General
Unless the context otherwise indicates, references in this report to the terms “MongoDB,” “the Company,” “we,” “our” and “us” refer to MongoDB, Inc., its divisions and its subsidiaries. All information presented herein is based on our fiscal calendar. Unless otherwise stated, references to particular years, quarters, months or periods refer to the Company’s fiscal years ended in January and the associated quarters, months and periods of those fiscal years.
Trademarks
“MongoDB” and the MongoDB leaf logo, and other trademarks or service marks of MongoDB, Inc. appearing in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (“Form 10-K”) are the property of MongoDB, Inc. This Form 10-K contains additional trade names, trademarks and service marks of others, which are the property of their respective owners. Solely for convenience, trademarks and trade names referred to in this Form 10-K may appear without the ® or ™ symbols.
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), that are based on our management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified. All statements other than present and historical facts and conditions contained in this Form 10-K, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, business strategy, plans and our objectives for future operations, are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “can,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “objective,” “ongoing,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “will,” or “would,” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Actual events or results may differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, and these differences may be material and adverse. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about:
We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this Form 10-K primarily on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, prospects, business strategy and financial needs. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors described in the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Form 10-K. These risks are not exhaustive. Other sections of this Form 10-K include additional factors that could adversely affect our business and financial performance. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time and it is not possible for us to predict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements contained in this Form 10-K. We cannot assure you that the results, events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur, and actual results, events or circumstances could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by us or any other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified time frame or at all.
In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this Form 10-K, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements.
The forward-looking statements made in this Form 10-K relate only to events as of the date on which such statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements after the date of this Form 10-K or to conform such statements to actual results or revised expectations, except as required by law.
This Form 10-K contains market data and industry forecasts that were obtained from industry publications. These data and forecasts involve a number of assumptions and limitations, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to such information. We have not independently verified any third-party information. While we believe the market position, market opportunity and market size information included in this Form 10-K is generally reliable, such information is inherently imprecise.
Item 1. Business
Overview
MongoDB is the leading modern, general purpose database platform. Our robust platform enables developers to build and modernize applications rapidly and cost-effectively across a broad range of use cases. Organizations can deploy our platform at scale in the cloud, on-premise or in a hybrid environment. Through our unique document-based database architecture, we are able to address the needs of organizations for performance, scalability, flexibility and reliability while maintaining the strengths of legacy databases. Our business model combines the developer mindshare and adoption benefits of open source with the economic benefits of a proprietary software subscription business model.
Software applications are redefining how organizations across industries engage with their customers, operate their businesses and compete with each other. To compete effectively in today’s global, data-driven market environment, organizations must provide their end-users with applications that capture and leverage the vast volumes and varieties of available data. As a result, the software developers who build and maintain these applications are increasingly influential in organizations and demand for their talent has grown substantially. Consequently, organizations have significantly increased investment in developers and their productivity has become a strategic imperative for organizations of all sizes, industries and geographies.
A database is at the heart of every software application. Every software application requires a database to store, organize and process data. Large organizations can have tens of thousands of applications and associated databases. A database directly impacts an application's performance, scalability, flexibility and reliability. As a result, selecting a database is a highly strategic decision that directly affects developer productivity, application performance and organizational competitiveness.
Legacy relational databases were first developed in the 1970s and their underlying architecture remains largely unchanged even though the nature of applications, how they are deployed and their role in business have evolved dramatically. Modern software development is highly iterative and requires flexibility. Relational databases were not built to support the volume, variety and velocity of data being generated today, hindering application performance and developer productivity. In a relational database environment, developers are often required to spend significant time fixing and maintaining the linkages between modern applications and the rigid database structures that are inherent in relational offerings. Further, relational databases were built before cloud computing was popularized and were not designed for “always-on” globally distributed deployments. These factors have left developers and their organizations in need of more agile and effective database alternatives. A number of non-relational database alternatives, sometimes called NoSQL, have attempted to address the limitations of relational databases, but they have not achieved widespread developer mindshare and marketplace adoption due to technical trade-offs in their product architectures and the resulting compromises developers are required to make in application development. When we refer to a modern database, we are referring to a database that was originally commercialized after the year 2000 and that is designed for globally distributed deployments.