iSpecimen Inc (ISPC) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, everyone, and Welcome to iSpecimen's Full Year 2022 Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) This conference call is being recorded. A replay of today's call will be available on the Investor Relations section of iSpecimen's website and will remain posted there for the next 30 days.

大家好，歡迎來到 iSpecimen 的 2022 年全年電話會議。 （操作員說明）正在錄製此電話會議。今天電話會議的重播將在 iSpecimen 網站的投資者關係部分提供，並將在接下來的 30 天內繼續發布。

(Operator Instructions) I will now hand the call over to Allison Soss, Investor Relations for introductions and the reading of the safe harbor statement. Please go ahead.

（操作員說明）我現在將電話轉交給投資者關係部的 Allison Soss 進行介紹和閱讀安全港聲明。請繼續。

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to iSpecimen's Full Year 2022 Results Conference Call. With us on today's call is Tracy Curley, Chief Executive Officer; Benjamin Bielak, Chief Information Officer; and Eric Langlois, Chief Revenue Officer.

謝謝你，運營商。大家早上好，歡迎來到 iSpecimen 的 2022 年全年業績電話會議。與我們一起參加今天電話會議的是首席執行官 Tracy Curley； Benjamin Bielak，首席信息官；首席營收官 Eric Langlois。

Before we begin, I would like to remind you that today's call contains certain forward-looking statements from our management made within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended in Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 as amended concerning future events. Words such as may, should, project, expect, intend, plan, believe, anticipate, hope, estimate and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the control of the company, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of the company's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, yet to be filed with the SEC.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒您，今天的電話會議包含我們管理層根據經修訂的 1934 年證券交易法第 21E 節修訂的 1933 年證券法第 27A 節的含義做出的某些前瞻性陳述關於未來的事件。諸如可能、應該、項目、預期、打算、計劃、相信、預期、希望、估計以及此類詞語和類似表達的變體等詞語旨在識別前瞻性陳述。這些報表受眾多條件的約束，其中許多條件超出了公司的控制範圍，包括公司截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日止年度 10-K 表格風險因素部分中規定的條件，尚未提交給秒。

Copies of this document will be available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this call, except as required by law.

該文件的副本將在美國證券交易委員會的網站 www.sec.gov 上提供。實際結果可能與此類前瞻性陳述明示或暗示的結果存在重大差異。除非法律要求，否則公司不承擔在本次電話會議日期後更新這些聲明以進行修訂或更改的義務。

Now it is my pleasure to introduce Tracy Curley, Chief Executive Officer. Tracy, please go ahead.

現在我很高興介紹首席執行官 Tracy Curley。特蕾西，請繼續。

Thanks, Allison. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I will begin with a review of current business and operational activities and then our financial performance for the 12 months ended December 31, 2022. We will then open the call for questions. First, I'd like to extend my deepest gratitude and appreciation to the Board for appointing me permanent CEO in January and to the entire iSpecimen team for their dedication, hard work and belief in our collective vision for -- over the last several months. The team's continued support and efforts inspire me as we make progress executing on our strategic plans and key initiatives for 2023.

謝謝，艾莉森。大家早上好，感謝您今天加入我們。我將首先回顧當前的業務和運營活動，然後回顧我們截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日的 12 個月的財務業績。然後我們將公開提問。首先，我要對董事會在 1 月份任命我為永久 CEO 以及整個 iSpecimen 團隊表示最深切的感謝和讚賞，感謝他們在過去幾個月中對我們的集體願景的奉獻、辛勤工作和信念。隨著我們在執行 2023 年的戰略計劃和關鍵舉措方面取得進展，團隊的持續支持和努力激勵著我。

In January, we appointed Eric Langlois as Chief Revenue Officer. Eric joined iSpecimen in 2016 and has held several senior sales positions over the past 7 years. In his elevated role, Eric is leading our recently restructured commercial team, which has been passed with increasing our customer base and improving the customer experience, addressing supplier constraints and supporting innovation, collaboration and productivity required to drive scalable and profitable results.

一月份，我們任命 Eric Langlois 為首席營收官。 Eric 於 2016 年加入 iSpecimen，在過去 7 年中擔任過多個高級銷售職位。在他的更高職位上，Eric 正在領導我們最近重組的商業團隊，該團隊已經通過擴大我們的客戶群和改善客戶體驗，解決供應商限制並支持推動可擴展和有利可圖的結果所需的創新、協作和生產力。

Throughout his time at iSpecimen, Eric has contributed uniquely to our results and has been responsible for closing several of the company's largest multimillion dollar deal. I have tremendous confidence in his ability and look forward to continued progress and success. I am pleased to report that following our strategic corporate review and predicted revenue realignment in Q4 2022, we are beginning to make meaningful progress towards understanding and tapping into full potential of our entire organization encouraged that some of our early efforts have already yielded results as seen with our record-breaking revenue in Q4 2022 of $3.2 million, a 28% increase over Q4 2021.

在 iSpecimen 任職期間，Eric 為我們的業績做出了獨特貢獻，並負責完成公司幾筆數百萬美元的最大交易。我對他的能力充滿信心，並期待著繼續進步和成功。我很高興地報告，在我們的戰略公司審查和預計的 2022 年第四季度收入調整之後，我們開始在了解和充分發揮我們整個組織的潛力方面取得有意義的進展，令人鼓舞的是，我們的一些早期努力已經取得了成果，如圖所示我們在 2022 年第四季度的創紀錄收入為 320 萬美元，比 2021 年第四季度增長 28%。

In addition to our core business, as part of a very deliberate strategic plan, we are undertaking several revenue enhancement projects for 2023 in areas such as sequencing, remnants and normal blood, as well as the acceleration of on-site iSpecimen project coordinators at selected supplier sites to facilitate improved specimen capabilities, identification, coordination, utilization and fulfillment. iSpecimen will continue to invest where necessary throughout 2023 to accelerate these revenue growth initiatives. One of our revenue-enhancing projects, sequencing is progressing very well. We are currently launching our first pilot of 500 samples for sequencing, and we are projecting to generate revenue from the initial batch starting in Q2 2023.

除了我們的核心業務外，作為一項非常周密的戰略計劃的一部分，我們還在測序、殘餘和正常血液等領域開展 2023 年的多項收入增加項目，以及在選定的地點加速現場 iSpecimen 項目協調員供應商網站，以促進改進樣本能力、識別、協調、利用和履行。 iSpecimen 將在整個 2023 年繼續在必要時進行投資，以加速這些收入增長計劃。作為我們增加收入的項目之一，測序進展順利。我們目前正在啟動我們的第一個 500 個測序樣本試點，我們預計將從 2023 年第二季度開始的首批產品中產生收入。

We will be performing several ones throughout 2023, in order to achieve our revenue goals for this project, and we have high level of confidence for this endeavor. Another one of our revenue-enhancing projects, on-site iSpecimen project coordinators is also progressing very well. We are planning to ramp up to 12 coordinators by the end of Q2 2023 and continue to add more sites where business opportunities are meaningful and substantial. We expect increased revenue related to this project starting in Q3 2023.

我們將在整個 2023 年執行多個項目，以實現我們對該項目的收入目標，我們對這一努力充滿信心。我們的另一個增收項目，現場 iSpecimen 項目協調員也進展順利。我們計劃到 2023 年第二季度末將協調員人數增加到 12 人，並繼續增加更多具有重大商業機會的站點。我們預計從 2023 年第三季度開始，與該項目相關的收入將增加。

Our remnant revenue enhancing project is focused on creating an online -- focused on creating a line of business structure and improving internal operational processes as well as significant technology build-out in order to be able to achieve market effects for women by the end of 2023, an exciting and very critical milestone for us.

我們的剩餘收入增加項目專注於創建在線——專注於創建業務結構線和改進內部運營流程以及重要的技術建設，以便能夠在 2023 年底之前實現對女性的市場影響，對我們來說是一個激動人心且非常關鍵的里程碑。

We're also going through a review process to ensure both suppliers and buyers are properly integrated and leveraging the platform as intended. We expect increased revenue related to this project starting in Q3 2023. Regarding revenues for 2023. While we are expecting growth in our core business, we generally have, what I call, monthly results from quarter-to-quarter. What I mean by this is that Q1 is generally not as good as Q4 as our researchers are still completing their budgets for the year. In other words, revenue in Q1 (inaudible) until March when we started to ramp up projects with the new budget cycle.

我們還正在進行審查流程，以確保供應商和買家都正確整合併按預期利用該平台。我們預計從 2023 年第三季度開始，與該項目相關的收入將有所增加。關於 2023 年的收入。雖然我們預計核心業務會增長，但我通常會有季度到季度的月度結果。我的意思是，第一季度通常不如第四季度好，因為我們的研究人員仍在完成當年的預算。換句話說，第一季度（聽不清）的收入一直持續到 3 月份，當時我們開始根據新的預算週期增加項目。

Additionally, Q3 is generally not as good as Q2 as it is summer and researchers, suppliers, donors and patients are on vacation, and projects can take longer to fulfill. We expect our revenue-enhancing projects layered on top of our core business efforts to increase revenue starting in the second half of 2023, which will allow us to accelerate our efforts to reach a cash flow neutral position and then a cash flow positive position in 2024.

此外，第三季度通常不如第二季度好，因為現在是夏天，研究人員、供應商、捐助者和患者都在休假，項目可能需要更長的時間才能完成。我們預計我們的收入增加項目將在我們的核心業務努力之上分層，以從 2023 年下半年開始增加收入，這將使我們能夠加快努力實現現金流中性，然後在 2024 年實現現金流正數.

As you know, iSpecimen has historically provided updates on supplier network growth each quarter. And while that remains important, our emphasis has shifted to increased evaluation of the quality of our relationships with our suppliers and are specifically focused on business, technology and compliance objectives. This is a result of identifying during our strategic corporate review process in Q4 2022 that we had a severe imbalance within our supplier network, specifically high levels of utilization across a small subsection of suppliers.

如您所知，iSpecimen 歷來每個季度都會提供供應商網絡增長的最新信息。雖然這仍然很重要，但我們的重點已經轉移到加強對我們與供應商關係質量的評估，並特別關注業務、技術和合規目標。這是因為我們在 2022 年第四季度的戰略企業審查過程中發現我們的供應商網絡嚴重失衡，特別是一小部分供應商的利用率很高。

Today, with several initiatives underway by our site development department, we are gaining a much better understanding of our suppliers and their capabilities. And with this information, I am confident that during 2023, we will be able to materially increase our supplier utilization rate, which will allow us to finally address in a meaningful manner our supplier constraints and ultimately increased revenue opportunities. Our continued investment in technology at a record level for 2023 will be heavily front-loaded for the first half of the year and demonstrates our continued commitment to our vision to be transformational in our industry with our online marketplace.

今天，隨著我們網站開發部門正在進行的幾項舉措，我們對我們的供應商及其能力有了更好的了解。有了這些信息，我相信在 2023 年期間，我們將能夠顯著提高供應商利用率，這將使我們最終能夠以有意義的方式解決供應商限制問題，並最終增加收入機會。我們將在 2023 年以創紀錄的水平繼續對技術進行投資，這將在今年上半年大量提前完成，這表明我們將繼續致力於實現我們的願景，即通過我們的在線市場實現行業轉型。

Our technology efforts to improve the iSpecimen marketplace platform in 2023, which were discussed during our Q3 2022 earnings call, include updating search functionality, improving the user interface, increasing automation and enhancing matchmaking. I'm pleased to report all of these efforts remain on track. To complete these updates, we are leveraging our significant technology investments to date in our data processing and pipelines.

我們在 2023 年改進 iSpecimen 市場平台的技術工作在我們的 2022 年第三季度財報電話會議上進行了討論，包括更新搜索功能、改進用戶界面、增加自動化和增強配對。我很高興地報告所有這些努力仍在進行中。為了完成這些更新，我們正在利用我們迄今為止在數據處理和管道方面的重大技術投資。

The unified data pipeline project is designed to improve data quality and processing speed by automating and standardizing supplier data processing for bank and ruminant data. When completed, researchers will be able to view higher-quality specimen data for completeness, conformity, accuracy and timeliness through marketplace via automated pipeline. The process on our platform starts with the search function, a click of a button. By enhancing the search functionality, our platform can be more quickly -- can more quickly identify samples of greater use to researchers.

統一數據管道項目旨在通過自動化和標準化銀行和反芻動物數據的供應商數據處理來提高數據質量和處理速度。完成後，研究人員將能夠通過自動化管道在市場上查看更高質量的標本數據的完整性、一致性、準確性和及時性。我們平台上的流程從搜索功能開始，只需單擊一個按鈕。通過增強搜索功能，我們的平台可以更快——可以更快地識別對研究人員更有用的樣本。

Understanding which specimens are of greater use to researchers also allows us to guide operational practices to optimize our supply chain for investment. Our ability to deliver relevant insights further increases customer engagement with our platform. We are on track to release improvements to our marketplace search interface, automation and matchmaking in Q2 2023. For our electronic medical record project as discussed previously, we have improved our patient data integration and our overall patient data asset, which will allow us to accelerate our prospective collections and enable our data-as-a-service pilot in the second half of 2023.

了解哪些標本對研究人員更有用，也使我們能夠指導操作實踐來優化我們的投資供應鏈。我們提供相關見解的能力進一步提高了客戶對我們平台的參與度。我們有望在 2023 年第二季度發布對市場搜索界面、自動化和配對的改進。對於我們之前討論的電子病歷項目，我們改進了患者數據集成和整體患者數據資產，這將使我們能夠加速我們的預期收藏，並在 2023 年下半年啟用我們的數據即服務試點。

As you have heard, we have a lot going on at my iSpecimen for 2023. It is an exciting time to be associated with this company. However, I want to take a step back and reemphasize how very important the strategic review process in Q4 2022 was for the company. It is critical heading into 2023 to develop a turnaround strategy -- strategic plan. You have just heard about many of those plans. Executing these plans is critical to the success of the company. We must execute. iSpecimen's mission to accelerate life science research and development via a single global marketplace platform that connects researchers to subjects, specimens and data. To do so, we must ensure that our marketplace platform provides a comprehensive solution with use of these so that researchers are able to search for desired biospecimens, suppliers can fully utilize their biospecimens and additional adjacent opportunities can be unlocked for us.

如您所知，我的 iSpecimen 2023 年有很多事情要做。與這家公司合作是一個激動人心的時刻。但是，我想退後一步，再次強調 2022 年第四季度的戰略審查過程對公司的重要性。進入 2023 年，制定周轉戰略——戰略計劃至關重要。您剛剛聽說過其中許多計劃。執行這些計劃對公司的成功至關重要。我們必須執行。 iSpecimen 的使命是通過將研究人員與受試者、標本和數據聯繫起來的單一全球市場平台來加速生命科學研究和開發。為此，我們必須確保我們的市場平台提供全面的解決方案，以便研究人員能夠搜索所需的生物樣本，供應商可以充分利用他們的生物樣本，並為我們打開更多的相鄰機會。

As we move forward, all of our activities, initiatives and projects in 2023 are focused on this mission. I'll now move on to discuss our financial results for the 12-month period ended December 31, 2022, compared to the same period in 2021. While we are not providing financial commentary regarding Q4 2022, I would like to acknowledge that our revenue for the fourth quarter was $3.2 million, an all-time record for the company.

隨著我們向前邁進，我們在 2023 年的所有活動、舉措和項目都將圍繞這一使命展開。我現在將繼續討論我們截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日的 12 個月期間與 2021 年同期相比的財務業績。雖然我們不提供有關 2022 年第四季度的財務評論，但我想承認我們的收入第四季度為 320 萬美元，創下了公司的歷史記錄。

For the full year 2022, revenue was approximately $10.4 million, a decrease of 7% compared to $11.1 million for the full year 2021. However, our non-COVID revenue increased by $1.5 million or 18.6% to $9.5 million for the full year 2022 from approximately $8 million for the full year 2021. The $9.5 million of non-COVID revenue for 2022 was another all-time record for the company. Overall, our specimens of session during the current year increased by approximately 6,703 specimens or 32% to approximately 27,503 specimens compared to approximately 20,800 specimens of session during the year ended December 31, 2021.

2022 年全年收入約為 1040 萬美元，與 2021 年全年的 1110 萬美元相比下降了 7%。但是，我們的非 COVID 收入從 2022 年全年增長了 150 萬美元或 18.6% 至 950 萬美元2021 年全年收入約為 800 萬美元。2022 年 950 萬美元的非 COVID 收入是該公司的又一個歷史記錄。總體而言，與截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日止年度的約 20,800 個會話樣本相比，我們本年度的會話樣本增加了約 6,703 個樣本或 32%，達到約 27,503 個樣本。

However, change in specimen mix resulted in a decrease in average selling price per specimen of approximately $157 or 29% compared to the same prior year period. Cost of revenue was approximately $4.8 million for the full year 2022, a decrease of 9% in the full year 2021. Although there was a 32% increase in the number of specimens of session during the current year ended over the same period year -- prior year period. The average cost per specimen decreased by 31% from $252 for the year ended December 31, 2021, to $173 for the year ended December 31, 2022.

然而，標本組合的變化導致每個標本的平均售價與去年同期相比下降了約 157 美元或 29%。 2022 年全年的收入成本約為 480 萬美元，比 2021 年全年減少了 9%。儘管截至本年度的會議標本數量比同期增加了 32%——上一年期間。每個標本的平均成本從截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日止年度的 252 美元下降至截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日止年度的 173 美元，下降了 31%。

For the full year ended 2022, we increased our cash spend for technology to approximately $4.4 million from $3.8 million for the same prior year period. This cash outlay was comprised of approximately $3 million of capitalized internally developed software and approximately $1.4 million of technology expenses that we were not able to capitalize and, therefore, classify this technology expenses. The remainder of the technology expense for the 12-month period ended December 31, 2020, was comprised of approximately $1.2 million of noncash amortization related to internally developed software and approximately $131,000 of noncash stock compensation expense.

在截至 2022 年的全年，我們將技術現金支出從去年同期的 380 萬美元增加到約 440 萬美元。這筆現金支出包括約 300 萬美元的資本化內部開發軟件和約 140 萬美元的技術支出，我們無法將其資本化，因此將此技術支出分類。截至 2020 年 12 月 31 日止的 12 個月期間，剩餘的技術費用包括約 120 萬美元的與內部開發軟件相關的非現金攤銷和約 131,000 美元的非現金股票補償費用。

Total technology expenses for the 12-month period ended December 31, 2022, was approximately $2.7 million compared to $1.8 million for the same prior year's period. The increase in technology spend for the 12-month period ended December 31, 2022, compared to the same prior year's period is related to our commitment to invest in our technology, as evidenced by our multiple successful technology launches in 2022. Sales and marketing expenses were approximately $3.4 million for the full year 2022, up 42% from approximately $2.4 million for the full year 2021. During 2022, an entire sales operation team was added to the sales department, which explains the significant increase. But more specifically, the increase was primarily attributable to increases in payroll and related expenses, professional fees and general expenses, offset by decreases in website costs capitalized with fixed assets and into our marketing efforts.

截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日止的 12 個月期間，技術支出總額約為 270 萬美元，而去年同期為 180 萬美元。與上年同期相比，截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日的 12 個月期間技術支出的增加與我們對技術投資的承諾有關，我們在 2022 年成功推出多項技術就是證明。銷售和營銷費用2022 年全年的銷售額約為 340 萬美元，比 2021 年全年的約 240 萬美元增長了 42%。在 2022 年期間，銷售部門增加了整個銷售運營團隊，這解釋了顯著增長。但更具體地說，這一增長主要是由於工資和相關費用、專業費用和一般費用的增加，被固定資產資本化的網站成本的減少和我們的營銷工作所抵消。

General and administrative expenses were approximately $6.9 million for the full year 2022, up 24% from approximately $5.6 million for the full year of 2021. The increase was attributable to increases in executive severance costs, payroll and related expenses, taxes and insurance, software and subscriptions, utilities and facility expenses, marketing and advertising costs and other general expenses, offset by decreases in bad debt expense and depreciation and amortization expenses.

2022 年全年的一般和行政費用約為 690 萬美元，比 2021 年全年的約 560 萬美元增長 24%。增加的原因是高管遣散費、工資和相關費用、稅收和保險、軟件和訂閱、公用事業和設施費用、營銷和廣告費用以及其他一般費用，被壞賬費用和折舊及攤銷費用的減少所抵消。

As of December 31, 2022, our cash balance was approximately $15.3 million compared to approximately $27.7 million as of December 31, 2021. As a reminder, we paid off a $3.5 million loan in Q4 2022. Average cash burn per quarter for 2022 was approximately $2.2 million, excluding the loan repayments. We would like to assure our investors that we have no deposits with Silicon Valley Bank and we have had no restrictions on accessing funds from our bank, Bridge Bank, a subsidiary of Western Alliance. We do have an established investment policy and in light of the recent financial banking environment, we have already moved excess funds in order to invest in T-bills for more security.

截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日，我們的現金餘額約為 1,530 萬美元，而截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日，我們的現金餘額約為 2,770 萬美元。提醒一下，我們在 2022 年第四季度還清了 350 萬美元的貸款。2022 年每個季度的平均現金消耗約為220 萬美元，不包括償還貸款。我們想向我們的投資者保證，我們在矽谷銀行沒有存款，我們也沒有限制從我們的銀行 Bridge Bank（Western Alliance 的子公司）獲取資金。我們確實有既定的投資政策，並且鑑於最近的金融銀行環境，我們已經轉移了多餘的資金以投資於國庫券以獲得更高的安全性。

Additionally, we were working -- we are working on with our current financial institution to increase the amount of funds held there that are insured by FDIC Insurance. We are also in the process of adding risk factor language that will discuss the new risk in detail as related to iSpecimen and will be included in our 10-K when filed. This includes -- this concludes our prepared remarks.

此外，我們正在努力——我們正在與我們目前的金融機構合作，以增加 FDIC Insurance 承保的資金量。我們還在添加風險因素語言，這些語言將詳細討論與 iSpecimen 相關的新風險，並將在提交時包含在我們的 10-K 中。這包括 - 這是我們準備好的評論的結論。

Now I would like to open the call for questions. Operator, please go ahead.

現在我想打開問題的電話。接線員，請繼續。

(Operator Instructions) The first question comes from Matt Hewitt with Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

（操作員說明）第一個問題來自 Craig-Hallum Capital Group 的 Matt Hewitt。

Maybe first up, 2022 is a challenging year. You faced quite a bit from COVID headwinds as those revenues kind of subsided as well as some of the internal changes. As you look at fiscal '23, given the strategic review that you guys underwent, do you envision '23 and going forward that you can get back to double-digit type growth? And if so, how should we be thinking about the cadence over the course of '23?

也許首先，2022 年是充滿挑戰的一年。隨著這些收入的減少以及一些內部變化，你面臨著 COVID 的相當大的阻力。當您查看 23 財年時，考慮到你們所經歷的戰略審查，您是否設想 23 財年並向前邁進，您可以恢復兩位數的增長？如果是這樣，我們應該如何考慮 23 年的節奏？

The answer is yes. And one of the reasons, by the way, although Matt -- one of the reasons is that I did specifically talk about the lumpiness of our core business is to sort of give some context on what to expect from a cadence perspective. Our core businesses on Q1 is never as good as Q4. Q3 has never been as good as Q2. Having said that, we are committed to our growth strategy. And I believe layering on top these revenue enhancement projects is going to increase that growth so that we can get to cash flow neutral and then to a cash flow positive position in 2024.

答案是肯定的。順便說一句，儘管馬特 - 原因之一是我確實專門談到了我們核心業務的笨拙性，這是為了從節奏的角度提供一些關於期望的背景。我們第一季度的核心業務永遠不如第四季度。 Q3從來沒有Q2好。話雖如此，我們致力於我們的增長戰略。而且我相信，在這些增加收入的項目之上疊加將增加這種增長，這樣我們就可以實現現金流中性，然後在 2024 年實現現金流正向。

That's great. And then kind of moving down the income statement. As far as gross margins are concerned, do you feel like with some of the changes that you have and are going to be implementing that we can start to see some gross margin lift over the course of '23? And where do you see those things? Or where do you see that line kind of getting to over the next, call it, 3 to 5 years?

那太棒了。然後有點向下移動損益表。就毛利率而言，您是否覺得通過您已經和將要實施的一些變化，我們可以開始看到在 23 年期間毛利率有所提高？你在哪裡看到那些東西？或者你認為這條線在接下來的 3 到 5 年內會到達哪裡？

So I believe that you will start to see some relief on that in Q2 and definitely in Q3 and beyond. And our intention is to continue to be a growth company for this company, and as we build out our technology, be able to increase the number of revenue streams we have available to us that we aren't monetizing yet, like our data, our marketplace as a service, those kinds of things over the next 3 to 5 years.

所以我相信你會在第二季度開始看到一些緩解，當然在第三季度及以後。我們的目標是繼續成為這家公司的成長型公司，並且隨著我們建立我們的技術，能夠增加我們可用但我們尚未貨幣化的收入流的數量，例如我們的數據，我們的市場即服務，這些在未來 3 到 5 年內會出現。

Got it. And then maybe one last one, and I'll hop back in the queue. Obviously, this has been a pretty challenging environment over the past year from a funding perspective for small pharma, small biotech companies. It maybe got worse over the past weekend with the shuttering of Silicon Valley Bank. But as you've talked to customers, maybe even as recently as this weekend, given what happened, what are you hearing from them? Where are they prioritizing their investments? And how do they envision iSpecimen being helpful in these times when they're having to kind of pinch pennies a little bit?

知道了。然後可能是最後一個，我會跳回到隊列中。顯然，從融資的角度來看，對於小型製藥公司和小型生物技術公司來說，過去一年的環境非常具有挑戰性。隨著矽谷銀行的關閉，上週末情況可能變得更糟。但是當你與客戶交談時，甚至可能就在本週末，考慮到發生的事情，你從他們那裡聽到了什麼？他們在哪裡優先投資？他們如何設想 iSpecimen 在這些不得不精打細算的時代提供幫助？

Thanks, Matt. I'm going to do a brief answer, and then I'm going to actually turn this over to Eric to talk about -- so he can talk about on the landscape what are we seeing from a customer perspective.

謝謝，馬特。我將做一個簡短的回答，然後我將把這個交給埃里克來談談——這樣他就可以從客戶的角度談談我們所看到的情況。

On the supplier side, it's been really encouraging as we reengage with our suppliers at a much higher level in discussing with them business technology and compliance objectives that we want to achieve with them and creating key suppliers. Because of the environment we're in right now, they are really anxious to identify additional revenue streams for the organization much more than they have historically, which I think is going to assist us in leading our supplier constraints. We have never had an issue on the customer side with opportunities. We've always had more opportunities than we can fulfill.

在供應商方面，我們在更高層次上與供應商重新接觸，與他們討論我們希望與他們實現的業務技術和合規目標，並創建關鍵供應商，這確實令人鼓舞。由於我們現在所處的環境，他們真的很急於為組織確定額外的收入來源，這比以往任何時候都多，我認為這將有助於我們解決供應商的限制問題。我們從來沒有在客戶方面遇到機會問題。我們總是有比我們能實現的更多的機會。

We are seeing, however, that there is more compliance on the customer side, that they're requiring us to go through to be a supplier for them. And I think that's just cautionary on that part. But I suspect Eric has a little bit more he can say about that. Eric?

然而，我們看到客戶方面有更多的合規性，他們要求我們通過成為他們的供應商。我認為這只是對那部分的警告。但我懷疑埃里克對此有更多的發言權。埃里克？

Yes. Thanks, Tracy, and hello, everyone. Yes, I think I agree with Tracy's last statement. What we're really seeing is the reaction to this has been just an increased deliberate nature on the customer's end. So it's not just on the compliance and the vendor profile forms and all those things that the customers are making us jump through now. But I think they're just being more deliberate on their spend. So they're taking more time to evaluate the projects, to reprioritize in which areas of research that they're going into, they're reevaluating all of their third-party partnerships and those sort of things.

是的。謝謝，特蕾西，大家好。是的，我想我同意 Tracy 的最後陳述。我們真正看到的是，對此的反應只是在客戶端增加了深思熟慮的性質。因此，這不僅僅是合規性和供應商資料表格以及客戶讓我們現在跳過的所有這些事情。但我認為他們只是在花錢上更加慎重。所以他們花更多的時間來評估項目，重新確定他們將要進入的研究領域的優先次序，他們正在重新評估他們所有的第三方合作夥伴關係和諸如此類的事情。

So I think it has more to do with speed of decision-making than it does necessarily with the drying up of spending. And we're certainly seeing that in Q1. We have significant increase in the top of the funnel, both in terms of opportunities and quotes. We're just not yet seeing the pull-through on purchase orders, but we typically expect that to happen in March. So I think it's just -- the customers are being a lot more deliberate and they're just being a lot more careful about where they put their research dollars. And we just have to make sure that we're involved in enough conversations across the board, that we've developed enough of a pipeline, that we're in the right conversations, that we can land the projects that fit well with us.

所以我認為這更多地與決策速度有關，而不是與支出枯竭有關。我們肯定會在第一季度看到這一點。在機會和報價方面，我們在漏斗頂部都有顯著增加。我們只是還沒有看到採購訂單的增長，但我們通常預計這會在 3 月份發生。所以我認為這只是 - 客戶更加慎重，他們只是更加謹慎地考慮將研究資金投入何處。我們只需要確保我們參與了足夠多的全面對話，我們已經開發了足夠的管道，我們正在進行正確的對話，我們可以著手適合我們的項目。

But I think what really dovetails into this is the work we're doing on the supplier front, whereas you might see more deliberate nature on the customer side. We're seeing more -- a larger willingness on the supplier side to get more involved to monetize and commercialize their operations and their specimens. So some of the projects that maybe we were unable to do in the past, we're trying to be able to do now, and those are all revenue opportunities because anything that was a no before that we can turn into a yes now allows us to actually cover more ground for the customers and get more velocity through the funnel.

但我認為真正與此相吻合的是我們在供應商方面所做的工作，而您可能會在客戶方面看到更深思熟慮的性質。我們看到更多 - 供應商方面更願意更多地參與貨幣化和商業化他們的業務和他們的標本。所以一些我們過去可能無法完成的項目，我們現在正在努力做到，這些都是收入機會，因為任何以前是不可以的，現在我們可以變成是，這讓我們為客戶實際覆蓋更多領域並通過渠道獲得更快的速度。

So I think those are the things we're seeing. I do think the SVB situation is something to monitor out in the Bay Area, where we do have a heavy concentration of customers. But we have not heard anything directly from customers yet that there's been a major effect. But certainly, capital funds and everything else in the Bay Area, that's something for us to keep an eye on and we certainly will.

所以我認為這些就是我們所看到的。我確實認為 SVB 的情況需要在灣區進行監控，因為我們確實有大量的客戶。但我們還沒有直接從客戶那裡聽到任何有重大影響的消息。但可以肯定的是，灣區的資本基金和其他一切，都是我們需要關注的事情，我們當然會關注。

The next question comes from Allen Klee with Maxim Group.

下一個問題來自 Maxim Group 的 Allen Klee。

So for your new programs of monetizing data and marketplace as a service, can you talk a little bit about, explaining a little bit what you're going to be doing, what the opportunity is and what you're hearing from the customers of what they're looking for and why they might be excited by these?

因此，對於您將數據和市場即服務貨幣化的新計劃，您能否談談，解釋一下您將要做什麼，機會是什麼以及您從客戶那裡聽到了什麼他們正在尋找以及為什麼他們會對這些感到興奮？

Yes. I'm going to do a brief answer, and I'm going to turn this over to Ben because this is really a technology question. Our marketplace as a service is something that is not imminent in 2023. But we will be doing a pilot at the end of 2023 for data as a service which we're really excited about. We have some build-out that we're working on right now to our platform to be able to achieve what we need to for our customers in that area. And so I'll turn it over to Ben to talk a little bit more about what that entails and the timing amount. Ben?

是的。我將做一個簡短的回答，我將把這個問題交給 Ben，因為這確實是一個技術問題。我們的市場即服務不會在 2023 年迫在眉睫。但我們將在 2023 年底對數據即服務進行試點，我們對此感到非常興奮。我們現在正在對我們的平台進行一些擴建，以便能夠為該領域的客戶實現我們所需的目標。因此，我將把它交給本，讓他多談談這需要什麼和時間。本？

Thanks, Tracy. I appreciate the question, Allen. Yes, certainly an exciting opportunity. As Tracy mentioned, the adjacencies that we have with us, the platform we developed, we have a number of things in the pipeline. These are 2 of them. I'll speak more specifically around the data as a service because we've announced the pilot for the end of the year.

謝謝，特蕾西。我很欣賞這個問題，艾倫。是的，當然是一個令人興奮的機會。正如 Tracy 提到的，我們與我們之間的鄰接關係，我們開發的平台，我們有很多事情正在籌備中。這是其中的兩個。我將更具體地談論數據即服務，因為我們已經宣布了年底的試點。

ISpecimen is an interesting place in the overall market and the mix of data that we have with our partners, especially on the lab side is somewhat unique from an asset perspective and a depth perspective and an access perspective. So the ability for our customers to understand this, even some customers in new spaces to be able to see the value and obviously, the ability to get specimens after the fact for a lot of this data is also of interest.

ISpecimen 在整個市場中是一個有趣的地方，我們與合作夥伴的數據組合，尤其是在實驗室方面，從資產角度、深度角度和訪問角度來看有些獨特。因此，我們的客戶了解這一點的能力，甚至新空間中的一些客戶也能夠看到價值，顯然，事後獲得大量此類數據的標本的能力也很有趣。

And so your ability to package both what we do and as a specimen provider today and be able to extend that into leveraging the data we have, both for our customers and, obviously, for our suppliers as well is certainly of value and the interest is certainly there. The marketplace as a service is a direct extension of the marketplace and the ability to -- similar to what (inaudible) having provide those things first and then be able to provide names of suppliers as the marketplace continues to mature.

因此，您能夠將我們今天所做的和作為標本供應商的工作打包在一起，並能夠將其擴展到利用我們擁有的數據，無論是對我們的客戶，顯然，對我們的供應商，這當然是有價值的，而且利益是當然有。市場即服務是市場的直接擴展和能力——類似於（聽不清）首先提供這些東西，然後隨著市場的不斷成熟能夠提供供應商的名稱。

That's great. One other question. Could you talk about your competitive position versus some of the alternatives out there? And to what degree existing customers could be spending more with you?

那太棒了。還有一個問題。你能談談你的競爭地位和其他一些選擇嗎？現有客戶在多大程度上可能會在您這里花費更多？

Sure. I'm going to do a brief answer, and I'm going to turn that over to Eric, my Chief Revenue Officer, to answer that further. We're the only company out there with the marketplace platform and we're going to use technology in order to be successful in our industry. Our position is not to hold inventory. We get our inventory directly from our supplier network. And that's unique to this industry. It provides challenges, but also benefits to us from capital investment, if you will.

當然。我將做一個簡短的回答，然後將其交給我的首席營收官埃里克 (Eric) 進一步回答。我們是唯一一家擁有市場平台的公司，我們將利用技術在我們的行業取得成功。我們的立場是不持有庫存。我們直接從供應商網絡獲取庫存。這對這個行業來說是獨一無二的。它提供了挑戰，但如果您願意的話，也可以從資本投資中獲益。

Our competitors have done various things in order to get closer to the supplier and the source, which Eric can talk a little bit more about compared to us. Eric, do you want to continue?

我們的競爭對手為了更接近供應商和貨源做了各種各樣的事情，與我們相比，Eric 可以談得更多一些。埃里克，你想繼續嗎？

Sure. Yes. Our market is pretty unique. There is a wide range of competitors, a lot of companies that are involved in it that do little pieces of different things. Some might do only inventory, some might do only perspective, some only do direct to patients, some do direct to clinical sites. So there's a lot of variability in all of this.

當然。是的。我們的市場非常獨特。有各種各樣的競爭對手，很多參與其中的公司都在做不同的事情。有些可能只做盤點，有些可能只做透視，有些只針對患者，有些則直接針對臨床站點。因此，所有這些都存在很多可變性。

I think our major competitors, what they've really done over the last several years is a kind of (inaudible) in the market consolidation type approach. They're really going after existing inventory, and that's one way to do it. And they're certainly taking risk because they're outlaying cash and operational assets to bring those things in-house to be able to deliver quickly. I think our approach is very different. It's very unique. We're trying to aggregate, as Tracy said, aggregate access to a lot of different types of supply and a lot of different types of relationships that are involved in that, both bank inventory and remnant.

我認為我們的主要競爭對手，他們在過去幾年真正做的是一種（聽不清）市場整合類型的方法。他們真的在追求現有庫存，這是一種方法。而且他們肯定是在冒險，因為他們正在花費現金和運營資產，將這些東西放在內部，以便能夠快速交付。我認為我們的方法非常不同。這是非常獨特的。正如特雷西所說，我們正試圖聚合對許多不同類型供應的訪問以及其中涉及的許多不同類型的關係，包括銀行庫存和剩餘。

And I think our -- still our claim to fame is really in the network effect. We're able to do things in a much more bespoke manner than most of our competition. I think COVID evidenced that. Most of our competition could not really manage that, they couldn't go through that, they couldn't make the pivot that our customers required, yet we could. That makes it hard in the interim until we get the marketplace effect that we're aiming for and that Ben and his team are working on, just because we end up getting a lot of hard requests.

而且我認為我們 - 仍然是我們聲名鵲起的真正原因在於網絡效應。與大多數競爭對手相比，我們能夠以更加定制的方式做事。我認為 COVID 證明了這一點。我們的大多數競爭對手都無法真正做到這一點，他們無法克服這一點，他們無法實現客戶所需的轉變，但我們可以。這使得在我們獲得我們想要的市場效應以及 Ben 和他的團隊正在努力的市場效應之前變得很困難，只是因為我們最終收到了很多硬性要求。

But our teams do very well with that, and we generally have sites that are able to support that effort. So I think as we start to drive towards improving our supplier network and getting the marketplace going, it's a very different angle just because a lot of other companies are just trying to pop up the storefront. The storefront is great, but that only gives you a window into an existing inventory. By approaching this as a marketplace and a 2-sided one, we're really trying to be that pivot in between to be able to give customers the easy, trustworthy, repeatable access to the specimens across a much wider net. So I think that really is our advantage, and that's certainly what we'll be angling into as we go forward.

但我們的團隊在這方面做得很好，而且我們通常都有能夠支持這項工作的網站。所以我認為，當我們開始努力改善我們的供應商網絡並推動市場發展時，這是一個非常不同的角度，因為許多其他公司只是試圖彈出店面。店面很棒，但這只能讓您了解現有庫存。通過將其作為一個市場和一個雙面市場來處理，我們真的在努力成為兩者之間的樞紐，以便能夠讓客戶輕鬆、可靠、可重複地訪問更廣泛的網絡中的樣本。所以我認為這確實是我們的優勢，而且這肯定是我們前進的方向。

Maybe one last question. Since you're in a nice position of demand being greater than supply. Can you just review the actions you're doing to improve the supply chain and what the potential benefits you can get from that?

也許最後一個問題。由於您處於需求大於供應的有利位置。您能否回顧一下您為改善供應鏈而採取的行動以及您可以從中獲得哪些潛在好處？

Sure. One of the things that we're doing is our embedded coordinator project. We also are creating across the organization, a line of business structure prior to our predicted revenue realignment, and we were more department-oriented and now we're going to be business oriented by, what we call, internally segments remnant's prospective bank.

當然。我們正在做的其中一件事是我們的嵌入式協調器項目。在我們預測的收入調整之前，我們還在整個組織中創建了一個業務線結構，我們更加以部門為導向，現在我們將以業務為導向，我們稱之為內部細分剩餘的潛在銀行。

We also are reassessing our existing suppliers for business technology and compliance objectives, and we're engaging with them to understand more fully what their capabilities are. We are learning that some of our suppliers because they're sort of reevaluating where they are in the market, have expanded what they offer. And so they have more capabilities than what we thought, and we're having conversations with them how to leverage those capabilities to both of our benefits. All of our revenue-enhancing projects, we are having meaningful conversations with our suppliers about engaging the partners. We are creating, what we call, key supplier sites, and we will be working with those key supplier sites for a business plan for growth for them as well as for us in light of whatever their capabilities might be.

我們還在重新評估現有供應商的業務技術和合規目標，我們正在與他們合作以更全面地了解他們的能力。我們了解到，我們的一些供應商正在重新評估他們在市場上的位置，因此擴大了他們的供應範圍。因此，他們擁有比我們想像的更多的能力，我們正在與他們討論如何利用這些能力為我們雙方帶來好處。在我們所有增加收入的項目中，我們都在與供應商就吸引合作夥伴進行有意義的對話。我們正在創建所謂的關鍵供應商站點，我們將與這些關鍵供應商站點合作，根據他們的能力為他們和我們制定業務增長計劃。

And there are a lot of other conversations we're having with suppliers for things that will expand our revenue, but aren't necessarily things that we currently consider part of our core business, which is really exciting to have those kinds of conversations. And Eric, is there anything else you want to add to that?

我們正在與供應商進行很多其他對話，討論可以增加我們收入的事情，但不一定是我們目前認為是我們核心業務的一部分的事情，進行這些對話真的很令人興奮。 Eric，你還有什麼要補充的嗎？

Yes. I think -- I mean, obviously, the supplier work that we're really doing is really going to be the leverage that we need to be able to expand our opportunities, as Tracy said. But I think the other interesting effect that's happening recently is we're starting to see some commercial companies out there that would traditionally be maybe customers or companies that we work with in different projects that they are now having these unique inventories and access to samples that they've had keeping around for a while and had plans for and now they need to figure out ways to commercialize and monetize these specimens.

是的。我認為——我的意思是，很明顯，正如特雷西所說，我們真正在做的供應商工作確實將成為我們擴大機會所需的槓桿。但我認為最近發生的另一個有趣的影響是我們開始看到一些商業公司傳統上可能是我們在不同項目中合作的客戶或公司，他們現在擁有這些獨特的庫存和獲得樣品的途徑他們已經保留了一段時間並製定了計劃，現在他們需要找出將這些標本商業化和貨幣化的方法。

So we have a few of those opportunities going on now. And I think that's an interesting tale in the environment just because it shows that there's a lot of different types of collections out there and a lot of different types of samples that people have, and they may have had plans for certain things, but those plans change. And so the forces in the market are making them explore those things and we become an attractive partner for those companies just because we can easily ingest their data, we can easily put it on the marketplace and get more traction.

所以我們現在有一些這樣的機會。我認為這是一個有趣的環境故事，因為它表明那裡有很多不同類型的收藏品，人們擁有很多不同類型的樣本，他們可能對某些事情有計劃，但那些計劃改變。因此，市場力量促使他們探索這些東西，我們成為這些公司有吸引力的合作夥伴，因為我們可以輕鬆獲取他們的數據，我們可以輕鬆地將其投放市場並獲得更多吸引力。

And that demand at the top of the funnel, we can already prove to these organizations, whether they be commercial or clinical that we have the access to that demand that can easily turn their samples into revenues for them. So I think these opportunities are certainly interesting, and we'll continue to explore every single one of them that comes up.

而漏斗頂部的需求，我們已經可以向這些組織證明，無論它們是商業組織還是臨床組織，我們都可以訪問這種需求，可以輕鬆地將他們的樣本轉化為收入。所以我認為這些機會當然很有趣，我們將繼續探索每一個出現的機會。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Tracy Curley for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回給 Tracy Curley 作閉幕詞。

I'd like to thank everyone again for joining us on today's call and for your continued interest in iSpecimen. As I mentioned earlier, this is an exciting time to be involved with iSpecimen. We look forward to having follow-up conversations with many of you and to see many of you at upcoming events. With that, thank you, and have a great day. .

我想再次感謝大家參加今天的電話會議，感謝大家對 iSpecimen 的持續關注。正如我之前提到的，這是參與 iSpecimen 的激動人心的時刻。我們期待與你們中的許多人進行後續對話，並期待在即將舉行的活動中見到你們中的許多人。有了這個，謝謝你，祝你有美好的一天。 .

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連接。