iSpecimen Inc.

everyone and welcome to i specimens second quarter 2023 results conference call at this time participants are in a listen-only mode a question and answer session will follow management's remarks this conference call is being recorded a replay of today's call will be available on the investor relations section of i specimens website and will remain posted for the next 30 days i will now hand the call over to phil carson Carlson of KCSA for introductions and the reading of the Safe Harbor Statement. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to iSpecimen's second quarter 2023 results conference call. With us on today's call is Tracy Curley, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Benjamin Bielak, Chief Information Officer, Eric Landlois, Chief Revenue Officer, and Evan Cox, VP and Head of Product Management. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that today's call contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended and Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 as amended concerning future events. Words such as may, should, projects, expects, intends, plans, believes, anticipates, hopes, estimates, and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the control of the company, including those set forth in the risk factors section of the company's amendment number one to the annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, filed with the SEC on March 30, 2023, and the risk factors set forth in Part 2, Item 1A of our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period end of June 30, 2023, being filed with the SEC shortly after this call. Copies of the company's filings are available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this call, except as required by law. Now, it is my pleasure to introduce Tracy Curley, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of iExpress. Tracy, please go ahead.

Thank you, Phil. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. Today, I will begin with an overview of the second quarter, including a brief update on the impact of the current economic environment on our businesses. and the progress of our operational initiatives. I will then turn the call over to Eric Langlois, our Chief Revenue Officer, who will provide additional details on the implementation ramp-up of our new revenue-enhancing projects, and then to Evan Cox, Vice President and Head of Product Management, to discuss the technology advancements being made to enrich the overall functionality and efficiency of the iSpecimen Marketplace. I will wrap up our call with a discussion of our financial performance for the three and six months into June 30th, 2023, and open the call for questions. In the second quarter of this year, we continue to advance several key operational initiatives to unlock our full potential, advancing projects to more effectively connect researchers with suppliers and to integrate new technologies. While we recently have had initial success in expanding our capabilities, streamlining processes to increase supplier utilization, and expediting specimen fulfillment, our second quarter results came in below expectations. On our Q1 earnings call, we expressed concern about what we perceived as a general economic uncertainty in our industry and an overall downturn in business. These concerns were realized as our business was negatively impacted in Q2. Despite the fact that we recognize record levels of opportunities in quotes, we experienced lower than expected conversions of quotes to purchase orders in Q1, which in turn left us with a much lower backlog of purchase orders at the beginning and early portion of Q2 compared to prior quarters. We also noted in our Q1 earnings call that we were experiencing slower than normal receivable payments from our customers in Q1. The good news is that our early recognition of these operational challenges enabled us to expedite the launch of several new initiatives in Q2 that have resulted in an improved quote-to-purchase order ratio by the end of second quarter. I'm also pleased to report that our active collection efforts in Q2 were successful in reversing the downward receivable payment trend that we experienced in Q1. Thus far in Q3, and despite a continued industry-wide slowdown, our business has greatly improved as evidenced by stronger sales and backlog, both of which have returned to more historical levels. We believe that our results and revenue for the second quarter of 2023 represents a temporary downturn and that we have taken the required actions to address these issues, which we believe will allow us to achieve better results for the third quarter of 2023 and beyond. Operationally, we have completed our realignment from a department structure to a line of business structure to improve our ability to execute. We are continuing to focus our efforts on more quickly converting quotes to purchase orders through our Q2 initiatives previously mentioned, for which we have seen positive results. As Eric will discuss further, we have begun making progress utilizing our revenue-enhancing projects for sequencing, embedded coordinators, and remnant projects. which we believe will allow us to begin recognizing revenue from these efforts in the second half of this year. By the end of the third quarter, we expect to offer next-day quotes, which we believe will be innovative for our customers and suppliers and will have a positive impact on our quarterly results. We appear to be back on target to achieve expected revenue results from our core business and to begin seeing a meaningful contribution of revenue from our revenue-enhancing projects in the second half of the year, which we believe will contribute to iSpecimen becoming cash flow neutral by the end of 2023 and then cash flow positive in 2024. We continue to be invested in our technology and are very excited about our recent and upcoming launches. which Evan will discuss in more detail. We remain steadfast in our mission to support researchers by providing instant search and access to patients, biospecimens, and data to our global network of healthcare providers. I am confident that our continuous improvement to consistently support our customer and supplier needs to one of the most comprehensive platforms in the biospecimen industry lead to a stronger iSpecimen marketplace and I believe will result in stronger top and bottom line growth overall. We have a lot going on at iSpecimen, and this is truly an exciting time for us. I look forward to updating you with our progress in the third quarter. Now let me turn the call over to Eric Langlois, Chief Revenue Officer, to discuss our near-term adjacent revenue opportunities. Over to you, Eric.