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00:00Before we get going, Gordon, would you just kind of lay out what you folks do? Because
00:04mentioned that you guys are an AI continuous and enterprise planning platform, which for those in
00:10the industry will know what that is. But if you could just lay it out just briefly, and who are
00:15some of your big customers or your typical customers? Yeah, absolutely. And thanks for
00:19the opportunity here. So at the highest level, board is an enterprise planning platform.
00:24I realize that sounds pretty generic, right? So I like to think about us as an operating system
00:29for enterprise planning. So instead of companies using separate tools for budgeting, forecasting,
00:35reporting, operational planning, we bring that together in one platform. We're a system of
00:41record, which is very valuable for many of these companies. But we use AI. We just released AI
00:47agents recently. And this is really to help support the planning process. It's not really
00:51to replace what we do. It's really to help accelerate and support it. Maybe to follow up here, Gordon,
00:57thanks for joining us again. You and I talked about AI and the meaning for your business. You talked
01:05about it as a challenge and opportunity at the same time. I'm curious, talk to us about how you're
01:10talking to customers about AI and how that fits with your existing business. Like, do you still have
01:16a business? Absolutely. And we certainly believe that we do. I think the conversations we're having
01:23right now, I would say, even if a CFO doesn't necessarily believe that AI will replace their
01:28planning platform, they're obligated. I'm obligated to ask those questions. My CEO is asking, my board is
01:34asking, what can we do here? So the conversations we're trying to have with our customers are really
01:38around what are they trying to accomplish? Most of our customers are running sophisticated
01:42businesses. They're often global, often public companies in retail manufacturing,
01:48manufacturing consumer goods. Again, they need a system of record that they can rely on. They need
01:54governance around that. They can't have one answer today and a different answer tomorrow because of
01:59the way the LLM is responding. So for us, it's very much trying to make sure we're aligning with their
02:04expectations, providing that system of record, but with AI agents as a helpful tool, as an accelerator,
02:12but not as a replacement. You know, I don't mean to pick on a company like Salesforce as this
02:16example, but it's down more than 50% from all-time highs back at the end of 2024. And a
02:22lot of people
02:22are using this company as a poster child for the so-called Sasspocalypse and the idea that,
02:28you know, we're going to be able to code something or vibe code something that replaces seats that
02:32someone would buy from one of Salesforce's many software as a service products. Is the public market,
02:39are stock investors getting this story wrong in your view?
02:43I don't know if they're getting it wrong. I think there is an element of hype. And I think
02:49there's an element of just acceleration of where we are today and maybe where we may be in five years.
02:55But, you know, again, and I think it does depend on the company profile too. If you're a small mom
03:00and pop shop, maybe that's possible. But again, if you're an enterprise class business, if you're a
03:05public company, if you're running a sophisticated organization, I don't think a vibe coded solution is
03:11really going to provide what you need that's support, supportable, sustainable over time,
03:16as your business changes, as you pull in an acquisition or not. It just, there's a lot of
03:20complexity that goes into what a company like Salesforce has built.
03:25And just to follow up is like in terms of conversations with your clients, is this something
03:30that you have to argue as board saying, well, actually you can't just replace us with AI or an
03:37LLM, but this is why? Or is it not really coming up with customers at this point?
03:42I would say it's coming up not at the argument stage yet, but more at the exploratory.
03:47Why should I renew for three more years? Isn't this going to be replaced? You know,
03:52some of those exploratory conversations. And again, we're happy to engage with those.
03:56I think for the most part, the companies that we're dealing with, they get it, but they want to
04:01understand, they want to test that theory. They really want to make sure that they're thinking
04:04about it the right way. And we feel like we have a really good conversation to have
04:08around that, around the sustainability of a platform like board.
04:13Not argument, but exploratory. Do you anticipate it's going to get to the point where it is
04:18more argumentative?
04:20It's a good question. I think it depends. You know, I think even six months ago, I think the
04:26expectation around what was possible has even changed, you know, in the last couple of quarters.
04:32I think one of the things we talk a lot about, we talk a lot internally about is the concept
04:37of
04:37just because AI can do something, should it do it? Should you put the reliance on it? In your last
04:43segment, you were talking about the cost of tokens. Do I want to put something that I can do some
04:49other way? Do I want to put that dependency on AI with the potential for my cost to go out
04:54of control
04:54later on? You know, those are questions that we need to be thinking about as well. So it's not just
04:59the pure capability. It's the, should we go down this path?
05:01I mean, you're a CFO, right? You understand that you look at the spend on CapEx, whatever it may
05:07be, and you want to see that ROI. You get it, right?
05:11Of course. Yes. And this is internally, we're very much in this stage. We went from this,
05:16let's roll it out. Let's get adoption. Let's make sure that we're using these products now to,
05:21let's justify the business case. Let's really understand the ROI. Can we measure it? And again,
05:27just because we can measure it, do I want to be thinking about this in a year or two? Will
05:32I think
05:32about this in a year or two the same way, based on how the costs are trending?
05:37Gordon, the company is still privately owned. You're owned by a European private equity fund.
05:43With the IPO markets being pretty strong right now, I'm wondering how the company thinks about
05:48its journey forward. Do you expect to remain private? How much are you thinking about IPO readiness
05:53at this point? Yeah, Nina, like we talked about in our earlier conversation, right now our path
06:00really is to continue as a private company. But the way we operate internally is very much from that
06:07public company mindset. So we really hold ourselves to strong quarterly milestones, our ability to run a
06:14predictable business. We're just in a fortunate position right now where we're very aligned with
06:19our PE owner, Nordic Capital, around the direction of the company. And it's really to build a good,
06:25strong, sustainable company, continue our expansion path. We're profitable. We don't need to go. We
06:30don't have a forcing function. We don't need to go raise capital right now. So it's a fortunate
06:34position for us to be in. So we can focus really on driving the business. If things change down the
06:39road for us, we may consider that opportunity to go public. But is there a chance that you may never
06:44go public? You may stay owned by private equity. You're generating cash. It's very possible.
06:50It's very possible. And I mean, the liquidity markets are, you know, the private liquidity
06:54markets are very strong, you know, can be very strong, maybe not right now. But I think there's
06:58many options. I think we'll consider all of them. But again, really with the focus of how do you build
07:03a good, long, sustainable business? Gordon, you talked about the expansion of the business as one of
07:08the things that you're currently working on. Talk to us a little bit about that. You originated in
07:12Italy, but the US is now a very important market for you. What does that entail in terms of next
07:17steps? Yeah, so the history board is interesting. It's very much a European history. Our strongest
07:24and largest markets are still in Europe, in Italy, France, Germany, UK. And we're actually seeing our
07:31best growth continue out of those markets. The US market, the North American market is obviously the
07:36biggest addressable market for us. We're in the market we've been in for the last couple of years.
07:43It's very competitive space. But we continue to push the growth in those areas. We're trying to do
07:50it on our own as well as through partners, which have tremendous influence just in the office of the
07:54CFO. Yeah, I was just wondering, because you did a deal in 2024 and acquired a company, wondering,
08:00do you see that growth through partnerships and organic growth? Or could you also do more deals?
08:08Both. We're certainly, I would put us in the opportunistic category right now as it relates
08:12to acquisitions. I think if something comes along that fits with us, that expands our core platform
08:19or allows us into, you know, to better get ourselves into the US market, we would definitely
08:24look at it. We're not necessarily running processes, but we're definitely looking as opportunities come
08:29up for those acquisitions. So, you know, you come to a company, you came to this company,
08:35a CFO about a year ago, I think a year in this coming August, you know, amid everything that was
08:41going on in AI. When you came in, did you anticipate kind of some of the challenges of AI, at
08:47least,
08:48or the speed or pace that these challenges are kind of coming at companies like Board and others?
08:53And how much has kind of it changed since you came on board almost a year ago? Is it all
09:00kind of
09:01happening so much faster?
09:04It's a great question. It feels like a very dramatic change, even from a year ago. So, you know, I
09:10feel
09:10like today we're living in just a very volatile time as businesses and as CFOs trying to deal with this
09:17volatility. You talked about tariffs earlier, right? I mean, all of the things that are coming
09:21at us, including AI. And I think somehow we as CFOs need to balance the short-term pressure
09:28to adopt AI, show ROI and cost savings, but also with our long-term fundamental beliefs on how to
09:36scale the business. And sometimes they may marry up and sometimes they may not, but it's a volatile
09:41time for sure. And I don't see it ending anytime in the near future.
09:45I'm curious, Gordon, how Board's clients are doing right now. You've got a great view
09:49into what these companies around the world are doing at any given moment. We mentioned some of
09:54the companies, others include H&M, Burberry, Toyota, Coca-Cola, HSBC, and others. What can you tell us
10:00about what you learn about the macro just by understanding what your customers are doing on
10:05your platform? Yeah, it's a great question. It's interesting because, you know, Board as a software
10:11company, we're not necessarily affected directly by some of these larger economic factors, but our
10:17customers certainly are. It was tariffs last year. It's potentially tariffs again. So what we're seeing
10:25through them is more scenario planning, more capability to understand how to deal with that
10:32volatility. Also looking for ways to trim costs, right? So and that's where AI, I think, can be a
10:38benefit or maybe not. But they're looking to ask for help. One of the unique differentiators we have
10:45through that acquisition we did was we actually can pull in macroeconomic indicators and allow
10:51companies use that for their forecasting. So that's a nice benefit we can offer our customers. So they
10:55can maybe look just outside of their own walls around what else is happening and ultimately how can
11:01they best react to those changes. Gordon, I know many companies these days are very careful about
11:07spending. They're scrutinizing not just say I tokens, but also other licenses, software packages
11:13that they spend on. Are you impacted at all? Are you seeing companies clamping down on spending for
11:19board services or not so much? We're fortunate that we have very high retention rates and we're a very
11:26sticky product, but it doesn't mean we're immune to the questions and the pressure. You know, companies,
11:32we're doing it internally at board. We're trying to renegotiate some of those contracts. How can we
11:37bring down the cost here so that I can go fund my AI investment? So we're definitely seeing it. We've
11:44been managing it well so far, but we don't take it for granted. We work very closely with our customers
11:49to make sure that they're seeing success and they will continue to be long-term customers.
11:54We have questions. One more question here for you before we have to wrap up, Gordon. Just wondering from a
12:00CFO
12:00perspective, one thing that I'm asking a lot about in recent interviews is how do you keep an eye on
12:05AI
12:05costs as a CFO yourself? Like how do you manage that the fact that tokens are expensive and people
12:13tend to go through them faster than we all thought? Is that happening at board? It definitely is. We've
12:19got some pretty detailed tracking around not only the token usage, but also the other tools that we're
12:26bringing in to help with our AI story. So we're managing it on a functional level, trying to
12:32balance adoption, like I said before, with ultimately just good cost control. And some of it
12:38goes back to, again, just because we can do it in AI, should we? So we're asking those questions and
12:43trying to make sure we, uh, we have a good answer on the other side.
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