EverQuote, Inc.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for attending today's EverQuote fourth quarter 2021 earnings call. My name is Tia, and I will be your moderator for today's call. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to pass the conference over to your host, Bradley Johnson with BlueShirt Group. You may proceed.

Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome to EverQuote's fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings call. We will be discussing the results announced in our press release issued today after the market closed. With me on the call this afternoon is Jamie Mendel, EverQuote's Chief Executive Officer, and John Wagner, Chief Financial Officer of EverQuote. During the call, we will make statements related to our business that may be considered forward-looking statements under federal securities laws, including statements concerning our financial guidance for the first quarter and full year 2022, our growth strategy, and our plans to execute on our growth strategy, key initiatives, including our direct-to-consumer agency, our investments in the business, the growth levers we expect to drive our business, our ability to maintain existing and acquire new customers, our expectations regarding the recovery of the auto insurance industry, our recent acquisitions, our goals for integrations and other statements regarding our plans and prospects. Forward-looking statements may be identified with words and phrases such as we expect, we believe, we intend, we anticipate, we plan, may, upcoming, and similar words and phrases. These statements reflect our views only as of today and should not be considered our views as of any subsequent date. We specifically disclaim any obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements except as required by law. Forward-looking statements are not promises or guarantees of future performance and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from our expectations. For a discussion of material risks and other important factors that could cause our actual results, please refer to those contained under the heading Risk Factors in our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q and our annual report on Form 10-K, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on the Investor Relations section of our website, at investor.everquote.com, and on the SEC's website at sec.gov. Finally, during the course of today's call, we referred to certain non-GAAP financial measures which we believe are helpful to investors. Our reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures was included in a press release we issued after the close of market today, which is available on the Investor Relations section of our website at investors.everquote.com. And with that, I'll turn it over to Jeannie.

Thank you, Brindley, and thank you everyone for joining us today. 2021 marked a defining year for EverQuote. Despite significant headwinds emerging in the auto insurance industry in the second half of the year, the team exhibited tenacity and the business showed its resilience. In 2021, we delivered revenue and variable marketing margin, or VMM, year-over-year growth of 21% and 19% respectively. We generated adjusted EBITDA, of $14.6 million. We made significant strides toward our strategy to move down the insurance value chain, enabling richer connections between shoppers and providers, selling policies directly to consumers, and building deeper customer relationships. Q4 accentuated this progress and resiliency. During Q4, we exceeded our revised revenue expectations, growing 5% year over year. while delivering performance in line with our guidance on both variable marketing margin, or VMM, and adjusted EBITDA. The following advances towards our long-term strategy contributed to our solid results in Q4 amidst the very challenging auto insurance industry backdrop. On the shopper side of our marketplace, we added 50 new partners in 2021 to our verified partner network. Consumer volume acquired through these partners contributed to 25% year-over-year quote request growth in Q4. On the provider side of our marketplace, auto revenue in our local agent channel grew in Q4, even as revenue from our auto carrier channel contracted significantly during the period. We expanded adoption of our service to manage the online to offline connection on behalf of local agents, driving better performance for agents and extending our competitive moat in this valuable channel. Our direct-to-consumer agency, or DTCA, a cornerstone investment area over the last two years, delivered a breakthrough Q4. In health and Medicare, our Ever Assurance agency delivered $14.5 million of revenue and over a three-fold year-over-year increase. And since the start of the enrollment period, Ever Assurance customers have given us a positive 84 NPS score. effusively citing the helpfulness and friendliness of our advisors. We also integrated PolicyFuel, the PNC agency we acquired last summer, culminating the assembly of EverQuote's multi-line direct-to-consumer agency. We entered 2022 performing well in customer acquisition and in our local agent and DPCA distribution channels. Unfortunately, the carrier channel, which has historically been our largest, remains problematic with continued uncertainty around the timing of recovery and auto insurance carrier digital customer acquisition spend. While we've seen modest recoveries from Q4 lows, we remain 30 to 40% below August 2021 levels of carrier online revenue per quote request, or RPQR. Each week, carriers continue making large changes to campaigns, including pausing or reactivating entire states or segments, which is highly unusual during more stable times. These changes result from ongoing profitability analysis being done by the carriers as both rate and loss environments continue shifting dynamically. Given this uncertainty, our full year forecast is based on conservative assumptions about the recovery in auto carrier monetization, which has two implications. First, it negatively affects revenue, particularly in the first three quarters of the year, as our 2022 forecast anticipates minimal growth in the auto business, as expected gains with local agents and in DTCA are offset by an extended period of lower year-over-year carrier demand. And second, it has a relatively larger negative impact on adjusted EBITDA. Ultimately, the recovery in auto carrier monetization will be driven by the pace at which carriers receive approval to increase rates enabling them to restore broader underwriting appetite and higher willingness to pay. We approach 2022 with discipline and flexibility. We will apply discipline and managing profitability by sharpening our near-term focus to a limited set of strategic initiatives. These include, first, in customer acquisition, growing and expanding newer channels like live calls. Second, in our marketplace, extending our advantage with local agents as we continue improving the quality of shopper agent connections. And third, in our DTCA, more fully integrating policy fuel with our broader organization, continuing to optimize our funnels to improve unit economics, and establishing our ability to cross-train agents and cross-sell consumers across product lines. We are also pausing efforts to build a commercial insurance vertical. At the same time, we will invest judiciously in areas where we can extend a competitive advantage and emerge from the auto downturn at a position of relative strength. We will be measured early in the year while planning for and creating options to accelerate investment quickly if auto insurance carrier pricing rebounds faster than expected. In closing, we remain steadfast in building towards our long-term vision of becoming the largest online source of insurance policies by using data and technology to make insurance simpler, more affordable, and personalized. It has been a busy first year as CEO of Everquote. I couldn't be more proud of our team's ability to navigate changes in the industry or more excited by the long-term opportunity for Everquote. Last year's progress with local agents and NRGTCA has set the foundation for Everquote's next phase of growth as we build the one-stop insurance shop for the digital age. Now I'll turn the call over to John to provide more detail on our financial results.