Our business involves significant risks, some of which are described below. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risk and uncertainties that we are unaware of or that we deem immaterial may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. The realization of any of these risks and uncertainties could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition, results of operations, growth and future prospects as well as our ability to accomplish our strategic objectives. In that event, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline and you could lose part or all of your investment.
Risks Related to Our Limited Operating History and Early Stage of Growth
Our limited operating history and our evolving business make it difficult to evaluate our future prospects and the risks and challenges we may encounter.
Our limited operating history and evolving business make it difficult to evaluate and assess the success of our business to date, our future prospects and the risks and challenges that we may encounter. These risks and challenges include our ability to:
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attract new consumers to our platform and position our platform as an important way to make purchasing decisions for prescription medications and other healthcare products and services; |
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retain our consumers and encourage them to continue to utilize our platform when purchasing healthcare products and services; |
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attract new and existing consumers to rapidly adopt new offerings on our platform; |
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increase the number of consumers that use our subscription offerings or the number of subscription programs that we manage; |
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increase and retain our consumers that subscribe to our subscription offerings, such as Gold and Kroger Savings; |
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attract and retain industry players for inclusion in our platform, including pharmacies, PBMs, pharmaceutical manufacturers and telehealth providers; |
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comply with existing and new laws and regulations applicable to our business and in our industry; |
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anticipate and respond to macroeconomic changes, changes in medication pricing and industry pricing benchmarks and changes in the markets in which we operate; |
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react to challenges from existing and new competitors; |
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maintain and enhance the value of our reputation and brand; |
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effectively manage our growth; |
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hire, integrate and retain talented people at all levels of our organization; |
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maintain and improve the infrastructure underlying our platform, including our apps and websites, including with respect to data protection and cybersecurity; and |
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successfully update our platform, including expanding our platform and offerings into different healthcare products and services, develop and update our apps, features, offerings and services to benefit our consumers and enhance the consumer experience. |
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If we fail to address the risks and difficulties that we face, including those associated with the challenges listed above and those described elsewhere in this Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. Further, because we have limited historical financial data and our business continues to evolve and expand within the U.S. healthcare industry, any predictions about our future revenue and expenses may not be as accurate as they would be if we had a longer operating history, operated a more predictable business or operated in a less regulated industry. We have encountered in the past, and will encounter in the future, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies with limited operating histories and evolving businesses that operate in highly regulated and competitive industries. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties, which we use to plan and operate our business, are incorrect or change, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our results of operations could differ materially from our expectations and our business, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected.
Our recent growth rates may not be sustainable or indicative of future growth and we expect our growth rate to slow.
We have experienced significant growth since our founding in 2011. Revenue increased from $249.5 million for 2018 to $388.2 million for 2019 and to $550.7 million in 2020. Our historical rate of growth may not be sustainable or indicative of our future rate of growth. We believe that our continued growth in revenue, as well as our ability to improve or maintain margins and profitability, will depend upon, among other factors, our ability to address the challenges, risks and difficulties described elsewhere in this Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors” and the extent to which our various offerings grow and contribute to our results of operations. We cannot provide assurance that we will be able to successfully manage any such challenges or risks to our future growth. In addition, our base of consumers may not continue to grow or may decline due to a variety of possible risks, including increased competition, changes in the regulatory landscape and the maturation of our business. Any of these factors could cause our revenue growth to decline and may adversely affect our margins and profitability. Failure to continue our revenue growth or improve margins would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. You should not rely on our historical rate of revenue growth as an indication of our future performance.
Our results of operations vary and may fluctuate significantly from period-to-period.
Our quarterly and annual results of operations have historically varied from period-to-period and we expect that our results of operations will continue to do so for a variety of reasons, many of which are outside of our control and are difficult to predict. We have presented many of the factors that may cause our results of operations to fluctuate in this Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” including the extent to which our various offerings, such as our telehealth offerings, grow and contribute to our results of operations. In addition, we typically experience stronger consumer demand during the first and fourth quarters of each year, which coincide with generally higher consumer healthcare spending, doctor office visits, annual benefit enrollment season and seasonal cold and flu trends. The rapid growth of our business may have masked these trends to date, and we expect the impact of seasonality to be more pronounced in the future. The cumulative effects of such factors could result in large fluctuations and unpredictability in our quarterly and annual results of operations. As a result, comparing our results of operations on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful and investors should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance.
This variability and unpredictability could also result in our failing to meet the expectations of industry or financial analysts or investors for any period. If our revenue or results of operations fall below the expectations of analysts or investors or below any guidance we may provide, or if the guidance we provide is below the expectations of analysts or investors, the price of our Class A common stock could decline substantially. Such a stock price decline could occur even when we have met any previously publicly stated guidance we may provide.
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We may be unable to manage our future growth effectively, which could make it difficult to execute our business strategy.
Since 2011, we have experienced rapid growth in our business operations and the number of consumers that use our offerings, and we may continue to experience growth in the future. For example, the number of our full-time employees increased from 137 as of December 31, 2017 to 478 as of December 31, 2020, and the number of Monthly Active Consumers has increased from 1.3 million for the first quarter of 2017 to 5.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2020. This growth has placed, and may continue to place, significant demands on our management and our operational and financial infrastructure. Our ability to manage our growth effectively and to integrate new employees, technologies and acquisitions into our existing business will require us to continue to expand our operational and financial infrastructure and to continue to retain, attract, train, motivate and manage employees. Management of growth is particularly difficult when employees work from home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Continued growth could strain our ability to develop and improve our operational, financial and management controls, enhance our reporting systems and procedures, recruit, train and retain highly skilled personnel and maintain consumer satisfaction. Additionally, if we do not effectively manage the growth of our business and operations, the quality of our platform and offerings could suffer, which could negatively affect our reputation and brand, business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may experience lower margins as GoodRx Care continues to grow as a portion of our overall business.
GoodRx Care (formerly known as HeyDoctor), which we launched in 2019, has experienced significant growth and we expect it to continue to grow in the future. However, the telehealth market is rapidly developing and is subject to significant price competition, and we may be unable to achieve satisfactory prices for our GoodRx Care offering or maintain prices at competitive levels. Due in part to this price competition, GoodRx Care currently generates lower margins than our other offerings. If we are unable to maintain our prices, or if our costs increase and we are unable to offset such increase with an increase in our prices, our margins could decline. In addition, as GoodRx Care continues to grow as a portion of our overall business, we expect such growth to have an adverse impact on our margins. We will continue to be subject to significant pricing pressure, and expect that GoodRx Care will continue to grow as a source of revenue, which would likely have a material adverse effect on our margins.
Risks Related to Our Business
We may be unsuccessful in achieving broad market education and changing consumer purchasing habits.
Our success and future growth largely depend on our ability to increase consumer awareness of our platform and offerings, and on the willingness of consumers to utilize our platform to access information, discounted prices for prescription medications and other healthcare products and services, including telehealth services. We believe the vast majority of consumers make purchasing decisions for healthcare products and services on the basis of traditional factors, such as insurance coverage, availability at nearby pharmacies and availability of nearby medical testing. This traditional decision-making process does not always account for restrictive and complex insurance plans, high deductibles, expensive co-pays and other factors, such as discounts or savings available at alternative pharmacies or practices. To effectively market our platform, we must educate consumers about the various purchase options and the benefits of using GoodRx codes when purchasing prescription medications and other healthcare products and services without using their health insurance benefits. We focus our marketing and education efforts on consumers, but also aim to educate and inform healthcare providers, pharmacists and other participants that interact with consumers, including at the point of purchase. However, we cannot assure you that we will be successful in changing consumer purchasing habits or that we will achieve broad market education or awareness among consumers. Even if we are able to raise awareness among consumers, they may be slow in changing their habits and may be hesitant to use our platform for a variety of reasons, including:
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lack of experience with our company and platform, and concerns that we are relatively new to the industry; |
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perceived health, safety or quality risks associated with the use of a new platform and applications to shop for discounted prices for prescription medications; |
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lack of awareness that there is a disparity of pricing for prescription medicines and other medical products and services; |
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perception that our platform does not provide adequate discounted prices or only offers savings for a limited selection of prescription medications; |
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perception that discounted prices offered through our platform are less competitive than insurance coverage; |
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perception regarding acceptance rates of pharmacies for our GoodRx codes available through our platform; |
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traditional or existing relationships with pharmacies, pharmacists or other providers that sell healthcare products and services; |
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concerns about the privacy and security of the data that consumers share with or through our platform; |
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competition and negative selling efforts from competitors, including competing platforms and price matching programs; and |