WM Technology, Inc.: Form 10-Q for the period ended Mar 31, 2024

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read together with our condensed consolidated financial statements and the related notes to those statements included in Item 1 “Financial Statements” in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. In addition to historical financial information, the following discussion and analysis contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Our actual results and timing of selected events may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of many factors, including those discussed under “Risk Factors” and included elsewhere herein and in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023.

First Quarter 2024 Financial Highlights

• Net Revenue was $44.4 million as compared to $46.4 million in the prior year.
• Average monthly paying clients was 4,937, as compared to 5,641 in the prior year.
• Average monthly revenue per paying clients was $2,997, as compared to $2,743 in the prior year.
• Net income was $2.0 million as compared to net loss of $4.0 million in the prior year.
• Adjusted EBITDA was $9.6 million.

For further information about how we calculate EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as well as limitations of its use and a reconciliation of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss), see “Net Income (Loss) to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA” in Non-GAAP Financial Measurements below.

Overview

Founded in 2008, and headquartered in Irvine, California, WM Technology, Inc. operates a leading online cannabis marketplace for consumers together with a comprehensive set of eCommerce and compliance software solutions for cannabis businesses, which are sold to both storefront locations and delivery operators (“retailers”) and brands in the legalized cannabis markets in states and territories of the United States. Our comprehensive business-to-consumer and business-to-business suite of products afford cannabis retailers and brands of all sizes integrated tools to compliantly run their businesses and to reach, convert, and retain consumers.

Our business primarily consists of our commerce-driven marketplace (“Weedmaps”), and our fully integrated suite of end-to-end Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) solutions software offering (“Weedmaps for Business”). The Weedmaps marketplace is a premier destination for cannabis consumers to discover and browse information regarding cannabis and cannabis products with 4,937 average monthly paying business clients during the three months ended March 31, 2024 on the supply-side of our marketplace. These paying clients include retailers, brands and other client types (such as doctors). Further, these clients, who can choose to purchase multiple listings solutions for each business, had purchased approximately 7,800 listing pages as of March 31, 2024.

We sell our Weedmaps for Business suite in the United States and have a limited number of non-monetized listings in several other countries including Austria, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland. We operate in the United States, Canada and other foreign jurisdictions where medical and/or adult cannabis use is legal under state or national law. As of March 31, 2024, we actively operated in over 35 U.S. states and territories that have adult-use and/or medical-use regulations in place. Substantially all of our revenue was generated in the United States during the periods presented. We define actively operated markets as those U.S. states or territories with greater than $1,000 monthly revenue.

Our mission is to power a transparent and inclusive global cannabis economy. Our technology addresses the challenges facing both consumers seeking to understand cannabis products and businesses who serve cannabis users in a legally compliant fashion. Since our founding in 2008, Weedmaps has become a premier destination for cannabis consumers to discover and browse information regarding cannabis and cannabis products, permitting product discovery and order-ahead for pickup or delivery by participating retailers. Weedmaps for Business is a set of eCommerce-enablement tools designed to help retailers and brands get the best out of the Weedmaps’ consumer experience, create labor efficiencies and manage compliance needs.

As we continue to expand the presence and increase the number of consumers on the Weedmaps marketplace and broaden our offerings, we generate more value for our business clients. As we continue to expand the presence and increase the number of cannabis businesses listed on weedmaps.com, we become a more compelling marketplace for consumers. To capitalize on the growth opportunities of our two-sided marketplace and solutions, we plan to continue making investments in raising brand awareness, increasing penetration within existing markets and expanding to new markets, as well as continuing to develop and monetize new solutions to extend the functionality of our platform. These investments serve to deepen the consumer experience with our platform and continue to provide a high level of support to our business clients.

Key Operating and Financial Metrics

We monitor the following key financial and operational metrics to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate business plans, and make strategic decisions. The following table summarize our financial performance for three months ended March 31, 2024 compared with the same period in 2023. For a detailed discussion of our results of operations, see “Results of Operations” below.

(dollars in thousands, except for revenue per paying client)

(1) For further information about how we calculate EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as well as limitations of its use and a reconciliation of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss), see “Net income (loss) to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA” below.

(2) Average monthly revenue per paying client is defined as the average monthly revenue for any particular period divided by the average monthly paying clients in the same respective period.

(3) Average monthly paying clients are defined as the average of the number of paying clients billed in a month across a particular period (and for which services were provided).

(4) For the three months ended March 31, 2023, net revenues has been retrospectively adjusted to reflect the restatement of previously reported revenue. See Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies,” for further information.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Net Income (loss) to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA

Our financial statements, including net income (loss), are prepared in accordance with GAAP. For more information regarding the components within our net income (loss), see “Components of Our Results of Operations” below.

Net income for the three months ended March 31, 2024 was $2.0 million compared to net loss of $4.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2023. The increase in net income was primarily due to decrease in operating expenses of $9.9 million, which was partially offset by a decrease in revenue of $2.0 million and unfavorable change in fair value of warrant liability of $1.6 million. For more information regarding the components of our net income (loss), see “Components of Our Results of Operations” below.

To provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results, we have disclosed EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA, both of which are non-GAAP financial measures that we calculate as net income (loss) before interest, taxes and depreciation and amortization expense in the case of EBITDA and further adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation, change in fair value of warrant liability, transaction related bonus, legal settlements and other legal costs, reduction in force, asset impairment charges, change in TRA liability and other non-cash, unusual and/or infrequent costs in the case of Adjusted EBITDA. Below we have provided a reconciliation of net income (loss) (the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure) to EBITDA; and from EBITDA to Adjusted EBITDA.

We present EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA because these metrics are a key measure used by our management to evaluate our operating performance, generate future operating plans and make strategic decisions regarding the allocation of investment capacity. Accordingly, we believe that EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results in the same manner as our management.

Each of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider any of these non-GAAP financial measures in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are as follows:

• although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future, and EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA do not reflect cash capital expenditure requirements for such replacements or for new capital expenditure requirements;
• EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA do not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs; and
• EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA do not reflect tax payments that may represent a reduction in cash available to us.

Because of these limitations, you should consider EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial performance measures, including net income (loss) and our other GAAP results.

A reconciliation of net income (loss) to non-GAAP EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA is as follows:

(in thousands)

Average Monthly Revenue Per Paying Client

Average monthly revenue per paying client measures how much clients, for the period of measurement, are willing to pay us for our subscription and additional offerings and the efficiency of the bid-auction process for our featured listings placements. We calculate this metric by dividing the average monthly revenue for any particular period by the average monthly number of paying clients in the same respective period. The increase in our average monthly revenue per paying client for the three months ended March 31, 2024 compared to the same period in 2023 was due to sunset of certain products, which had lower average monthly spending clients, in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Average Monthly Paying Clients

We define average monthly paying clients as the monthly average of clients billed each month over a particular period (and for which services were provided). Our paying clients include both individual cannabis businesses as well as retail websites or businesses within a larger organization that have independent relationships with us, many of whom are owned by holding companies where decision-making is decentralized such that purchasing decisions are made, and relationships with us are located, at a lower organizational level. In addition, any client may choose to purchase multiple listing solutions for each of their retail websites or businesses.

Average monthly paying clients for the three months ended March 31, 2024 decreased 12% to 4,937 average monthly paying clients from 5,641 average monthly paying clients in the same period in 2023. The decrease in average monthly paying clients in the three months ended March 31, 2024 as compared to the same period in 2023 was primarily due to elevated churn as a result of the cannabis industry facing price deflation.

Factors Affecting Our Performance

Growth of Our Two-Sided Weedmaps Marketplace

We have historically grown through and intend to focus on continuing to grow through the expansion of our two-sided marketplace, which occurs through growth of the number and type of businesses and consumers that we attract to our platform.

We believe that expansion of the number and types of cannabis businesses that choose to list on our platform will continue to make our platform more compelling for consumers and drive traffic and consumer engagement, which in turn will make our platform more valuable to cannabis businesses.

Growth and Retention of Our Paying Clients

Our revenue grows primarily through acquiring and retaining paying clients and increasing the revenue per paying client over time. We have a history of attracting new paying clients and increasing their annual spend with us over time, primarily due to the value they receive once they are onboarded and able to take advantage of the benefits of participating in our two-sided marketplace and leveraging our software solutions.

Prices of certain commodity products, including gas prices, are historically volatile and subject to fluctuations arising from changes in domestic and international supply and demand, labor costs, competition, market speculation, government regulations, trade restrictions and tariffs, inflation, the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the recent state of war between Israel and Hamas and the related risk of a larger regional conflict. Increasing prices in the component materials for the goods or services of our clients may impact their ability to maintain or increase their spend with us and their ability to pay their invoices on time. Rapid and significant changes in commodity prices may negatively affect our revenue if our clients are unable to mitigate inflationary increases through various customer pricing actions and cost reduction initiatives. This could also negatively impact our net dollar retention and our collections on accounts receivable.

Regulation and Maturation of Cannabis Markets

We believe that we will have significant opportunities for greater growth as more jurisdictions legalize cannabis for medical and/or adult-use and the regulatory environment continues to develop. Currently, thirty-nine states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam and the Northern Mariana have legalized some form of cannabis use for certain medical purposes. Twenty-four of those states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Northern Mariana have legalized cannabis for adults for non-medical purposes as well (sometimes referred to as adult or recreational use). Eight additional states have legalized forms of low-potency cannabis, for select medical conditions. Only three states continue to prohibit cannabis entirely. We intend to explore new expansion opportunities as additional jurisdictions legalize cannabis for medical or adult use and leverage our business model informed by our 15-year operating history to enter new markets.

We also have a significant opportunity to monetize transactions originating from users engaging with a retailer on the Weedmaps marketplace or tracked via one of our Weedmaps for Business solutions. Given U.S. federal prohibitions on plant-touching businesses and our current policy not to participate in the chain of commerce associated with the sale of cannabis products, we do not charge take-rates or payment fees for transactions originating from users who engage with a retailer on the Weedmaps platform or tracked via one of our Weedmaps for Business solutions. A change in U.S. federal regulations could result in our ability to engage in such monetization efforts without adverse consequences to our business. A change in U.S. federal regulations could also increase access to capital and remove limitations of Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, thus allowing deduction or credit for certain expenses of cannabis business to increase our cash flow and liquidity, as well as those of many industry participants.

Our long-term growth depends on our ability to successfully capitalize on new and existing cannabis markets. Each market must reach a critical mass of both cannabis businesses and consumers for listing subscriptions, advertising placements and other solutions to have meaningful appeal to potential clients. As regulated markets mature and as we incur expenses to attract paying clients and convert non-paying clients to paying clients, we may generate losses in new markets for an extended period.

Furthermore, we compete with cannabis-focused and general two-sided marketplaces, internet search engines and various other newspaper, television and media companies and other software providers. We expect competition to intensify in the future as the regulatory regime for cannabis becomes more settled and the legal market for cannabis becomes more accepted, which may encourage new participants to enter the market, including established companies with substantially greater financial, technical and other resources than existing market participants. Our current and future competitors may also enjoy other competitive advantages, such as greater name recognition, more offerings and larger marketing budgets.

Brand Recognition and Reputation

We believe that maintaining and enhancing our brand identity and our reputation is critical to maintaining and growing our relationships with clients and consumers and to our ability to attract new clients and consumers. Historically, a substantial majority of our marketing spending was on out-of-home advertising on billboards, buses and other non-digital outlets. Starting in 2019, consistent with the overall shift in perceptions regarding cannabis, a number of demand-side digital advertising platforms allowed us to advertise online. We also invested in growing our internal digital performance advertising team. We believe there is an opportunity to improve market efficiency through digital channels and expect to shift our marketing spending accordingly. Over the longer term, we expect to shift and accelerate our marketing spend to additional online and traditional channels, such as broadcast television or radio, as they become available to us. Further, we have begun reinvesting in our own on-the-ground and field marketing presence and are increasing the types and cadence of client events. These events and in-store activations allow Weedmaps to engage with consumers at the point of purchase and also afford Weedmaps with the opportunity to engage directly with our clients, understand their needs and challenges and foster goodwill.

Negative publicity, whether or not justified, relating to events or activities attributed to us, our employees, clients or others associated with any of these parties, may tarnish our reputation and reduce the value of our brand. Given our high visibility and relatively long operating history compared to many of our competitors, we may be more susceptible to the risk of negative publicity. Damage to our reputation and loss of brand equity may reduce demand for our platform and have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. Moreover, any attempts to rebuild our reputation and restore the value of our brand may be costly and time consuming, and such efforts may not ultimately be successful.

We also believe that the importance of our brand recognition and reputation will continue to increase as competition in our market continues to develop. If our brand promotion activities are not successful, our operating results and growth may be adversely impacted.

Investments in Growth

We intend to continue to make focused organic and inorganic investments to grow our revenue and scale operations to support that growth.

Given our long operating history in the United States and the strength of our network, often businesses will initially list on our platform without targeted sales or marketing efforts by us. However, we plan to accelerate our investments in marketing to maintain and increase our brand awareness through both online and offline channels. We also plan to invest in expanding our business listings thereby enhancing our client and consumer experience, and improving the depth and quality of information provided on our platform. We also intend to continue to invest in several areas to continue enhancing the functionality of our Weedmaps for Business offering. We expect significant near-term investments to enhance our data assets and evolve our current listings and software offerings to our brand clients, among other areas. We anticipate undertaking such investments in order to be positioned to capitalize on the rapidly expanding cannabis market.

As operating expenses and capital expenditures fluctuate over time, we may accordingly experience short-term, negative impacts to our operating results and cash flows.

Components of Our Results of Operations

Revenues

Our revenues are derived primarily from monthly subscriptions to Weedmaps for Business, featured and deal listings and other WM Ad solutions. Our Weedmaps for Business subscriptions generally have one-month terms that automatically renew unless notice of cancellation is provided in advance. Featured and deal listings and other WM Ad solutions are offered as add-on products to the Weedmaps for Business subscriptions. Featured and deal listings provide customers with premium placement ad solutions and discount and promotion pricing tools. Other WM Ad solutions include banner ads and promotion tiles on the Company’s marketplace ad as well as other advertising products on and off the Weedmaps marketplace. We have a fixed inventory of featured listing and display advertising in each market, and price is generally determined through a competitive auction process that reflects local market demand. Revenues for these arrangements are recognized over-time, generally during a month-to-month subscription period as the products are provided. We rarely need to allocate the transaction price to separate performance obligations. In the rare case that allocation of the transaction price is needed, we recognize revenue in proportion to the standalone selling prices of the underlying services at contract inception.

Costs and Expenses

Our cost structure has two components: cost of revenues and operating expenses. Our operating expenses include costs related to selling and marketing, product development, general and administrative functions and depreciation and amortization. Certain of our costs and expenses, including those associated with the operation of our technical infrastructure as well as components of our operating expenses, are generally less variable in nature and may not correlate to changes in revenue.

Cost of Revenues (Exclusive of Depreciation and Amortization)

Cost of revenues excludes depreciation and amortization expense and primarily consists of web hosting, internet service and credit card processing costs. Cost of revenues is primarily driven by fluctuations in revenue leading to increases or decreases in credit card processing and web hosting cost. We expect our cost of revenue to continue to increase on an absolute basis and remain relatively flat as a percentage of revenue as we scale our business and inventory costs related to multi-media offerings.

Selling and Marketing Expenses

Selling and marketing expenses consist of salaries and benefits, stock-based compensation expense, travel expense and incentive compensation for our sales and marketing employees. In addition, sales and marketing expenses include customer acquisition marketing, events cost and branding and advertising costs. Over the longer term, we expect sales and marketing expense to increase in a manner consistent with revenue growth, however, we may experience fluctuations in some periods as we enter and develop new markets or have large one-time marketing projects.

Product Development Expenses

Product development costs consist of salaries and benefits and stock-based compensation expense for employees, including engineering and technical teams who are responsible for building new products, as well as maintaining and improving existing products. Product development costs that do not meet the criteria for capitalization are expensed as incurred. Amortization expense related to capitalized software development cost is included in depreciation, amortization and asset impairment expense in the consolidated statements of operations. We believe that continued investment in our platform is important for our growth and expect our product development expenses will increase in a manner consistent with revenue growth as our operations grow.

General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of payroll, benefit costs and stock-based compensation expense for our employees involved in general corporate functions including our senior leadership team as well as costs associated with the use by these functions of software and facilities and equipment, such as rent, insurance and other occupancy expenses. General and administrative expenses also include provision for doubtful accounts and professional and outside services related to legal and other consulting services. General and administrative expenses are primarily driven by headcount required to support our business and meet our obligations as a public company. We expect general and administrative expenses to decline as percentage of revenue as we scale our business and leverage investments in these areas.

Depreciation and Amortization Expenses

Depreciation and amortization expenses primarily consist of depreciation on computer equipment, furniture and fixtures, leasehold improvements, capitalized software development costs and amortization of intangibles. We expect depreciation and amortization expenses to increase on an absolute basis for the foreseeable future as we scale our business.

Other Income (Expense), Net

Other income (expense), net consists primarily of change in fair value of warrant liability. TRA liability remeasurement, legal settlements and other legal costs, interest income and other tax related expenses.

Provision for Income Taxes

We account for income taxes pursuant to the asset and liability method which requires the recognition of deferred income tax assets and liabilities related to the expected future tax consequences arising from temporary differences between the carrying amounts and tax bases of assets and liabilities based on enacted statutory tax rates applicable to the periods in which the temporary differences are expected to reverse. Any effects of changes in income tax rates or laws are included in income tax expense in the period of enactment. A valuation allowance is recognized if we determine it is more-likely-than-not that all or a portion of a deferred tax asset will not be recognized. In making such determination, we consider all available evidence, including scheduled reversals of deferred tax liabilities, projected future taxable income, tax planning strategies and recent and expected future results of operation. See Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” to our condensed consolidated financial statements for further information.

Results of Operations

The following tables set forth our results of operations for the periods presented and express the relationship of certain line items as a percentage of net sales for those periods. The period-to-period comparison of financial results is not necessarily indicative of future results.

(in thousands, except percentages)

1. For the three months ended March 31, 2023, net revenues and general and administrative expenses have been retrospectively adjusted to reflect the restatement of previously reported revenue and credit losses. See Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies,” for further information.

Comparison of Three Months Ended March 31, 2024 and 2023

Revenues

(dollars in thousands)

1. For the three months ended March 31, 2023, net revenues has been retrospectively adjusted to reflect the restatement of previously reported revenue. See Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies,” for further information.

Total revenues decreased by $2.0 million or 4% for the three months ended March 31, 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. The decrease was primarily due to a decrease in revenue from our Featured Listing and WM Deal products of $4.1 million, partially offset by an increase in revenue from our Weedmaps for Business of $2.0 million and an increase in revenue from other WM Ad solutions of $0.1 million.

For the three months ended March 31, 2024, Featured Listing and WM Deal products, Weedmaps for Business and other ad solutions represented approximately 63%, 30% and 7% our total net revenues, respectively.

Costs and Expenses

The following table shows our total costs and expenses:

(dollars in thousands)

1. For the three months ended March 31, 2023, general and administrative expenses have been retrospectively adjusted to reflect the restatement of previously reported credit losses. See Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies,” for further information.

Cost of Revenues

Cost of revenues was $2.3 million or 5% of net revenues, for the three months ended March 31, 2024 compared to $3.5 million, or 8% of net revenues, for the same period in 2023. The decrease of $1.2 million was primarily related to a decrease of $0.9 million for cost of revenues associated with multi-channel marketing and cloud communication platforms primarily due to the sunset of WM CRM, WM Screens and WM AdSuite and a decrease of $0.3 million in server costs.

Sales and Marketing Expenses

The decrease in sales and marketing expenses was primarily related to a decrease in personnel-related costs of $3.6 million, outside services expense of $0.3 million, branding and advertising expenses of $0.3 million, partially offset by an increase in web advertising of $1.0 million, an increase in print and products expense of $0.4 million and an increase in events expense of $0.2 million. The decrease in personnel-related costs was primarily related to a decrease in transaction related bonuses of $1.8 million and the impact of a reduction in workforce, including decreases in salaries and wages of $1.0 million and stock-based compensation expense of $0.5 million.

Product Development Expenses

The decrease in product development expenses was primarily due to a decrease in personnel-related costs of $2.0 million, partially offset by an increase in outside services expense of $0.2 million. The decrease in personnel-related costs was primarily related to the impact of a reduction in workforce, including decreases in salaries and wages of $1.1 million and stock-based compensation expense of $0.3 million and a decrease in transaction related bonuses of $1.0 million.

General and Administrative Expenses

The decrease in general and administrative expenses was primarily due to decreases in provision (benefit) for credit losses of $1.1 million, stock-based compensation expense of $0.7 million, salaries and wages of $0.7 million, insurance expense of $0.5 million, software expense of $0.5 million, employee benefits expense of $0.3 million, professional fees of $0.2 million and facilities expense of $0.2 million.

Depreciation and Amortization Expenses

The decrease in depreciation and amortization expense was primarily due lower amortization expense related to intangible assets that have been fully amortized of 0.5 million, partially offset by an increase in depreciation of $0.1 million.

Other Income (Expense), net

(dollars in thousands)

The decrease in other income (expense) net was primarily due to comparatively unfavorable changes in fair value of warrant liability of $1.6 million.

Provision for Income Taxes

(dollars in thousands)

N/M - Not meaningful

For the three months ended March 31, 2024 and March 31, 2023, the Company recorded $9 thousand in income tax provisions due to the impact of the full valuation allowance on its net deferred assets. See Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies,” for further information.

Seasonality

The cannabis industry has certain industry holidays that in recent years have resulted in increased purchases by cannabis consumers. Such “holidays” include, but are not limited to 420, July 10th and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (“Green Wednesday”). Likewise, our clients will typically increase spend heading into these events. We also typically invest in marketing spend around these holidays which can create some seasonality in our sales and market expenses from quarter to quarter. While seasonality has not had a significant impact on our results in the past, our clients may experience seasonality in their businesses which in turn can impact the revenue generated from them. Our business may become more seasonal in the future and historical patterns in our business may not be a reliable indicator of future performance.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

The following tables show our cash, accounts receivable and working capital as of the dates indicated:

(in thousands)

As of March 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023, we had cash of $35.7 million and $34.4 million, respectively. Our funds are being used for funding our current operations and potential strategic acquisitions in the future. We also intend to increase our capital expenditures to support the organic growth in our business and operations. We expect to fund our liquidity requirements from cash and working capital on hand at March 31, 2024, as well as from cash provided by operating activities. We believe that our existing cash and cash generated from operations will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash needs for at least the next 12 months. However, our liquidity assumptions may prove to be incorrect, and we could exhaust our available financial resources sooner than we currently expect. We may seek to raise additional funds at any time through equity, equity-linked or debt financing arrangements. Our future capital requirements and the adequacy of available funds will depend on many factors. We may not be able to secure additional financing to meet our operating requirements on acceptable terms, or at all.

Sources of Liquidity

We primarily finance our operations and capital expenditures through cash flows generated by operations. To the extent existing cash and investments and cash from operations are not sufficient to fund future activities, we may need to raise additional funds. We may seek to raise additional funds through equity, equity-linked or debt financings. If we raise additional funds through the incurrence of indebtedness, such indebtedness may have rights that are senior to holders of our equity securities and could contain covenants that restrict operations. Any additional equity financing may be dilutive to stockholders. We may enter into investment or acquisition transactions in the future, which could require us to seek additional equity financing, incur indebtedness, or use cash resources.

Cash Flows

(in thousands)

Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities

Cash from operating activities consists primarily of net income (loss) adjusted for certain non-cash items, including depreciation and amortization, change in fair value of warrant liability, change in TRA liability, stock-based compensation, deferred taxes, provision (benefit) for credit losses, net of recoveries and the effect of changes in working capital.

Net cash provided by operating activities for the three months ended March 31, 2024 was $7.4 million, which resulted from net income of $2.0 million, together with net cash outflows of $2.2 million from changes in operating assets and liabilities, and non-cash items of $7.7 million, consisting of depreciation and amortization of $2.9 million, fair value of warrant liability of $0.9 million, stock-based compensation of $2.8 million, amortization of right-of-use lease assets of $1.2 million, and change in tax receivable agreement of $0.5 million, partially offset by provision (benefit) for credit losses, net of recoveries of $0.7 million. Net cash outflows from changes in operating assets and liabilities was primarily due to a decrease in accounts payable and accrued expenses of $3.7 million, a decrease in operating lease liabilities of $1.7 million, an increase in prepaid expenses and other current assets of $0.7 million, a decrease in deferred revenue of $0.1 million, partially offset by a decrease in accounts receivable of $3.9 million. The changes in operating assets and liabilities are mostly due to fluctuations in timing of cash receipts and payments.

Net cash provided by operating activities for the three months ended March 31, 2023 was $2.2 million, which resulted from net loss of approximately $4.0 million, together with net cash outflows of approximately $2.4 million from changes in operating assets and liabilities, and non-cash items of $8.5 million, consisting of depreciation and amortization of $3.2 million, fair value of warrant liability of $0.7 million, stock-based compensation of $4.4 million, amortization of right-of-use lease assets of $1.2 million, provision (benefit) for credit losses of $0.4 million and change in tax receivable agreement of $0.1 million.

Net cash outflows from changes in operating assets and liabilities were primarily due to a decrease in accounts payable and accrued expenses of $5.1 million and a decrease in operating lease liabilities of $1.5 million, offset by a decrease in accounts receivables of $1.7 million, an increase in deferred revenue of $0.1 million and a decrease in prepaid expenses and other current assets of $2.4 million. The changes in operating assets and liabilities are mostly due to fluctuations in timing of cash receipts and payments.

Net Cash Used in Investing Activities

Cash used in investing activities for the three months ended March 31, 2024 was $4.5 million, which resulted from $4.5 million cash paid for capital expenditures which include purchases of property and equipment and capitalized software development costs.

Cash used in investing activities for the three months ended March 31, 2023 was $3.2 million, which resulted from $3.2 million cash paid for purchases of property and equipment, which includes capitalized software development cost.

Net Cash Used in Financing Activities

Cash outflows from financing activities for the three months ended March 31, 2024 was $1.5 million, which primarily consists of $1.6 million in distributions payments to members of WMH LLC and $0.1 million in proceeds from collection of related party note receivable.

Cash outflows from financing activities for three months ended March 31, 2023 was $1.6 million, which primarily consists of $1.5 million in repayments of insurance premium financing, $0.3 million in distributions payments to members of WMH LLC, and $0.1 million in proceeds from collection of related party note receivable.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

Our condensed consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of these condensed consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, expenses and related disclosures. We evaluate our estimates and assumptions on an ongoing basis. Our estimates are based on historical experience and various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. Our actual results could differ from these estimates.

We believe that the assumptions and estimates associated with revenue recognition, income taxes, stock-based compensation, capitalized software development costs, provision for doubtful accounts, goodwill and intangible assets and fair value measurements to have the greatest potential impact on our consolidated financial statements. Therefore, we consider these to be our critical accounting policies and estimates. For further information on all of our significant accounting policies, see Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies,” to our condensed consolidated financial statements included herein.

Revenue Recognition

We recognize revenue when the fundamental criteria for revenue recognition are met. We recognize revenue by applying the following five steps: the contract with the customer is identified; the performance obligations in the contract are identified; the transaction price is determined; the transaction price is allocated to the performance obligations in the contract; and revenue is recognized when (or as) we satisfy these performance obligations in an amount that reflects the consideration it expects to be entitled to in exchange for those services. We exclude sales taxes and other similar taxes from the measurement of the transaction price. The transaction price reflects the amount we expect to receive for such goods, net of discounts.

Our revenues are derived primarily from monthly subscriptions to Weedmaps for Business, featured and deal listings and other WM Ad solutions. Our Weedmaps for Business subscriptions generally have one-month terms that automatically renew unless notice of cancellation is provided in advance. Featured and deal listings and other WM Ad solutions are offered as add-on products to the Weedmaps for Business subscriptions. Featured and deal listings provide customers with premium placement ad solutions and discount and promotion pricing tools. Other WM Ad solutions include banner ads and promotion tiles on our marketplace ad as well as other advertising products on and off the Weedmaps marketplace. We have a fixed inventory of featured listing and display advertising in each market, and price is generally determined through a competitive auction process that reflects local market demand. Revenues for these arrangements are recognized over-time, generally during a month-to-month subscription period as the products are provided. We rarely need to allocate the transaction price to separate performance obligations. In the rare case that allocation of the transaction price is needed, We recognize revenue in proportion to the standalone selling prices of the underlying services at contract inception. The determination of the performance obligations and the timing of satisfaction of such obligations either over time or at a point-in-time requires us to make significant judgment and estimates.

When a customer is identified to be a significant collection risk, the Company fully reserves for all outstanding accounts receivable and records a credit loss for these receivables. Revenue for any new service provided to the customer is not probable of collection until the Company has collected or reached a settlement on the customers old outstanding accounts receivable balances. The Company applies all payments received against the customers oldest invoices and does not recognize revenue for any new services provided until the company has collected or reached a settlement on all prior outstanding accounts receivable. Collectability is reassessed when there is a significant change in facts or circumstances. The assessment of collectability considers whether the Company may limit its exposure to credit risk through its right to stop transferring additional service in the event the customer is delinquent. See “Restatement of Previously Reported 2023 Quarterly Revenue and Credit Losses” of Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies and Note 3, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers,” to our condensed consolidated financial statements for further discussion.

Critical Accounting Estimates

The Company had no significant changes to our critical accounting estimates from those disclosed in “Part I. Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 that was filed with the SEC on May 24, 2024.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

We currently have no material recent accounting pronouncements yet to be adopted..

We have operations both within the United States and in foreign jurisdictions, and we are exposed to market risks in the ordinary course of our business, including the effects of foreign currency fluctuations, interest rate changes and inflation. Information relating to quantitative and qualitative disclosures about these market risks is set forth below.

Foreign Currency

Assets and liabilities denominated in a foreign currency are translated into U.S. dollars using the exchange rates in effect at the balance sheet date. Revenue and expense accounts are translated at the average exchange rates during the periods. The impact of exchange rate fluctuations from translation of assets and liabilities is insignificant for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023. For all periods presented, we believe the exposure to foreign currency fluctuation from operating expenses is immaterial as the related costs do not constitute a significant portion of our total expenses.

Interest Rate Fluctuation Risk

We consider all highly liquid investments with an original maturity of three months or less to be cash equivalents. As of March 31, 2024, we did not have any cash equivalents.

The primary objective of our investment activities is to preserve principal while maximizing income without significantly increasing risk. Because we only hold cash, our portfolio’s fair value is insensitive to interest rate changes. In future periods, we will continue to evaluate our investment policy in order to ensure that we continue to meet our overall objectives. A hypothetical 100 basis point increase or decrease in interest rates would not have a material effect on our financial results.

Concentrations of Credit Risk

Our financial instruments are potentially subject to concentrations of credit risk. We place our cash with high quality credit institutions. From time to time, we maintain cash balances at certain institutions in excess of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation limit. As of March 31, 2024, we had cash balances that exceeded the deposit insurance limit with five financial institutions. Management believes that the risk of loss is not significant and has not experienced any losses in such accounts.

Inflation

Other than as set forth in the note above titled “Growth and Retention of Our Paying Clients”, we do not believe that inflation has had a material effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. We continue to monitor the impact of inflation in order to minimize its effects through pricing strategies, productivity improvements and cost reductions. If our costs were to become subject to significant inflationary pressures, we may not be able to fully offset such higher costs through price increases. Our inability or failure to do so could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. We do not believe that inflation has had a material effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations during the three months ended March 31, 2024.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Disclosure controls are procedures that are designed with the objective of ensuring that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed under the Exchange Act, is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time period specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls are also designed with the objective of ensuring that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our executive chair and chief financial officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. We do not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures will prevent all errors and all instances of fraud. Disclosure controls and procedures, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the disclosure controls and procedures are met. Further, the design of disclosure controls and procedures must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all disclosure controls and procedures, no evaluation of disclosure controls and procedures can provide absolute assurance that we have detected all our control deficiencies and instances of fraud, if any. The design of disclosure controls and procedures also is based partly on certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions.

With the foregoing in mind, our executive chair and chief financial officer (“Certifying Officers”) evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of March 31, 2024, pursuant to Rule 13a-15(b) under the Exchange Act. Based on the evaluation, our executive chair and chief financial officer have concluded that as of March 31, 2024, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective due to the material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting described below.

Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act) during the most recent fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting as defined in Rule 13a-15(f) under the Exchange Act. Our internal control over financial reporting is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with U.S. GAAP and includes those policies and procedures that: (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that in reasonable detail accurately and fairly reflect our transactions and the dispositions of our assets; (2) provide reasonable assurance that our transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and that our receipts and expenditures are being made only in accordance with appropriate authorizations; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on our financial statements.

In designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting, management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives. In addition, the design of disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and that management is required to apply judgment in evaluating the benefits of possible controls and procedures relative to their costs.

Under the supervision of and with the participation of our management, we assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023, using the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013). A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

The following entity-level material weaknesses have been identified: We did not fully maintain components of the COSO framework, including elements of the control environment, risk assessment, information and communication and monitoring activities components, relating to (i) developing general control activities over technology to support the achievement of objectives across the entity, (ii) sufficiency of processes related to identifying and analyzing risks to the achievement of objectives, including technology, across the entity, and (iii) sufficiency of selecting and developing control activities that contribute to the mitigation of risks to the achievement of objectives to acceptable levels.

The entity-level material weaknesses contributed to other material weaknesses within our system of internal control over financial reporting as follow:

• We did not design and maintain effective information technology (IT) general controls for certain information systems supporting our key financial reporting processes. Specifically, we did not design, implement and maintain (a) change management controls to ensure that program and data changes affecting financial applications and underlying accounting records are identified, tested, authorized and implemented appropriately, (b) access controls to ensure appropriate IT segregation of duties are maintained that adequately restrict and segregate privileged access between environments which support development and production, and (c) controls to monitor on an on-going basis for the proper segregation of privileged access between environments which support development and production. As a result, IT application controls and business process controls that are dependent on the ineffective IT general controls, or that rely on data produced from systems impacted by the ineffective IT general controls, are also deemed ineffective, which affects substantially all of our financial statement account balances and disclosures.
• We did not design and maintain effective information technology (IT) general controls for certain information systems supporting our key financial reporting processes. Specifically, we did not design, implement and maintain sufficient change management, security, and operations controls for certain in-scope on-premise applications and vendor-supported applications.
• We did not design and maintain effective process-level controls related to the order-to-cash cycle (including revenues, accounts receivables, and deferred revenue), procure-to-pay-cycle (including operating expenses, prepaid expenses and other current assets, accounts payable and accrued expenses), capitalized software, and long-term assets.The material weakness related to the order-to-cash cycle resulted in an inadequate policy associated with our revenue recognition policies related to the cash collection of a certain subset of our customers that had been placed on a cash basis and, in

turn, the restatement of our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements in its prior three quarters reported in 2023 as of and for the three months ended March 31, 2023, six months ended June 30, 2023 and nine months ended September 30, 2023 included in our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for the corresponding periods. Additionally, this material weakness could result in a misstatement of any account balances or disclosures that would result in a material misstatement to the annual or interim consolidated financial statements that would not be prevented or detected.

For the year ended December 31, 2022, we identified a material weakness in internal control related to ineffective IT general controls in the areas of user access and program change-management over certain information technology systems that support our financial reporting processes. We took measures to remediate this material weakness, specifically by undertaking the following measures:

• removing developers’ administrative access from production systems;
• removing the ability for certain users, including developers, to access other users’ accounts; and
• implementing audit trails to log and monitor system configuration and data changes made by users to detect erroneous or unauthorized changes.

Our remediation efforts concluded as of June 30, 2023 when we determined that the above measures had been implemented. As of July 2023, administrative access to the sandbox environment where development activities take place was extended to users with administrative access to the production environment, thereby negating the remediation efforts taken. This access was not subject to our monthly monitoring control activity and persisted through the remainder of fiscal 2023. The lack of successful completion of our remediation efforts related to this material weakness identified for the year ended December 31, 2022 is reflected in the first bullet of our 2023 material weaknesses discussed above.

Remediation

We have begun the process of evaluating the material weaknesses and developing our full remediation plan. Until the remediation plan is implemented, tested, and deemed effective we cannot assure that our actions will adequately remediate the material weaknesses or that additional material weaknesses in our internal controls will not be identified in the future. If we are unable to remediate the material weaknesses, our ability to record, process and report financial information accurately, and to prepare financial statements within the time periods specified by the rules and forms of the SEC, could be adversely affected and could reduce the market’s confidence in our financial statements and harm our stock price.

Investment in our securities involves risk. An investor or potential investor should consider the risks summarized under the caption “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 (our “2023 Form 10-K”) when making investment decisions regarding our securities. The risk factors that were disclosed in our 2023 Form 10-K have not materially changed since the date of our 2023 Form 10-K was filed.