quarter 2026 earnings conference call on today's call our direct digital holdings chairman and chief executive officer mark walker and chief financial officer diana diaz information discussed today is qualified in its entirety with the form 8k and accompanying earnings release which has been filed today by direct digital holdings which may be accessed at the sec's website and the company's website today's call is also being webcast and a replay will be posted to direct digital's investor relations website Immediately following the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. Please note that the statements made during the call, including financial projections or other statements that are not historical in nature, may constitute forward-looking statements. These statements are made on the basis of Direct Digital's views and assumptions regarding future events and business performance at the time they are made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update these statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks which could cause Direct Digital's actual results to differ from its historical results and forecasts. including those risks set forth in Direct Digital's filings to the SEC, and you should refer to those for more information. This cautionary statement applies to all forward-looking statements made during this call. During this call, Direct Digital will be referring to non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP measures are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in the earnings release that Direct Digital filed in its Form 8 today. I will now hand the conference Over to Mark Walker, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, Mark.

Thanks, Walter, and thank you to everyone joining our call this morning. I'll start by reviewing some of the highlights of our operations and financial results during the first quarter of 2026 before turning the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Diana Diaz, for a more detailed look at our financial results. We'll conclude by opening the call for a brief Q&A. We remain focused on organically growing our sales pipeline by enhancing how we reach and support customers across a broader set of go-to-market channels. Alongside product innovation, initiatives such as Ignition Plus, our sales team are seeing encouraging engagement through expanded enterprise outreach, a diversified combination of enterprise sales, inside and outside sales efforts, and new distribution and lead generation channels. This multi-channel approach is broadening our reach, improving sales efficiency, and positioning us to drive more consistent, scalable growth over time. In March, we launched Ignition Plus, a unified, transparent platform for programmatic media built to maximize efficiency, reduce costs, and combine AI-driven optimization with a proven team of experienced specialists. Since launching, we've seen strong initial interest from mid-market enterprise clients who value the transparency and efficiency this platform offers and its ability to maximize the value of their marketing budget without compromising our transparency or scale. We believe that we're well positioned to benefit from this demand as we transition the interest we're seeing into long-term partnerships. Importantly, Ignition Plus combines the strengths of our business across the entire advertising ecosystem, and reflects a key strategic shift in focus as we continue to rebuild in the wake of the challenges that we faced over the last couple of years. We're executing on a new strategy to return a revenue growth by driving intentional digital marketing spend with current and future customers, as well as mid-market and large enterprise customers, and understand the value our offerings can bring to their business. We've aggregated our operations in a streamlined model that we believe position us to drive improved results as we scale. With a more streamlined operating model and a clearer focus on our core strengths, we believe we are positioned to thoughtfully evaluate strategic opportunities that could complement our existing platform. While our primary focus remains execution and organic growth, we continually assess potential partnerships or acquisitions that align with our long-term objectives and shareholder value creation. As always, we sincerely appreciate your support of Direct Digital Holdings. I will now hand the call over to Diana Diaz, our Chief Financial Officer, who will walk through some of the financial highlights in further detail.