What changed in this filing

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Item 1. Business

2023-03-17 compared with 2022-03-18 · 84 added, 78 removed, 195 unchanged (45% of the section changed)

(“Yext” or the “Company”) organizes a business’s facts so it can provide official answers to consumer questions starting with the business's own website and then extending across search engines and voice assistants.

(“Yext” or the “Company”) organizes a business’s facts so it can deliver relevant, actionable answers to consumer questions throughout the digital ecosystem.

Our platform lets businesses structure the facts about their brands in a database called the Knowledge Graph.

Our platform is built to leverage the structured data stored in the Knowledge Graph to deliver a modern search experience on a business’s or organization’s own website, as well as across approximately 200 service and application providers, which we refer to as our Knowledge Network, and includes Amazon Alexa, Apple Maps, Bing, Cortana, Facebook, Google, Google Assistant, Google Maps, Siri and Yelp.

Our platform powers all of our key features, including Listings, Pages, and Answers, along with its other features and capabilities.

Our platform is built to leverage the structured data stored in the Knowledge Graph to deliver a modern search experience on a business’s or organization’s own website, as well as across over 200 service and application providers, which we refer to as our Publisher Network, previously referred to as our Knowledge Network, and includes Amazon Alexa, Apple Maps, Bing, Cortana, Facebook, Google, Google Assistant, Google Maps, Siri and Yelp.

Our platform powers all of our key features, including Listings, Pages, and Search, along with its other features and capabilities.

We believe a business is the ultimate authority on its own facts, and it is our mission to put that business in control of it, everywhere.

The online consumer journey is changing.

With the introduction of natural language processing and the growing prevalence of voice assistants and chatbots, search has become more conversational.

The online consumer journey continues to change.

With natural language processing and the growing prevalence of voice assistants and chatbots, search has become more conversational.

Consumers are no longer just typing in individual keywords like “mortgage” or “menswear,” but are also using natural language phrases like “wealth advisor near me who specializes in healthcare” and even asking specific, complex questions like “what’s the best menswear store in London that sells dress shirts and is open now?” Web and mobile applications and voice and artificial intelligence, or AI, engines are increasingly answering questions directly and in certain cases providing only one answer unlike traditional web-based search where many results are displayed as a list requiring further exploration.

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• analyze how features in the platform drive consumer engagement and revenue for our customers.

Recent Developments

On March 7, 2022, Howard Lerman notified our Board of Directors of his intention to step down from his position as Chief Executive Officer of the Company effective March 25, 2022.

Michael Walrath, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, will succeed Mr.

Lerman as Chief Executive Officer, principal executive officer and principal operating officer of the Company, effective March 25, 2022.

On March 7, 2022, Steven Cakebread notified our Board of Directors of his intention to step down from his position as Chief Financial Officer of the Company effective March 25, 2022.

Darryl Bond, the Company’s Executive Vice President and Chief

Accounting Officer, will succeed Mr.

Cakebread as Chief Financial Officer and principal financial officer of the Company, effective March 25, 2022.

Bond will continue to serve as the Company’s Chief Accounting Officer.

On March 7, 2022, the Board also appointed Marc Ferrentino, the Company’s Chief Strategy Officer, as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Company.

In connection with the changes in our senior management, our Board of Directors and new management anticipate certain additional changes to our strategy and personnel that have not yet been determined.

Organizational Changes

We undertook a substantial management and strategic realignment in our fiscal year ended January 31, 2023.

On March 25, 2022, Howard Lerman, our co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer, and Steven Cakebread, our former Chief Financial Officer, departed the Company.

Michael Walrath, Chairman of our Board of Directors, succeeded Mr.

Lerman as Chief Executive Officer.

Darryl Bond, then the Company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer, succeeded Mr.

Cakebread as Chief Financial Officer.

Concurrently with these changes, Marc Ferrentino, then our Chief Strategy Officer, was named as President and Chief Operating Officer.

Additionally, on June 7, 2022, David Rudnitsky, then our Chief Revenue Officer, resigned from Yext.

Brian Distelburger, head of the Company’s international and partner sales and a co-founder of our company, served as interim Chief

Revenue Officer until we hired Tom Nielsen as our Chief Revenue Officer in October 2022.

Distelburger stepped back as an executive officer of our business at such time.

Distelburger further announced in March 2023 that he would be stepping back as an employee as well although he will continue to serve on our Board of Directors.

As a result, we have undergone a significant evolution of our strategy and leadership in the past year, and our results and plans reflect those changes.

Industry Background

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Businesses spend significant sums on developing their brands and creating product and market awareness.

When potential consumers reached through those efforts want to make a purchase, businesses need to be able to answer consumers' questions accurately and directly.

When potential consumers want to make a purchase, businesses need to be able to answer consumers' questions accurately and directly.

Inaccurate or incomplete information may result in lost sales opportunities, negative brand experiences and organizational inefficiencies.

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Traditional methods for managing facts about brands include paper or legacy software-based solutions, such as word processors or spreadsheets.

Simply managing and updating information within the few core search engines, such as Google and Bing, through these traditional methods is already very challenging, and becomes even more so when implementing updates on newer services such as Instagram, Snapchat and Uber.

Simply managing and updating information within the few core search engines, such as Google and Bing, through these traditional methods is already very challenging, and becomes even more so when implementing updates on an increasing number of other services such as Instagram, Snapchat and Uber.

Poor Search Experience Results in Lost Transactions.

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We continue to expand our relationships with existing customers.

For example, some businesses may initially purchase our platform only for their stores in a particular country with opportunities to expand to other stores in the geographic region.

We continue to sell additional features, such as Pages, Reviews and Answers, to existing customers.

For example, some businesses may initially purchase our Listings product for their stores in a particular country with opportunities to expand to other stores in the geographic region.

We continue to sell additional features of our platform, such as Pages, Reviews and Search, to existing customers.

See "Sales and Marketing" for a discussion of customer retention and our ability to expand customer relationships.

• Expand Internationally.

• Expand Our International Business.

We sell our platform throughout the world and believe there are substantial opportunities to increase sales to customers outside of the United States as well as to help our existing U.S.-based customers manage data for more of their international business.

We have an established presence in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Japan and we intend to further expand our footprint to other regions.

We have an established presence in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Japan and we intend to continue to grow our business in those locations, while exploring additional opportunities for expansion in other regions.

• Develop and Market New Products and Features.

We are committed to developing and marketing innovative capabilities and we will continue to invest in our platform and develop products and features to help our customers better control the facts about their businesses online.

In the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022, we tailored our products and features for various use cases so that our platform could be deployed more quickly to resolve a customer’s specific search needs such as support search on both internal and external platforms.

We are committed to developing and marketing innovative capabilities, and we will continue to invest in our platform to help our customers better control the facts about their businesses online.

• Drive Usage of Our Platform.

Our customer success professionals are responsible for building relationships with customers, increasing customer’s adoption and engagement with the Yext platform.

Our Hitchhikers program, a comprehensive training program and community for professionals, helps our customers and the developer community develop skills to build custom search solutions for their business using our platform.

• Extend the Knowledge Network.

We plan to continue to expand our Knowledge Network.

In the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 our Knowledge Network is comprised of approximately 200 applications.

We are increasing our focus on adding more industry vertical-specific and international services to our Knowledge Network as well as including new services that may become more commonly used in the future

Our customer success professionals are responsible for building relationships and increasing our customers' adoption of the Answers platform.

Our comprehensive training program and community helps our customers and the developer community develop skills to build custom solutions on our platform.

• Extend the Publisher Network.

We plan to continue to expand our Publisher Network.

As of January 31, 2023, our Publisher Network was comprised of over 200 applications.

We continue to focus on adding more industry vertical-specific and international services to our Publisher Network as well as including new services that may become more commonly used in the future.

• Expand Integrations.

Yext offers integrations with a number of other platforms accessible through the Yext App Directory.

These integrations offer our customers the ability to connect Yext with other systems to give customers programmatic control of their organization’s facts.

As the number of integrations in the Yext App Directory grows, we believe that it will further expand the ways that our platform can be utilized and increase customer retention.

For example, in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022, we launched integrations with Salesforce and Zendesk enabling mutual customers to implement Yext's search experience on help centers as well as support agent's workspaces and decrease case creation by recommending related content within the case submission form.

Yext offers integrations with a number of other platforms through the Yext App Directory and Yext Connectors framework.

These integrations offer our customers the ability to connect Yext with other systems.

The App Directory includes integrations with third-party applications that can supplement our existing platform capabilities.

The Connectors framework provides organizations with pre-built or custom integrations that can be used to pull content into the Yext Knowledge Graph.

During the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023, we added several new integrations to the App Directory and Connectors framework, including Freshworks, Outreach, Snowflake and WordPress, amongst others.

We also made significant updates to many of our existing integrations.

The continued expansion of the Yext App Directory and Yext Connectors framework will give organizations additional flexibility to support new and varied use cases, growing our market opportunity and further increasing customer retention.

Key Benefits of Our Platform

The Yext platform provides the following benefits depending on a customer’s subscription level and enabled products and features:

The Answers platform provides the following benefits depending on a customer’s subscription level and enabled product features:

• Control over Facts.

Our platform is the system of record that enables our customers to control and centralize the facts about their businesses, resulting in the elimination of inaccurate and duplicate data and the ability to seamlessly update data across our Knowledge Network.

• Flexibility for Optimized Management of Business Attributes.

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• Direct Integrations with the Most Relevant Services.

Our platform, coupled with our Knowledge Network of approximately 200 maps, apps, search engines, intelligent GPS systems, digital assistants, vertical directories and social networks, provides our customers with the ability to update their information and content across this network with a single click.

Our platform, coupled with our Publisher Network of over 200 maps, apps, search engines, intelligent GPS systems, digital assistants, vertical directories and social networks, provides our customers with the ability to update their information and content across this network with a single click.

• Increased Discoverability and Conversions.

With structured data stored in the Knowledge Graph coupled with the applications in our Knowledge Network, our customers provide search engines and voice assistants with the data they need to answer questions about their businesses.

With structured data stored in the Knowledge Graph coupled with the applications in our Publisher Network, our customers provide search engines and voice assistants with the data they need to answer questions about their businesses.

By providing accurate and direct answers to questions and guiding consumers to transact directly from search results, we believe businesses are able to capture, convert and retain more of their customers.

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• Ability to Drive More Reviews and Increase Consumer Engagement.

Yext Reviews helps our customers to gather additional genuine consumer reviews and add those reviews to a customer's website as well as monitor and respond to reviews posted across the Knowledge Network.

• Ability to Perform Advanced Analytics.

Our platform's advanced analytics inform businesses about their digital public presence and consumer interactions on their Yext Listing, Pages and Answers experiences that can drive customer revenue.

Our platform's advanced analytics inform businesses about their digital public presence and consumer interactions on their Yext Listing, Pages and Search experiences that can drive customer revenue.

• Reduced Support Costs.

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Our platform integrates with both global and country-specific search engines and applications, accepts international address and phone number data, and allows local employees to contribute individual expertise, providing a consumer experience that respects local languages, address formats and customs.

The Yext Platform

The Answers Platform

Yext's cloud-based platform powers products and features that allow our customers to provide accurate and direct answers to consumer questions, to control the facts about their businesses and the content of their landing pages and to manage their consumer reviews, all from a single login.

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The Knowledge Graph organizes data in a way that can answer complex questions by storing both data points themselves and the multiple relationships between data points.

Our customers can then use information from the Knowledge Graph to answer consumers' questions, to power and update their landing pages and to make this information available through our Knowledge Network of approximately 200 maps, apps, search engines, intelligent GPS systems, digital assistants, vertical directories and social networks in a complete, up to date and accurate manner.

The key products and features that comprise the Yext platform include:

Listings allows our customers to sync and update the content they store in the Yext platform across our Knowledge Network providing customers with greater control and consistency over their brand.

Our customers can then use information from the Knowledge Graph to answer consumers' questions, to power and update their landing pages and to make this information available through our Publisher Network of over 200 maps, apps, search engines, intelligent GPS systems, digital assistants, vertical directories and social networks in a complete, up to date and accurate manner.

The key products and features that comprise the Answers platform include:

Listings allows our customers to sync and update the content they store in the Answers platform across our Publisher Network providing customers with greater control and consistency over their brand.

Pages enables businesses to create landing pages on their website to capture traffic from search engines and establish a call-to-action for consumers who reach those pages.

Answers delivers a natural-language search experience on a company’s website and other digital properties, where consumers can search a company’s Knowledge Graph and get direct answers in the form of knowledge cards, maps and other relevant results.

Search delivers a natural-language search experience on a company’s website and other digital properties, where consumers can search a company’s Knowledge Graph and get direct answers in the form of knowledge cards, maps and other relevant results.

Our platform contains various other features.

Reviews enables customers to encourage and facilitate reviews, thereby increasing the quantity and quality of the reviews available to potential consumers and provides tools to manage their reviews from multiple sources across our Knowledge Network from a single location.

Analytics provides businesses a holistic view of where and how consumers interact with their brand both on their own websites and on third-party applications as well as insight into consumer interactions on their Yext Listing, Pages and Answers experiences that can drive customer revenue.

Analytics provides businesses a holistic view of where and how consumers interact with their brand both on their own websites and on third-party applications as well as insight into consumer interactions on their Yext Listing, Pages and Search experiences that can drive customer revenue.

Ultimately, our platform helps businesses deliver accurate, consistent, up to date and compelling information to consumers.

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Data Structure

The Yext platform allows customers to collect, store and manage structured data, consistent with standards published by schema.org.

The Answers platform allows customers to collect, store and manage structured data, consistent with standards published by schema.org.

Schema.org is an open and collaborative initiative launched by certain large search engines that defines the vocabulary and format for structured markup.

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We actively monitor and track the schema.org standards so that our platform stores and publishes data in accordance with the most current schema.org specifications.

Integrations with our Knowledge Network and App Directory

The functionality of our platform is dependent on integrations with a variety of third-party technologies that comprise our Knowledge Network and App Directory.

For example, we rely on integrations with each of the applications in our Knowledge Network to accomplish some or all of the following key tasks with members of our Knowledge Network:

Integrations with our Publisher Network, and App Directory, and Connectors framework

The functionality of our platform is dependent on integrations with a variety of third-party technologies that comprise our Publisher Network, App Directory, and Connectors framework.

For example, we rely on integrations with each of the applications in our Publisher Network to accomplish some or all the following key tasks:

• search for existing listings and retrieve details about them, in order to match our customers’ data in the Knowledge Graph to existing listing data;

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• obtain statistics about traffic on listings to display to our customers in the platform.

Yext’s integrations through its App Directory offer our customers the ability to connect Yext with other systems to enable customers to accomplish key tasks including the following:

• powering chatbots with data stored in the Knowledge Graph;

• joining insights from Yext with other platforms to perform deeper business analysis;

• optimize marketing campaigns with location data stored in the Knowledge Graph;

• optimize scheduling and appointment bookings.

Over the years, we have developed special integrations with a number of the applications in our Knowledge Network and App Directory.

Yext’s integrations through its App Directory and Connectors framework offer our customers the ability to connect Yext with other systems to enable customers to accomplish some or all of the following key tasks:

• consolidate content from different systems into the Knowledge Graph

• sync content from the Knowledge Graph to various systems and applications

• power chatbots;

• join insights from Yext with other platforms to perform deeper business analysis;

• optimize marketing campaigns;

• optimize scheduling, appointment bookings, and other specific tasks.

Over the years, we have developed special integrations with a number of the applications in our Publisher Network, App Directory, and Connectors framework.

We have also worked with the major application providers to develop trust and strong working relationships, resulting in specific operational workflows, processes for issue resolution, and specialized technology and processes tailored to the nuances of each.

For smaller application providers, we have developed our own application programming interface, or API specifications that each provider builds and implements for integration with our platform.

For smaller application providers, we have developed our own API specifications that can be used to build and implement integration with our platform.

Our Customers

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These include many leading businesses in a diverse set of industries, such as healthcare, retail and financial services.

For this purpose, we define a customer as a separate and distinct buying entity, such as a company, a government institution, a franchisor, a service provider or agency or a distinct business unit of a large corporation that has an active contract directly with us.

For this purpose, we define a customer as a separate and distinct entity, such as a company, a government institution, or a business unit of a large corporation, that has its own separate contract with us to access our platform.

No single customer accounted for more than 10% of our revenue for the fiscal years ended January 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively.

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We provide basic customer support as well as premier customer support, which may include services such as priority access to technical resources, faster target response times and other additional support services.

As the Yext platform can be used by a number of different roles throughout the organization, for an additional fee, we also offer field user support which includes one-on-one training, review of content based on brand guidelines, and other support services.

As the Answers platform can be used by a number of different roles throughout the organization, for an additional fee, we also offer field user support which includes one-on-one training, review of content based on brand guidelines, and other support services.

Professional Services

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In transactions with resellers, we are only a party to the transaction with the reseller and are not a party to the reseller’s transaction with its customer.

We are also developing programs comprised of technology companies and consultants to promote the Yext platform to their customers.

We continue to develop programs comprised of technology companies and consultants to promote the Answers platform to their customers.

Our sales organization varies by market within each country and will change over time as we build critical mass and address various verticals within a market.

Our quota-carrying sales representatives were approximately 225 and approximately 250 at January 31, 2022 and January 31, 2021, respectively.

In connection with our recent management changes, we reduced such headcount by approximately 35 representatives.

We may make additional changes to our sales approach as we update our strategy.

We may make changes to our sales approach as we update our strategy.

We offer annual and multi-year subscriptions to our platform.

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Our packages start with basic access to the Knowledge Graph and successively include access to additional capabilities at a higher cost.

More recently we have offered our enterprise and mid-size customers the option to purchase our products separately, in addition to packages, with pricing based on licenses as well as capacity.

Our marketing efforts are focused on promoting our brand and generating demand for our products.

We use a variety of marketing programs across traditional and social channels to target our prospective and current customers.

Our primary marketing activities include integrated marketing campaigns, sponsorships of leading industry conferences, and thought leadership such as webinars, whitepapers and blog posts.

We offer our enterprise and mid-size customers the option to purchase our products separately, in addition to packages with pricing based on licenses as well as capacity.

Our marketing efforts are focused on driving brand awareness and generating demand for our products.

We use a variety of marketing programs across traditional and emerging channels to reach our target audiences.

Our primary marketing activities include campaigns, paid media, thought leadership content, communications, and Yext-led third-party events.

Research and Development

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Patents and Patent Applications

As of January 31, 2022, we had fifteen issued U.S.

patents, one issued national stage patent, nineteen non-provisional and three provisional U.S.

patent applications, two U.S.

design patent applications, six international Patent Cooperation Treaty patent applications pending, and sixteen national stage applications outside of the U.S.

As of January 31, 2023, we had 17 issued U.S.

patents, five issued design patents, one issued national stage patent, 25 non-provisional, two U.S.

design patent applications, three international design applications, 10 international Patent Cooperation Treaty patent applications pending, and 21 national stage applications outside of the U.S.

The issued patents have expiration dates ranging from 2032 to 2047.

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Our competition comes from businesses that choose to manage their online, public-facing data in-house using manual, paper and spreadsheet-based systems that corporate personnel employ in a fragmented manner rather than pay for a third-party product or service.

Businesses may also attempt to use in-house resources to develop their own solutions for some or all of the features that our platform provides.

In addition, other companies may offer products and services at lower price points than us or that compete with some of the features present in our platform.

For example, certain local marketing and reputation management companies offer one or more products that manage location information across search platforms or facilitate monitoring and responding to reviews.

We believe that we generally compete favorably with our competitors because of the size and breadth of our integrations and relationships with the applications in our Knowledge Network, the features and performance of our platform, the ease of integration of our platform with the technological infrastructures of our customers and the incremental marketing benefits and return on investment that our various products and features offer to our customers.

We believe that we generally compete favorably with our competitors because of the size and breadth of our integrations and relationships with the applications in our Publisher Network, the features and performance of our platform, the ease of integration of our platform with the technological infrastructures of our customers and the incremental marketing benefits and return on investment that our various products and features offer to our customers.

As we develop our platform, we will introduce products and features that compete in new markets and as a result we will face more established businesses in these markets.

For example, Answers, our search product was launched in 2019 and competes with more established search products and legacy search features.

For example, Search, previously known as Answers, was launched in 2019 and competes with more established search products and legacy search features.

We believe our product is differentiated from that of our competitors because of its ease and cost of deployment, ability to leverage structured data in Knowledge Graph, multi-algorithm approach and natural language understanding.

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We have invested resources to develop employee talent.

Upward, our rotational program, offers analysts early in their careers the opportunity to rotate through three functional areas to gain an understanding not only of how our platform and systems work, but also how our customers interact with our products.

In addition, we conduct an annual employee survey to gauge employee engagement and identify areas of focus.

To support our employees in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 and to promote their health and safety, our offices are open on a voluntary basis in accordance with guidance provided by government agencies, although currently the majority of our employees are still working remotely.

To support our employees in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2023 and to promote their health and safety, our offices are open on a voluntary basis in accordance with guidance provided by government agencies, although currently many of our employees are still working remotely.

While we continue to hold virtual events, we have also resumed in-person marketing events.

We provided two weeks of emergency family leave for employees to take care of a child or parent due to COVID-19 disruptions.

As of January 31, 2022, we had over 1,400 full-time employees, the majority of whom are based in our New York headquarters.

As of January 31, 2023, we had approximately 1,200 full-time employees, the majority of whom are based in our New York headquarters.

Governmental Regulation

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You can access our website at www.yext.com and our investor relations website at http://investors.yext.com.

We webcast via our investor relations website our earnings calls and certain events we participate in or host with members of the investment community.

Our investor relations website also frequently provides notifications of news or announcements regarding our financial performance and other items that may be material or of interest to our investors, including SEC filings, investor events, press and earnings releases, and blogs.

Our telephone number is (212) 994-3900.

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The SEC also maintains a website at http://www.sec.gov that contains our SEC filings.

None of the information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website, our investor relations website or the SEC's website is part of this Form 10-K nor is such information incorporated by reference herein.

None of the information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website, our investor relations website or the SEC's website is part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K nor is such information incorporated by reference herein.

Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1. Business