Yeah. Good. All right, we can get started. Thanks, everyone, and good afternoon. Welcome to this next fireside chat session at the 26th Annual Needham Growth Conference. I'm Ryan MacDonald, and I lead Needham's digital health research efforts here at the firm. In this session, I'm pleased to be joined by Accolade CFO, Steve Barnes. Hey, Steve. How you doing? Ryan, doing great. Thank you so much for having us. Yeah, thanks for coming. So it's a fireside chat. We've got about 40 minutes to talk. We'll spend about 30-35 of that going through some questions I've got, but for those in the audience, if you do have questions for Steve, feel free to save them towards the last 10 minutes, and we'll get those asked and answered. But with that, we'll jump right in. So Steve, for those who might not be familiar, how about a brief overview of Accolade, which happens to be my top pick this year, so, And we're really pleased that you, that you made Accolade your top pick. Thanks, Ryan. Yeah, great place to start. You know, what a really big opportunity to explain where Accolade, why Accolade exists- Mm-hmm. ... coming off of the year 2023, when healthcare costs rose. Mm-hmm. We'll see where the final numbers come in, but was it gonna be 7%-7.5%- Mm-hmm ... or something like that? Accolade exists because of that consistent rising cost environment for payers. In our case, we started with employers who bear the cost of healthcare, looking at that and saying: How can we improve that and improve the consumer experience, our employees who are trying to navigate an extremely complex healthcare system? Mm-hmm. So out of that, Accolade was born by essentially democratizing this idea of a concierge type of white glove- Mm-hmm ... approach, but doing so, we started with a navigation and advocacy capability, and today we've expanded and extended that to actually embed a physician into that navigation process, along with other extended services, like expert medical opinion and other high-cost areas like oncology and mental health and MSK, through a set of partnerships. We've done that over the past 8-10 years in building that business, and today, we're looking forward at a next fiscal year of revenue approaching $500 million, a profitable business, and we've also given longer term guidance of a business. We expect to continue to compound and grow at a 20% clip, where we see a business of $1 billion and- Mm-hmm ... an attractive bottom line. You know, the way we're achieving that and going after that opportunity is in a differentiated way by having invested significantly in a technology platform, that I'm sure we'll talk more about today. Mm-hmm. But it really is the underpinning of combining the best of human and clinical touch- Mm-hmm ... which healthcare requires, when you're really in need, but also leveraging a tech stack that can be extensible, can be the source of scale and leverage, and we're seeing that now as we break through to profitability and seeing- Mm-hmm ... a very diversified revenue stream from multiple sources. So the business is really, really hitting on all cylinders and heading into the next stage of our growth and profitability from here. Absolutely, and then speaking of the business hitting on all cylinders, so you just closed the end of a strong selling season, which should set you up well for the year ahead. Maybe first just explain to our audience why you have that level of visibility in the business in terms of why it's purchased, how it's, you know, implemented. And then, you know, when you think about the past selling season, was there anything that surprised you in terms of about the demand or perhaps products that were in more demand than you might have expected? Yeah, it's a really important question. You know, the demand environment continued to be strong for us in calendar 2023, off of similar comments in 2022, and it appears to be setting up again in, in 2024. Why is that? I think it does certainly start with this rising cost environment and new dynamics, as there are, always are in healthcare. Certainly, GLP-1s and areas like that, that create tremendous opportunity to improve- Mm ... health, but also at a cost in which employers are looking at that, trying to figure out how best to manage with that. Mm-hmm. A solution like Accolade can really help a company work through that. We heard that a lot during selling season. We expect that to continue into next year. Another important factor, I think, for us and why we win when we win, is the integration of our offering. Mm-hmm. We're often selling not just the advocacy platform, but advocacy bundled with these other capabilities: primary care, expert medical opinion, and other solutions. That, when that works really well for an employer, it, it does a lot of things for them. It simplifies their own internal process- Mm-hmm ... because they're having to manage inbound on a lot of procurement opportunity with solutions. We simplify all that, integrate it- Mm ... drive engagement, drive member outcomes, and drive ROI for employers- Mm-hmm ... to reduce healthcare costs, and all that wraps together to what's really helping propel our our bookings growth. Which I would imagine even resonates even more in a difficult macro, where costs are even more in focus for employers. It is. It can be counterintuitive. Mm-hmm. It's a very fair question in a macro environment like ours that we're seeing right now, where there's some uncertainty. Mm-hmm. This cost escalation on the healthcare side has employers looking for other solutions. We certainly are a leader in this category- Mm-hmm ... that, you know, five years ago, we were explaining the category. Today, it's a well-established category with RFP volume, and we're winning more than our fair share of deals for those reasons I described- Mm-hmm ... a differentiated solution, and candidly, a market that's really growing, and I think under-penetrated at this point. We're pretty early on in this market. Yeah. Yeah, so yeah, we've definitely come a long way in the navigation journey, as this market sort of scaled up and become a new opportunity. Where do you think we are in terms of penetration within the overall market opportunity for navigation today, and how does that inform your view for sort of that pathway of 25-29 of, you know, what drives growth, whether it's, you know, new product, more new customer focused or sort of cross-sell focused at this point? ... Yeah, you know, the navigation advocacy category by itself is, you know, essentially it's a carve-out from what health plans have done- Mm-hmm ... historically, and established as a new category. Mm-hmm. But as we size it up and we look at ourselves, our direct competitors, we think, you know, in aggregate, fewer than about 1,000 companies probably have a solution like this- Mm-hmm ... against what we size as 30,000+ companies that could utilize this, and I'm thinking there of self-insured companies, so 500-1,000 employees and on up. So we're pretty early days there. As we look out over that 5-year plan that you're referring to, we think bookings, you know, will continue to be greenfield opportunities as they have been. Mm-hmm. Five years out, a lot more of our revenue will come from existing customers expanding. Yep. You know, there's an opportunity to grow revenue per customer within our base. We've seen that happen over the past couple of years since we've added new capabilities, primarily primary care and, and expert medical opinion- Mm-hmm ... which we brought onto the platform through acquisition, and we've also partnered through our Trusted Partner Ecosystem integration with others, and we keep seeing and are driving that utilization. It's really our special sauce is building that strong member engagement- Mm-hmm ... getting people to the right place at the right time, and we've built a revenue model that can capitalize on that when we do that. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so, so really you're, you're really improving upon what was a, I would guess you could say, a highly inefficient or maybe poorer quality service offering, you know, in the industry offered by the payers previously. But as we think about competition today and, and who you're competing against, how often is it that you're sort of replacing sort of an inefficient, you know, offering by the payers themselves and sort of... or, or if you would call it, not having a solution, versus, you know, we've seen companies like Quantum Health and Included Health, and Virgin Pulse, you know, versus some of the other competitors that are similar to Accolade? Yeah. To be sure, most of the deals that we win are greenfield, new opportunities- Mm-hmm ... which means, candidly, we're carving that out- Yep ... or pulling that away from the carrier, who also have a solution, but it's baked onto a platform, which in our case, we're of a member-focused, customer-focused, navigation-based, this concierge approach that is really specialized and differentiated- Mm-hmm ... from what the carrier offers. And then we do see Quantum the most. They're a strong competitor. We're differentiated from them and others in the marketplace through what I was describing there, that integrated capability and our technology platform. But what's clear to us is, you know, growing at the clip we're growing and the market is, appears to be large and- Mm-hmm ... and plenty of room to run here. What do win rates typically look like in against some of these other competitors, like the Quantum Healths, the Included Healths, the Virgin Pulses of the world? Yeah. So, we've talked a lot about our bookings growth- Mm-hmm ... so we're driving 20% per year- Mm-hmm ... bookings growth over the past several years, including this current fiscal year of 2024, and believe that continues on. So, you know, we describe that as we're winning more than our fair share of deals. Mm-hmm. and it consists of large customers all the way down to the small- Mm-hmm ... area and then across channels. Mm-hmm. You know, we'll, I'm sure, get to this at some point in the conversation, but we're going direct to employer. We're also reaching health customers through health plans- Yep ... and through the government, who we have a government contract. Those are capabilities that are enabled by our platform that allows us to unbundle the offering, and Mm-hmm ... we're often winning deals where we're not necessarily seeing all those competitors. Yeah. And then, you know, I think the market's maturing to an extent now, and you're seeing, you know, multi-year contracts come up for renewal. What's retention look like in the business? And, you know, for context, obviously, Comcast was a seemingly one-off issue, but maybe in the context of the retention answer, can you talk about what churn has looked like since Comcast, or- Sure ... is, has that been a really one-off issue? Yeah. To answer that point there, we do. We think it was. It was about two years ago- Mm-hmm ... our largest customer at the time of the IPO was Comcast. They went to a competitor. You know, we as a public company in particular have developed a strong discipline around... Like, there's a point at which a human technology-enabled human service, there's a price point at which you need to be able to have in order to deliver- Mm-hmm ... that service, and we had discipline there. Below a certain point, we'll let that go by. That said, excluding that, retention has been incredibly strong. Mm-hmm. 90, in the 90s, 95% of our- Yep ... total value retained year-over-year. We think being in the 90s as a percentage year-over-year is a place that we think is really comfortable, achievable, and it indicates there's a strong value driver there for our customer. You know, one of the things that's really great about Accolade and the way our contracts work with our customers, I believe, is that customers get to measure us on an ROI basis every year. Yep. We always put a portion of our fee at risk- Mm-hmm ... to confirm that we're gonna drive cost savings for our customers. Mm-hmm. There's a report card that's happening certainly every quarter and by measurement, at the end of every year. Mm-hmm. So there's absolutely a tight correlation between our high retention rates- Yep ... and strong value delivered to customers year over year. I'm curious, like, you know, in that environment, you know, when Comcast was lost, it was an environment where obviously plenty of funding going into the space for private companies. They could afford to take more risks and be aggressive on pricing, maybe operate unprofitably at some customers. You know, now that we're a couple of years removed from that favorable funding environment, cost of capital has gone up, you know, budget's been tighter, do you—are you starting to see any opportunities in the pipeline to potentially win either from those customers or aggressive or win back customers? You know, you know, 'cause again, I, I can't imagine sort of such aggressive pricing tactic can continue to hold up in this tighter environment. Yeah, I really appreciate the way you framed that because you're absolutely right. You think about cost of capital. Everyone in this room and on this call knows- Mm-hmm ... this changed dramatically. Mm-hmm. Two years ago, you're right, there were companies with very inexpensive capital. Mm-hmm. Going after customers at price points that we did not believe were sustainable- Yep. Nor able to support the level of service that are required. So we saw that behavior happen, and it really has gone away. Mm-hmm. We've seen price points remain firm, and part of that is our own discipline- Mm-hmm ... saying, "This is what you need to pay for in order to drive that value. Mm-hmm. And I think the market has come to understand that quite well. So we think some of those opportunities will come back to us. Mm. We see, you know, we'll expect those to roll off contracts, and we'll be going after them vigorously when they do. You know, I think just to map also to your point, you know, two years ago when the market spoke really loudly, when capital started to become more expensive, ourselves and others said, "You know, within the next 18, 24 months, we need to- Mm ... get into profitability. Mm-hmm. We set that goal as part of our continued progression. Mm-hmm. We're really pleased to be on the cusp of that. Mm-hmm. I think that's an important differentiator for Accolade as we're breaking through here to profitability. Absolutely. As we think about other bright spots for the upcoming fiscal year, you mentioned briefly the health plan channel, sort of a newer initiative, which we think of as serves as really as a TAM expander for the business. You've historically gone more direct to self-insured employers, but, you know, this new move with health plan channel allows you to sort of compete for fully insured employers. So, you know, where does the health plan channel initiative stand today, and, you know, how is velocity in the channel sort of trended versus your expectations? It's one of the most exciting parts of our business here at Accolade- Mm ... and I think speaks to the investments we made in the technology platform are really paying off now because it allows us to unbundle and customize at some level by provisioning elements of our service to work with a health plan- Mm-hmm ... that may have certain assets but need some support. Maybe they need more help engaging members and can leverage the navigation components of our platform. Mm-hmm. Or as you saw with Blue Shield of California back at the beginning of last year, us launching a offering with them for the virtual-first offering, which we're leveraging Accolade's virtual primary care capability. The ability of our tech platform to enable us to unbundle that- Mm-hmm ... has really helped. I think we're in the early stages of seeing a couple of really important dynamics. One is that, the Blues are now, with the new rules, having to compete oftentimes in their own backyard- Yep ... not only with the national carriers, but with other Blues. Mm-hmm. So they're often seeking ways to differentiate. Mm-hmm. And so they're, we've seen several really lean into and be willing to partner with Accolade to leverage our innovation- Mm-hmm ... and together create a white labeled or a bundled offering- Mm-hmm ... or different elements of that so that they can compete and win, and we can share in that revenue and the opportunity to reach significant numbers of members. We saw that with Priority Health in Michigan. Mm-hmm. I mentioned Blue Shield of California. We're also just now powering Blue Shield of California's individual and family plan offering that just launched this month in January. Mm. We have another health plan that we haven't yet been able to announce. Mm ... but of a similar type of ilk. Hmm. You know, regional plan where we're powering with multiple of the elements of our service. Yeah. I think you'll see it be a growth driver- Mm ... and yet another way we can reach end markets via partnerships with health plans. It's great to see sort of the evolution of sort of how the payer channel just broadly thinks about the navigation space and maybe the value that can be provided from partnership rather than them, you know, maybe resisting the change, I guess. Yeah. It's completely true, and I think, one shout-out to... as part of the acquisition of 2nd.MD. Mm-hmm. One of the reasons we really like that offering is it's a best-in-class, expert medical opinion offering. Mm-hmm. The business also had built very strong health plan distribution relationships- Mm ... with Optum, UHC, Aetna, and some of the Blues. The team there has an expertise that's we've leveraged- Mm ... across other parts of the business into advocacy, primary care, and expert medical opinion in a different go-to-market way, which has really built out even further the robustness of the distribution we have. Absolutely. Yeah, and speaking of expert medical opinion, that was a real area of strength over the last year in terms of sales. You know, you really had a great job of cross-selling that with into the core base. But as we think about the volume component of that, what we're picking up in our checks is that sort of providers are prepping for higher procedural and surgical volumes over the next year, which in theory should drive, you know, upside to the EMO business next year. How are you thinking about, you know, and what are you seeing in terms of volumes, you know, as we head into calendar 2024? Yeah. The expert medical opinion volumes have been picking up. Mm-hmm. You know, they can be, there can be seasonality associated with those. There's multiple factors. We obviously have all seen the news over the past week, including today, about utilization- Mm ... and managed care. That may be primarily focused on, you know, MA populations, but there's certainly elements of that, that go into commercial populations- Mm ... as well. And so we're seeing volumes be positive and Mm ... over the past quarter and expect those to continue here, you know, in the forthcoming quarters. Excellent. Maybe just to help the audience understand EMO a little bit better in terms of how it's contracted and how you price that. Obviously, it's a case rate volume basis, but you put your a percentage of your fees generally up for at risk, you know, for based on performance. Do you also share in the upside if, you know, on the expert medical opinion side, if you are delivering cost savings off of that or preventing sort of costly procedures for alternative sort of better outcomes, if you will? ... Yeah, important question. So for expert medical opinion, and for those who aren't as familiar, when someone has a procedure or a cancer diagnosis- Mm-hmm. or a complicated surgery, we provide access to the world's best experts in many different subspecialties, and we've got a panel of- Mm-hmm. about 1,000 specialists who practice on our platform. Mm-hmm. Today, that's primarily the revenue model is primarily case rate. Mm-hmm. So if someone has that, they see a specialist and pay for it on a case rate via their employer. Today, that's primarily an ROI-based decision that we don't necessarily share in- Mm-hmm ... in cost savings, but we do demonstrate a performance guarantee, typically, from an ROI basis. Mm-hmm. Not quite the same as we do on the advocacy platform, but it's really important to us, and it's a differentiator in the market to be able to go to an employer and say: "You're going to get an ROI on this. We're gonna demonstrate for you. Mm-hmm. This avoided surgery was worth $12,000- Yeah ... for you," and you can say, "All right, we paid $3,000 for that. That's a very attractive ROI," for example. That's the report card that's really important in the business. Mm-hmm. As you know, there's a lot of very soft ROIs- Mm-hmm ... that happen in healthcare- Yep ... or healthcare tech, where it's based only on the ones who use the service, things like that. We try to be, extremely transparent with our customers, leads to customer acquisition and also leads to high renewal rates. Mm-hmm. Interesting. And then maybe on the flip side of potentially higher volumes next year, so obviously, it could be a benefit on the EMO side, but this could obviously or in your navigation and advocacy contracts, you include performance guarantees based on the outcome. So is there a potential to these higher costs sort of put performance guarantees at risk in the out year, just given that higher utilization? Yeah, this question came up a lot today- Yes. ... in our investor con meetings- I'm sure. Given Humana's news- Mm-hmm ... UHC's news last week, and some of the other utilization dynamics that are happening. Generally speaking, we put a portion of our fees at risk, to improve costs for the employer on the advocacy book, and we're measuring that year-over-year, based against an index. Mm-hmm. Similar to how a portfolio manager might be measured against a particular index. Mm-hmm. The alpha that we create is how we do better than the index. Yep. In a year in which costs are high- Mm-hmm ... we're being measured against a higher cost index. Mm-hmm. Our model, we're very consistent in delivering better than Mm-hmm ... than whether it's a high-cost index or in years like COVID- Mm-hmm ... when utilization was low. Very low, yep. You had to beat a lower number. We're consistently beating that. Mm-hmm. So there's certainly some variability because healthcare costs- Yeah ... they lag. There, there's some noise in there. Mm-hmm. But year-over-year, higher-cost environments, lower-cost environments, we've been consistent in achieving those savings performance guarantees- Mm-hmm ... which we believe will be the case again, you know, certainly for calendar 2023, that just closed, and our expectations are similar in 2024. Yeah, and historically, for context for everyone, it's been, like, 95% completion of the performance or collection of performance guarantees historically? Yeah. The way, you know, so we typically are pricing our advocacy contracts. See, hard for me to say it. Yeah, yeah. Advocacy contracts on a PEPM- Mm-hmm ... or PMPM basis, and earning 95% or so of the total fee opportunity. Mm-hmm. So there's some over a portfolio basis, give back- Mm-hmm ... but it's very consistent- Very consistent ... on, you know, you get the benefit of the portfolio effect, given the different nature of the different types of customers and so forth. Excellent. So you've also added a virtual primary care offering in PlushCare to the business, and have had started to see some nice success cross-selling the offering into your enterprise customer base. But on the direct-to-consumer side, last year, you kind of called out some tailwinds related to sort of GLP-1 interest and coming to the platform. How much risk does this create in terms of to the growth rate as we go into the first half of 2025 here, just based off of difficult comps, if at all? Yeah. I think it does not create material risk- Mm-hmm ... is our view, and I'll tell you why we think of it that way. We have this diversified revenue stream, you know, the advocacy business, the expert medical business, the virtual primary care, and then the partners that drive revenues. We've had years in which when primary care- Mm-hmm ... is growing a bit faster, maybe there's an offset because of- Mm-hmm ... other parts of the business, maybe utilization rates and EMO. Mm-hmm. We've seen consistency there, and, you know, that GLP-1 element we were calling out back in the spring of 2023 is where I think we're all seeing, you know, the real emergence of these GLP-1 drugs, and consumer searches- Mm-hmm ... were certainly top of mind there. We've seen that growth rate flatten a bit, but it still be- Mm-hmm ... a significant part of what, where the demand comes from on the primary care platform. But interestingly, right now, flu and... Mm-hmm ... you know, the typical seasonal aspects are what are driving- Yeah ... the most volumes on that platform. Mm-hmm. So we see it as another growth driver, but overall, when we look at this 20% growth, revenue growth target that we put forth- Mm-hmm ... think, you know, the integration and the diversification of the revenue streams there, you know, that this creates good confidence for us- Mm-hmm ... that we'll be able to achieve that. And then, as you continue to have success cross-selling into the enterprise base on virtual primary care over time, do you see any risk of, like, cannibalization of the core direct-to-consumer business, in that sense? ... To the extent we do, it's fairly minor. Yeah. I think it's a much bigger opportunity to think of it this way. You know, the strategic thesis for us in acquiring PlushCare- Mm-hmm ... boiled down was, it's a best-in-class capability and continues to be- Mm-hmm ... what we believe best-in-class, primary care capability. Mm-hmm. And that the big opportunity is absolutely continue to invest behind the direct-to-consumer business, which is doing very well. But the big opportunity is to grab that capability and bring it onto our platform for employer life, where- Mm-hmm ... we have more than 10 million members on our platform between- Mm ... advocacy and expert medical opinion sold into the enterprise. Mm-hmm. These bundled deals create a lot more opportunity to sell into that base- Mm ... as opposed to maybe there's a customer in California who works for a company that's also a customer, and they go- Mm-hmm ... onto the platform. That'd be a, I think, very small- Mm-hmm ... versus the opportunity to bring those onto the platform. So, the thing that behind this that gives us so much confidence and enthusiasm as we look out is this point that most of the customers we acquired this past year- Mm-hmm ... are seeing that that opportunity we have to fill that physician gap by implementing- Mm-hmm ... the advocacy platform with virtual primary care- Mm-hmm ... and/or expert medical opinion onto the platform. Mm-hmm. That's the continued strength that we're seeing. Excellent. Maybe touching on the government business, so obviously a lot of the conversation over the last year has been around T-5, but- Yeah ... you have an existing government business sort of outside of that potential contract. Can you just sort of walk us through sort of what you're doing with the government today and what potential you see for growth in government outside of T-5? We'll touch on T-5 after the fact. Sure, absolutely. So Accolade's presence in the government has been through the military- Mm ... Defense Health Agency, and we currently are operating a contract called ACD, or Autism Care Demonstration, in which we're serving families who have children on the autism spectrum who have special needs. Mm-hmm. We have a specially designed version of our advocacy offering that is serving those families, and that business on its own is growing- Mm-hmm ... though fairly small as a portion of our overall business. We also have a history of having completed a three-year pilot- Mm-hmm ... with the Defense Health Agency, serving about 100,000 members with a navigation solution called TRICARE Select Navigator. Mm-hmm. We think that experience and the investments we made in the tech platform will enable us to hopefully participate in the... when the T-5 is finally- Yes ... announced to be able to serve and grow that business there. So we have an approach of being very bullish on the opportunity as a growth driver, but also careful around how much we assume in any given year of growth- Mm-hmm ... because it, it's obviously difficult to predict when the government will make decisions as big as this one. Absolutely. So, onto T-5, which we obviously think could be a real catalyst for government business. It's a large eight-year contract, you know, big revenue opportunity. So the deal was awarded to TriWest and Humana originally. Health Net was left out, but is sort of in the process of appealing the contract award, and obviously that's holding up things on sort of getting ready and launch. But if it's approved as is, can you talk about what sort of the opportunity there is for Accolade and potentially the opportunity for your work on both regions of the contract in the current structure? Yeah. I have to be a little careful here- Yeah ... because of the way that the DHA has required us to all be silent until- Mm-hmm ... the resolution of the contract. Mm-hmm. What I can tell you is our experience there, serving the DHA pilot. Mm-hmm ... serving Autism Cares, Mm ... Demonstration, we think there's a big growth opportunity for innovation within T-5. Mm-hmm. We think we're well-positioned, but we really do have to wait to see how that settles out. Mm-hmm. See where it gets awarded, and you know, come back and talk some more about that. I'm curious. There obviously is a sort of well-publicized timeline for when T-5 was expected to start, and they've obviously adjusted that with the appeal. Are you hearing at least any more urgency from on the government side? Because obviously, you know, I don't think that they're incentivized to want this to be delayed at much more, you know, since they're already moving back timeframes that, you know, creates problems on transition of care, et cetera. Right. But are you, are you at least...? Have you heard anything around sort of increased urgency to sort of get this settled at all? Short answer, I think we're gonna have to- Yeah, yeah ... we're gonna have to wait till- Mm-hmm ... to see where that fleshes out. You're the one using urgency in government... No, It's a very good point. I shouldn't say that. I'm kidding. People there are working really hard to make it happen. Mm-hmm. But we'll see. We're anxiously awaiting it. We're well-positioned- Mm-hmm ... when that occurs, and I think we'll have to just see where that would be. You know, the lowest talk of $125. Yeah. We'll see. We'll see. Okay. So obviously, you know, we've talked a lot about really great opportunities for Accolade to drive top-line growth. But you've clearly focused also on trying to drive profitability and sort of breaking through to that break-even threshold, you know, recently. As you think about growth versus profitability moving forward, you know, you're expecting about 20% growth, and you've kind of talked about that in the forward outlook, what's informing maybe that longer-term view? Do you think that that's simply the growth rate that the end market can bear, you know, as you look out over the next couple of years, or is this more of a proactive sort of, you know, we think 20% growth balanced with margin improvements gets us that nice balance moving forward? Yeah, I think, our own discipline, which Mm ... you know, if you look backwards, you know, we've, we've been pretty consistent in growing 20, 20+. Mm-hmm ... historically. That we think is very sustainable, along with driving to consistent profitability targets- Mm ... that candidly, we think the market is looking for. Yep. You know, we're really focused on that. If it's sort of implication, could you grow faster than that? I think we could grow faster than that- Mm-hmm ... but it would likely come at the cost- Yep ... of some profitability there. And we're really excited about the fact that the operating leverage we're demonstrating from scale, and the leverage that the technology platform is enabling us to have by driving, delivering these bundled offerings, by integrating elements of AI and other, you know, accelerators in terms of efficiency, while also continuing to have a great service delivered to members- Mm-hmm ... That tells us that this is a business that can grow at an attractive clip on the top line, but we also have a discipline to our shareholder- Mm-hmm ... and a commitment to our shareholders to live to deliver consistent profitability from here. Mm-hmm ... as we break through this coming year. So I think that balance is front of mind for us- Mm-hmm ... is whenever we look at investment decisions and both building enterprise value for the long term and then, you know, delivering on our quarterly commitments as well. Got it. And then as we think about the longer term margin profile of the business, so last week on the earnings call, you updated your fiscal 2029 guidance for Adjusted EBITDA margin from a range of 10%-15% to 15%-20% longer term. For those who might not have been sort of listening in, what, what's driving that sort of, that incremental improvement? Yeah, it comes from a few areas, Ryan, and to frame that, we... You're right, we bold our long-term targets of 15%-20%. Mm-hmm ... Adjusted EBITDA margins into the fifth year, where we have visibility into it, and I'd say across three areas. One area, for sure, this opportunity to deliver bundled offerings to customers and having largely completed a selling season of seeing those bundles get delivered- Mm-hmm, mm ... coupled with a year of delivering virtual primary care onto the platform- Mm-hmm ... another year of having delivered expert medical opinion. Those tell us that's a, that's a revenue driver- Mm-hmm ... which we can achieve our revenue goals, not just from new greenfield opportunities. That creates an opportunity to sell back into the customer base- Mm ... which has efficiencies on selling and marketing expense as well. Mm-hmm. So it's a gross margin expander because there's incremental margin benefits to selling a bundled offering- Mm-hmm ... to a customer. That's, that's one big bucket of that. Secondly, we had done a cost restructuring about a year ago, which was on the heels of having done two material acquisitions. Mm-hmm. We started by integrating the product offering to the market, and then last year really was spent on integrating the capabilities, building a one Accolade technology platform and across other functions- Yep ... G&A and so forth, where you get leverage. Having looked backwards and said, "You know what? We had a thesis about that"- Mm-hmm ... "and now having completed that work gives us more confidence, both in the near term- Mm-hmm ... and that we'll be able to carry that through." Then finally, I think operating leverage across elements of the P&L, whether it's our R&D or product and technology line- Mm-hmm ... or, as I was mentioning, the sales and marketing line. You know, when we're sitting here 2, 3, 4 years from now, I, I strongly believe that a lot of the new business we're driving in terms of- Mm-hmm ... new incremental revenues, will come from existing customers who are stepping into some of these other opportunities. Mm-hmm. That's highly efficient- Yep ... from a customer acquisition perspective- Mm-hmm ... and it creates an opportunity for us to have an even stickier offering. We do our job really well- Mm-hmm ... and we're everywhere you turn as an employee or a family member of a customer- Mm ... that makes it a really sticky customer opportunity for us. And so that's what's driving, you know, kind of all of that taken together- Mm-hmm ... gives us more confidence that we'll be able to achieve that target opportunity, target P&L view within that five-year horizon. Excellent. Do you think that the trajectory or the progression is fairly linear moving forward? Or as you think, are there additional learnings internally as you continue to build out the payer channel, as you look at maybe if T-5, you know, whenever it eventually goes live, how do you, how do you think about how that impacts the trajectory of, of the margin progression? Yeah, I think generally speaking, Ryan- Mm-hmm ... you know, if you think about our numbers this current fiscal year that'll end here next month in February- Mm-hmm ...midpoint of guidance, $412 million revenue, bottom line of $8 million- Mm ... in the middle of the range, breaking through to 2%-4% profitability. Yep. I think it'll be fairly... Our plan is, you know, fairly linear. Mm-hmm. Continue to expand bottom line margin 200-300 basis points. Mm-hmm ... per year over that five-year horizon. That'll come from the elements I mentioned, some gross margin expansion, some operating leverage elements- Mm-hmm ... of that, and consistent top-line growth. Mm-hmm. Got it. And then, so great near-term profitability, good long-term outlook. You've got about $230 million of cash on the balance sheet. You have a convert outstanding, that you've purchased some of it back. But how do you think about sort of uses of capital now that you're, you know, generating positive EBITDA, positive free cash flow? Is M&A an attractive opportunity, or do you just sort of have an eye on that convert still as you progress? Yeah, a few ways we think about our balance sheet- Mm-hmm ... and also this, this discipline I'm describing. You know, the number one, two, and three focus for us is breaking through, demonstrating profitability- Mm-hmm ... on a consistent basis. We're very dedicated to that. We generated a small amount of positive free cash flow- Mm-hmm ... in our last Q3- Mm-hmm ... and we'll be, we expect to be free cash flow positive next fiscal year. Mm-hmm. You're right, adding to our cash balance. Mm-hmm. We did take an opportunity to buy back some of our convert- Mm-hmm ... while those were trading at a discount- Mm-hmm ... and that was accretive for shareholders. The next step for us is this: we believe we can execute on that long-term plan with the capabilities we have today. Yep. meaning we don't require M&A- Mm. to, to get to the next step. That said, the investments we've made in the platform and the learnings we have from having done the two material acquisitions, tuck-in, in the case of HealthReveal, and all the partner relationships that we've integrated, tell us that we've got a playbook. Mm. and a platform that's really valuable, both as a go-to-market for those kinds of capabilities. Mm-hmm. For employers who value that as all coming together on an integrated basis. Mm-hmm. To the extent there's M&A in our future, we'll be really committed that it's accretive M&A- Yes. Yep ... from day one. But to be super clear, high priority for us is demonstrating, you know, profitability from here on a, you know, organic basis. Excellent. We've got a couple of minutes left if there are any questions from the audience. No? All right. Well, oh. Sorry. So could you just help us from a competitive standpoint, like, what competitors are you most worried about or think about the most when maybe running through the model? Sure. And I'm just gonna repeat the question in case you couldn't hear. It was around competition and which competitors we see the most. You used the word worry, I'll say we, who we see, we see the most. The number one competitor we see is status quo. A customer that is currently with a carrier, who has not carved out these kinds of services, and is candidly probably looking at a year-over-year cost increase of 5%, 6%, 7%. That's the number one, 'cause the easy answer is not to switch. Like, that's, that's who we see the most. The customers we've won, all of them, on the employer basis, we've carved out and then demonstrated this ROI. So that's who we see the most. We work also with carriers on all of our customers, so there's a co-opetition element there. And then, there are a couple of direct, direct competitors in the space who we see. Quantum's one for sure, which is a great company. We take a different approach in the sense of having this integrated offering and a technology platform that we've invested in to create this experience that allows us to integrate offerings and embed primary care into the navigation relationship. When we win, that is oftentimes why we win. Customers understanding that, you know, people who do not have a primary care doctor or a strong relationship with a primary care doctor, often is making inefficient decisions for their own health and from a cost perspective. For example, going to the emergency room or going to urgent care rather than going to a primary care doctor. We fill that gap, we do it within the navigation platform, and drive a really attractive ROI for our customers. But that said, I would go back to the beginning point, which is this market is pretty early, and there's, we think, room for companies that are dedicated to doing this really well, to grow at an attractive clip, and we see that as being a big opportunity for us. Separately, is there an aspect or aspects of your business that, like, as you think longer term over a multi-year period, that you're most excited about, or your colleagues are most excited about, that, you know, we should sort of keep our eyes on for potential wins and a much bigger business over time? Yeah, absolutely, and I'm gonna also repeat that just in case it didn't come through. What are we as a management team most excited about in the future? I would say a couple of things. One is, this is the first real year, calendar 2023, I should say, just ended, which we were in market for the entire year, having the opportunity to market and sell and deliver this integrated offering. Meaning, if you knew Accolade three years ago at the time of our IPO, we were a navigation-only platform. Today, having these our own services that are on our platform, primary care, expert medical opinion, and having integrated these other offerings, and being able to demonstrate that we drive higher utilization through our engagement engine for customers, that's what we're hearing back from customers. They say, "When you do that, it creates a lot of value for us and our employee base, who oftentimes don't even know what benefits they have." We make that really clear, get people efficiently to the ones that they need, drive ROI for them. That is a consistent theme in why we win in our bookings growth in terms of new annual recurring revenue. From two years ago, $54 million, last year, $72 million. This current fiscal year, we've noted, we believe we'll achieve another 20% growth rate. That's all fueling that. And very close second, I would say, would be these burgeoning health plan relationships that are demonstrating there's another way to reach end markets, and health plans can be great partners, and that we are built in a way that enables that really well. Primarily because of our technology platform, which allows us to unbundle elements of our offering, that can be different for one health plan that's trying to solve one problem, versus another one that's trying to solve a different problem. We can do that, do it at price points that are attractive for Accolade and margin accretive for Accolade. So you'll hear us talk a lot more about that. That would be a good one to hold us accountable to reporting out on how we're doing on those. I think those will be really important drivers for our growth in building the business.