Earnings Season Summary Q4 2023

Friends & Family Capital is pleased to share the Q4 2023 edition of “Seven Weeks in Seven Minutes.”
This resource is a summary of condensed and actionable insights on what you need to know from the last seven weeks of earnings announcements.
It is intended for our Founders, CFOs, and friends in the community.
See below for the overview slides from the quarter. The full presentation is available for download here.
We welcome your feedback to help shape the relevance for your business in future quarters.
Key theme for the quarter: “Where Do We Go From Here?”
- Optimization appears to have passed its trough with many companies seeing stabilization
- AI product features in both SMB and enterprise see interest from customers to enhance productivity
- Demand for AI cloud services is driving large capital expenditure investments for datacenters
- Platform consolidation continues and the transition is evident in larger account growth
- 51% of companies both beat estimates and had analysts raise estimates on revenue and EPS

Our public company universe includes 45 companies. We selected these businesses as leading business-to-business software companies plus the technology stalwarts. The customers served by these companies are also relevant for the Founders we help as they build companies in the private markets.

Market price moved up or down by 10% or more across several companies following their earnings.

Market positioning and forward profitability guidance drove price performance in Q4. Both top movers and bottom movers in the Q4 earnings season also displayed many median similarities in earnings fundamentals.

A timeless question of "Is it me? Or the market?" can be addressed through the commentary companies offer about their customers and go-to-market motion. We offer a few quotes below to help benchmark what you hear from account executives on your sales team.

Enterprise budgets were constrained over the past two years for new software purchases and expansions. The optimization trends that software companies experienced during this timeframe now appear to be easing in the most recent quarter.

The full presentation is available for download here.