NerdWallet, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the NerdWallet Inc. Q1 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising you your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Caitlin McNamee. Ma'am, please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Welcome to the NerdWallet Q1 2024 earnings call. Joining us today are co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Tim Chen and Chief Financial Officer Lauren St. Clair. Our press release and shareholder letter are available on our Investor Relations website, and a replay of this update will also be available following the conclusion of today's call. We intend to use our investor relations website as a means of disclosing certain material information and complying with disclosure obligations under SEC Regulation FD from time to time. As a reminder, today's call is being webcast live and recorded. Before we begin today's remarks and question and answer session, I would like to remind you that certain statements made during this call may relate to future events and expectations and as such constitute forward-looking statements. Actual results and performance may differ from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements as a result of various risks and uncertainties, including the risk factors discussed in reports filed or to be filed with the SEC. We urge you to consider these risk factors and remind you that we undertake no obligation to update the information provided on this call to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. You should be aware that these statements should not be considered a guarantee of future performance. Furthermore, during this call, we will present both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in today's earnings press release, except where we are unable, without reasonable efforts, to calculate certain reconciling items with confidence. With that, I will now turn it over to Tim Chen, our co-founder and CEO. Tim?

Thanks, Caitlin. In late 2023, NerdWallet launched a new national brand campaign, Don't Make Future You Hate You. reminding consumers that the financial decisions they make today can have an outsized effect on their future well-being. And of course, that they can turn to NerdWallet for trusted guidance as they make those decisions. In Q1, we've seen this campaign achieve great results as our aided brand awareness reached record highs, despite brand spend being down 30% year over year, reinforcing the resonance of our product offering. Similar to our guidance to consumers, we operate with a long-term orientation, We remain committed to improving our efficiency, so it's been great to see our brand marketing spend work harder for us relative to last year. In Q1, we more than doubled non-GAAP operating income year over year. By continuing to bolster efficiency, we'll have more capital to reinvest and more resilience throughout the cycle. We're seeing our long-term orientation bear fruit. Our insurance category has faced inflationary headwinds for most of the past few years, but we continue to invest in improving our marketplaces, This work has paid off with record revenue in Q1, despite an end market that is yet to fully recover. These results are a great example of something I've said before. Our business is cyclical, and over time, we know that headwinds and tailwinds will offset each other, so our priority is growing from cycle to cycle. We also continue to take share in a large and growing market, independent of macroeconomic factors. Our primary addressable market U.S. financial services digital advertising is expanding, with a 2023 four-year CAGR of approximately 15%, and NerdWad's share in this market has also increased with a four-year revenue CAGR of 27%. In Q1 specifically, we are proud of our results. We exceeded guidance across revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and non-GAAP operating income, while growing monthly unique users by 25% year-over-year. These results not only speak to our relentless self-improvement, but also enable us to invest in NerdLog's future. Our vision is to build a trusted financial ecosystem, or a single platform where consumers and SMBs can learn, shop, connect their data, and make decisions about their money. In Q1, we drove progress across our growth pillars, and I feel confident that the decisions we're making today will result in durable value for our consumers and our business. This quarter, we continued to leverage our trusted brand and playbook to land and expand efficiently in new markets and categories. Internationally, we scaled efforts across the UK, Canada, and Australia. Collectively, MUU growth for these markets outpaced US growth in Q1 at 31% year-over-year, giving us increased conviction in our ability to grow our international presence over the coming years. Meanwhile, our vertical expansion efforts significantly increased our velocity. By repurposing existing assets versus building from scratch with expensive development time, we were able to launch and monetize new home services categories within weeks, while still investing in other nascent categories like Medicare, Social Security, and estate planning. Vertical integration remains a key focus as we look to grow from cycle to cycle. These efforts pair Nergla's trusted brand and reach with best-in-class consumer shopping experiences. a combination that should drive improved monetization over time. This quarter, we focused on improving our services to cater to consumers who want more human guidance when making financial decisions. We've always seen tiered support options work effectively in SMB, which operates a hybrid model including both digital and human assisted shopping experiences. In Q1, This team furthered their efficiency by leveraging machine learning to more accurately route consumers to the right level of support for their circumstances. Over time, we'll seek to bring this hybrid model to more areas to help people make smarter financial decisions. As we've achieved record MEU growth over the past several quarters, we've doubled down on our registration and data-driven engagement efforts. By registering users, we can more easily engage and re-engage them over time with thoughtful, personalized cross-sell opportunities, increasing their loyalty to NerdWallet and making it a no-brainer for consumers that turn to us directly for their financial product needs. Already, we've seen that our active registered users visit us more than three times a month on average, signaling the potential value of our registered user base. In Q1, we drove a significant increase in registered users, which we attribute to work in areas such as optimizing registration prompts as part of our larger insurance shopping funnel. We also continue to relentlessly improve how we re-engage users over time. Much like our vertical integration work in SMB seeks to route consumers to the right experience for them, our CRM work is focused on increasingly personalized campaigns that match registered users with content and offers tailored to their profiles. I am proud of our results in Q1 and the progress we've made toward our vision for consumers Elevated delinquency rates and high interest rates are contributing to a tough lending environment, despite seemingly positive economic indicators. We believe these are normal cyclical dynamics, so we are focused on the long term to grow from cycle to cycle. In the meantime, I'll pass it over to Lauren to provide a financial update.