Viant Technology Inc.

Well, hello, everyone, and welcome to Viant Technology's first quarter 2023 earnings webinar. My name is Kelsey, and I will be your operator today. Before I turn the program over to the Viant leadership team, I'd like to go over just a few housekeeping notes for today. As a reminder, today's webinar is being recorded. Attendees are on a view and listen only mode, but following the speaker's remarks, there will be a Q&A session. If you would like to ask a question, please click on the Raise Hand tab located at the bottom of your screen, and please ensure your Zoom name reflects your full name and your firm. We thank you for joining us today, and I will now turn the webinar over to Nicole Kuzman with the Blue Shirt Group. Nicole, over to you.

Thank you, Kelsey. Good afternoon, and welcome to Viant Technologies' first quarter 2023 financial results conference call. On the call today are Tim Vanderhoek, co-founder and chief executive officer of Chris Vanderhoek, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Larry Madden, chief financial officer. I'd like to remind you that we will make forward-looking statements on our call today, including our guidance for Q2 2023 that are based on assumptions and subject to future events, risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. We undertake no obligation to update these statements except as required by law. For more information about factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements, in our entire Safe Harbor Statement, please refer to the news release issued today as well as the risks and uncertainties described in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31st, 2023 under the heading Risk Factors and Other Filings with the SEC. During today's call, we will also present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. Additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures including a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures are included in the news release we issued today, which has been posted on the Investor Relations page of the company's website and in our filings with the SEC. I would now like to turn the call over to Tim Vanderhoek, Chief Executive Officer of Buy-In. Tim?

Thanks, Nicole, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. I'm pleased to report that we started 2023 with solid financial results in Q1. We exceeded our guidance on contribution extract and adjusted EBITDA and delivered revenue at the high end of our guidance. Our team executed well, capitalizing on our large market opportunity amid a spending environment showing signs of stabilization. Our primary focus remains on making thoughtful investments in our platform to win market share and drive long-term growth and profitability. We continue to balance investing for growth with spending discipline while driving expanded revenue and contribution extract performance. This was primarily led by product adoption in key areas such as household ID, advanced reporting and measurement, and the buy-in data platform. One of the most significant industry trends we're capitalizing on is the growing importance of AI and machine learning. which we have previously described as our vision of autonomous advertising. At Viant, we are focused on delivering products that automate the laborious and complex tasks associated with using programmatic ad platforms. Tasks like creating an ad campaign or ad format, selecting channel, device, publisher, and ultimately bid prices for inventory, all of this can be streamlined and optimized through AI. Our AI-driven approach is poised to create substantial future revenue growth for buy-in. We have already built all the essential infrastructure components to apply AI on behalf of advertisers, and we are ahead of many of our competitors in this area. To succeed in this new era of ad tech, companies need to solve for identity across channels, have deep integrations for ad supply, and possess a real-time data platform that enables companies to utilize their first-party data for closed-loop measurement. Viant has all these components in place, including our patented household ID, our Adelphic DSP, and the Viant data platform. The Viant data platform is a critical piece of the ad tech stack. It centralizes vast amounts of data from various sources, enabling us to quickly develop, train, and fine-tune AI models for our customers. This comprehensive data foundation is a key differentiator for Vyant and one that has taken years to develop, and it sets us apart from competitors and positions us for substantial future growth. Throughout 2023, we plan on releasing a suite of new AI-driven tools that will help our customers improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their advertising investments. Our extensive infrastructure and data integrations gives us a competitive advantage in training our AI model, while our competitors are still just working on individual components. By leveraging AI, we not only streamline the ad process, but also provide a compelling reason for potential customers looking to optimize their ad spend. In addition to AI, we are also capitalizing on the strength of connected TV as a key industry channel. Connected TV represents a strong segment of growth in the ad market, and we are seeing a re-acceleration of growth in Q2. Our supply path optimization initiative, Direct Access, targets the largest CTV publishers, ensuring our advertisers receive the most efficient price for ad inventory. And finally, we are focused on sustainability, which remains a crucial industry challenge where Viant is demonstrating leadership with our recent initiatives. Last quarter, we discussed the launch of Adstricity, our customer carbon reduction program, which helps clients meet their corporate sustainability goals. This program has gained early traction, and we are partnering with Scope 3 to measure campaign emissions of our customers to curb the carbon impact of running their digital ad campaigns. At the same time, we are working on reducing our own carbon emissions with the goal of being carbon neutral by the end of 2023 and plan on releasing our sustainability report later this year. In conclusion, our progress with AI and machine learning initiatives, the Viant data platform, and a stabilizing advertising environment gives us strong momentum going into the second half of 2023. Our business is poised for substantial future revenue growth, And our extensive data-driven omnichannel platform makes us a compelling choice for advertisers and their agencies. Now I will hand the call over to Chris to discuss more around the business. Thanks, Tim. Q1 was a very strong quarter for Viant as we continue to win with mid-market agencies and clients. Our sole focus is on the buy side, meaning we represent the marketer and their agency and market by delivering on the following value propositions. First, procuring the lowest CPM cost in the market through direct relationships with content owners, providing an efficient supply chain, and leveraging AI-based bid algorithms to defend against supply-side price inflation. Second, improving campaign performance with automated platform capabilities that deliver superior return on ad spend. Third, enabling our customers to quantify their return on ad spend through our advanced reporting and measurement offerings. And finally, providing exceptional customer service that is second to none. These areas of focus are helping us win new customers and drive incremental revenue as customers see more value in our platform, expertise, and independent buy-side-only representation. Last quarter, I set up three key business priorities for 2023, and I'd like to provide some progress updates. As Tim mentioned in his remarks, We are seeing growth and adoption with our new and improved buy-in data platform. We have leveraged big data for over a decade, and this has always been a differentiator for us. Our focus and investment in expanding our data platform is already beginning to pay dividends in terms of customer adoption and revenue expansion. Data management is a core capability our clients are asking for, as they want to be able to use their first-party data in conjunction with their advertising campaigns. This need is nearly universal across all clients, but we don't believe that existing solutions solve for marketers' needs, which is why we are so confident in our ability to scale adoption of this product. Tim also mentioned the importance of investing in AI and machine learning as part of our journey towards autonomous advertising. Now is the time to actively implement AI and ML to drive step function improvements in programmatic advertising. The number of applications is truly uncapped. and we have a number of initiatives in the works, several of which will launch in the second half of 2023. Finally, I want to pick up on a supply path optimization program I announced last quarter called Direct Access. Direct Access is a program that creates the most efficient supply path for our customers by creating partnerships with premium content owners to merchandise their content to our clients directly. This program will drive a more efficient supply chain, provide bids on ad impressions directly to publishers, and eliminate duplicative ad requests that result from reselling. Our focus here is to deliver the lowest cost of media while helping drive the highest return on ad spend for our customers. In closing, I'm happy to report that since Q4, we've grown our product and tech teams by 20%, ushering strong talent into the company while maintaining cost discipline across the board. This is core to delivering on our key initiatives as we invest in our platform and drive long-term growth and profitability. Thank you, and I'll now turn it over to Larry to provide more details on our financial performance.