Asana Inc at Barclays Global Technology Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Ryan MacWilliams - Barclays Estimates - Analyst : Sonalee, great to see you. How are things?

Question: Ryan MacWilliams - Barclays Estimates - Analyst : Yeah. I mean, you're the Asana good luck charm. I mean, mid-caps software is back, but you guys had a great earnings results, last earnings season stock up 20%-plus. I mean, we love just to hear from your point of view what that last three months have been like.

Question: Ryan MacWilliams - Barclays Estimates - Analyst : Absolutely. I joined Barclays and launch coverage in October 2021. And we were supposed to do a lot of IPOs and have a much healthier time for software. And then I joke around -- [Amend] joined my team a couple of months later and we entered a much different environment for software in 2022 and 2023. And as folks shifted to profitability, Sonalee, that is one thing that investors highlight that you did a great job at your last role of like really driving -- maintaining efficient growth here in that for that period, but improving operating margins like over 10% during that time. So as you look at your past experience relating to your new experience, like what do you think some things you think you could bring to the table and some levers you could tweak at Asana?

Question: Ryan MacWilliams - Barclays Estimates - Analyst : It sounds like you definitely have a lot to work with. Yeah, from your prepared remarks, it said financial efficiency while maintaining strong growth. And I was like -- that sounds like Sonalee. So fingerprint is already on Asana. And before I go to far down the rabbit hole of AI Studio, your core and 100,000-plus customers, like you mentioned, re-accelerated in the quarter. I guess like, just through your core business growth, what's driving better momentum at this point?

Question: Ryan MacWilliams - Barclays Estimates - Analyst : Excellent. So your go-to-market motions have more seasons are in a better place. And your product investments that resulted in a studio, which I've got a lot of in the post recent quarter. Love to hear from your view like the strategy behind AI Studio? And what customers initially feedback you've gotten from them?

Question: Ryan MacWilliams - Barclays Estimates - Analyst : Sorry, I just want to follow up on that. Yes, I thought it was a really interesting point on your earnings, you talked about, this is not just agents. So like there's -- we can add more complex use cases as a part of that. So I guess as a part of that go-to-market, do you think there will be a little more in holding as you go into the enterprise for AI studio, but that ultimately like result in like more expensive use cases and like maybe bigger ACB?

Question: Ryan MacWilliams - Barclays Estimates - Analyst : And I mean, you explained that better than I could. But to get my soapbox real quick, like that's a vein that we're doing a lot of research on right now in the sense that like we published that if an enterprise themselves want to do AI, it would cost the like $75 million today, right? So they don't really have in-house expertise so they're relying on their existing SaaS vendors to provide them AI tools. The problem is if you go functional area by functional area, then you have all these different agents that are in different parts of your business, something like Asana, that lands across your entire business, right? Then you connect use cases across your different departments, different functions. So -- and that makes sense of like adding value beyond like individual department use cases to like a bigger scale. Does that make sense? Or do you -- REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 11, 2024 / 4:40PM, ASAN.N - Asana Inc at Barclays Global Technology Conference

Question: Ryan MacWilliams - Barclays Estimates - Analyst : Excellent. Well, certainly, we've been through a tougher environment for software, right? Hopefully, it sounds like the core business is stabilizing. It's a lot of new things from a product standpoint at Asana. Just on AI Studio, this is one of the first consumption-based pricing products for Asana. Can you just talk about what that means and love to hear your view on the overall pricing strategy for (inaudible)

Question: Ryan MacWilliams - Barclays Estimates - Analyst : Yes. Absolutely. So that's a great point. Like a lot of pain points we hear about initial AI adoption is how do I know if I don't turn this on. It's going to be 100,000 the first week or something, right? So it's like, look, here's a bulk of credit that you'll start with. And then you have a better sense when you get through those, what your spend would be like.

Question: Ryan MacWilliams - Barclays Estimates - Analyst : Excellent. I definitely would love to continue to going to rabbit hole, but soon we have you here. But I have to ask like I know it's early days at will come out in the fiscal first quarter 2016 next year. Should we think about it as being additive to growth next year or it will have to take time to deploy throughout your customers and get used to it? Like how do you think about the rep contribution?

Question: Ryan MacWilliams - Barclays Estimates - Analyst : Excellent. Yes. And the platform fee will help you give initial visibility. So from your seat, it will hopefully be a little easier than assumption.

Question: Ryan MacWilliams - Barclays Estimates - Analyst : And that's why I wanted to go next actually. And you've been at Asana or you've seen some competitors of Asana be taken out by private equity. There's -- one of your large competitors just saw a buyout as well. I mean, is there a strategy there to -- or what's the playbook you think going forward? Like is there opportunities that you guys could maybe gain incremental share?

Question: Ryan MacWilliams - Barclays Estimates - Analyst : Excellent. Certainly, I just have to ask, you hear about companies and then you start working there and everything might not be exactly how it seems or like you're surprised by how things work. Like as you're probably still in the honeymoon stage for sure. But is there anything that has been exciting or even surprised you from before you took the role at Asana? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 11, 2024 / 4:40PM, ASAN.N - Asana Inc at Barclays Global Technology Conference

Question: Ryan MacWilliams - Barclays Estimates - Analyst : Yes. And I'm sure you're also just looking at the 89% gross margin there's a lot we can do here. And I(inaudible) want to wrap up just one of your

Question: Ryan MacWilliams - Barclays Estimates - Analyst : More to come. Well, certainly, it's been a great start to Sona and great to this conference. So thanks so much, guys. I appreciate it. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 11, 2024 / 4:40PM, ASAN.N - Asana Inc at Barclays Global Technology Conference