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As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 21, 2018

Registration No. 333-227207

 

 

 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

 

Amendment No. 1 to

FORM S-1

REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

 

 

UPWORK INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

 

Delaware		7389		46-4337682
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)		(Primary Standard Industrial Classification Code Number)		(I.R.S. Employer Identification Number)

441 Logue Avenue

Mountain View, California 94043

(650) 316-7500

(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant’s principal executive offices)

 

 

Stephane Kasriel

President and Chief Executive Officer

Upwork Inc.

441 Logue Avenue

Mountain View, California 94043

(650) 316-7500

(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)

 

 

 

Gordon K. Davidson, Esq. Robert A. Freedman, Esq. Ran D. Ben-Tzur, Esq. Fenwick & West LLP 801 California Street Mountain View, California 94041 (650) 988-8500		Brian Levey, Esq. Chief Business Affairs and Legal Officer Upwork Inc. 441 Logue Avenue Mountain View, California 94043 (650) 316-7500		Robert G. Day, Esq. Rezwan D. Pavri, Esq. Andrew T. Hill, Esq. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C. 650 Page Mill Road Palo Alto, California 94304 (650) 493-9300

 

 

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public:

As soon as practicable after the effective date of this registration statement.

If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or Securities Act, check the following box.  ☐

If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.

 

Large accelerated filer		☐		Accelerated filer		☐
Non-accelerated filer		☒		Smaller reporting company		☐
				Emerging growth company		☒

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act.  ☐

 

 

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE

 

Title of each class of securities to be registered		Amount to be registered(1)		Proposed maximum offering price per share		Proposed maximum aggregate offering price(1)		Amount of registration fee(2)
Common stock, $0.0001 par value per share		14,112,199		$12.00		$169,346,388		$21,084

 

(1)

Estimated solely for the purpose of calculating the amount of the registration fee in accordance with Rule 457(a) of the Securities Act. Includes additional shares that the underwriters have the option to purchase.

(2)

The Registrant previously paid $12,450 of this amount in connection with the initial filing of this Registration Statement.

 

 

 

The registrant hereby amends this registration statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this registration statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act or until the registration statement shall become effective on such date as the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

 

 

 

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The information in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. Neither we nor the selling stockholders may sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities, and neither we nor the selling stockholders are soliciting offers to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.

 

SUBJECT TO COMPLETION, DATED SEPTEMBER 21, 2018

 

PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS

 

 

12,271,478 Shares

Upwork Inc.

 

Common Stock

$        per share

 

 

 

This is the initial public offering of our common stock. We are selling 6,818,181 shares of our common stock and the selling stockholders named in this prospectus are selling 5,453,297 shares of our common stock. We will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the shares by the selling stockholders. We currently expect the initial public offering price will be between $10.00 and $12.00 per share of common stock.

 

Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for our common stock. We have applied to list our common stock on The Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “UPWK.”

 

We are an “emerging growth company” as defined under federal securities laws and, as such, have elected to comply with certain reduced public company reporting requirements.

 

One or more funds affiliated with Dragoneer Investment Group, LLC have indicated an interest in purchasing shares of common stock with an aggregate purchase price of up to $27.0 million in this offering at the initial public offering price. Because this indication of interest is not a binding agreement or commitment to purchase, one or more funds affiliated with Dragoneer Investment Group, LLC could determine to purchase more, less, or no shares in this offering, or the underwriters could determine to sell more, less, or no shares to one or more funds affiliated with Dragoneer Investment Group, LLC. The underwriters will receive the same discount on any of our shares of common stock purchased by one or more funds affiliated with Dragoneer Investment Group, LLC as they will from any other shares of common stock sold to the public in this offering.

 

 

 

Investing in our common stock involves risks. See the section titled “Risk Factors” beginning on page 15.

 

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any other regulatory body has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the adequacy or accuracy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

 

 

 

		Per Share				Total
Public Offering Price		$				$
Underwriting Discount(1)		$				$
Proceeds to Upwork Inc. (before expenses)		$				$
Proceeds to the Selling Stockholders (before expenses)		$				$

 

(1)

We have agreed to reimburse the underwriters for certain expenses. See the section titled “Underwriting.”

 

We and the selling stockholders have granted the underwriters the option to purchase up to an additional 1,840,721 shares of common stock at the initial public offering price, less the underwriting discount.

 

The underwriters expect to deliver the shares to purchasers on or about                 , 2018 through the book-entry facilities of The Depository Trust Company.

 

 

 

Citigroup		Jefferies		RBC Capital Markets

Stifel		JMP Securities

 

 

 

                , 2018

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1.5B+ $225M+ Gross Services Volume Revenue 95K+ 180+ Core Clients Countries 70+ Categories of Work Get it done with a freelancer. ® Gross services volume, revenue, and core clients are for the last twelve months ended June 30, 2018. Countries and categories of work are as of June 30, 2018.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

		Page
Summary			1
Risk Factors			15
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements			52
Market and Industry Data			54
Use of Proceeds			55
Dividend Policy			55
Capitalization			56
Dilution			58
Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data			61
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations			65
Letter from Stephane Kasriel, Upwork CEO			95
Business			97
Management			141
Executive Compensation			150
Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions			162
Principal and Selling Stockholders			163
Description of Capital Stock			167
Shares Eligible for Future Sale			173
Material U.S. Federal Tax Consequences to Non-U.S. Holders of Our Common Stock			175
Underwriting			180
Legal Matters			188
Experts			188
Additional Information			188
Index to Consolidated Financial Statements			F-1

 

 

Until             , 2018, all dealers that effect transactions in these securities, whether or not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a prospectus. This is in addition to the dealer’s obligation to deliver a prospectus when acting as an underwriter and with respect to unsold allotments or subscriptions.

Neither we, the selling stockholders, nor the underwriters have authorized anyone to provide any information or to make any representations other than those contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectuses prepared by or on behalf of us or to which we have referred you. Neither we, the selling stockholders, nor the underwriters take any responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. We and the selling stockholders are offering to sell, and seeking offers to buy, shares of common stock only in jurisdictions where offers and sales are permitted. The information contained in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date of this prospectus, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or of any sale of the shares of common stock.

For investors outside the United States: Neither we, the selling stockholders, nor any of the underwriters have taken any action that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. You are required to inform yourselves about and to observe any restrictions relating to this offering and the distribution of this prospectus.

 

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RISK FACTORS

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this prospectus, including “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and the accompanying notes included elsewhere in this prospectus before deciding whether to invest in shares of our common stock. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of or that we deem immaterial may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, operating results, and future prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the market price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.

Risks Related to our Business and Industry

Our growth depends on our ability to attract and retain a community of freelancers and clients, and the loss of our users, or failure to attract new users, could adversely impact our business.

The size of our community of users, including both freelancers and clients, is critical to our success. Our ability to achieve significant growth in revenue in the future will depend, in large part, upon our ability to attract new users to, and retain existing users on, our platform. Achieving growth in our community of users may require us to increasingly engage in sophisticated and costly sales and marketing efforts that may not result in additional users. We may also need to modify our pricing model to attract and retain such users. If we fail to attract new users or fail to maintain or expand existing relationships in a cost-effective manner, our revenue will grow more slowly than expected and our business could be adversely impacted.

Freelancers have many different ways of marketing their services, securing clients, and obtaining payments from clients, including meeting and contacting prospective clients through other services, advertising to prospective clients online or offline through other methods, signing up for online or offline third-party agencies, using other online or offline platforms, signing up with staffing firms, using other payment services, or finding employment full-time or part-time through an agency or directly with a business. Clients have similarly diverse options to find and pay service providers, such as engaging and paying service providers directly, finding service providers through other online or offline platforms or through staffing firms and agencies, using other payment services, or hiring temporary, full-time, or part-time employees. For the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2017 and the six months ended June 30, 2018, we generated significant revenue from one client, which accounted for more than 10% of revenue for each such period and, therefore, a decrease in revenue from this client could have an adverse effect on our operating results. Moreover, any decrease in the attractiveness of our platform or failure to retain these clients could lead to decreased traffic on our platform, diminished network effects, or result in a drop in GSV on our platform, which could adversely affect our business, revenue, financial condition, and operating results. In addition, if we fail to attract new freelancers, freelancers decrease their use of or cease using our platform, the quality or types of services provided by freelancers that use our platform are not satisfactory to clients, or freelancers increase their fees for services more than clients are willing to pay, clients may decrease their use of, or cease using, our platform and our revenue may be adversely impacted.

Users can generally decide to cease using our platform at any time. Users may stop using our platform and related services if the quality of the user experience on our platform, including our support capabilities in the event of a problem, does not meet their expectations or keep pace with the quality of the user experience generally offered by competitive products and services. Users may also choose to cease using our platform if they perceive that our pricing model is not in line with the value they derive from our platform or for other reasons. In addition, expenditures by clients may be cyclical and may reflect overall economic conditions or budgeting patterns. If users stop using our platform and services for any reason, including the foregoing reasons, our revenue and business would be adversely affected.

 

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We have a history of net losses, anticipate increasing our operating expenses in the future, and may not achieve or sustain profitability.

We have incurred net losses in each fiscal year since the combination of Elance and oDesk, including net losses of $16.2 million and $4.1 million in 2016 and 2017, respectively, and a net loss of $7.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2018, and we expect to incur net losses for the foreseeable future. As of June 30, 2018, we had an accumulated deficit of $130.8 million. We expect to make significant future expenditures related to the development and expansion of our business, including enhancing our Upwork Enterprise offering and our U.S.-to-U.S. domestic offering, expanding domestic-to-domestic offerings into new geographies, and broadening and deepening the categories on our platform, and in connection with legal, accounting, and other administrative expenses related to operating as a public company. These efforts may prove more expensive than we currently anticipate, and we may not succeed in increasing our revenue sufficiently, or at all, to offset these higher expenses. While our revenue has grown in recent years, if our revenue declines or fails to grow at a rate faster than increases in our operating expenses, we will not be able to achieve and maintain profitability in future periods. As a result, we may continue to generate losses. We cannot ensure that we will achieve profitability in the future or that, if we do become profitable, we will be able to sustain profitability.

We have a limited operating history under our current platform and pricing model, which makes it difficult to evaluate our business and prospects and increases the risks associated with your investment.

We operated the Elance and oDesk platforms separately until we relaunched as Upwork in May 2015 and consolidated those platforms into a single platform. In recent years, we have also expanded our Upwork Enterprise offering, which helps enterprises and other larger businesses connect with freelancers and provides these larger clients with additional products and services. We also made significant changes to our pricing model in 2016. As a result, our platform and pricing model have not been fully proven, and we have only a limited operating history with our current pricing model to evaluate our business and future prospects, which subjects us to a number of uncertainties, including our ability to plan for and model future growth. Our historical revenue growth should not be considered indicative of our future performance. We have encountered, and will continue to encounter, risks and difficulties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing industries, including our ability to achieve market acceptance of our platform and attract and retain users, as well as increasing competition and increasing expenses as we continue to grow our business. We cannot ensure that we will be successful in addressing these and other challenges we may face in the future, and our business may be adversely affected if we do not manage these risks successfully. In addition, we may not achieve sufficient revenue to achieve or maintain positive cash flow from operations or profitability in any given period, or at all.

If the market for freelancers and the services they offer develops more slowly than we expect, our growth may slow or stall, and our operating results could be adversely affected.

The market for freelancers and the services they offer is relatively new, rapidly evolving, and unproven. Our future success will depend in large part on the continued growth and expansion of this market and the willingness of businesses to engage freelancers to provide services. It is difficult to predict the size, growth rate, and expansion of this market, the entry of products and services that are competitive to ours, the success of existing competitive products and services, or technological or other developments that will impact the overall demand for freelancers. Furthermore, many businesses may be unwilling to engage freelancers for a variety of reasons, including perceived negative connotations with outsourcing work or security concerns. If the market for freelancers and the services they offer does not achieve widespread adoption, or there is a reduction in demand for freelancer services, it could result in decreased revenue and our business could be adversely affected.

If we are not able to develop and release new products and services, or develop and release successful enhancements, new features, and modifications to our existing products and services, our business could be adversely affected.

The market for our platform is characterized by rapid technological change, frequent new product and service introductions and enhancements, changing user demands, and evolving industry standards. The

 

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introduction of products and services embodying new technologies can quickly make existing products and services obsolete and unmarketable. We invest substantial resources in researching and developing new products and services and enhancing our platform by incorporating additional features, improving functionality, and adding other improvements to meet our users’ evolving demands in our highly competitive industry. The success of any enhancements or improvements to our platform or any new products and services depends on several factors, including timely completion, competitive pricing, adequate quality testing, integration with new and existing technologies on our platform and third-party partners’ technologies, and overall market acceptance. We cannot be sure that we will succeed in developing, marketing, and delivering on a timely and cost-effective basis enhancements or new features to our platform or any new products and services that respond to continued changes in the market for talent or business services, nor can we be sure that any enhancements or new features to our platform or any new products and services will achieve market acceptance. Because further development of our platform is complex, challenging, and dependent upon an array of factors, the timetable for the release of new products and services and enhancements to existing products and services is difficult to predict, and we may not offer new products and services as rapidly as users of our platform require or expect. Any new products or services that we develop may not be introduced in a timely or cost-effective manner, may contain errors or defects, or may not achieve the broad market acceptance necessary to generate sufficient revenue. Moreover, even if we introduce new products and services, we may experience a decline in revenue from our existing products and services that is not offset by revenue from the new products or services. In addition, we may lose existing users who choose competing products or services. This could result in a temporary or permanent revenue shortfall and adversely affect our business.

Our operating results may fluctuate from quarter to quarter, which makes our future results difficult to predict.

Our quarterly operating results have fluctuated in the past and may fluctuate in the future. Additionally, we have a limited operating history with our current platform and pricing model, which makes it difficult to forecast our future results. As a result, you should not rely upon our past quarterly operating results as indicators of future performance. You should take into account the risks and uncertainties frequently encountered by companies in rapidly evolving markets. Our operating results in any given quarter can be influenced by numerous factors, many of which are unpredictable or are outside of our control, including:

 

•

our ability to generate significant revenue from our Upwork Standard, Upwork Enterprise, and other premium offerings;

 

•

fluctuations in revenue from our managed services offering due to our recognition of the entire GSV as revenue, including the amounts paid to freelancers;

 

•

our ability to maintain and grow our community of users;

 

•

the demand for and types of skills and services that are offered on our platform by freelancers;

 

•

due to our tiered-pricing model for freelancer service fees, the mix in any period between freelancers that have billed larger amounts to clients on our platform, where we charge a lower rate on billings, and freelancers that have billed clients less on our platform, where we charge a higher rate on billings;

 

•

spending patterns of clients, including whether those clients that use our platform frequently, or for larger projects, reduce their spend, stop using our platform, or change their method of payment to us;

 

•

the disbursement methods chosen by freelancers;

 

•

seasonal spending patterns by clients or work patterns by freelancers and seasonality in the labor market, including the number of business days in any given quarter or local, national, or international holidays;

 

•

fluctuations in the prices that freelancers charge clients on our platform;

 

•

fluctuations in the mix in payment provider costs;

 

•

changes to our pricing model;

 

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our ability to introduce new products and services and enhance existing products and services;

 

•

our ability to generate significant revenue from new products and services;

 

•

our ability to respond to competitive developments, including pricing changes and the introduction of new products and services by our competitors;

 

•

the productivity of our sales force;

 

•

changes in the mix of products and services that enterprise clients or other users demand;

 

•

the length and complexity of our sales cycles;

 

•

the episodic nature of freelance work;

 

•

the cost to develop and upgrade our platform to incorporate new technologies;

 

•

the impact of outages of our platform and associated reputational harm;

 

•

changes to financial accounting standards and the interpretation of those standards that may affect the way we recognize and report our financial results, including changes in accounting rules governing recognition of revenue;

 

•

potential costs to attract, onboard, retain, and motivate qualified talent to perform services for us;

 

•

increases in, and timing of, operating expenses that we may incur to grow and expand our operations and to remain competitive;

 

•

costs related to the acquisition of businesses, talent, technologies, or intellectual property, including potentially significant amortization costs and possible write-downs;

 

•

security or privacy breaches, and associated remediation costs;

 

•

litigation, adverse judgments, settlements, or other litigation-related costs;

 

•

changes in the common law, statutory, legislative, or regulatory environment, such as with respect to privacy, wage and hour regulations, worker classification (including classification of independent contractors or similar service providers and classification of employees as exempt or non-exempt), internet regulation, payment processing, global trade, or tax requirements;

 

•

fluctuations in currency exchange rates;

 

•

changes in the mix of countries in which our users are located, which impacts the amount of revenue we derive from foreign exchange;

 

•

the timing of stock-based compensation expense;

 

•

operating lease expenses and other real estate expenses;

 

•

expenses incurred in connection with The Upwork Foundation initiative; and

 

•

general economic and political conditions and government regulations in the countries where we currently have significant numbers of users, or where we currently operate or may expand in the future.

The impact of one or more of the foregoing and other factors may cause our operating results to vary significantly. As such, we believe that quarter-to-quarter comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful and should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance. If we fail to meet or exceed the expectations of investors or securities analysts, then the trading price of our common stock could fall substantially, and we could face costly lawsuits, including securities class action suits.

 

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Because we derive the substantial majority of our revenue from our marketplace offerings, with most of our marketplace revenue derived from our Upwork Standard offering, our inability to generate revenue from our marketplace offerings would adversely affect our business, operating results, financial condition, and growth prospects.

Currently, we derive and expect to continue to derive, in the near future, the substantial majority of our revenue from our marketplace offerings, with most of our marketplace revenue derived from our Upwork Standard offering. As such, market acceptance of our marketplace offerings is critical to our continued success. Demand for our marketplace offerings is affected by a number of factors beyond our control, including the timing of development and release of new products and services by our competitors, our ability to respond to technological change and to innovate and grow, contraction in our market, and the other risks identified herein. If we are unable to continue to meet user demands, to expand the categories of services offered on our platform, or to achieve more widespread market acceptance of our marketplace offerings, our business operations, financial results, and growth prospects could be adversely affected.

We may be subject to new and existing laws and regulations, both in the United States and internationally.

We are subject to a wide variety of foreign and domestic laws. Laws, regulations, and standards governing issues such as worker classification, employment, payments, worker confidentiality obligations and whistleblowing, intellectual property, consumer protection, taxation, privacy, and data security are often complex and subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may change or develop over time through judicial decisions or as new guidance or interpretations are provided by regulatory and governing bodies, such as federal and state administrative agencies. Many of these laws were adopted prior to the advent of the internet and mobile and related technologies and, as a result, do not contemplate or address the unique issues of the internet and related technologies. Other laws and regulations may be adopted in response to internet, mobile, and related technologies. New and existing laws and regulations (or changes in interpretation of existing laws and regulations), including those concerning worker classification, independent contractors, employment, payments, whistleblowing and worker confidentiality obligations, intellectual property, consumer protection, taxation, privacy, data security, benefits, unionizing and collective action, arbitration agreements and class action waiver provisions, terms of service, website accessibility, background checks (such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681), and escheatment, may also be adopted, implemented, or interpreted to apply to us and other online services marketplaces. As our platform’s geographical scope expands, regulatory agencies or courts may claim that we, or our users, are subject to additional requirements, or are prohibited from conducting our business in or with certain jurisdictions, either generally or with respect to certain services. It is also possible that certain provisions in agreements with our service providers or between freelancers and clients may be found to be unenforceable or not compliant with applicable law.

Recent financial, political, and other events may increase the level of regulatory scrutiny on larger companies, technology companies in general, and companies engaged in dealings with independent contractors or payments in particular. Regulatory agencies may enact new laws or promulgate new regulations that are adverse to our business, or they may view matters or interpret laws and regulations differently than they have in the past or in a manner adverse to our business. Such regulatory scrutiny or action may create different or conflicting obligations on us from one jurisdiction to another.

Our success, or perceived success, and increased visibility may also drive some businesses that view our business model to be a threat to raise concerns about our business model to local policymakers and regulators. These businesses and their trade association groups or other organizations may take actions and employ significant resources to shape the legal and regulatory regimes in countries where we may have, or seek to have, a significant number of users in an effort to change such legal and regulatory regimes in ways intended to adversely affect or impede our business and the ability of users to utilize our platform.

As we look to expand our international footprint over time, we may become obligated to comply with additional laws and regulations of the countries or markets in which we operate or have users. If we are found to

 

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be subject to new or existing laws and regulations, contractual provisions that are designed to protect and mitigate against such risks, including terms of service, arbitration and class action waiver provisions, disclaimers of warranties, limitations of liabilities and indemnification provisions, could be deemed unenforceable as to the application of these laws and regulations by a court, arbitrator or other decision-making body. If we are unable to comply with these laws and regulations or manage the complexity of global operations and supporting an international user base successfully, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.

We face intense competition and could lose market share to our competitors, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results.

The market for freelancers and the clients that engage them is highly competitive, rapidly evolving, fragmented, and subject to changing technology, shifting needs, and frequent introductions of new products and services. We compete with a number of online and offline platforms and services domestically and internationally to attract and retain users. Our main competitors fall into the following categories:

 

•

traditional contingent workforce and staffing service providers and other outsourcing providers, such as The Adecco Group, Randstad, Recruit, ManpowerGroup, and Robert Half International;

 

•

online freelancer platforms that serve either a diverse range of skill categories, such as Fiverr and Freelancer.com, or specific skill categories;

 

•

other online providers of products and services for individuals or businesses seeking work or to advertise their services, including personal and professional social networks, such as LinkedIn (owned by Microsoft) and GitHub (which has agreed to be acquired by Microsoft), employment marketplaces, recruiting websites, and project-based deliverable providers;

 

•

software and business services companies focused on talent acquisition, management, invoicing, or staffing management products and services;

 

•

payment businesses, such as PayPal and Payoneer, that can facilitate payments to and from businesses and service providers;

 

•

businesses that provide specialized, professional services, including consulting, accounting, marketing, and information technology services; and

 

•

online and offline job boards, classified ads, and other traditional means of finding work and service providers, such as Craigslist, CareerBuilder, Indeed, Monster, and ZipRecruiter.

In addition, well-established internet companies, such as Google, LinkedIn, and Amazon, and social media platforms, such as Facebook, have entered or may decide to enter into our market segment, and some of these companies have launched products and services that directly compete with our platform. For example, in 2016, LinkedIn launched ProFinder, its service to connect LinkedIn members with one another for freelance service relationships.

Internationally, we compete against online and offline channels and products and services in most countries. These local competitors might have greater brand recognition than us in their local country and a stronger understanding of local culture and commerce. They may also offer their products and services in local languages that we do not offer. As our business grows internationally, we may increasingly compete with these international companies. We also compete against locally-sourced service providers and traditional, offline means of finding work and procuring services, such as personal and professional networks, classified ads, recruiters, and staffing businesses.

In the future, we may also compete with companies that utilize emerging technologies, such as blockchain, augmented reality, and machine learning. Many of the companies and services that utilize these technologies in our market are still new and not yet fully mature in their capabilities or network scale. However, we may face increased competition should these companies and services succeed. These competitors may offer products and

 

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services that may, among other things, provide automated alternatives to the services that freelancers provide on our platform or change the way that businesses engage service providers so as to make our platform less attractive to users.

Many of our current and potential competitors, both online and offline, enjoy substantial competitive advantages, such as greater name recognition, longer operating histories, greater financial, technical, and other resources, and, in some cases, the ability to rapidly combine online platforms with traditional staffing and contingent worker solutions. These companies may use these advantages to offer products and services similar to ours at a lower price, develop different products and services to compete with our platform, or respond more quickly and effectively than we do to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards, regulatory conditions, or user preferences or requirements. In addition, while we compete intensely in more established markets, we also compete in developing technology markets that are characterized by dynamic and rapid technological change, many and different business models, and frequent disruption of incumbents by innovative online and offline entrants. The barriers to entry into these markets can be low, and businesses easily can launch online or mobile platforms and applications at nominal cost by using commercially available software or partnering with various established companies in these markets. For all of these reasons, we may not be able to compete successfully against our current and future competitors.

Moreover, current and future competitors may also make strategic acquisitions or establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with others, including our current or future third-party partners. By doing so, these competitors may increase their ability to meet the needs of existing or prospective users. These developments could limit our ability to obtain revenue from existing and new users. If we are unable to compete successfully against current and future competitors, our business, operating results, and financial condition would be adversely impacted.

If we fail to develop, maintain, and enhance our brand and reputation cost-effectively, our business and financial condition may be adversely affected.

The Upwork brand did not exist before 2015, but we believe that developing, maintaining, and enhancing awareness and integrity of our brand and reputation in a cost-effective manner are important to achieving widespread acceptance and use of our platform and are important elements in attracting new users and retaining existing users. Successful promotion of our brand and our business model depends on, among other things, the effectiveness of our marketing efforts, our ability to provide a reliable, trustworthy, and useful platform at competitive prices, the perceived value of our platform, and our ability to provide quality support. In order to reach brand awareness levels of our competitors, we will need to continuously invest in marketing programs that may not be successful in achieving meaningful awareness levels. Further, brand promotion activities may not yield increased revenue, and even if they do, the increased revenue may not offset the expenses we incur in building and maintaining our brand and reputation. For example, in 2017 and in the six months ended June 30, 2018, we increased investment in offline advertising in certain markets to increase our brand awareness, and it is not certain that these investments will have a positive impact on our brand. In order to protect our brand, we also expend substantial resources to register and defend our trademarks and to prevent others from using the same or substantially similar marks. Despite these efforts, we may not always be successful in registering and preventing misappropriation of our own marks and other intellectual property or preventing registration of confusingly similar marks, and we may suffer dilution, loss of reputation, or other harm to our brand. We also rely on our community of users in a variety of ways, including their willingness to give us feedback regarding our platform, and failure of our users to provide positive feedback on their experience on our platform could negatively impact the willingness of prospective users to use our platform. If we fail to promote and maintain our brand successfully or to maintain loyalty among our users, or if we incur substantial expenses in unsuccessful attempts to promote and maintain our brand, we may fail to attract new users or retain our existing users and our business and financial condition may be adversely affected.

 

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There may be adverse tax, legal, and other consequences if the contractor classification or employment status of freelancers that use our platform is challenged.

Clients are generally responsible for properly classifying the freelancers they engage through our platform under the terms of our user agreement. Some clients opt to classify freelancers as employees for certain assignments, while many freelancers are classified as independent contractors.

We offer an optional service to our Upwork Enterprise clients, for which we help classify freelancers as employees of third-party staffing providers or independent contractors. For clients that subscribe to this service, subject to applicable law and the terms of the client’s agreement, we indemnify clients from misclassification risk and make warranties to the client (e.g., as to compliance with applicable laws). In addition, we offer a number of other premium services where we provide increased assistance to enable users to find each other. Third-party staffing providers employ freelancers classified as employees for clients, and failure of these staffing providers to comply with all legal and tax requirements could adversely affect our business. We also use our platform to find, classify, and engage freelancers to provide services for us or for our managed services offering. In general, were a court or administrative agency to determine that we or clients that use our platform have misclassified a service provider as an independent contractor, we and/or our users could incur tax and other liabilities for failing to properly withhold or pay taxes on the service providers’ compensation as well as potential wage and hour and other liabilities depending on the circumstances and jurisdiction. Although we maintain insurance policies covering liability for certain claims, we cannot be certain that our coverage will extend to or be adequate for liabilities actually incurred or that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all.

There is often uncertainty in the application of worker classification laws, and consequently there is risk to us and to users, both freelancers and clients, that independent contractors could be deemed to be misclassified under applicable law. The tests governing whether a service provider is an independent contractor or an employee are typically highly fact sensitive and vary by governing law. Laws and regulations that govern the status and misclassification of independent contractors are also subject to change as well as to divergent interpretations by various authorities, which can create uncertainty and unpredictability. A misclassification determination or allegation creates potential exposure for users and for us, including but not limited to monetary exposure arising from or relating to failure to withhold and remit taxes, unpaid wages, and wage and hour laws and requirements (such as those pertaining to minimum wage and overtime); claims for employee benefits, social security, workers’ compensation and unemployment; claims of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation under civil rights laws; claims under laws pertaining to unionizing, collective bargaining, and other concerted activity; and other claims, charges, or other proceedings under laws and regulations applicable to employers and employees, including risks relating to allegations of joint employer liability. Such claims could result in monetary damages (including but not limited to wage-based damages or restitution, compensatory damages, liquidated damages, and punitive damages), interest, fines, penalties, costs, fees (including but not limited to attorneys’ fees), criminal and other liability, assessment, or settlement. Such an allegation, claim, adverse determination, including but not limited to with respect to the freelancers that provide services to us, or the requirement for us to indemnify a client, could also harm our brand and reputation, which could adversely impact our business. While these risks are mitigated, in part, by our contractual rights of indemnification against third-party claims, such indemnification agreements could be determined to be unenforceable, could be costly to enforce or ineffective, or indemnification may otherwise prove inadequate.

Because a substantial portion of the services offered on our platform is information technology services, a decline in the market for information technology service providers could adversely affect our business.

A significant portion of the services offered by freelancers on our platform relate to information technology. If, for any reason, the market for information technology services declines, including as a result of global economic conditions, automation, increased use of artificial intelligence, or otherwise, or if need for these services slows or businesses satisfy their needs for these services through alternative means, the growth in the number of users of our platform may slow or decline and as a result our revenue and business may be adversely impacted.

 

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Future changes to our pricing model could adversely affect our business.

We implemented a significant change to our pricing model in 2016, and we may from time to time decide to make further changes to our pricing model due to a variety of reasons, including changes to the market for our products and services, and as competitors introduce new products and services. Changes to any components of our pricing model may, among other things, result in user dissatisfaction and could lead to a loss of users on our platform and could negatively impact our operating results, financial condition, and cash flows.

Adverse or changing economic conditions may negatively impact our business.

Our business depends on the overall demand for labor and on the economic health of current and prospective clients that use our platform. Any significant weakening of the economy in the United States or Europe or of the global economy, more limited availability of credit, a reduction in business confidence and activity, decreased government spending, economic uncertainty, financial turmoil affecting the banking system or financial markets, a more limited market for independent professional service providers or information technology services, and other adverse economic or market conditions may adversely impact our business and operating results. Global economic and political events or uncertainty may cause some of our current or potential clients to curtail spending on our platform, and may ultimately result in new regulatory and cost challenges to our operations. These adverse conditions could result in reductions in revenue, longer sales cycles, slower adoption of new technologies, and increased competition. There is also risk that when overall global economic conditions are positive, our business could be negatively impacted by a decreased demand for freelancers. We cannot predict the timing, strength, or duration of any economic slowdown or any subsequent recovery generally. If the conditions in the general economy significantly deviate from present levels, our business, financial condition, and operating results could be adversely affected.

Users may circumvent our platform, which could adversely impact our business.

Our business depends on users transacting through our platform. Despite our efforts to prevent them from doing so, users may circumvent our platform and engage with or pay each other through other means to avoid the fees that we charge on our platform. The loss of revenue associated with circumvention of our platform could have an adverse impact on our business, cash flows, operating results, and financial condition.

We face payment and fraud risks that could adversely impact our business.

Requirements on our platform relating to user authentication and fraud detection are complex. If our security measures do not succeed, our business may be adversely impacted. In addition, bad actors around the world use increasingly sophisticated methods to engage in illegal activities involving personal information, such as unauthorized use of another’s identity or payment information, unauthorized acquisition or use of credit or debit card details and bank account information, and other fraudulent use of another’s identity or information. This could result in any of the following, each of which could adversely impact our business:

 

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we may be, and we historically have been, held liable for the unauthorized use of an account holder’s credit card or bank account number and required by card issuers or banks to pay a chargeback or return fee, and if our chargeback or return rate becomes excessive, credit card networks may also require us to pay fines or other fees and the California Department of Business Oversight, or the DBO, may require us to hold larger cash reserves;

 

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we may be subject to additional risk and liability exposure, including negligence, fraud, or other claims, if employees or third-party service providers, including freelancers that provide services to us, misappropriate user information for their own gain or facilitate the fraudulent use of such information;

 

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bad actors may use our platform, including our payment processing and disbursement methods, to engage in unlawful or fraudulent conduct, such as money laundering, terrorist financing, fraudulent sale of services, breaches of security, leakage of data, piracy or misuse of software and other copyrighted or trademarked content, and other misconduct;

 

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users of our website who are subjected or exposed to the unlawful or improper conduct of other users or other third parties, including law enforcement, may seek to hold us responsible for the conduct of other users and may lose confidence in our platform, decrease or cease to use our platform, seek to obtain damages and costs, or impose fines and penalties;

 

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we may be subject to additional risk if clients fail to pay freelancers for services rendered, as freelancers may seek to hold us responsible for the clients’ conduct and may lose confidence in our platform, may decrease or cease use of our platform, or seek to obtain damages and costs;

 

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if, for example, freelancers misstate their qualifications or location, provide misinformation, perform services they are not qualified or authorized to provide, produce insufficient or defective work product, or work product with a viral or other harmful effect, clients or other third parties may seek to hold us responsible for the freelancers’ acts or omissions and may lose confidence in our platform, decrease or cease use of our platform, or seek to obtain damages and costs; and

 

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we may suffer reputational damage as a result of the occurrence of any of the above.

Despite measures we have taken to detect and reduce the risk of this kind of conduct, we do not have control over users of our platform and cannot ensure that any of our measures will stop illegal or improper uses of our platform. We also have received in the past, and may receive in the future, complaints from clients and other third parties concerning misuse of our platform. We have also brought claims against clients and other third parties for their misuse of our platform, and may be required to bring similar claims in the future. Even if these claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor, these claims, and the time and resources necessary to resolve them, could divert the resources of our management and adversely affect our business and operating results.

We may be subject to escrow, payment services, and money transmitter regulations that may adversely affect our business.

Our subsidiary, Upwork Escrow Inc., is licensed as an internet escrow agent under California’s Escrow Law and is subject to regulations applicable to internet escrow agents promulgated by the DBO. As of June 30, 2018, there have been two instances in which we have received inquiries from regulatory authorities inquiring whether we are engaging in payment activities through Upwork Escrow or oDesk, which is now Upwork Global Inc., that require a license in the applicable jurisdiction. In April 2013, we received an inquiry from the Washington Department of Financial Institutions, which was resolved in our favor in December 2013. In July 2013, oDesk received an inquiry from the DBO, which was favorably resolved in connection with the combination of Elance and oDesk in 2014.

Although we believe that our operations comply with existing U.S. federal and state, and international laws and regulatory requirements related to escrow, money transmission, and the handling or moving of money, the laws or regulations may change, and interpretations of existing laws and regulations may also change. As a result, Upwork Escrow or Upwork Global could be required to be licensed as an escrow agent or a money transmitter (or other similar licensee) in U.S. states or other jurisdictions or may choose to obtain such a license even if not required. Such a decision could also require Upwork Escrow or Upwork Global to register as a money services business under federal laws and regulations. It is also possible that Upwork Escrow or Upwork Global could become subject to regulatory enforcement or other proceedings in those states or other jurisdictions with escrow, money transmission, or other similar statutes or regulatory requirements related to the handling or moving of money, which could in turn have a significant impact on our business, even if we were to ultimately prevail in such proceedings. Upwork Escrow or Upwork Global may also be required to become licensed as a payment institution (or other similar license) under the European Payment Services Directive or other international laws and regulations. Any developments in the laws or regulations related to escrow, money transmission, or the handling or moving of money, or increased scrutiny of our business may lead to additional compliance costs and administrative overhead.

The application of laws and regulations related to escrow, money transmission, and the handling or moving of money is subject to significant complexity and uncertainty, particularly as they relate to new and evolving

 

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business models. If Upwork Escrow or Upwork Global is ultimately deemed to be in violation of one or more escrow or money transmitter or other similar statutes or regulatory requirements related to the handling or moving of money in any U.S. state or other jurisdiction, we may be subject to the imposition of fines, our ability to offer some or all of our services in the relevant jurisdiction may be suspended, and we may be subject to civil liability or criminal liability and our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Having an international community of users and engaging freelancers internationally exposes us to risks that could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition.

Even though we currently have a limited physical presence outside of the United States, our users have a global footprint that subjects us to the risks of being found to do business internationally. We have users on our platform located in over 180 countries, including some emerging markets where we have limited experience, where challenges can be significantly different from those we have faced in more developed markets, and where business practices may create greater internal control risks. Further, certain skills and services are offered by freelancers concentrated in countries with higher risks of instability and geopolitical uncertainty, like Russia and Ukraine. In addition, we engage freelancers located in many countries to provide services for our managed services offering and to us for internal projects. Because our website is generally accessible by users worldwide, one or more jurisdictions may claim that we or our users are required to comply with their laws. Laws outside of the United States regulating internet, payments, escrow, privacy, taxation, terms of service, website accessibility, consumer protection, intellectual property ownership, services intermediaries, labor and employment, wage and hour, worker classification, background checks, and recruiting and staffing companies, among others, which could be interpreted to apply to us, are often less favorable to us than those in the United States, giving greater rights to competitors, users, and other third parties. Compliance with international laws and regulations may be more costly than expected, may require us to change our business practices or restrict our service offerings, and the imposition of any such laws or regulations on us, our users, or third parties that we or our users utilize to provide or use our services, may adversely impact our revenue and business. In addition, we may be subject to multiple overlapping legal or regulatory regimes that impose conflicting requirements and enhanced legal risks.

Risks inherent in conducting business with an international user base and engaging freelancers globally include, but are not limited to:

 

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being deemed to conduct business or have operations in the jurisdictions where we have users and being subject to their laws and regulatory requirements;

 

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new or changed regulatory requirements;

 

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varying worker classification standards and regulations;

 

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organizing or similar activity by local unions, works councils, or similar labor organizations;

 

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tariffs, export and import restrictions, restrictions on foreign investments, sanctions, and other trade barriers or protection measures;

 

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costs of localizing services, including adding the ability for clients to pay in local currencies;

 

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lack of acceptance of localized services;

 

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difficulties in and costs of staffing, managing, and operating international operations or support functions;

 

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tax issues;

 

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weaker intellectual property protection;

 

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economic weakness or currency related challenges or crises;

 

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the burden of complying with a wide variety of laws that may be deemed to apply to us, including those relating to labor and employment matters (including but not limited to requirements with respect to works councils or similar labor organizations), consumer and data protection, privacy, network security, encryption, data residency, and taxes, as well as securing expertise in local law and related practices;

 

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our ability to adapt to sales practices and client requirements in different cultures;

 

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fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates;

 

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compliance with U.S. and foreign laws designed to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities;

 

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corporate or state-sponsored espionage or cyberterrorism;

 

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macroeconomic conditions in certain foreign jurisdictions; and

 

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political instability and security risks in countries where we have users.

The risks described above may also make it difficult for us to expand our operations internationally. Analysis of, and compliance with, global laws and regulations may substantially increase our cost of doing business. We may be unable to keep current with changes in laws and regulations as they develop. Although we have implemented policies and procedures designed to analyze whether these laws apply and, if applicable, support compliance with these laws and regulations, there can be no assurance that we will always maintain compliance or that all of our employees, contractors, partners, users, and agents will comply. Any violations could result in enforcement actions, fines, civil and criminal penalties, damages, interest, costs and fees (including but not limited to legal fees), injunctions, loss of intellectual property rights, or reputational harm. If we are unable to comply with these laws and regulations or manage the complexity of global operations and supporting an international user base successfully, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.

If we are unable to maintain our payment partners and bank relationships, or if our disbursement partners encounter business difficulties, our business could be adversely affected.

Our payment partners consist of payment processors and disbursement partners. We rely on banks and card processors to provide clearing, processing, and settlement functions for the funding of all transactions on our platform. We also rely on a network of disbursement partners to disburse funds to users.

Our payment partners are critical to our business. In order to maintain these relationships, we have in the past been, and may in the future be, forced to agree to terms that are unfavorable to us. If we are unable to maintain our agreements with current payment partners on favorable terms, or we are unable to enter into new agreements with new payment partners, our ability to disburse transactions and our revenue and business may be adversely affected. This could occur for a number of reasons, including the following:

 

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our payment partners may be unable to effectively accommodate changing service needs, such as those which could result from rapid growth or higher volume;

 

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our payment partners could choose to terminate or not renew their agreements with us, or only be willing to renew on different or less advantageous terms;

 

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our payment partners could reduce the services provided to us, cease doing business with us, or cease doing business altogether;

 

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our payment partners could be subject to delays, limitations, or closures of their own businesses, networks, or systems, causing them to be unable to process payments or disburse funds for certain periods of time; or

 

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we may be forced to cease doing business with payment processors if card association operating rules, certification requirements and laws, regulations, or rules governing electronic funds transfers to which we are subject change or are interpreted to make it difficult or impossible for us to comply.

We have experienced growth in recent periods and expect to continue to invest in our growth for the foreseeable future. If we are unable to manage our growth effectively, our revenue and profits could be adversely affected.

We have experienced growth in a relatively short period of time. For example, our total revenue grew from $164.4 million in 2016 to $202.6 million in 2017. In the six months ended June 30, 2018, our total revenue was

 

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$121.9 million, representing a period-over-period growth rate of 28% over the same period in 2017. We plan to continue to expand our operations and personnel significantly. Sustaining our growth will place significant demands on our management as well as on our administrative, operational, and financial resources. To manage our growth, we must continue to improve our operational, financial, and management information systems; expand, motivate, and effectively manage our workforce; and effectively collaborate with our third-party partners. If we are unable to manage our growth successfully without compromising our quality of service or our profit margins, or if new systems that we implement to assist in managing our growth do not produce the expected benefits, our business, operating results, financial condition, and ability to successfully market our platform and serve our users could be adversely affected.

Our recent and historical growth should not be considered indicative of our future performance. We have encountered in the past, and will encounter in the future, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing 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 financial condition and operating results could differ materially from our expectations, our growth rates may slow, and our business would be adversely impacted.

Our sales efforts are increasingly targeted at large enterprise clients, and as a result we may encounter greater pricing, implementation, and customization challenges, and we may have to delay revenue recognition for more complicated transactions, all of which could adversely impact our business and operating results.

Our sales efforts are increasingly targeted at large enterprise clients, and as a result, we face greater costs, longer sales cycles, and less predictability in completing some of our sales and in increasing spend by existing clients. For larger clients, use of our platform may require approvals by multiple departments and executive-level personnel and require us to provide greater levels of services and client education regarding the uses, benefits, security, privacy, worker classification, payments, and compliance services offered on our platform. Larger enterprises typically have longer decision-making and implementation cycles and may demand more customization, higher levels of support, a broader range of services, and greater payment flexibility. In addition, larger enterprises may require greater functionality and scalability and acceptance provisions that can lead to a delay in revenue recognition. We are often required to spend time and resources to better familiarize potential enterprise clients with the value propositions of our platform generally. Despite our efforts in familiarizing potential enterprise clients with the benefits of our platform, some potential enterprise clients may decide not to use our platform if, among other reasons, they do not feel that their procurement or compliance needs are met. It is more difficult to find sales personnel with the specific skills and technical knowledge needed to sell our Upwork Enterprise offering and other premium offerings. Even if we are able to hire qualified personnel, doing so may be costly. As a result of these factors, sales opportunities with large enterprises may require us to devote greater sales and administrative support and professional services resources to individual clients, which could increase our costs, lengthen our sales cycle, and divert our own sales and professional services resources to a smaller number of larger clients. We may spend substantial time, effort, and money in our sales efforts without being successful in producing sales or growing client spend.

Even if we reach agreement with an enterprise client to use our platform, a significant portion of the fees we typically receive from enterprise clients is contingent on the level of spend by the client. If an enterprise client does not engage freelancers on our platform or uses freelancers for projects of nominal value, our revenue from the relationship may be minimal.

We also have in the past agreed, and may in the future agree, to take on additional risk for worker classification, privacy, security, work product, payments, or other services for larger clients, or to other terms that are unfavorable to us in order to secure a client’s business or increase their spend. All these factors can add further risk to business conducted with these clients even after a successful sale.

 

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Our revenue growth and ability to achieve and sustain profitability will depend in part on being able to expand our sales force and increase the productivity of our sales force.

We have only recently begun generating revenue from our Upwork Enterprise offering and other premium offerings. In order to increase our revenue from these offerings and achieve and sustain profitability, we must increase the size of our sales force and generate additional revenue from new and existing users.

There is significant competition for sales personnel with the skills and technical knowledge that we require. Our ability to achieve significant revenue growth will depend, in large part, on our success in recruiting, training, and retaining sufficient numbers of sales and sales support personnel to support our growth. New sales personnel require significant training and can take a number of months to achieve full productivity. Our recent hires and planned hires may not become productive as quickly as we expect and if our new sales personnel do not become fully productive on the timelines that we have projected, or at all, our revenue will not increase at anticipated rates, or at all, and our ability to achieve long-term projections may be negatively impacted. We may also be unable to hire or retain a sufficient number of qualified sales personnel. Furthermore, hiring sales personnel in new markets requires additional costs that we may not recover if the sales personnel fail to achieve full productivity. If we are unable to hire and train a sufficient number of effective sales personnel, or if our sales personnel are not successful in obtaining new business or increasing sales to our existing user base, our business will be adversely affected.

Our user growth and engagement on mobile devices depend upon effective operation with mobile operating systems, networks, and standards that we do not control.

Mobile devices are increasingly used for marketplace transactions. A significant and growing portion of our users access our platform through mobile devices. There is no guarantee that popular mobile devices will continue to support our platform, that the use of mobile devices for marketplace transactions will be available on commercially reasonable terms, or that mobile device users will use our platform rather than competing products. We are dependent on the interoperability of our platform with popular mobile operating systems that we do not control, such as Android and iOS, and any changes in such systems that degrade the functionality of our website or applications or give preferential treatment to competitors could adversely affect our platform’s usage on mobile devices. Additionally, in order to deliver high-quality mobile products, it is important that our products are designed effectively and work well with a range of mobile technologies, systems, networks, and standards that we do not control. We may not be successful in developing relationships with key participants in the mobile industry or in developing products that operate effectively with these technologies, systems, networks, or standards. In the event that it is more difficult for our users to access and use our platform on their mobile devices or users find our mobile offering does not effectively meet their needs, our competitors develop products and services that are perceived to operate more effectively on mobile devices, or if our users choose not to access or use our platform on their mobile devices or use mobile products that do not offer access to our platform, our user growth and user engagement could be adversely impacted.

If internet search engines’ methodologies or other channels that we utilize to direct traffic to our website are modified, or our search result page rankings decline for other reasons, our user growth could decline.

We depend in part on various internet search engines, such as Google and Bing, as well as other channels to direct a significant amount of traffic to our website. Our ability to maintain the number of visitors directed to our website is not entirely within our control. For example, our competitors’ search engine optimization and other efforts may result in their websites receiving a higher search result page ranking than ours, internet search engines or other channels that we utilize to direct traffic to our website could revise their methodologies in a manner that adversely impacts traffic to our website, or we may make changes to our website that adversely impact our search engine optimization rankings and traffic. As a result, links to our website may not be prominent enough to drive sufficient traffic to our website, and we may not be able to influence the results.

We may experience a decline in traffic to our website if third-party browser technologies are changed, or search engine or other channels that we utilize to direct traffic to our website change their methodologies or

 

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rules, to our disadvantage. We expect the search engines and other channels that we utilize to drive users to our website to continue to periodically change their algorithms, policies, and technologies. These changes may result in an interruption in users’ ability to access our website or impair our ability to maintain and grow the number of users who visit our website. We may also be forced to significantly increase marketing expenditures in the event that market prices for online advertising and paid listings escalate or our organic ranking decreases. Any of these changes could have an adverse impact on our business and operating results.

If we or our third-party partners experience a security breach and unauthorized parties obtain access to our users’ data, our data, or our platform, networks, or other systems, our platform may be perceived as not being secure, our reputation may be harmed, demand for our platform may be reduced, our operations may be disrupted, we may incur significant legal liabilities, and our business could be adversely affected.

Our business involves the storage, processing, and transmission of users’ proprietary, confidential, and personal information as well as the use of third-party partners who store, process, and transmit users’ proprietary, confidential, and personal information. We also maintain certain other proprietary and confidential information relating to our business and personal information of our personnel. Any security breach or incident that we experience could result in unauthorized access to, misuse of, or unauthorized acquisition of our or our users’ data, the loss, corruption, or alteration of this data, interruptions in our operations, or damage to our computers or systems or those of our users. Any of these could expose us to claims, litigation, fines, and potential liability. An increasing number of online services have disclosed breaches of their security, some of which have involved sophisticated and highly targeted attacks on portions of their services. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems change frequently and often are not foreseeable or recognized until launched against a target, we and our third-party partners may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. If an actual or perceived breach of our or our third-party partners’ security occurs, public perception of the effectiveness of our security measures and brand could be harmed, and we could lose users. Data security breaches and other data security incidents may also result from non-technical means, for example, actions by employees or contractors, such as freelancers that we engage on our platform to perform services for us. Any compromise of our or our third-party partners’ security could result in a violation of applicable privacy and other laws, regulatory or other governmental investigations, enforcement actions, and legal and financial exposure, including potential contractual liability that is not always limited to the amounts covered by our insurance. Any such compromise could also result in damage to our reputation and a loss of confidence in our security measures. Any of these effects could adversely impact our business.

Our and our third-party partners’ systems may be vulnerable to computer viruses and other malicious software, physical or electronic break-ins, or weakness resulting from intentional or unintentional service provider actions, and similar disruptions that could make all or portions of our website or applications unavailable for periods of time. We may need to expend significant resources to protect against, and to address issues created by, security breaches and other incidents. Security breaches and other security incidents, including any breaches of our security measures or those of parties with which we have commercial relationships (e.g., freelancers or other third-party service providers who provide development or other services to us) that result in the unauthorized access of users’ confidential, proprietary or personal information, or the belief that any of these have occurred, could damage our reputation and expose us to a risk of loss or litigation and possible liability. Significant unavailability of our platform due to attacks could cause users to cease using our platform and adversely affect our business. Although we maintain cyber liability insurance, we cannot be certain our coverage will be adequate for liabilities actually incurred or will continue to be available to us on reasonable terms, or at all.

We rely on Amazon Web Services to deliver our platform to our users, and any disruption of service from Amazon Web Services or material change to our arrangement with Amazon Web Services could adversely affect our business.

We currently host our platform, serve our users, and support our operations using Amazon Web Services, or AWS, a provider of cloud infrastructure services. We do not have control over the operations of the facilities of

 

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AWS that we use. AWS’ facilities are vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, cyber security attacks, terrorist attacks, power losses, telecommunications failures, and similar events. The occurrence of a natural disaster or an act of terrorism, a decision to close the facilities without adequate notice, or other unanticipated problems could result in lengthy interruptions to our platform. The facilities also could be subject to break-ins, computer viruses, sabotage, intentional acts of vandalism, and other misconduct. Our platform’s continuing and uninterrupted performance is critical to our success. Users may become dissatisfied by any system failure that interrupts our ability to provide our platform to them. We may not be able to easily switch our AWS operations to another cloud or other data center provider if there are disruptions or interference with our use of AWS, and, even if we do switch our operations, other cloud and data center providers are subject to the same risks. Sustained or repeated system failures would reduce the attractiveness of our platform to users, thereby reducing revenue. Moreover, negative publicity arising from these types of disruptions could damage our reputation and may adversely impact use of our platform. We may not carry sufficient business interruption insurance to compensate us for losses that may occur as a result of any events that cause interruptions in our service.

AWS does not have an obligation to renew its agreements with us on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. If we are unable to renew our agreements on commercially reasonable terms, our agreements are prematurely terminated, or we add additional infrastructure providers, we may experience costs or downtime in connection with the transfer to, or the addition of, new data center providers. If these providers increase the cost of their services, we may have to increase the fees to use our platform, and our operating results may be adversely impacted.

In addition, we and other customers of AWS have been subject to litigation by third parties claiming that AWS and basic HTTP functions infringe their patents. Although we expect Amazon to indemnify us with respect to at least a portion of such claims, the litigation may be time consuming, it may divert management’s attention, and, if Amazon failed to indemnify us, it may adversely impact our operating results.

Failure to comply with anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, and sanctions laws, including the FCPA and similar laws associated with our activities outside of the United States, could subject us to penalties and other adverse consequences.

We have voluntarily implemented an anti-money laundering program designed to address the risk of our platform being used to facilitate money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illicit activity. We also have policies, procedures, and sophisticated technology designed to comply with U.S. economic sanctions laws and prevent our platform from being used to facilitate business in countries, or with persons or entities, included on designated lists promulgated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, and equivalent foreign authorities. Although we have a program that we believe is reasonably designed to allow us to comply with applicable laws, rules, and regulations, we may still be subject to fines or other penalties in one or more jurisdictions levied by federal or state or local regulators, including state attorneys general, as well as those levied by foreign regulators in the event that we engage in any conduct, intentionally or not, that facilitates money laundering, terrorist financing, or other illicit activity, or that violates sanctions or otherwise constitutes sanctionable activity. Moreover, while we have implemented policies and procedures for compliance with OFAC regulations, given the technical limitations in developing controls to prevent, among other things, the ability of users to place on our platform false or deliberately misleading information or to develop sanctions evasion methods, it is possible that we may inadvertently and without our knowledge provide services to individuals or entities that have been designated by OFAC or are located in a country subject to an embargo by the United States that may not be in compliance with the economic sanctions regulations administered by OFAC. A State Department advisory issued in July 2018 stated that “there are cases where North Korean companies exploit the anonymity provided by freelancing websites to sell their IT services to unwitting buyers.” Additionally, recent press reports have stated that North Korean operatives have used various social media applications and freelancing websites, including ours. Accordingly, although we have controls in place to detect and prevent such OFAC violations and our systems show no access from persons in North Korea, we may face higher levels of scrutiny by users, partners, and regulators due to the publishing of this advisory and such press reports. In addition to fines, penalties for failing to comply with applicable rules and regulations could include criminal and

 

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civil lawsuits, forfeiture of significant assets, or other enforcement actions. We could also be required to make changes to our business practices or compliance programs as a result of regulatory scrutiny. In addition, any perceived or actual breach of compliance by us with respect to applicable laws, rules, and regulations could have a significant impact on our reputation and could cause us to lose existing users, prevent us from obtaining new users, cause payment partners to choose to terminate or not renew their agreements with us, require us to expend significant funds to remedy problems caused by violations and to avert further violations, and expose us to legal risk and potential liability. Further, even if we maintain proper controls and remain in compliance with OFAC regulations, should any of our competitors not implement sufficient OFAC controls and be found to have violated OFAC regulations, user perception of online freelance marketplaces in general may decrease and our business, brand, and reputation may be adversely affected.

We are also subject to the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, or the FCPA, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, and the United Kingdom Bribery Act 2010, and may be subject to other anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, and sanctions laws in countries in which we conduct activities or have users. We face significant risks if we fail to comply with the FCPA and other anti-corruption laws that prohibit companies and their agents and third-party intermediaries from authorizing, offering, or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or benefits to foreign government officials, political parties, and private-sector recipients for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business, directing business to any person, or securing any advantage. In many foreign countries, particularly in countries with developing economies, it may be a local custom that businesses engage in practices that are prohibited by the FCPA or other applicable laws and regulations. We may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities, and we may be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of these third-party intermediaries, our employees, representatives, contractors, partners, and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize such activities. We intend to implement an anti-corruption compliance policy prior to this offering, and we cannot ensure that all of our employees, users, and agents, as well as those contractors to which we outsource certain of our business operations, will not take actions in violation of our policies or agreements and applicable law, for which we may be ultimately held responsible.

Any violation of the FCPA, other applicable anti-corruption laws, and other applicable laws could result in investigations and actions by federal or state attorneys general or foreign regulators, loss of export privileges, severe criminal or civil fines and penalties or other sanctions, forfeiture of significant assets, whistleblower complaints, and adverse media coverage, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation, business, operating results, and prospects. In addition, responding to any enforcement action may result in a significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and significant defense costs and other professional fees.

Errors, defects, or disruptions in our platform could diminish demand, adversely impact our financial results, and subject us to liability.

Our users utilize our platform for important aspects of their businesses, and any errors, defects, or disruptions in our platform, or other performance problems with our platform could harm our brand and reputation and may damage the businesses of users. We are also reliant on third-party software and infrastructure, including the infrastructure of the internet, to provide our platform. Any failure of or disruption to this software and infrastructure could also make our platform unavailable to our users. Our platform is constantly changing with new updates, which may contain undetected errors when first introduced or released. Any errors, defects, disruptions in service, or other performance or stability problems with our platform could result in negative publicity, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our platform, loss of competitive position, our inability to timely and accurately maintain our financial records, inaccurate or delayed invoicing of clients, delay of payment to us or freelancers, or claims by users for losses sustained by them. In such an event, we may be required, or may choose, for customer relations or other reasons, to expend additional resources in order to help resolve the issue. Accordingly, any errors, defects, or disruptions in our platform could adversely impact our brand and reputation, revenue, and operating results.

 

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Changes in laws or regulations relating to privacy or the protection or transfer of personal data, or any actual or perceived failure by us to comply with such laws and regulations or our privacy policies, could adversely affect our business.

We receive, collect, store, process, transfer, and use personal information and other user data. There are numerous federal, state, local, and international laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, information security, and the collection, storing, sharing, use, processing, transfer, disclosure, and protection of personal information and other content, the scope of which are changing, subject to differing interpretations, and may be inconsistent among countries, or conflict with other laws and regulations. We are also subject to the terms of our privacy policies and obligations to third parties related to privacy, data protection, and information security. We strive to comply with applicable laws, regulations, policies, and other legal obligations relating to privacy, data protection, and information security to the extent possible. However, the regulatory framework for privacy and data protection worldwide is, and is likely to remain for the foreseeable future, uncertain and complex, and it is possible that these or other actual or alleged obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that we do not anticipate or that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices. Further, any significant change to applicable laws, regulations, or industry practices regarding the collection, use, retention, security, or disclosure of our users’ data, or their interpretation, or any changes regarding the manner in which the express or implied consent of users for the collection, use, retention, or disclosure of such data must be obtained, could increase our costs and require us to modify our services and features, possibly in a material manner, which we may be unable to complete, and may limit our ability to store and process user data or develop new services and features.

We also expect that there will continue to be new laws, regulations, and industry standards concerning privacy, data protection, and information security proposed and enacted in various jurisdictions. For example, European legislators adopted the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which became effective in May 2018, superseded existing European Union data protection legislation, imposes more stringent European Union data protection requirements, and provides for significant penalties for noncompliance. The GDPR created new compliance obligations applicable to our business and users, which could cause us to change our business practices, and increases financial penalties for noncompliance (including possible fines of up to 4% of global annual turnover for the preceding financial year or €20 million (whichever is higher) for the most serious violations). Additionally, in June 2018, California passed the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, which provides new data privacy rights for consumers and new operational requirements for companies, effective in 2020. Fines for noncompliance may be up to $7,500 per violation. The costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, the GDPR and CCPA may limit the use and adoption of our products and services and could have an adverse impact on our business. As a result, we may need to modify the way we treat such information. Further, the United Kingdom initiating a process to leave the European Union has created uncertainty with regard to the regulation of data protection in the United Kingdom. In particular, although the United Kingdom has proposed a Data Protection Bill that would be substantially consistent with the GDPR, this bill remains in the legislative process in the United Kingdom and it remains unclear whether it will be enacted or what it will provide for if enacted.

Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with our posted privacy policies, our privacy-related obligations to users or other third parties, or any other legal obligations or regulatory requirements relating to privacy, data protection, or information security may result in governmental investigations or enforcement actions, litigation, claims, or public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups or others and could result in significant liability, cause our users to lose trust in us, and otherwise have an adverse effect on our reputation and business. Furthermore, the costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, the laws, regulations, and policies that are applicable to the businesses of our users may limit the adoption and use of, and reduce the overall demand for, our platform.

Additionally, if third parties we work with violate applicable laws, regulations, or agreements, such violations may put our users’ data at risk, could result in governmental investigations or enforcement actions, fines, litigation, claims, or public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups or others and could result in significant liability, cause our users to lose trust in us, and otherwise have an adverse effect on our reputation and business. Further, public scrutiny of or complaints about technology companies or their data handling or data

 

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protection practices, even if unrelated to our business, industry, or operations, may lead to increased scrutiny of technology companies, including us, and may cause government agencies to enact additional regulatory requirements, or to modify their enforcement or investigation activities, which may increase our costs and risks.

The applicability of sales, use, and other tax laws or regulations on our business is uncertain. Adverse tax laws or regulations could be enacted or existing laws could be interpreted as applying or otherwise applied to us or users of our platform, which could subject us to additional tax liability and related interest and penalties, and adversely impact our business.

The application of federal, state, local, and international tax laws to services provided over the internet is evolving. Many of the fundamental statutes and regulations that impose these taxes were established before the adoption and growth of the internet and ecommerce. In addition, governments are increasingly looking for ways to increase revenue, which has resulted in discussions about tax reform and other legislative action to increase tax revenue, including through indirect taxes. New income, sales, use, value-added, or other tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations, or ordinances could be enacted at any time (possibly with retroactive effect), and could be applied solely or disproportionately to services provided over the internet or could otherwise affect our financial position and operating results. Many countries in the European Union, as well as a number of other countries and organizations, such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, have recently proposed or recommended changes to existing tax laws or have enacted new laws that could impact our tax obligations. In addition, tax reform legislation commonly referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or the Tax Act, was enacted in the United States in December 2017. We continue to review the impact of these tax reforms on our business. There are many transactions that occur during the ordinary course of business for which the ultimate tax determination is uncertain.

We may also be subject to non-income taxes, such as payroll, sales, use, value-added, and goods and services taxes in the United States and various foreign jurisdictions. In certain jurisdictions, we collect and remit indirect taxes on our fees. However, tax authorities may raise questions about, challenge or disagree with our calculation, reporting, or collection of taxes and may require us to remit additional taxes and interest, and could impose associated penalties and fees. Should any new taxes become applicable, or if the taxes we pay are found to be deficient, our business could be adversely impacted. We have in the past been, and may in the future be, audited by tax authorities with respect to non-income taxes, and we may have exposure to additional non-income tax liabilities, which could have an adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition. In addition, our future effective tax rates could be favorably or unfavorably affected by changes in tax rates, changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets or liabilities, the effectiveness of our tax planning strategies, or changes in tax laws or their interpretation. Such changes could have an adverse impact on our financial condition.

Moreover, state, local, and foreign tax jurisdictions have differing rules and regulations governing sales, use, value-added, and other taxes, and these rules and regulations can be complex and are subject to varying interpretations and enforcement positions that may change over time. Existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations, or ordinances could be interpreted, changed, modified, or applied adversely to us (possibly with retroactive effect), which could require us or our users to pay additional tax amounts on prior sales and going forward, as well as require us or our users to pay fines, penalties, and interest for past amounts. Although our terms of service require our users to pay all applicable sales and other taxes and to indemnify us for any requirement that we pay any withholding amount to the appropriate authorities, our users may be reluctant to pay back taxes and associated interest or penalties and may fail to indemnify us, we may determine that it would not be commercially feasible or cost-effective to seek reimbursement, or the indemnification obligation may be deemed unenforceable. If we are required to collect and pay back taxes and associated interest and penalties, or we are unsuccessful in collecting such amounts from our users, we could incur potentially substantial unplanned expenses, thereby adversely impacting our operating results and cash flows.

As a result of these and other factors, the ultimate amount of tax obligations owed may differ from the amounts recorded in our financial statements and any such difference may adversely impact our operating results in future periods in which we change our estimates of our tax obligations or in which the ultimate tax outcome is determined.

 

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Failure to protect our intellectual property could adversely affect our business.

Our success depends in large part on our proprietary technology and data. We rely on various intellectual property rights, including patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets, as well as confidentiality provisions and contractual arrangements, to protect our proprietary rights. If we do not protect and enforce our intellectual property rights successfully, our competitive position may suffer, which could adversely impact our operating results.

Our pending patent or trademark applications may not be approved, or competitors or others may challenge the validity, enforceability, or scope of our patents, the registrability of our trademarks, or the trade secret status of our proprietary information. There can be no assurance that additional patents will be issued or that any patents that are issued will provide significant protection for our intellectual property. In addition, our patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and other intellectual property rights may not provide us a significant competitive advantage. There is no assurance that the particular forms of intellectual property protection that we seek, including business decisions about when to file patents and when and how to maintain and protect trade secrets, will be adequate to protect our business.

Moreover, recent amendments to, developing jurisprudence regarding, and possible changes to intellectual property laws and regulations, including U.S. and foreign patent law, may affect our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights. In addition, the laws of some countries do not provide the same level of protection for our intellectual property as do the laws of the United States. As our global reputation grows and/or we expand our international activities, our exposure to unauthorized copying and use of our platform and proprietary information will likely increase. Despite our precautions, our intellectual property is vulnerable to unauthorized access through employee or third-party error or actions, theft, cyber security incidents, and other security breaches and incidents. It is possible for third parties to infringe upon or misappropriate our intellectual property, to copy our platform, and to use information that we regard as proprietary to create products and services that compete with ours. Effective intellectual property protection may not be available to us in every country in which our platform is available. In addition, many countries limit the enforceability of patents against certain third parties, including government agencies or government contractors. In these countries, patents may provide limited or no benefit. Further, certain countries impose additional conditions on the transfer of intellectual property rights from individuals to companies, which may make it more difficult for us to secure and maintain intellectual property protection in those countries. We may need to expend additional resources to defend our intellectual property rights domestically or internationally, which could be costly, time consuming, and distracting to management and could impair our business or adversely affect our domestic or international expansion. Moreover, we may not pursue or file patent applications or apply for registration of copyrights or trademarks in the United States and foreign jurisdictions in which we have a presence with respect to our potentially patentable inventions, works of authorship, and marks and logos for a variety of reasons, including the cost of procuring such rights and the uncertainty involved in obtaining adequate protection from such applications and registrations. If we cannot adequately protect and defend our intellectual property, we may not remain competitive, and our business, operating results, and financial condition may be adversely affected.

We enter into confidentiality and invention assignment or intellectual property ownership agreements with our employees and contractors and enter into confidentiality agreements with other parties. In addition, for employees of third-party staffing providers or other contractors, the employer enters into these agreements with individual workers. We cannot ensure that these agreements, or all the terms thereof, will be enforceable or compliant with applicable law, or otherwise effective in controlling access to, use of, and distribution of our proprietary information or in effectively securing exclusive ownership of intellectual property developed by our current or former employees and contractors. For example, when working with contractors, particularly those who are off-site, it may be more difficult to control use of confidential materials, increasing the risk that our source code or other confidential or trade secret information may be exposed. Further, these agreements with our employees, contractors and other parties may not prevent other parties from independently developing technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our platform.

We may need to spend significant resources securing and monitoring our intellectual property rights, and we may or may not be able to detect infringement by third parties. Our competitive position may be adversely

 

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impacted if we cannot detect infringement or enforce our intellectual property rights quickly or at all. In some circumstances, we may choose not to pursue enforcement because an infringer has a dominant intellectual property position or for other business reasons. In addition, competitors might avoid infringement by designing around our intellectual property rights or by developing non-infringing competing technologies. We have in the past been forced to rely on litigation, opposition, and cancellation actions, and other claims and enforcement actions, to protect our intellectual property, including to dispute registration or use of marks that may be confusingly similar to our own marks. Similar claims and other litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce and protect our intellectual property rights. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time-consuming, and distracting to management, and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Further, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses; counterclaims attacking the scope, validity, and enforceability of our intellectual property rights; or counterclaims and countersuits asserting infringement by us of third-party intellectual property rights. Our failure to secure, protect, and enforce our intellectual property rights could adversely affect our brand and our business, and we could lose the opportunity to license our technology to others or to collect royalty payments based upon successful protection and assertion of our intellectual property against others.

We are vulnerable to intellectual property infringement claims and challenges to our intellectual property rights brought against us by third parties.

We operate in a highly competitive industry, and there has been considerable activity in our industry to develop and enforce intellectual property rights. Successful intellectual property infringement claims against us or our users or clients could result in monetary liability or a material disruption in the conduct of our business. We cannot be certain that aspects of our platform, content, and brand names do not or will not infringe valid patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights held by third parties. We have in the past been, and may in the future be, subject to legal proceedings and claims from time to time relating to the intellectual property of others in the ordinary course of our business. Our competitors have in the past challenged, and may in the future challenge, our registration or use of our trademarks, including “Upwork,” and, if successful, such a challenge could adversely affect our business. Any intellectual property litigation to which we might become a party, or for which we are required to provide indemnification, may require us to cease selling or using products and services that incorporate the intellectual property that we allegedly infringe, make substantial payments for legal fees, settlement payments, or other costs or damages, obtain a license to sell or use the relevant technology, which may not be available on reasonable terms or at all, or redesign the allegedly infringing products and services to avoid infringement, which could be costly, time-consuming, or impossible. Any claims or litigation, regardless of merit, could cause us to incur significant expenses and, if successfully asserted against us, could require that we pay substantial damages or ongoing royalty payments, prevent us from offering aspects of our platform, or require that we comply with other unfavorable terms. Our competitors and others may now and in the future have significantly larger and more mature patent portfolios than we have. We may also be obligated to indemnify certain clients on our platform or strategic partners or others in connection with such infringement claims, or to obtain licenses from third parties or modify our platform, and each such obligation could further exhaust our resources. Some of our infringement indemnification obligations related to intellectual property are contractually capped at a very high amount or not capped at all.

Any lawsuits resulting from allegations of intellectual property infringement could subject us to significant legal costs and liability for damages and invalidate our proprietary rights. Any potential future intellectual property disputes or litigation also could force us to do one or more of the following:

 

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cease conducting certain operations in some or all jurisdictions, or stop using technology that contains the allegedly infringing intellectual property;

 

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stop using the name “Upwork” or other trademarks in some or all jurisdictions;

 

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incur significant legal expenses;

 

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pay substantial damages to the party whose intellectual property rights we may be found to be infringing;

 

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make expensive changes in our methods of doing business; or

 

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attempt to obtain a license to the relevant intellectual property from third parties, which may not be available on reasonable terms or at all.

Even if intellectual property claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor, these claims, and the time and resources necessary to resolve them, could divert the resources of our management and adversely affect our business and operating results. We expect that the occurrence of infringement claims is likely to grow as the market for freelancers and the clients that engage them grows. Accordingly, our exposure to damages resulting from infringement claims could increase and this could further exhaust our financial and management resources.

Our revenue growth depends in part on the success of our strategic relationships with third parties and their continued performance.

To grow our business, we anticipate that we will need to continue to establish and maintain relationships with third parties, such as staffing providers, banks, and payment processing and disbursement providers. For example, we work with third-party staffing providers that support our employment offering for our platform and premium offerings. As our agreements with third-party partners terminate or expire, we may be unable to renew or replace these agreements on comparable terms, or at all. Moreover, we cannot guarantee that the parties with which we have strategic relationships will continue to devote the resources necessary to expand our reach, increase our distribution or support an increased number of users and associated use cases. Further, some of our strategic partners offer, or could offer, competing products and services or also work with our competitors. As a result of these factors, many of our third-party partners may choose to develop alternative products and services in addition to, or in lieu of, our platform, either on their own or in collaboration with others, including our competitors. If we are unsuccessful in establishing or maintaining our relationships with third parties, our ability to compete or to grow our total revenue could be impaired and our operating results may be adversely impacted. Even if we are successful in establishing and maintaining these relationships with third parties, we cannot ensure that these relationships will result in increased usage of our platform or increased revenue.

Our ability to attract and retain users is dependent in part on ease and reliability of use and the quality of our support, and any failure to offer high-quality support could adversely impact our business, operating results, and financial condition.

Our ability to attract and retain users is dependent in part on the ease and reliability of our platform, including our ability to provide high-quality support. Our users depend on our support organization to resolve any issues relating to our platform. Our ability to provide effective support is largely dependent on our ability to attract, resource, and retain service providers who are not only qualified to support users of our platform, but are also well versed in our platform. As we seek to continue to grow our international user base, our support organization will face additional challenges, including those associated with delivering support and documentation in languages other than English. Any failure to maintain high-quality support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality support, could harm our reputation, adversely affect our ability to sell our platform to existing and prospective users, and could adversely impact our business, operating results, and financial condition.

Our business model may subject us to disputes between users of our platform.

Our business model involves connecting freelancers and clients that contract directly through our platform. Freelancers and clients are free to negotiate any contract terms they choose, but we also provide optional service contract terms that they can use. It is possible that disputes may arise between freelancers and clients with regard to their contract terms, or otherwise, including with respect to service standards, payment, confidentiality, work product, and intellectual property ownership and infringement. If either party believes the contract terms were not met, our standard terms provide a mechanism for the parties to request assistance from us, and, for some contracts, if that is unsuccessful, they may choose to resolve the dispute with the help of a third-party arbitrator.

 

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Whether or not freelancers and clients decide to seek assistance from us, if these disputes are not resolved amicably, the parties might escalate to formal proceedings, such as by filing claims with a court or arbitral authority. Given our role in facilitating and supporting these arrangements, it is possible that claims will be brought against us directly as a result of these disputes, or that freelancers or clients may bring us into any claims filed against each other. We include language in our user agreements disclaiming responsibility or liability for any disputes between users (except with respect to the specified dispute assistance program); however, we cannot guarantee that these terms will, in all circumstances, be effective in preventing or limiting our involvement in user disputes. Even if these claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor, these claims, and the time and resources necessary to resolve them, could divert the resources of our management and adversely affect our business and operating results.

Our business depends largely on our ability to attract and retain talented employees, including senior management and key personnel. If we lose the services of Stephane Kasriel, our President and Chief Executive Officer, or other members of our senior management team, we may not be able to execute on our business strategy.

Our future success depends on our continuing ability to attract, train, assimilate, and retain highly-skilled personnel, including software engineers and sales personnel. We face intense competition for qualified individuals from numerous software and other technology companies. In addition, competition for qualified personnel, particularly software engineers, is particularly intense in the San Francisco Bay Area, where our headquarters are located. We may not be able to retain our current key employees or attract, train, assimilate, or retain other highly-skilled personnel in the future. We may incur significant costs to attract and retain highly-skilled personnel, and we may lose new employees to our competitors or other technology companies before we realize the benefit of our investment in recruiting and training them. To the extent we move into new geographies, we would need to attract and recruit skilled personnel in those areas. If we are unable to attract and retain suitably qualified individuals who are capable of meeting our growing technical, operational, and managerial requirements, on a timely basis or at all, our business may be adversely affected.

Our future success also depends in large part on the continued services of senior management and other key personnel. In particular, we are dependent on the services of Stephane Kasriel, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and our technology, platform, future vision, and strategic direction could be compromised if he were to take another position, become ill or incapacitated, or otherwise become unable to serve as our President and Chief Executive Officer. We rely on our leadership team in the areas of product, engineering, operations, security, marketing, sales, support, and general and administrative functions. Our senior management and other key personnel are all employed on an at-will basis, which means that they could terminate their employment with us at any time, for any reason, and without notice. Historically, we have maintained, and currently we maintain, a key-person life insurance policy only on our President and Chief Executive Officer. If we lose the services of senior management or other key personnel, or if we are unable to attract, train, assimilate, and retain the highly-skilled personnel we need, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Volatility or lack of appreciation in our stock price may also affect our ability to attract new talent and retain our key employees. Many of our senior personnel and other key employees have become, or will soon become, vested in a substantial amount of stock or stock options. Employees may be more likely to leave us if the shares they own, or the shares underlying their vested options, have significantly appreciated in value relative to the original purchase price of the shares or the exercise price of the options, or conversely, if the exercise price of the options that they hold are significantly above the market price of our common stock. If we are unable to retain our employees, or if we need to increase our compensation expenses to retain our employees, our business, operating results, financial condition, and cash flows could be adversely affected.

Our management team has limited experience managing a public company.

Most members of our management team have limited experience managing a publicly traded company, interacting with public company investors, and complying with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies. Our management team may not successfully or efficiently manage our transition to being a

 

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public company subject to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations under the federal securities laws and the continuous scrutiny of securities analysts and investors. These new obligations and constituents will require significant attention from our senior management and could divert their attention away from the day-to-day management of our business, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results.

The requirements of being a public company may strain our resources, divert management’s attention and affect our ability to attract and retain additional executive management and qualified board members.

As a public company, we will be subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, the listing requirements of The Nasdaq Global Market, and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Compliance with these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time-consuming, or costly, and increase demand on our systems and resources, particularly after we are no longer an emerging growth company. The Exchange Act requires, among other things, that we file annual, quarterly, and current reports with respect to our business and operating results. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. In order to maintain and, if required, improve our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting to meet this standard, significant resources and management oversight may be required. As a result, management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns, which could adversely affect our business and operating results. Although we have already hired additional employees to comply with these requirements, we may need to hire more employees in the future or engage outside consultants, which would increase our costs and expenses.

In addition, changing laws, regulations, and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure are creating uncertainty for public companies, increasing legal and financial compliance costs, and making some activities more time consuming. These laws, regulations, and standards are subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve or otherwise change over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. We intend to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards (or changing interpretations of them), and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management’s time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. If our efforts to comply with new laws, regulations, and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to their application and practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us, and our business may be adversely affected. We also expect that being a public company and the associated rules and regulations will make it more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain coverage. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board of directors, particularly to serve on our audit, risk, and compliance committee, compensation committee, and nominating and governance committee, and qualified executive officers.

As a result of disclosure of information in this prospectus and in filings required of a public company, our business and financial condition will become more visible, which may result in threatened or actual litigation, including by competitors. If such claims are successful, our business and operating results could be adversely affected, and even if the claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor, these claims, and the time and resources necessary to resolve them, could divert the resources of our management and adversely affect our business and operating results.

In addition, as a result of our disclosure obligations as a public company, we will have reduced flexibility and will be under pressure to focus on short-term results, which may adversely affect our ability to achieve long-term profitability.

 

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As a result of becoming a public company, we will be obligated to develop and maintain proper and effective internal control over financial reporting. We have identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting and if our remediation of this material weakness is not effective, or if we fail to develop and maintain an effective system of disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable laws and regulations could be impaired.

As a public company, we will be required, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, to furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting commencing with our second annual report on Form 10-K. Effective internal control over financial reporting is necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports and, together with adequate disclosure controls and procedures, are designed to prevent fraud. Any failure to implement required new or improved controls, or difficulties encountered in their implementation, could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. Ineffective internal controls could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a negative effect on the trading price of our common stock.

This assessment will need to include disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting, as well as a statement that our independent registered public accounting firm has issued an opinion on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, provided that our independent registered public accounting firm will not be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting until our first annual report required to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, following the later of the date we are deemed to be an “accelerated filer” or a “large accelerated filer,” each as defined in the Exchange Act, or the date we are no longer an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years. An independent assessment of the effectiveness of our internal controls could detect problems that our management’s assessment might not. Undetected material weaknesses in our internal controls could lead to financial statement restatements and require us to incur the expense of remediation. We will be required to disclose changes made in our internal control and procedures on a quarterly basis. To comply with the requirements of being a public company, we may need to undertake various actions, such as implementing new internal controls and procedures and hiring accounting or internal audit staff.

In connection with the preparation of our consolidated financial statements, we identified a number of adjustments to our consolidated financial statements that resulted in a revision to previously issued financial statements. As a result of these adjustments, for the year ended December 31, 2016, net loss increased by $0.3 million and cash flows from operations decreased by $0.3 million. There was no impact to cash flows from investing or financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2016. Moreover, total assets decreased by $0.5 million and total liabilities increased by $0.7 million as of December 31, 2016. These adjustments were related to complexities involving the accounting for financial instruments and treasury activities. We identified the cause of these adjustments was due to growth in the business, which required additional qualified accounting personnel with an appropriate level of experience, and additional controls in the period-end financial reporting process commensurate with the complexity of the business. Accordingly, we have determined that this control deficiency constituted a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency or combination of deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our consolidated financial statements would not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. This deficiency could result in additional misstatements to our consolidated financial statements that would be material and would not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

We have begun evaluating and implementing additional procedures in order to remediate this material weakness, however, we cannot assure you that these or other measures will fully remediate the material weakness in a timely manner. At the beginning of 2016, we had 15 accounting and finance employees. As part of our remediation plan to address the material weakness identified above, we hired a new Chief Financial Officer in October 2017 and subsequently hired additional accounting and finance employees with the specific technical accounting and financial reporting experience necessary for a public company, including a senior director of technical accounting, a senior manager of accounting operations, and additional treasury analysts. We have hired

 

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these personnel after considering the appropriateness of each individual’s experience and believe that these personnel are qualified to serve in their current respective roles. As of July 31, 2018, we had 25 accounting and finance employees. We believe the current staffing in our accounting and finance department is sufficient to meet our requirements as a public company. However, we will continue to assess the adequacy of our accounting and finance personnel and resources, and will add additional personnel, as well as adjust our resources, as necessary, commensurate with any increase in the size and complexity of our business. We also increased the depth and level of review procedures with regard to financial reporting and internal control procedures. Despite this, there was insufficient time to remediate this material weakness. If we are unable to remediate the material weakness, or otherwise maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to report our financial results accurately, prevent fraud or file our periodic reports in a timely manner. If our remediation of this material weakness is not effective, or if we experience additional material weaknesses or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls in the future, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and, as a result, the value of our common stock. We cannot assure you that all of our existing material weaknesses have been identified, or that we will not in the future identify additional material weaknesses.

We are in the early stages of the costly and challenging process of compiling the system and processing documentation necessary to perform the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404. We may not be able to complete our evaluation, testing, and any required remediation in a timely fashion. During the evaluation and testing process, if we identify material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we will be unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective.

If we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion on the effectiveness of our internal control, including as a result of the material weakness described above, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which would cause the price of our common stock to decline, and we may be subject to investigation or sanctions by the SEC. In addition, if we are unable to continue to meet these requirements, we may not be able to remain listed on The Nasdaq Global Market.

If our estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies prove to be incorrect or financial reporting standards or interpretations change, our operating results could be adversely affected.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates, judgments, and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as provided in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.” The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities, and equity as of the date of the financial statements, and the amount of revenue and expenses, during the periods presented, that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant assumptions and estimates used in preparing our consolidated financial statements include those related to determination of revenue recognition, the useful lives of assets, assessment of the recoverability of long-lived assets, goodwill impairment, allowance for doubtful accounts, reserves relating to transaction losses, the valuation of warrants, stock-based compensation, and accounting for income taxes. Our operating results may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our operating results to fall below the expectations of industry or financial analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the trading price of our common stock.

Additionally, we regularly monitor our compliance with applicable financial reporting standards and review new pronouncements and drafts thereof that are relevant to us. As a result of new standards, changes to existing standards, and changes in interpretation, we might be required to change our accounting policies, alter our operational policies and implement new or enhance existing systems so that they reflect new or amended financial reporting standards, or we may be required to restate our published financial statements. Such changes to existing standards or changes in their interpretation may have an adverse effect on our reputation, business,

 

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financial position, and profit, or cause an adverse deviation from our revenue and operating profit target, which may negatively impact our financial results.

Our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements are subject to the tax laws of various jurisdictions, and we could be obligated to pay additional taxes, which could adversely impact our operating results.

We may expand the geographic scope of our operations and staff to support our global user base. Our corporate structure and associated transfer pricing policies contemplate future growth into international markets, and consider the functions, risks, and assets of the various entities involved in the intercompany transactions. The amount of taxes we pay in different jurisdictions may depend on the application of the tax laws of the various jurisdictions, including the United States, to our international business activities, changes in tax rates, new or revised tax laws or interpretations of existing tax laws and policies, and our ability to operate our business in a manner consistent with our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements. The taxing authorities of the jurisdictions in which we operate may challenge our methodologies for pricing intercompany transactions pursuant to the intercompany arrangements or disagree with our determinations as to the income and expenses attributable to specific jurisdictions. If such a challenge or disagreement were to occur, and our position was not sustained, we could be required to pay additional taxes, interest and penalties, which could result in one-time tax charges, higher effective tax rates, reduced cash flows and lower overall profitability of our operations. Our financial statements could fail to reflect adequate reserves to cover such a contingency.

U.S. federal income tax reform could adversely affect us.

In December 2017, the Tax Act was enacted, which significantly reforms the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Internal Revenue Code. The Tax Act, among other things, includes changes to U.S. federal tax rates, imposes significant additional limitations on the deductibility of interest and the use of net operating losses generated in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, allows for the expensing of capital expenditures, and puts into effect the migration from a “worldwide” system of taxation to a territorial system. The Tax Act could have material adverse impacts on our business, cash flows, operating results or financial conditions, and we continue to examine the impact such reform may have.

Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.

As of December 31, 2017, we had net operating loss carryforwards for U.S. federal income tax purposes and state income tax purposes of $172.9 million and $38.5 million, respectively, available to offset future taxable income. If not utilized, the federal net operating loss carryforward amounts will begin to expire in 2019, and the state net operating loss carryforward amounts will begin to expire in 2028. Realization of these net operating loss carryforwards depends on future income, and there is a risk that our existing carryforwards could expire unused and be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities, which could materially and adversely affect our operating results.

In addition, under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” generally defined as a greater than 50% change (by value) in its equity ownership over a three-year period, the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes, such as research tax credits, to offset its post-change income may be limited. In addition, we may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership. As a result, if we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our pre-change net operating loss carry-forwards and other tax attributes to offset U.S. federal taxable income may be subject to limitations, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us.

We have not yet determined the consequences to our business of the Tax Act, which could have a material impact on the value of our deferred tax assets and could increase our future U.S. tax expense. For more information, see Note 12 of the notes to our consolidated financial statements. However, we anticipate that any adjustment to provisional amounts recorded would be fully offset by a corresponding change to our valuation allowance.

 

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Our platform contains open source software components, and failure to comply with the terms of the underlying licenses could restrict our ability to market or operate our platform.

Our platform incorporates certain open source software. An open source license typically permits the use, modification, and distribution of software in source code form subject to certain conditions. Some open source licenses contain conditions that any person who distributes a modification or derivative work of software that was subject to an open source license make the modified version subject to the same open source license. Distributing software that is subject to this kind of open source license can lead to a requirement that certain aspects of our platform be distributed or made available in source code form. Although we do not believe that we have used open source software in a manner that might condition its use on our distribution of any portion of our platform in source code form, the interpretation of open source licenses is legally complex and, despite our efforts, it is possible that we may be liable for copyright infringement, breach of contract or other claims if our use of open source software is adjudged not to comply with the applicable open source licenses.

Moreover, we cannot ensure that our processes for controlling our use of open source software in our platform will be effective. If we have not complied with the terms of an applicable open source software license, we may need to seek licenses from third parties to continue offering our platform and the terms on which such licenses are available may not be economically feasible, to re-engineer our platform to remove or replace the open source software, to discontinue the sale of our platform if re-engineering could not be accomplished on a timely basis, to pay monetary damages, or to make available the source code for aspects of our proprietary technology, any of which could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.

In addition to risks related to license requirements, use of open source software can involve greater risks than those associated with use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties, assurances of title, performance, or non-infringement, or controls on the origin of the software. There is typically no support available for open source software, and we cannot ensure that the authors of such open source software will implement or push updates to address security risks or will not abandon further development and maintenance. Many of the risks associated with the use of open source software, such as the lack of warranties or assurances of title or performance, cannot be eliminated, and could, if not properly addressed, negatively affect our business. We have established processes to help alleviate these risks, including a review process for screening requests from our development organizations for the use of open source software, but we cannot be sure that all open source software is identified or submitted for approval prior to use in our platform.

Clients may fail to pay their invoices, necessitating action by us to compel payment.

In connection with our Upwork Enterprise offering, we advance payments to freelancers for invoiced services on behalf of the client and subsequently invoice the client for such services. In addition, in certain instances, we will advance payment on a freelancer invoice if the client issues a chargeback or their payment method is declined and the freelancer assigns us the right to recover any funds from the client. If a client fails to pay for these services rendered by a freelancer, we may be adversely affected both from the inability to collect amounts due and the cost of enforcing the applicable enterprise agreement or our terms of service, including through litigation. Furthermore, some clients may seek bankruptcy protection or other similar relief and fail to pay amounts due, or pay those amounts more slowly, either of which could adversely affect our operating results, financial position, and cash flow.

We track certain performance metrics with internal tools and do not independently verify such metrics. Certain of our performance metrics are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.

We track certain performance metrics, including GSV, the number of core clients, and client spend retention, with internal tools, which are not independently verified by any third party. Our internal tools have a number of limitations and our methodologies for tracking these metrics may change over time, which could result in unexpected changes to our metrics, including the metrics we report. If the internal tools we use to track

 

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these metrics undercount or overcount performance or contain algorithm or other technical errors, the data we report may not be accurate. In addition, limitations or errors with respect to how we measure data (or the data that we measure) may affect our understanding of certain details of our business, which could affect our longer term strategies. If our performance metrics are not accurate representations of our business, user base, or traffic levels; if we discover material inaccuracies in our metrics; or if the metrics we rely on to track our performance do not provide an accurate measurement of our business, our reputation may be harmed, and our operating and financial results could be adversely affected.

We may be unable to integrate acquired businesses and technologies successfully or to achieve the expected benefits of such acquisitions. We may acquire or invest in additional companies, which may divert our management’s attention, result in additional dilution to our stockholders, and consume resources that are necessary to sustain our business.

Our business strategy may, from time to time, include acquiring other complementary products, technologies, or businesses. An acquisition, investment, or business relationship may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures. In particular, we may encounter difficulties assimilating or integrating the businesses, technologies, products, services, personnel, or operations of the acquired companies particularly if the key personnel of the acquired companies choose not to work for us, if an acquired company’s software is not easily adapted to work with ours, or otherwise. Acquisitions may also disrupt our business, divert our resources, and require significant management attention that would otherwise be available for the development of our business. Moreover, the anticipated benefits of any acquisition, investment, or business relationship may not be realized or we may be exposed to unknown liabilities.

We may in the future seek to acquire or invest in additional businesses, products, technologies, or other assets. We also may enter into relationships with other businesses to expand our platform or our ability to provide our platform in foreign jurisdictions, which could involve preferred or exclusive licenses, additional channels of distribution, discount pricing, or investments in other companies. Negotiating these transactions can be time consuming, difficult, and expensive, and our ability to close these transactions may often be subject to approvals that are beyond our control. Consequently, these transactions, even if undertaken and announced, may not close. For one or more of those transactions, we may:

 

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issue additional equity securities that would dilute our stockholders’ ownership interest;

 

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use cash that we may need in the future to operate our business;

 

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incur debt on terms unfavorable to us or that we are unable to repay;

 

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incur expenses or substantial liabilities;

 

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encounter difficulties retaining key employees of the acquired company or integrating diverse software codes or business cultures;

 

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encounter difficulties in assimilating acquired operations and development cultures;

 

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encounter diversion of management’s attention to other business concerns; and

 

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become subject to adverse tax consequences, substantial depreciation, or deferred compensation charges.

Any of these risks could adversely impact our business and operating results.

We may be required to comply with governmental export control laws and regulations. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations could have an adverse effect on our business and operating results.

We may be subject to U.S. export controls and sanctions regulations that prohibit the shipment or provision of certain products and services to certain countries, governments, and persons targeted by U.S. sanctions. While we take precautions to prevent aspects of our platform from being exported in violation of these laws, including implementing internet protocol address blocking, we cannot guarantee that the precautions we take will prevent violations of export control and sanctions laws. If we are found to be in violation of U.S. sanctions or export control laws, it could result in substantial fines and penalties for us and for the individuals working for us.

 

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In addition, various countries regulate the import and export of certain encryption and other technology, including imposing import and export permitting and licensing requirements, and have enacted laws that could limit our ability to distribute aspects of our platform or could limit our users’ ability to access our platform in those countries. Changes in our platform, or future changes in export and import regulations may prevent our international users from utilizing our platform or, in some cases, prevent the export or import of our platform to certain countries, governments, or persons altogether. Any change in export or import regulations, economic sanctions or related legislation, or change in the countries, governments, persons, or technologies targeted by such regulations, could result in decreased use of our platform by existing or potential users with international operations. Any decreased use of our platform or limitation on our ability to export or sell our products would likely adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial results.

Future litigation could have a material adverse impact on our operating results and financial condition.

From time to time, we have been subject to litigation. The outcome of any litigation (including class actions and individual lawsuits), regardless of its merits, is inherently uncertain. Regardless of the merits of any claims that may be brought against us, pending or future litigation could result in a diversion of management’s attention and resources and reputational harm, and we may be required to incur significant expenses defending against these claims. If we are unable to prevail in litigation, we could incur substantial liabilities. We may also determine that the most cost-effective and efficient way to resolve a dispute is to enter into a settlement agreement. Where we can make a reasonable estimate of the liability relating to pending litigation and determine that it is probable, we record a related liability. As additional information becomes available, we assess the potential liability and revise estimates as appropriate. However, because of uncertainties relating to litigation, the amount of our estimates could be wrong as determining reserves for pending litigation is a complex, fact-intensive process that is subject to judgment calls. Any adverse determination related to litigation or a settlement agreement could require us to change our technology or our business practices in costly ways, prevent us from offering certain products or services, require us to pay monetary damages, fines, or penalties, or require us to enter into royalty or licensing arrangements, and could adversely affect our operating results and cash flows, harm our reputation, or otherwise negatively impact our business.

Our Loan Agreement provides our lender with a first-priority lien against substantially all of our assets (excluding our intellectual property), and contains financial covenants and other restrictions on our actions, which could limit our operational flexibility and otherwise adversely affect our financial condition.

Our Loan Agreement restricts our ability to, among other things:

 

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incur additional indebtedness;

 

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sell certain assets;

 

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declare dividends or make certain distributions; and

 

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undergo a merger or consolidation or other transactions.

In addition, the interest rates we pay under our Loan Agreement are derived from the prime rate, which has increased recently, and may increase in the future. Interest rate increases will result in us having to make higher interest payments and reduce the amount of working capital available to us. Our Loan Agreement also prohibits us from falling below an adjusted quick ratio and below certain quarterly EBITDA thresholds. Our ability to comply with these EBITDA thresholds and other covenants is dependent upon our future business performance.

Our failure to comply with the covenants or payment requirements, or the occurrence of other events specified in our Loan Agreement, could result in an event of default under the credit agreement, which would give our lender the right to terminate their commitments to provide additional loans under the credit agreement and to declare all borrowings outstanding, together with accrued and unpaid interest and fees, to be immediately due and payable. In addition, we have granted our lender first-priority liens against substantially all of our assets, as collateral, excluding our intellectual property (but including proceeds therefrom) and the funds and assets held by Upwork Escrow. We have also agreed to a negative pledge on our intellectual property. Failure to comply with the covenants or other

 

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restrictions in the credit agreement could result in a default. If the debt under our credit agreement was to be accelerated, we may not have sufficient cash on hand or be able to sell sufficient collateral to repay it, which would have an immediate adverse effect on our business and operating results. This could potentially cause us to cease operations and result in a complete loss of your investment in our common stock.

We may require additional capital to fund our business and support our growth, and any inability to generate or obtain such capital may adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.

In order to support our growth and respond to business challenges, such as developing new features or enhancements to our platform, acquiring new technologies, and improving our infrastructure, we have made significant financial investments in our business and we intend to continue to make such investments. As a result, we may need to engage in equity or debt financings to provide the funds required for these investments and other business endeavors. If we raise additional funds through equity or convertible debt issuances, our existing stockholders may suffer significant dilution and these securities could have rights, preferences, and privileges that are superior to that of holders of our common stock. If we obtain additional funds through debt financing, we may not be able to obtain such financing on terms favorable to us. Such terms may involve restrictive covenants making it difficult to engage in capital raising activities and pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to support our business growth and to respond to business challenges could be significantly impaired and our business may be adversely affected, requiring us to delay, reduce, or eliminate some or all of our operations.

We are an emerging growth company, and we cannot be certain that the reduced disclosure requirements applicable to emerging growth companies will not make our common stock less attractive to investors.

We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act, and, for so long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.

We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of: (i) the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of this offering; (ii) the last day of the first fiscal year in which our annual gross revenue is $1.07 billion or more; (iii) the date on which we have, during the previous rolling three-year period, issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt securities; or (iv) the date on which we qualify as a “large accelerated filer.”

We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive or our company less comparable to certain other public companies because we will rely on these exemptions. For example, if we do not adopt a new or revised accounting standard, our future operating results may not be as comparable to the operating results of certain other companies in our industry that adopted such standards. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.

Our reported financial results may be adversely affected by changes in U.S. GAAP.

U.S. GAAP is subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, the SEC, and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported financial results and could affect the reporting of transactions completed before the announcement of a change.

In particular, in May 2014, the FASB issued ASC 606, which supersedes the revenue recognition requirements in ASC 605, Revenue Recognition. The core principle of ASC 606 is that an entity should

 

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recognize revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. As an “emerging growth company,” we are allowed under the JOBS Act to delay adoption of new or revised accounting pronouncements applicable to public companies until such pronouncements are made applicable to private companies. We have elected to take advantage of this extended transition period under the JOBS Act with respect to ASC 606, which will result in ASC 606 becoming effective for us for the year ending December 31, 2019. Any difficulties in implementing these pronouncements could cause us to fail to meet our financial reporting obligations, which could result in regulatory discipline and harm investors’ confidence in us.

We are evaluating ASC 606 and have not determined the impact it may have on our financial reporting. If, for example, we were required to recognize revenue differently with respect to our subscriptions or professional services, the differential revenue recognition may cause variability in our reported operating results due to periodic or long-term changes in the mix among our subscription offerings.

If currency exchange rates fluctuate substantially in the future, the results of our operations, which are reported in U.S. dollars, could be adversely affected.

As we expand our international footprint, we become more exposed to the effects of fluctuations in currency exchange rates. Although we expect an increasing number of sales contracts to be denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar in the future, all of our sales contracts have historically been denominated in U.S. dollars. However, we offer clients the option to settle invoices denominated in U.S. dollars in Euro, the British Pound, the Australian dollar, or the Canadian dollar, and therefore, our revenue is subject to foreign currency risk. While we currently use derivative instruments to hedge certain exposures to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, the use of such hedging activities may not offset any, or more than a portion, of the adverse financial effects of unfavorable movements in foreign exchange rates over the limited time the hedges are in place. Moreover, a strengthening of the U.S. dollar could increase the real cost of transacting on our platform to clients located outside of the United States and could result in a loss of such clients, which could adversely affect our business, operating results, financial condition, and cash flows.

We may be adversely affected by natural disasters and other catastrophic events, and by man-made problems such as terrorism, that could disrupt our business operations and our business continuity and disaster recovery plans may not adequately protect us from a serious disaster.

A significant natural disaster, such as an earthquake, blizzard, hurricane, fire or flood, or other catastrophic events, such as a power loss or telecommunications failure, could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, and operating results. In the event of natural disaster or other catastrophic event, we may be unable to continue our operations and may endure system interruptions, reputational harm, delays in development of our platform, lengthy interruptions in service, breaches of data security, and loss of critical data, all of which could have an adverse effect on our future operating results. Our corporate headquarters are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, a region known for seismic activity and potentially subject to catastrophic fires. In addition, natural disasters and other catastrophic events could affect our partners’ ability to perform services for users on a timely basis. In the event any such partners’ information technology systems or service abilities are hindered by any of the events discussed above, our ability to provide marketplace and other services may be impaired, resulting in missing financial targets for a particular quarter or year, or longer period. Further, if a natural disaster or other catastrophic event occurs in a region from which we derive a significant portion of our revenue, users in that region may delay or forego use of our marketplace or other services, which may adversely impact our operating results. In addition, acts of terrorism, civil disorder, or military conflict could cause disruptions in our business or the business and activity of our partners, users, or the economy as a whole. These disruptions may be more severe than in the case of natural disasters. All of the aforementioned risks may be augmented if our or our partners’ business continuity and disaster recovery plans prove to be inadequate. To the extent that any of the above results in delays or reductions in marketplace availability, activities or other services, our business, financial condition and operating results would be adversely affected.

 

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Risks Related to this Offering and Ownership of Our Common Stock

There has been no prior public market for our common stock, the stock price of our common stock may be volatile or may decline regardless of our operating performance, and you may not be able to resell your shares at or above the initial public offering price.

There has been no public market for our common stock prior to this offering. The initial public offering price for our common stock will be determined through negotiations between the underwriters, us, and the selling stockholders, and may vary from the market price of our common stock following this offering. The market prices of the securities of newly public companies such as ours have historically been highly volatile. The market price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:

 

•

overall performance of the equity markets;

 

•

actual or anticipated fluctuations in our revenue and other operating results;

 

•

changes in the financial projections we may provide to the public or our failure to meet these projections;

 

•

failure of securities analysts to initiate or maintain coverage of us, changes in financial estimates by any securities analysts who follow our company, or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;

 

•

recruitment or departure of key personnel;

 

•

the economy as a whole and market conditions in our industry;

 

•

negative publicity related to the real or perceived quality of our platform, as well as the failure to timely launch new products and services that gain market acceptance;

 

•

rumors and market speculation involving us or other companies in our industry;

 

•

announcements by us or our competitors of new products or services, commercial relationships, or significant technical innovations;

 

•

acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, or capital commitments;

 

•

new laws or regulations or new interpretations of existing laws or regulations applicable to our business;

 

•

lawsuits threatened or filed against us, litigation involving our industry, or both;

 

•

developments or disputes concerning our or other parties’ products, services or intellectual property rights;

 

•

changes in accounting standards, policies, guidelines, interpretations, or principles;

 

•

other events or factors, including those resulting from war, incidents of terrorism, or responses to these events;

 

•

the expiration of contractual lock-up or market stand-off agreements; and

 

•

sales of shares of our common stock by us or our stockholders.

In addition, the stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many companies. Stock prices of many companies, and technology companies in particular, have fluctuated in a manner unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. In the past, stockholders have instituted securities class action litigation following periods of market volatility. If we were to become involved in securities litigation, it could subject us to substantial costs, divert resources and the attention of management from our business, and adversely affect our business.

Participation in this offering by one or more funds affiliated with Dragoneer Investment Group, LLC could reduce the public float for our shares of common stock.

One or more funds affiliated with Dragoneer Investment Group, LLC have indicated an interest in purchasing shares of common stock with an aggregate purchase price of up to $27.0 million in this offering at the

 

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initial public offering price. Because this indication of interest is not a binding agreement or commitment to purchase, one or more funds affiliated with Dragoneer Investment Group, LLC could determine to purchase more, less, or no shares in this offering, or the underwriters could determine to sell more, less, or no shares to one or more funds affiliated with Dragoneer Investment Group, LLC. The underwriters will receive the same discount on any of our shares of common stock purchased by one or more funds affiliated with Dragoneer Investment Group, LLC as they will from any other shares of common stock sold to the public in this offering.

If one or more funds affiliated with Dragoneer Investment Group, LLC are allocated all or a portion of the shares in which it has indicated an interest in this offering or more, and purchase any such shares, such purchase could reduce the available public float for our shares if such entities hold these shares long term.

Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public markets, particularly sales by our directors, executive officers, and significant stockholders, or the perception that these sales could occur, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline and may make it more difficult for you to sell your common stock at a time and price that you deem appropriate.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock into the public market, particularly sales by our directors, executive officers, and principal stockholders, or the perception that these sales might occur, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline and may make it more difficult for you to sell your common stock at a time and price that you deem appropriate.

All of the shares of common stock sold in this offering will be freely tradable without restrictions or further registration under the Securities Act, except for any shares held by our affiliates as defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act.

Subject to certain exceptions, we, all of our directors and executive officers, the selling stockholders, and substantially all of the holders of our common stock, or securities exercisable for or convertible into our common stock outstanding immediately prior to this offering, are subject to market stand-off agreements with us or have entered into lock-up agreements with the underwriters under which they have agreed, subject to specific exceptions described in the section titled “Underwriting,” not to offer, sell, or agree to sell, directly or indirectly, any shares of common stock without the permission of each of Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Jefferies LLC on behalf of the underwriters, for a period of 180 days from the date of this prospectus. These agreements are subject to certain customary exceptions. When the lock-up period expires, we and our securityholders subject to a lock-up agreement or market stand-off agreement will be able to sell our shares in the public market. In addition, the underwriters may, in their sole discretion, release all or some portion of the shares subject to lock-up agreements prior to the expiration of the lock-up period. See the section titled “Shares Eligible for Future Sale” for more information. Sales of a substantial number of such shares upon expiration of the lock-up and market stand-off agreements, or the perception that such sales may occur, or early release of these agreements, could cause our market price to fall or make it more difficult for you to sell your common stock at a time and price that you deem appropriate.

In addition, as of June 30, 2018, we had stock options outstanding that, if fully exercised, would result in the issuance of 22,932,222 shares of common stock. We also granted options to purchase 2,693,123 shares of our common stock after June 30, 2018 and will grant RSUs settleable for approximately 458,177 shares of our common stock on the date of this prospectus, based upon an assumed initial public offering price of $11.00 per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus. All of the shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of stock options or settlement of RSUs, and the shares reserved for future issuance under our equity incentive plans, will be registered for public resale under the Securities Act. Accordingly, these shares will be able to be freely sold in the public market upon issuance subject to existing lock-up or market stand-off agreements and applicable vesting requirements.

Immediately following this offering, the holders of 55,463,594 shares of our common stock, as of August 31, 2018, have rights, subject to some conditions, to require us to file registration statements for the public resale of the common stock issuable upon conversion of such shares or to include such shares in registration statements that we may file for us or other stockholders.

 

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We may also issue our shares of common stock or securities convertible into shares of our common stock from time to time in connection with a financing, an acquisition, investments, or otherwise. We also expect to grant equity awards to employees, directors, and consultants under our equity incentive plans. Any such issuance could result in substantial dilution to our existing stockholders and cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

The concentration of our stock ownership with insiders will likely limit your ability to influence corporate matters, including the ability to influence the outcome of director elections and other matters requiring stockholder approval.

We anticipate that our executive officers, directors, current 5% or greater stockholders, and affiliated entities will together beneficially own approximately 63.3% of our common stock outstanding after this offering (or 62.7% if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares in full) as of August 31, 2018. As a result, these stockholders, acting together, will have control over most matters that require approval by our stockholders, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions. Corporate action might be taken even if other stockholders, including those who purchase shares in this offering, oppose them. This concentration of ownership might also have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of us that other stockholders may view as beneficial.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research, about our business, the price of our common stock and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. Securities and industry analysts do not currently, and may never, publish research on our company. If few securities analysts commence coverage of us, or if industry analysts cease coverage of us, the trading price for our common stock would be negatively affected. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our common stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the price of our common stock would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our common stock could decrease, which might cause our common stock price and trading volume to decline.

Even if our stock is actively covered by analysts, we do not have any control over the analysts or the measures that analysts or investors may rely upon to forecast our future results.

An active public trading market may not develop or be sustained following this offering.

Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for our common stock. We have applied to list our common stock on The Nasdaq Global Market, however, an active trading market may not develop following the completion of this offering or, if developed, may not be sustained. The lack of an active market may impair your ability to sell your shares at the time you wish to sell them or at a price that you consider reasonable. The lack of an active market may also reduce the market price of your shares of common stock. An inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital by selling shares and may impair our ability to acquire other companies or technologies by using our shares as consideration. We cannot predict the prices at which our common stock will trade. The initial public offering price of our common stock will be determined by negotiations between us, the underwriters, and the selling stockholders, and may not bear any relationship to the market price at which our common stock will trade after this offering or to any other established criteria of the value of our business and prospects.

Because the initial public offering price of our common stock will be substantially higher than the pro forma net tangible book value per share of our outstanding common stock following this offering, new investors will experience immediate and substantial dilution.

The initial public offering price is substantially higher than the pro forma net tangible book value per share of our common stock immediately following this offering based on the total value of our tangible assets less our total liabilities. Therefore, if you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, based on the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and the issuance by us of 6,818,181 shares of

 

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common stock in this offering, you will experience immediate dilution of $10.29 per share, the difference between the price per share you pay for our common stock and its pro forma net tangible book value per share as of June 30, 2018. Furthermore, if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares, if outstanding stock options are exercised, if RSUs are settled, if we issue awards to our employees under our equity incentive plans, or if we otherwise issue additional shares of our common stock, you could experience further dilution. See the section titled “Dilution” for additional information.

We will have broad discretion in the use of the net proceeds to us from this offering and may not use them effectively.

We will have broad discretion in the application of the net proceeds to us from this offering, including for any of the purposes described in the section titled “Use of Proceeds,” and you will not have the opportunity as part of your investment decision to assess whether the net proceeds are being used appropriately. Because of the number and variability of factors that will determine our use of the net proceeds from this offering, their ultimate use may vary substantially from their currently intended use. If we do not use the net proceeds that we receive in this offering effectively, our business, financial condition, operating results, and prospects could be adversely affected, and the market price of our common stock could decline. Pending their use, we may invest the net proceeds from this offering in short-term, investment-grade interest-bearing securities, such as money market accounts, certificates of deposit, commercial paper, and guaranteed obligations of the U.S. government that may not generate a high yield for our stockholders. These investments may not yield a favorable return to our investors.

We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock and do not intend to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Additionally, our ability to pay dividends on our common stock is limited by restrictions under the terms of our credit agreement. We anticipate that for the foreseeable future we will retain all of our future earnings for use in the development of our business and for general corporate purposes. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors. Accordingly, investors must rely on sales of their common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investments.

Provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of our company more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management, limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees, and limit the market price of our common stock.

Provisions in our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws that will be in effect immediately following the completion of this offering may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management. Our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws include provisions that:

 

•

provide that our board of directors will be classified into three classes of directors with staggered three-year terms;

 

•

permit the board of directors to establish the number of directors and fill any vacancies and newly-created directorships;

 

•

require super-majority voting to amend some provisions in our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws;

 

•

authorize the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock that our board of directors could use to implement a stockholder rights plan;

 

•

provide that only the chairperson of our board of directors, our chief executive officer, president, lead independent director, or a majority of our board of directors will be authorized to call a special meeting of stockholders;

 

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•

prohibit stockholder action by written consent, which requires all stockholder actions to be taken at a meeting of our stockholders;

 

•

provide that the board of directors is expressly authorized to make, alter, or repeal our bylaws; and

 

•

establish advance notice requirements for nominations for election to our board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at annual stockholder meetings.

In addition, our restated certificate of incorporation will provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, any action asserting a breach of fiduciary duty, any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, or DGCL, our restated certificate of incorporation, or our restated bylaws, or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. Our restated bylaws will also provide that the federal district courts of the United States will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any of our securities shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to this provision.

These choice of forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, and other employees. If a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our restated bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could adversely impact our business, operating results, and financial condition.

Moreover, Section 203 of the DGCL may discourage, delay, or prevent a change of control of our company. Section 203 imposes certain restrictions on mergers, business combinations, and other transactions between us and holders of 15% or more of our common stock. See the section titled “Description of Capital Stock” for additional information.

 

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This prospectus contains forward-looking statements. All statements contained in this prospectus other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding our future operating results and financial position, our business strategy and plans, market growth, and our objectives for future operations, are forward-looking statements. The words “believe,” “may,” “will,” “potentially,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “would,” “project,” “target,” “plan,” “expect,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus include, but are not limited to, statements about:

 

•

our future financial performance, including our expectations regarding our total revenue, cost of revenue, gross profit or gross margin, operating expenses including changes in operating expenses and our ability to achieve and maintain future profitability;

 

•

our business plan and our ability to effectively manage our growth;

 

•

the widespread adoption of online global marketplaces for freelance work;

 

•

our total market opportunity;

 

•

anticipated trends, growth rates, and challenges in our business and in the markets in which we operate;

 

•

market acceptance of our platform and our ability to increase adoption of our platform;

 

•

beliefs and objectives for future operations;

 

•

our ability to further attract, retain, and expand a community of users;

 

•

our ability to timely and effectively scale and adapt our platform;

 

•

our ability to develop new products and services and bring them to market in a timely manner and make enhancements to our platform;

 

•

our expectations concerning relationships with third parties;

 

•

our ability to maintain, protect, and enhance our intellectual property;

 

•

our ability to continue to expand internationally;

 

•

the effects of increased competition in our markets and our ability to compete effectively;

 

•

future acquisitions or investments in complementary companies, products, services, or technologies;

 

•

our ability to stay in compliance with laws and regulations that currently apply or become applicable to our business both in the United States and internationally;

 

•

economic and industry trends, projected growth, or trend analysis;

 

•

the attraction and retention of qualified service providers;

 

•

the estimates and methodologies used in preparing our consolidated financial statements and determining stock option exercise prices; and

 

•

the future market prices of our common stock.

These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, including those described in the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this prospectus. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment, and new risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this prospectus may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements.

 

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You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur. We undertake no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this prospectus or to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations, except as required by law.

You should read this prospectus and the documents that we reference in this prospectus and have filed with the SEC as exhibits to the registration statement of which this prospectus is a part with the understanding that our actual future results, performance, and events and circumstances may be materially different from what we expect.

 

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MARKET AND INDUSTRY DATA

Unless otherwise indicated, information contained in this prospectus concerning our industry and the markets in which we operate, including our general expectations and market position, market opportunity, and market size, is based on information from various sources, as well as assumptions that we have made that are based on those data and other similar sources and on our knowledge of the markets for our platform. This information involves important assumptions and limitations, is inherently imprecise, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to such estimates. In addition, projections, assumptions, and estimates of our future performance and the future performance of the industry in which we operate is necessarily subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this prospectus. These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the estimates made by the independent parties and by us. The information contained on, or that can be accessed through, any website listed below is not a part of this prospectus.

This prospectus contains statistical data, estimates, and forecasts that are based on publications or reports generated by third parties, including reports that we commissioned, or other publicly available information, as well as other information based on our internal sources.

The source of, and selected additional information contained in, the independent industry and other publications related to the information so identified are provided below. The information contained on, or that can be accessed through, the websites listed below are not part of this prospectus.

 

•

Accenture, Technology Vision 2017, 2017.

 

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Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce, Gross Domestic Product by Metropolitan Area, 2016.

 

•

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, 2017.

 

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DHI Group, Inc., Measure of National Mean Vacancy Duration, June 2018.

 

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Federal Reserve, Declining Migration Within the US: The Role of the Labor Market, 2013.

 

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Global Workplace Analytics, Flexjobs, 2017 State of Telecommuting in the U.S. Employee Workforce, 2017.

 

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Inavero and Upwork Inc., 2018 Future Workforce Report (commissioned by Upwork), February 2018.

 

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McKinsey Global Institute, A Labor Market that Works: Connecting Talent with Opportunity in the Digital Age, June 2015. This report can be found at: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/employment-and-growth/connecting-talent-with-opportunity-in-the-digital-age.

 

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McKinsey Global Institute, Independent Work: Choice, Necessity, and the Gig Economy, October 2016. This report can be found at: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/employment-and-growth/independent-work-choice-necessity-and-the-gig-economy.

 

•

McKinsey Global Institute, The Emerging Global Labor Market: Part 1—The Demand for Offshore Talent in Services, June 2005. This report can be found at: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/employment-and-growth/the-emerging-global-labor-market-demand-for-offshore-talent.

 

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The NFIB Research Foundation, Small Business Economic Trends, © NFIB Research Center, April 2018.

 

•

Oxford Internet Institute, Online Labour Index, 2017.

 

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United States Census Bureau, How Do We Know? Working at Home is on the Rise, June 2013.

 

•

World Economic Forum, Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

 

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USE OF PROCEEDS

We estimate that the net proceeds from the sale by us of 6,818,181 shares of common stock that we are selling in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $11.00 per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, will be approximately $63.7 million, or $74.2 million if the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares is exercised in full.

We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of our common stock by the selling stockholders, although we will bear the costs, other than underwriting discounts and commissions, associated with the sale of these shares.

A $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $11.00 per share would increase (decrease) the net proceeds to us from this offering by approximately $6.3 million, assuming the number of shares of our common stock offered by us remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions payable by us. Similarly, each increase (decrease) of 1,000,000 shares in the number of shares of our common stock offered by us would increase (decrease) the net proceeds from this offering by approximately $10.2 million, assuming that the assumed initial public offering price of $11.00 remains the same, and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

The principal purposes of this offering are to create a public market for our common stock, increase our visibility in the marketplace, obtain additional capital, and increase our capitalization and financial flexibility. We currently intend to use the net proceeds we receive from this offering primarily for working capital and other general corporate purposes, which may include product development, general and administrative matters, and capital expenditures. We also intend to use a portion of the net proceeds we receive from this offering to repay approximately $10.0 million of indebtedness under our Loan Agreement. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds for the acquisition of, or investment in, technologies, solutions, or businesses that complement our business. However, we do not have agreements or commitments for any acquisitions or investments outside the ordinary course of business at this time.

The approximately $10.0 million of outstanding indebtedness that we intend to repay under our Loan Agreement represents $10.0 million of outstanding indebtedness under a revolving line of credit. The $10.0 million under the revolving line of credit is scheduled to mature in September 2020, and interest on such borrowings accrues at a fixed per annum rate equal to the prime rate. See the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Term and Revolving Loans.”

We will have broad discretion over the uses of the net proceeds that we receive from this offering. Pending these uses, we intend to invest the net proceeds that we receive from this offering in short-term, investment-grade interest-bearing securities, such as money market accounts, certificates of deposit, commercial paper, and guaranteed obligations of the U.S. government.

DIVIDEND POLICY

We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our capital stock. We currently intend to retain all available funds and any future earnings for use in the operation of our business and do not anticipate paying any dividends on our capital stock in the foreseeable future. Any future determination to declare dividends will be made at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on our financial condition, operating results, capital requirements, general business conditions, and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant. In addition, our Loan Agreement contains restrictions on our ability to pay cash dividends on our capital stock.

 

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CAPITALIZATION

The following table sets forth our cash and capitalization as of June 30, 2018, on:

 

•

an actual basis;

 

•

a pro forma basis, which reflects (i) the automatic conversion of 61,279,079 outstanding shares of our convertible preferred stock as of June 30, 2018 into the same number of shares of our common stock, (ii) the automatic conversion of an outstanding warrant exercisable for 398,331 shares of our convertible preferred stock as of June 30, 2018 into a warrant exercisable for the same number of shares of common stock upon the completion of this offering, and (iii) the filing and effectiveness of our restated certificate of incorporation; and

 

•

a pro forma as adjusted basis, which reflects (i) all adjustments included in the pro forma column, (ii) the sale by us of 6,818,181 shares of our common stock in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $11.00 per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the front cover of this prospectus, after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, net of $1.6 million of offering costs paid as of June 30, 2018, (iii) the reclassification of $3.2 million of deferred offering costs recorded in other assets, noncurrent on the consolidated balance sheet to additional paid-in capital, (iv) the application of such proceeds as described in the section titled “Use of Proceeds,” and (v) the issuance of 102,235 shares of our common stock to certain selling stockholders upon the exercise of stock options in order to sell such shares in this offering, including net proceeds of $0.3 million received by us in connection with the exercise of such options.

You should read this table together with our consolidated financial statements and related notes, “Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data,” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” each included elsewhere in this prospectus.

 

		As of June 30, 2018
		Actual				Pro Forma				Pro Forma as Adjusted(1)
		(in thousands, except share and per share data)
Cash		$	31,331			$	31,331				$86,990
Debt, current and non-current		$	33,884			$	33,884				$23,884
Redeemable convertible preferred stock warrant liability			1,463				—				—
Redeemable convertible preferred stock, $0.0001 par value per share; 76,141,345 shares authorized, 61,279,079 shares issued and outstanding, actual; no shares authorized, issued, and outstanding, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted			166,486				—				—
Stockholders’ (deficit) equity:
Preferred stock, $0.0001 par value per share; no shares authorized, issued, and outstanding, actual; 10,000,000 shares authorized, no shares issued and outstanding, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted			—				—				—
Common stock, $0.0001 par value per share; 150,000,000 shares authorized, 35,880,003 shares issued and outstanding, actual; 490,000 shares authorized, 97,159,082 shares issued and outstanding, pro forma; 104,079,498 shares issued and outstanding, pro forma as adjusted			4				10				10
Additional paid-in capital			100,173				268,116				332,179
Accumulated deficit			(130,788	)			(130,788	)			(130,788	)
Total stockholders’ (deficit) equity			(30,611	)			137,338				201,401
Total capitalization		$	171,222			$	171,222				$225,285

 

(1)

The pro forma as adjusted information presented is illustrative only and will be adjusted based on the actual public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing. Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $11.00

 

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per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) our pro forma as adjusted cash, additional paid-in capital, total stockholders’ (deficit) equity, and total capitalization by $6.3 million, assuming that the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions payable by us. Similarly, each increase (decrease) of 1,000,000 shares in the number of shares of our common stock offered by us would increase (decrease) the amount of our pro forma as adjusted cash, additional paid-in capital, total stockholders’ (deficit) equity, and total capitalization by $10.2 million, assuming that the assumed initial public offering price remains the same, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions payable by us. If the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares from us is exercised in full, the pro forma as adjusted amount of each of cash, additional paid-in capital, total stockholders’ (deficit) equity, and total capitalization would increase by $10.5 million, after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions payable by us, and we would have 105,102,225 shares of our common stock issued and outstanding, pro forma as adjusted.

The number of shares of our common stock to be outstanding after this offering is based on 97,159,082 shares of our common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2018 and 102,235 shares to be issued upon exercise of stock options by certain selling stockholders and sold in this offering, and excludes:

 

•

22,829,987 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of stock options outstanding as of June 30, 2018, with a weighted-average exercise price of $3.29 per share (other than 102,235 shares to be issued upon exercise of stock options by certain selling stockholders sold in this offering);

 

•

398,331 shares of convertible preferred stock issuable upon the exercise of a convertible preferred stock warrant outstanding as of June 30, 2018, with an exercise price of $3.13 per share, which automatically converts into a warrant to purchase the same number of shares of common stock upon the completion of this offering;

 

•

2,693,123 shares issuable upon the exercise of stock options granted after June 30, 2018, with a weighted-average exercise price of $6.84 per share;

 

•

approximately 458,177 shares of our common stock issuable upon the vesting of RSUs to be granted effective as of the filing of our registration statement on Form S-8, based upon an assumed initial offering price of $11.00 per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, including the RSUs to be granted to our non-employee directors in accordance with our non-employee director compensation policy described in the section titled “Management—Non-Employee Director Compensation;”

 

•

500,000 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of a common stock warrant outstanding as of June 30, 2018 with an exercise price of $0.01 per share that we issued in May 2018 to the Tides Foundation in connection with establishing The Upwork Foundation initiative; and

 

•

14,743,154 shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans, consisting of (i) 2,543,154 shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our 2014 Plan, as of June 30, 2018 (which number of shares is prior to the stock options to purchase shares of our common stock granted after June 30, 2018 and an increase of 100,000 shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our 2014 Plan after June 30, 2018), (ii) 10,500,000 shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our 2018 Plan, which will become effective on the day immediately prior to the date of this prospectus (which is the number of shares reserved for future issuance prior to taking into account the RSUs granted on the date of this prospectus), and (iii) 1,700,000 shares of our common stock reserved for issuance under our 2018 ESPP, which will become effective on the date the registration statement for this offering is declared effective.

On the date immediately prior to the date of this prospectus, any remaining shares available for issuance under our 2014 Plan will be added to the shares of our common stock reserved for issuance under our 2018 Plan, and we will cease granting awards under the 2014 Plan. Our 2018 Plan and 2018 ESPP also provide for automatic annual increases in the number of shares reserved thereunder. See the section titled “Executive Compensation—Employee Benefit and Stock Plans” for additional information.

 

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DILUTION

If you invest in our common stock, your interest will be diluted to the extent of the difference between the amount per share paid by purchasers of shares of common stock in this initial public offering and the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of common stock immediately after this offering.

As of June 30, 2018, our pro forma net tangible book value was $11.8 million, or $0.12 per share of common stock. Our pro forma net tangible book value per share represents the amount of our total tangible assets reduced by the amount of our total liabilities and divided by the total number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2018, after giving effect to (i) the automatic conversion of 61,279,079 outstanding shares of our convertible preferred stock into the same number of shares of our common stock, (ii) the automatic conversion of an outstanding warrant exercisable for 398,331 shares of our convertible preferred stock as of June 30, 2018 into a warrant exercisable for the same number of shares of common stock upon completion of this offering, and (iii) the filing and effectiveness of our restated certificate of incorporation.

After giving effect to (i) the sale by us in this offering of 6,818,181 shares of our common stock, at an assumed initial public offering price of $11.00 per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, net of $1.6 million of offering costs paid as of June 30, 2018, (ii) the reclassification of $3.2 million of deferred offering costs recorded in other assets, noncurrent on the consolidated balance sheet to additional paid-in capital, (iii) the application of such proceeds as described in the section titled “Use of Proceeds,” and (iv) the issuance of 102,235 shares of our common stock to certain selling stockholders upon the exercise of stock options in order to sell such shares in this offering, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of June 30, 2018 would have been $74.3 million, or $0.71 per share. This represents an immediate increase in pro forma net tangible book value of $0.59 per share to our existing stockholders and an immediate dilution of $10.29 per share to investors purchasing common stock in this offering at the assumed initial public offering price.

The following table illustrates this dilution on a per share basis to new investors:

 

Assumed initial public offering price per share						$	11.00
Pro forma net tangible book value per share as of June 30, 2018, before giving effect to this offering		$	0.12
Increase in pro forma net tangible book value per share attributable to new investors in this offering			0.59
Pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share							0.71
Dilution in pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share to new investors in this offering						$	10.29

A $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $11.00 per share, which is the midpoint of the price range reflected on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering by $0.06 per share and would increase (decrease) the dilution per share to new investors in this offering by $0.94 per share, assuming the number of shares of common stock offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions payable by us. Similarly, each increase (decrease) of 1,000,000 shares in the number of shares of common stock offered by us would increase (decrease) the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering by $0.09 per share and would increase (decrease) the dilution to new investors by $(0.09) per share, assuming the assumed initial public offering price, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions payable by us.

If the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares in full, the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our common stock after giving effect to this offering would be $0.81 per share, and the dilution in pro forma net tangible book value per share to investors in this offering would be $10.19 per share.

 

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The following table summarizes, on a pro forma as adjusted basis as of June 30, 2018, after giving effect to the pro forma adjustments described above, the difference between existing stockholders and new investors purchasing shares of common stock in this offering with respect to the number of shares purchased from us, the total consideration paid to us, and the average price per share paid by our existing stockholders or to be paid by investors purchasing shares in this offering at an assumed offering price of $11.00 per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, before deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us:

 

		Shares Purchased								Total Consideration								Average Price Per Share
		Number				Percent				Amount				Percent
										(dollars in millions)
Existing stockholders			97,159,082				93.4%			$	43.9				36.9%			$	0.45
New public investors			6,818,181				6.6				75.0				63.1				11.00
Total			103,977,263				100%			$	118.9				100%

A $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $11.00 per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) total consideration paid by new investors and total consideration paid by all stockholders by approximately $13.0 million, assuming that the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus remains the same and after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions payable by us.

Sales of shares of common stock by the selling stockholders in this offering will reduce the number of shares of common stock held by existing stockholders to 91,808,020, or approximately 88.2% of the total shares of common stock outstanding after this offering, and will increase the number of shares held by new investors to 12,271,478, or approximately 11.8% of the total shares of common stock outstanding after this offering.

Except as otherwise indicated, the above discussion and tables assume no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares of our common stock. If the underwriters exercise their option in full to purchase additional shares, our existing stockholders would own 86.5% and our new investors would own 13.5% of the total number of shares of our common stock outstanding after this offering, including the shares to be sold by selling stockholders.

In addition, to the extent we issue any additional stock options or RSUs or any outstanding stock options or warrants are exercised or outstanding RSUs are settled, or we issue any other securities or convertible debt in the future, investors will experience further dilution.

The number of shares of our common stock to be outstanding after this offering is based on 97,159,082 shares of our common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2018 and 102,235 shares to be issued upon exercise of stock options by certain selling stockholders and sold in this offering, and excludes:

 

•

22,829,987 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of stock options outstanding as of June 30, 2018, with a weighted-average exercise price of $3.29 per share (other than 102,235 shares to be issued upon exercise of stock options by certain selling stockholders sold in this offering);

 

•

398,331 shares of convertible preferred stock issuable upon the exercise of a convertible preferred stock warrant outstanding as of June 30, 2018, with an exercise price of $3.13 per share, which automatically converts into a warrant to purchase the same number of shares of common stock upon the completion of this offering;

 

•

2,693,123 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of stock options granted after June 30, 2018, with a weighted-average exercise price of $6.84 per share;

 

•

approximately 458,177 shares of our common stock issuable upon the vesting of RSUs to be granted effective as of the filing of our registration statement on Form S-8, based upon an assumed initial offering price of $11.00 per share, which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, including the RSUs to be granted to our non-employee directors in accordance with our non-employee director compensation policy described in the section titled “Management—Non-Employee Director Compensation;”

 

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•

500,000 shares of our common stock issuable upon the exercise of a common stock warrant outstanding as of June 30, 2018 with an exercise price of $0.01 per share that we issued in May 2018 to the Tides Foundation in connection with establishing The Upwork Foundation initiative; and

 

•

14,743,154 shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans, consisting of (i) 2,543,154 shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our 2014 Plan, as of June 30, 2018 (which number of shares is prior to the stock options to purchase shares of our common stock granted after June 30, 2018 and an increase of 100,000 shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our 2014 Plan after June 30, 2018), (ii) 10,500,000 shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our 2018 Plan, which will become effective on the day immediately prior to the date of this prospectus (which is the number of shares reserved for future issuance prior to taking into account the RSUs granted on the date of this prospectus), and (iii) 1,700,000 shares of our common stock reserved for issuance under our 2018 ESPP, which will become effective on the date the registration statement for this offering is declared effective.

Immediately prior to the date of this prospectus, any remaining shares available for issuance under our 2014 Plan will be added to the shares of our common stock reserved for issuance under our 2018 Plan, and we will cease granting awards under the 2014 Plan. Our 2018 Plan and 2018 ESPP also provide for automatic annual increases in the number of shares reserved thereunder. See the section titled “Executive Compensation—Employee Benefit and Stock Plans” for additional information.

 

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SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL AND OTHER DATA

The following tables present selected historical consolidated financial and other data for our business. We derived the selected consolidated statements of operations data for 2016 and 2017 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2016 and 2017 from our audited consolidated financial statements that are included elsewhere in this prospectus. The selected consolidated statements of operations data for the six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2018, and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of June 30, 2018, are derived from the unaudited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. Our unaudited interim consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP, on the same basis as our audited annual consolidated financial statements and, in the opinion of management, reflect all adjustments, consisting only of normal, recurring adjustments, that are necessary for the fair statement of our consolidated financial position as of June 30, 2018 and our consolidated results of operations for the six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2018. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for any other period in the future, and the results for the six months ended June 30, 2018 are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the full year or any other period. You should read this information in conjunction with the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements, the accompanying notes, and other financial information included elsewhere in this prospectus.

 

		Year Ended December 31,								Six Months Ended June 30,
		2016				2017				2017				2018
		(in thousands, except per share data and percentages)
Consolidated Statements of Operations Data:
Revenue:
Marketplace		$	138,484			$	178,046			$	83,938			$	107,413
Managed services			25,961				24,506				11,593				14,486
Total revenue			164,445				202,552				95,531				121,899
Cost of revenue(1)			62,578				65,443				30,953				40,074
Gross profit			101,867				137,109				64,578				81,825
Operating expenses:
Research and development(1)			37,902				45,604				21,005				26,303
Sales and marketing(1)			37,437				53,044				23,701				36,087
General and administrative(1)			35,446				37,334				16,463				22,395
Provision for transaction losses			5,550				4,250				1,784				2,720
Total operating expenses			116,335				140,232				62,953				87,505
Income (loss) from operations			(14,468	)			(3,123	)			1,625				(5,680	)
Interest expense			858				960				430				1,085
Other (income) expense, net			908				62				(185	)			422
Income (loss) before income taxes			(16,234	)			(4,145	)			1,380				(7,187	)
Income tax benefit (provision)			1				22				(11	)			(9	)
Net income (loss)		$	(16,233	)		$	(4,123	)		$	1,369			$	(7,196	)
Premium paid on repurchase of redeemable convertible preferred stock			—				(6,506	)			—				—
Undistributed earnings allocable to preferred stockholders			—				—				(1,369	)			—
Net loss attributable to common stockholders		$	(16,233	)		$	(10,629	)		$	—			$	(7,196	)
Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted(2)		$	(0.51	)		$	(0.32	)		$	—			$	(0.21	)

 

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		Year Ended December 31,								Six Months Ended June 30,
		2016				2017				2017				2018
		(in thousands, except per share data and percentages)
Weighted-average shares used to compute net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted(2)			32,072				32,945				32,487				34,651
Pro forma net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted(2)						$	(0.04	)						$	(0.07	)
Weighted-average shares used to compute pro forma net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted(2)							98,072								95,930
Supplemental pro forma net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted(2)						$	(0.04	)						$	(0.07	)
Supplemental weighted-average shares used to compute supplemental pro forma net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted(2)							98,154								96,840
Other Financial and Operating Data(3):
Core clients(4)			76.5				86.4				78.6				95.7
Gross services volume (GSV)(5)		$	1,148,363			$	1,373,161			$	643,155			$	834,532
Client spend retention(6)			85%				99%				92%				106%
Adjusted EBITDA(7)		$	1,260			$	7,909			$	7,018			$	256

 

(1)

Amounts include stock-based compensation expense as follows:

 

		Year Ended December 31,								Six Months Ended June 30,
		2016				2017				2017				2018
		(in thousands)
Cost of revenue		$	193			$	290			$	193			$	105
Research and development			1,820				1,797				839				1,088
Sales and marketing			1,052				1,299				655				671
General and administrative			4,201				3,460				1,604				1,817
Total		$	7,266			$	6,846			$	3,291			$	3,681

 

(2)

See Notes 2 and 11 of the notes to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus for an explanation of the calculations of our net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted, and pro forma and supplemental pro forma net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted.

(3)

For a discussion of limitations in the measurement of core clients, GSV, and client spend retention, see the section titled “Risk Factors—We track certain performance metrics with internal tools and do not independently verify such metrics. Certain of our performance metrics are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.”

(4)

For the definition of core clients, see the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Financial and Operational Metrics.”

(5)

For the definition of GSV, see the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Financial and Operational Metrics.”

 

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(6)

For the definition of client spend retention, see the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Financial and Operational Metrics.”

(7)

For the definition of adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation of net loss to adjusted EBITDA, see the section titled “Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data—Non-GAAP Financial Measures.”

 

		As of December 31,								As of June 30, 2018
		2016				2017
		(in thousands)
Consolidated Balance Sheet Data:
Cash		$	27,326			$	21,595			$	31,331
Working capital			31,205				29,483				24,148
Total assets			249,600				275,189				290,263
Debt, current and noncurrent			16,962				33,833				33,884
Redeemable convertible preferred stock			178,785				166,486				166,486
Total stockholders’ deficit			(30,131	)			(31,367	)			(30,611	)

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to our results determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP, adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure that we believe is useful in evaluating our operating performance.

We define adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) adjusted for stock-based compensation expense, depreciation and amortization, interest expense, other (income) expense, net, and income tax (benefit) provision.

The following table presents a reconciliation of net income (loss) to adjusted EBITDA, the most directly comparable financial measure prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP, for each of the periods indicated:

 

		Year Ended December 31,								Six Months Ended June 30,
		2016				2017				2017				2018
		(in thousands)
Net income (loss)		$	(16,233	)		$	(4,123	)		$	1,369			$	(7,196	)
Add back (deduct):
Stock-based compensation expense			7,266				6,846				3,291				3,681
Depreciation and amortization			8,462				4,186				2,102				2,255
Interest expense			858				960				430				1,085
Other (income) expense, net			908				62				(185	)			422
Income tax (benefit) provision			(1	)			(22	)			11				9
Adjusted EBITDA		$	1,260			$	7,909			$	7,018			$	256

We use adjusted EBITDA as a measure of operational efficiency. We believe that this non-GAAP financial measure is useful to investors for period-to-period comparisons of our business and in understanding and evaluating our operating results for the following reasons:

 

•

adjusted EBITDA is widely used by investors and securities analysts to measure a company’s operating performance without regard to items such as stock-based compensation expense, depreciation and amortization, interest expense, other (income) expense, net, and income tax (benefit) provision that can vary substantially from company to company depending upon their financing, capital structures, and the method by which assets were acquired;

 

•

our management uses adjusted EBITDA in conjunction with financial measures prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP for planning purposes, including the preparation of our annual operating budget, as a measure of our core operating results and the effectiveness of our business strategy, and in evaluating our financial performance; and

 

•

adjusted EBITDA provides consistency and comparability with our past financial performance, facilitates period-to-period comparisons of our core operating results, and also facilitates comparisons with other peer companies, many of which use similar non-GAAP financial measures to supplement their GAAP results.

 

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Our use of adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our financial results as reported under U.S. GAAP. Some of these limitations are as follows:

 

•

adjusted EBITDA excludes stock-based compensation expense, which has recently been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, a significant recurring expense for our business and an important part of our compensation strategy;

 

•

although depreciation and amortization expense are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future, and adjusted EBITDA does not reflect cash capital expenditure requirements for such replacements or for new capital expenditure requirements;

 

•

adjusted EBITDA does not reflect: (a) changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs; (b) interest expense, or the cash requirements necessary to service interest or principal payments on our debt, which reduces cash available to us; or (c) tax payments that may represent a reduction in cash available to us; and

 

•

other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate adjusted EBITDA or similarly titled measures differently, which reduces the usefulness of this measure for comparative purposes.

Because of these and other limitations, you should consider adjusted EBITDA along with other financial performance measures, including net loss and our other financial results prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

 

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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the section titled “Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data” and the consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto included elsewhere in this prospectus. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed below. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those identified below and those discussed in the section titled “Risk Factors” included elsewhere in this prospectus.

Overview

We operate the largest online global marketplace that enables businesses to find and work with highly-skilled freelancers as measured by GSV. Freelancers are an increasingly sought-after, critical, and expanding segment of the global workforce. In the twelve months ended June 30, 2018, our platform enabled $1.56 billion of GSV across 2.0 million projects between approximately 375,000 freelancers and 475,000 clients in over 180 countries. We define freelancers as users of our platform that advertise and provide services to clients through our platform, and we define clients as users of our platform that work with freelancers through our platform. The freelancers on our platform include independent professionals and agencies of varying sizes. The clients on our platform range in size from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies.

Our platform reduces inefficiencies associated with searching for, contracting and collaborating with, and paying highly-skilled freelancers for short-term and longer-term projects. As early innovators in this space, we have built an expansive and unique repository of data on our platform, which, when combined with our machine learning capabilities, enables us to better connect clients with the best freelancers for their projects. As a result, clients are able to obtain specialized talent in less time and at a lower cost compared to traditional channels.

Our company was formed when two of the earliest innovators in driving the adoption of online work and the largest online talent marketplaces at the time, Elance and oDesk, combined in 2014. Since the combination, we have continued to innovate our offerings and achieved key business milestones that have driven our GSV, revenue, core client growth, and freelancer growth. Highlights of our history, innovation, and operational achievements include:

 

•

In 1998 and 2003, Elance and oDesk, respectively, were founded as online talent marketplaces.

 

•

In 2010, oDesk surpassed $100.0 million in annual GSV.

 

•

In 2011, Elance surpassed $100.0 million in annual GSV.

 

•

In 2014, our company was formed when Elance and oDesk combined.

 

•

In 2015:

 

○

We relaunched as “Upwork,” and we began integrating the Elance and oDesk platforms.

 

○

We surpassed $1.0 billion in annual GSV.

 

•

In 2016:

 

○

We began operating under a single platform following completion of the integration.

 

○

We launched our Upwork Enterprise offering and started building our enterprise sales team.

 

○

We changed our pricing model to a tiered service fee for freelancers and introduced client fees.

 

○

We achieved positive adjusted EBITDA.

 

•

In 2017:

 

○

We launched our U.S.-to-U.S. domestic offering.

 

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○

We surpassed $1.3 billion in annual GSV.

 

○

As of December 31, 2017, we had surpassed $6.5 billion in cumulative GSV (including GSV from Elance and oDesk).

We serve as a powerful marketing channel for freelancers to find rewarding, engaging, and flexible work. Freelancers using our platform benefit from access to quality clients and secure and timely payments while enjoying the freedom to run their own businesses, create their own schedules, and work from their preferred locations. Moreover, freelancers have real-time visibility into opportunities that are highest in demand, so that they can invest their time and focus on developing sought-after skills.

Our platform provides clients with fast, secure, and efficient access to high-quality talent with over 5,000 skills across over 70 categories, such as content marketing, customer service, data science and analytics, graphic design, mobile development, sales, and web development. We offer a direct-to-talent approach, reducing reliance on intermediaries such as staffing firms, recruiters, and traditional agencies while providing features that help instill trust in remote work. Our platform also enables clients to streamline workflows, such as talent sourcing, outreach, and engagement. In addition, our platform provides access to essential functionality for remote engagements, including communication and collaboration, time tracking, invoicing, and payments.

In 2016 and 2017, GSV on our platform was $1.15 billion and $1.37 billion, respectively, representing an annual growth rate of 20%. For the six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2018, GSV on our platform was $643.2 million and $834.5 million, respectively, representing a period-over-period growth rate of 30%. For the twelve months ended June 30, 2018, GSV on our platform was $1.56 billion. In 2016 and 2017, our total revenue was $164.4 million and $202.6 million, respectively, representing an annual growth rate of 23%. For the six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2018, our total revenue was $95.5 million and $121.9 million, respectively, representing a period-over-period growth rate of 28%. For the twelve months ended June 30, 2018, our total revenue was $228.9 million. In 2016 and 2017, our marketplace revenue was $138.5 million and $178.0 million, respectively, representing an annual growth rate of 29%. For the six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2018, our marketplace revenue was $83.9 million and $107.4 million, respectively, representing a period-over-period growth rate of 28%. We have made significant investments to grow our business, including in sales and marketing, research and development, operations, and personnel. As a result, we generated net losses of $16.2 million and $4.1 million in 2016 and 2017, respectively, and generated net income of $1.4 million for the six months ended June 30, 2017 and a net loss of $7.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2018. Our adjusted EBITDA was $1.3 million and $7.9 million in 2016 and 2017, respectively, and $7.0 million and $0.3 million for the six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2018, respectively. See the section titled “Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data—Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for information regarding our use of adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation of net loss to adjusted EBITDA.

Our Business Model

 

 

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As a marketplace, we seek to attract and retain users by providing a platform that facilitates contracting and payment for projects. Our platform allows freelancers to run their businesses seamlessly and allows clients to find and work with high-quality talent on a global basis. We generate a majority of our revenue from fees charged to freelancers. For our Upwork Standard offering, clients engage freelancers under contracts that both parties agree to on our platform. The pricing negotiated between freelancers and clients is agreed upon in U.S. dollars. There are two types of contracts: hourly and fixed price.

We also generate revenue through fees charged to clients for transacting payments through our platform as well as foreign currency exchange, and premium offerings, such as Upwork Enterprise, Upwork Pro, and Upwork Payroll.

Our Upwork Enterprise and other premium offerings, which are primarily designed for larger clients, include access to additional product features, premium access to top talent, professional services, custom reporting, and invoicing on a monthly basis. For the Upwork Enterprise offering, we charge a monthly or annual subscription fee and a client service fee calculated as a percentage of the client’s spend on freelancer services. Additionally, Upwork Enterprise clients can opt to subscribe to an offering that includes worker classification services for an additional fee. Upwork Enterprise clients may also choose to use our platform to engage freelancers that were not sourced through our platform for a lower fee percentage.

In addition, we provide a managed services offering where we engage freelancers to complete projects, directly invoice the client, and assume responsibility for work performed by the freelancers. Under U.S. GAAP, we are deemed to be the principal in these managed services arrangements, and, therefore, recognize the entire GSV of managed services projects, including the amounts paid to freelancers, as managed services revenue. Our managed services revenue decreased in 2017 as compared to 2016 as we focused our efforts on our marketplace offerings, and our client using the managed services offering used less of these services. For the six months ended June 30, 2018, our managed services revenue increased as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2017, as we invested additional resources to increase the spend by our client using the managed services offering.

In 2017 and the six months ended June 30, 2018, approximately 80% of our GSV was generated from clients with fewer than 100 employees, with the balance generated from businesses with 100 or more employees. More than 1,400 clients each spent over $100,000 for freelancer services on our platform in 2017.

As a global platform that connects freelancers and clients regardless of their location, our GSV originates from around the world. In 2017, our GSV was $1.37 billion. Approximately 19% of our GSV in 2017 was generated from U.S. freelancers, our largest freelancer geography. Some of our other largest freelancer geographies include India and the Philippines. Approximately 67% of our GSV in 2017 was generated from U.S. clients, with clients in no other country representing more than 10% of our GSV. We believe U.S. clients will continue to drive growth by engaging freelancers globally, particularly freelancers in the United States where there are various efficiencies associated with same-country engagements, such as cultural and contractual norms, time zones, and language.

Key Financial and Operational 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 (in thousands, except percentages):

 

		As of or for the Year Ended December 31,								As of or for the Six Months Ended June 30,
		2016				2017				2017				2018
Core clients			76.5				86.4				78.6				95.7
Gross services volume (GSV)		$	1,148,363			$	1,373,161			$	643,155			$	834,532
Client spend retention			85%				99%				92%				106%
Marketplace revenue		$	138,484			$	178,046			$	83,938			$	107,413
Adjusted EBITDA		$	1,260			$	7,909			$	7,018			$	256

 

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We believe these key financial and operational metrics are useful to evaluate period-over-period comparisons of our business and in understanding our operating results. The number of core clients in any given period drives both GSV, which represents the amount of business transacted through our platform, and client spend retention. Client spend retention impacts the growth rate of GSV. We believe our marketplace revenue, which represents a majority of our revenue, will grow as GSV grows, although they could grow at different rates. For a discussion of limitations in the measurement of core clients, GSV, and client spend retention, see “Risk Factors—We track certain performance metrics with internal tools and do not independently verify such metrics. Certain of our performance metrics are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.”

Core Clients

We define a core client as a client that has spent in the aggregate at least $5,000 since it began using our platform and also had spend activity during the twelve months preceding the date of measurement. This includes the total amount spent by the client on both the Elance and oDesk platforms for the periods prior to the consolidation of the two platforms. We believe $5,000 is an important spend milestone as it indicates that the client is actively using our platform. Historically, these core clients have been more likely to continue using our platform, and, for 2017 and the six months ended June 30, 2018, represented approximately 80% of our GSV. We believe that the number of core clients is a key indicator of our growth and the overall health of our business because core clients are a primary driver of GSV, and, therefore, marketplace revenue.

Following the combination of Elance and oDesk in 2014, we enhanced and refreshed the oDesk legacy platform and, in May 2015, relaunched it as the Upwork platform. In August 2015, we began enabling clients, freelancers, and their projects to migrate from the Elance platform to the new Upwork platform. This migration to the unified Upwork platform resulted in a short-term negative impact on growth of core clients as some users did not transition to the Upwork platform. The chart below shows the reduced growth rate of the number of core clients between 2015 and 2016. We believe, however, this one-time platform consolidation resulted in a larger, more liquid marketplace, including access to more jobs for freelancers and skills and expertise for clients, and provided us with significant cost efficiencies.

 

 

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Gross Services Volume

Gross services volume, or GSV, includes both client spend and additional fees charged for other services. Client spend—the total amount that clients spend on both our marketplace offerings and our managed services offering—is the primary component of our GSV. GSV also includes additional fees charged by us for other services, such as freelancer withdrawals and foreign currency exchange.

GSV is an important metric because it represents the amount of business transacted through our platform. Growth in the number of core clients and increased client spend retention are the primary drivers of GSV growth. In addition, our marketplace revenue is primarily comprised of the service fees paid by freelancers as a percentage of the total amount freelancers charge clients for services accessed through our platform. Therefore, marketplace revenue is correlated to GSV, and we believe that our marketplace revenue will grow as GSV grows, although they could grow at different rates. For example, in 2016 and 2017, GSV on our platform was $1.15 billion and $1.37 billion, respectively, representing an annual growth rate of 20%, while marketplace revenue was $138.5 million and $178.0 million, respectively, representing an annual growth rate of 29%. We expect our GSV growth rates to fluctuate between periods due to a number of factors, including the volume and characteristics of projects that are posted by clients on our platform, such as size, duration, pricing, and the factors described below under the section titled “—Factors Affecting our Performance.”

Client Spend Retention

We calculate client spend retention by dividing our recurring client spend by our base client spend. We define base client spend as the aggregate client spend from all clients during the four quarters ended one year prior to the date of measurement. We define our recurring client spend as the aggregate client spend during the four quarters ended on the date of measurement from the same clients included in our measure of base client spend. Our business is recurring in nature even though clients are not contractually required to spend on a recurring basis. As shown in the chart below, we experienced a decrease in client spend retention during 2015 and 2016 due to some users not transitioning from the Elance platform to the Upwork platform following the one-time platform consolidation, which commenced in August 2015. Our client spend retention returned to pre-consolidation levels in the quarter ended December 31, 2017, and was above average pre-consolidation levels in the quarters ended March 31, 2018 and June 30, 2018. We believe that client spend retention is a key indicator of the value of our platform and the overall health of our business because it impacts the growth rate of GSV, and, therefore, marketplace revenue.

 

 

 

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As of June 30, 2018, client spend retention was 106%, while we retained 58% of all clients and 83% of core clients. We believe client spend retention, rather than the absolute number of clients that we retain between periods, is more meaningful to evaluate period-to-period comparisons of our business and understand our operating results. Most of our clients have spent less than $5,000, in aggregate, during their lifetime on the platform and are therefore not considered core clients. For example, in 2017, approximately 20% of the clients that used our platform were considered core clients, and those core clients represented approximately 80% of our GSV. Therefore, we can lose a significant number of non-core clients in any given period without experiencing a significant impact on our client spend retention, GSV or marketplace revenue. Conversely, if we lost a small number of core clients, each with a significant amount of client spend, this will be reflected in lower client spend retention, which would negatively impact GSV and marketplace revenue. Therefore, we believe the amount of client spend that we retain between periods is a more meaningful metric because it directly impacts our GSV and, therefore, marketplace revenue. Accordingly, we believe that client spend retention is a more useful indicator of the health of our business and therefore we do not believe that a disparity between client spend retention and number of clients retained is a limitation on the usefulness of the client spend retention metric.

The growth in our marketplace is driven by long-term and recurring use by freelancers and clients, which leads to increased revenue visibility for us. While continued use of our platform by freelancers is a factor that impacts our ability to attract and retain clients, our platform currently has a significant surplus of freelancers in relation to the number of clients actively engaging freelancers. For example, in 2017, approximately 375,000 freelancers completed projects through our platform and every day on average approximately 10,000 independent professionals and agencies applied to join our platform. On the client side, in 2017, we had 86,400 core clients, which represented approximately 80% of our GSV. As a result of this surplus of freelancers relative to core clients, we primarily focus our efforts on retaining client spend and acquiring new clients as opposed to acquiring new freelancers and retaining existing freelancers. Moreover, we generate revenue when clients engage and pay freelancers and therefore our key metrics and operating results are directly impacted by client spend. On the other hand, the number of freelancers retained between periods is merely one of many factors that may impact client spend in a particular period and is not directly related to our key metrics and operating results. For these reasons, we do not calculate or track freelancer retention metrics in order to manage our business.

Marketplace Revenue

Marketplace revenue, which represents the majority of our revenue, consists of revenue derived from our Upwork Standard, Upwork Enterprise, and other premium offerings. We generate marketplace revenue from both freelancers and clients. Our marketplace revenue is primarily comprised of the service fees paid by freelancers as a percentage of the total amount freelancers charge clients for services accessed through our platform. In addition, we generate marketplace revenue from our Upwork Standard offering by charging clients a payment processing and administration fee. We also generate marketplace revenue for other services, such as foreign currency exchange and premium offerings. Marketplace revenue is an important metric because it is the primary driver of our business model, and we believe it provides greater comparability to other online marketplaces. The growth rate of marketplace revenue fluctuates in relation to the growth rate of GSV. Therefore, marketplace revenue is correlated to GSV, and we believe that our marketplace revenue will grow as GSV grows, although they could grow at different rates.

Adjusted EBITDA

We define adjusted EBITDA as net loss adjusted for stock-based compensation expense, depreciation and amortization, interest expense, other (income) expense, net, and provision for (benefit from) income taxes. See the section titled “Selected Consolidated Financial and Other Data—Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for information on our use of adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation of net loss to adjusted EBITDA.

 

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Factors Affecting Our Performance

Adoption of Freelance Work

We believe that the inefficiencies in the labor market have created a significant opportunity for online global marketplaces for freelance work, and that as a result of challenges facing the labor market, we have a large market opportunity. However, any acceleration, or slowing, of the growth in the market for freelancers could affect our operating and financial performance, and our success will continue to depend on the willingness of businesses to engage freelancers. In addition, fluctuations in macroeconomic conditions could impact the overall demand for freelancers. While the impacts to our business of a macroeconomic downturn are uncertain, we believe such a downturn may increase the pace at which freelance work is adopted as businesses may turn to faster, project-based, more cost-effective, and less restrictive ways of addressing their talent needs. Alternatively, businesses may elect to focus on utilizing their existing employees to a greater degree as they adjust to macroeconomic conditions.

Retention and Growth of Client Spend

Our growth has been driven in significant part by retaining client spend from existing clients as we grow our client base. As illustrated in the first chart below, we have been able to retain client spend over long periods of time with clients in historical cohorts continuing to spend on our platform. We identify a cohort of clients based on the period in which the client first spends on our platform. In 2017 and the six months ended June 30, 2018, almost 50% of client spend was from clients that had used our platform for longer than three years. Additionally, over time we generally have been able to grow total client spend. Additionally, each new annual cohort spend has exceeded the prior year’s new cohort spend, except for 2015, which was impacted by the Elance migration. For example, in 2014, client spend from new clients was $210.4 million; in 2016 and 2017, client spend from new clients was $222.4 million and $237.9 million, respectively.

 

 

 

 

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The next chart illustrates the performance of our client cohorts in the ten sequential quarters ended June 30, 2018. As illustrated in the chart, in their fourth quarter on our platform, these client cohorts spent approximately 70% of what they spent in their first quarter on our platform, and maintained approximately that same level of spend in subsequent quarters thereafter. While we have many clients join our platform on a non-recurring basis, the clients that have recurring spend tend to increase their spend with us over time.

 

 

Investments in Growth

We intend to continue to make focused investments to grow our revenue and scale operations to support that growth. We plan to invest in marketing to increase our brand awareness through both online and offline channels. We also plan to invest in enhancing our U.S.-to-U.S. domestic offering, building other domestic-to-domestic marketplaces internationally on our platform, broadening and deepening the categories on our platform, and expanding our Upwork Enterprise offering. We are undertaking such investments to capitalize on the increasing adoption by businesses of freelancers, but as cost of revenue, operating expenses, and capital expenditures fluctuate over time, we may experience short-term, negative impacts to our operating results and cash flows.

Components of Our Results of Operations

Revenue

Marketplace Revenue. Marketplace revenue is generated from our Upwork Standard, Upwork Enterprise, and other premium offerings. Under our Upwork Standard offering, we generate revenue from both freelancers and clients. Marketplace revenue, which represents the majority of our total revenue, is primarily comprised of the service fees paid by freelancers as a percentage of the total amount that freelancers charge clients for services accessed through our platform. For our Upwork Standard offering, we have a tiered freelancer service fee schedule based on cumulative lifetime billings by the freelancer to each client. Freelancers on our Upwork Standard offering typically pay us 20% of the first $500, 10% for the next $9,500, and then 5% for any amount over $10,000 they bill to each client through our platform. Prior to June 2016, we typically charged a flat 10% fee to freelancers. We also generate revenue from freelancers through withdrawal and other fees, which are currently immaterial.

In addition, we generate marketplace revenue from our Upwork Standard offering by charging clients a payment processing and administration fee, which we introduced in June 2016. Clients using our Upwork Standard offering pay either 2.75% of their client spend or a flat fee of $25 per month for unlimited payment transactions with qualifying payment methods. We also generate revenue from foreign currency exchange fees from clients, which are currently immaterial.

Our Upwork Enterprise offering and other premium offerings, which are designed for larger clients, include access to additional product features, premium access to top talent, professional services, custom reporting, and invoicing on a monthly basis. For our Upwork Enterprise offering, we charge clients a monthly or annual

 

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subscription fee and a service fee calculated as a percentage of the client’s spend on freelancer services, in addition to the service fees paid by freelancers. Additionally, Upwork Enterprise clients can also subscribe to a compliance offering that includes worker classification services for an additional fee. Upwork Enterprise clients may also choose to use our platform to engage freelancers that were not sourced through our platform for a lower fee percentage.

One of our premium offerings, Upwork Payroll, is offered to clients whose freelancers are classified as employees for engagements on our online marketplace. The client enters into an Upwork Payroll agreement with us, and we separately contract with unrelated third-party staffing providers who provide employment services to such clients. Revenue from Upwork Payroll is currently immaterial.

Managed Services Revenue. Through our managed services offering, we are responsible for providing services and engaging freelancers directly or as employees of third-party staffing providers to perform services on our behalf. The freelancers delivering managed services include independent professionals and agencies of varying sizes. Under U.S. GAAP, we are deemed to be the principal in these managed services arrangements, and therefore, recognize the entire GSV of managed services projects as managed services revenue, as compared to recognizing only the percentage of the client spend that we receive, as we do with our marketplace offerings.

Cost of Revenue and Gross Profit

Cost of Revenue. Cost of revenue consists primarily of the cost of payment processing fees, amounts paid to freelancers to deliver services for the client under our managed services offering, personnel-related costs for our services and support personnel, third-party hosting fees for our use of AWS, and the amortization expense associated with acquired intangibles and capitalized internal-use software and platform development. We define personnel-related costs as salaries, bonuses, benefits, travel and entertainment, and stock-based compensation costs for employees and the costs related to other service providers we engage.

We expect cost of revenue to increase in absolute dollars in future periods due to higher payment processing fees, third-party hosting fees, and personnel-related costs in order to support additional transaction volume on our platform. Amounts paid to freelancers to deliver services under our managed services offering are tied to the volume of managed services used by our client. The level and timing of all of these items could fluctuate and affect our cost of revenue in the future.

Gross Profit and Gross Margin. Our gross profit and gross margin may fluctuate from period-to-period. Such fluctuations may be influenced by our revenue, timing and amount of investments to expand hosting capacity, our continued investments in our services and support teams, the timing and amount of services freelancers deliver for clients under our managed services offering, and the amortization expense associated with acquired intangibles and capitalized internal-use software and platform development cost. In addition, gross margin will be impacted by fluctuations in our revenue mix between marketplace revenue and our managed services revenue.

Operating Expenses

Research and Development. Research and development expense primarily consists of personnel-related costs and third-party hosting costs related to development. Research and development costs are expensed as incurred, except to the extent that such costs are associated with internal-use software and platform development that qualifies for capitalization. We believe continued investments in research and development are important to attain our strategic objectives, and expect research and development expense to increase in absolute dollars, but this expense may vary as a percentage of total revenue, for the foreseeable future.

Sales and Marketing. Sales and marketing expense consists primarily of expenses related to personnel-related costs, including sales commissions, which we expense as they are incurred, and advertising and marketing activities. In 2017, we increased our marketing expenditures by investing in outdoor and radio advertising to drive greater brand awareness. Further, to grow our Upwork Enterprise offering, we hired additional sales personnel in 2017, with many of them starting late in the year. We intend to continue to invest in our sales and

 

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marketing capabilities in the future and expect this expense to increase in absolute dollars in future periods. Sales and marketing expense as a percentage of total revenue may fluctuate from period-to-period based on total revenue levels and the timing of our investments in our sales and marketing functions as these investments may vary in scope and scale over future periods.

General and Administrative. General and administrative expense consists primarily of personnel-related costs for our executive, finance, legal, human resources, and operations functions. General and administrative expense also includes outside consulting, legal, and accounting services, and insurance.

We expect to invest in corporate infrastructure and incur additional expenses associated with transitioning to and operating as a public company, including increased legal and accounting costs, investor relations costs, higher insurance premiums, and compliance costs. As a result, we expect general and administrative expense to increase in absolute dollars in future periods, but this expense may vary as a percentage of total revenue.

Provision for Transaction Losses. Provision for transaction losses consists primarily of losses resulting from fraud and bad debt expense associated with our trade and client receivables balance and transaction losses associated with chargebacks. Provisions for these items represent estimates of losses based on our actual historical incurred losses and other factors. As result, we expect provision for transaction losses to vary in future periods.

Interest Expense

Interest expense consists of interest on our outstanding borrowings.

Other (Income) Expense, Net

Other (income) expense, net consists primarily of gains and losses from foreign currency exchange transactions and expenses resulting from the revaluation of our warrant liability. Our warrant liability will be converted to additional paid-in capital upon the completion of this offering.

Income Tax Benefit (Provision)

We account for income taxes in accordance with the liability method. Under the liability method, deferred assets and liabilities are recognized based upon anticipated future tax consequences attributable to differences between financial statement carrying amounts of assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases. The provision for income taxes is comprised of the current tax liability and the change in deferred tax assets and liabilities. We establish a valuation allowance to the extent that it is more likely than not that deferred tax assets will not be recoverable against future taxable income.

Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using the enacted tax rates that will be in effect for the years in which those tax assets are expected to be realized or settled. We regularly assess the likelihood that deferred tax assets will be realized from recoverable income taxes or recovered from future taxable income based on the realization criteria set forth in the relevant authoritative guidance. To the extent that we believe any amounts are less likely than not to be realized, we record a valuation allowance to reduce our deferred tax assets. The realization of deferred tax assets is dependent upon future earnings, if any, the timing and amount of which are uncertain. Accordingly, the net deferred tax assets have been fully offset by a valuation allowance. If we subsequently realize deferred tax assets that were previously determined to be unrealizable, the respective valuation allowance would be reversed, resulting in an adjustment to earnings in the period such determination is made.

In addition, the calculation of tax liabilities involves dealing with uncertainties in the application of complex tax regulations. We recognize potential liabilities based on an estimate of whether, and the extent to which, additional taxes will be due. We account for uncertain tax positions in accordance with the relevant guidance, which prescribes a recognition threshold and measurement approach for uncertain tax positions taken or expected to be taken in our income tax return, and also provides guidance on recognition, classification, interest and penalties, accounting in interim periods, disclosure, and transition. The guidance utilizes a two-step approach for

 

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evaluation of uncertain tax positions. The first step is to determine if the weight of available evidence indicates a tax position is more likely than not to be sustained upon audit. The second step is to measure the tax benefit as the largest amount, which is more likely than not to be realized on ultimate settlement. A liability is reported for unrecognized tax benefits resulting from uncertain tax positions taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. Any interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits are recorded as income tax expense.

Results of Operations

The following tables set forth our consolidated results of operations in dollars and as a percentage of total revenue for the periods presented:

 

		Year Ended December 31,								Six Months Ended June 30,
		2016				2017				2017				2018
		(in thousands)
Revenue:
Marketplace		$	138,484			$	178,046			$	83,938			$	107,413
Managed services			25,961				24,506				11,593				14,486
Total revenue			164,445				202,552				95,531				121,899
Cost of revenue(1)			62,578				65,443				30,953				40,074
Gross profit			101,867				137,109				64,578				81,825
Operating expenses:
Research and development(1)			37,902				45,604				21,005				26,303
Sales and marketing(1)			37,437				53,044				23,701				36,087
General and administrative(1)			35,446				37,334				16,463				22,395
Provision for transaction losses			5,550				4,250				1,784				2,720
Total operating expenses			116,335				140,232				62,953				87,505
Income (loss) from operations			(14,468	)			(3,123	)			1,625				(5,680	)
Interest expense			858				960				430				1,085
Other (income) expense, net			908				62				(185	)			422
Income (loss) before income taxes			(16,234	)			(4,145	)			1,380				(7,187	)
Income tax benefit (provision)			1				22				(11	)			(9	)
Net income (loss)		$	(16,233	)		$	(4,123	)		$	1,369			$	(7,196	)

 

(1)

Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:

 

		Year Ended December 31,								Six Months Ended June 30,
		2016				2017				2017				2018
		(in thousands)
Cost of revenue		$	193			$	290			$	193			$	105
Research and development			1,820				1,797				839				1,088
Sales and marketing			1,052				1,299				655				671
General and administrative			4,201				3,460				1,604				1,817
Total		$	7,266			$	6,846			$	3,291			$	3,681

 

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		Year Ended December 31,								Six Months Ended June 30,
		2016				2017				2017				2018
		(as percentage of total revenue)
Revenue:
Marketplace			84%				88%				88%				88%
Managed services			16				12				12				12
Total revenue			100				100				100				100
Cost of revenue			38				32				32				33
Gross profit			62				68				68				67
Operating expenses:
Research and development			23				23				22				22
Sales and marketing			23				26				25				30
General and administrative			22				18				17				18
Provision for transaction losses			3				2				2				2
Total operating expenses			71				69				66				72
Income (loss) from operations			(9	)			(1	)			2				(5	)
Interest expense			1				1				1				1
Other (income) expense, net			—				—				—				—
Income (loss) before income taxes			(10	)			(2	)			1				(6	)
Income tax benefit (provision)			—				—				—				—
Net income (loss)			(10)%				(2)%				1%				(6)%

Comparison of the Six Months Ended June 30, 2017 and 2018

Revenue

 

		Six Months Ended June 30,
		2017				2018				$ Change				% Change
		(dollars in thousands)
Marketplace		$	83,938			$	107,413			$	23,475				28%
Percentage of total revenue			88%				88%
Managed services		$	11,593			$	14,486			$	2,893				25%
Percentage of total revenue			12%				12%
Total revenue		$	95,531			$	121,899			$	26,368				28%

Total revenue increased by $26.4 million, or 28%, to $121.9 million for the six months ended June 30, 2018 as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2017.

Marketplace revenue represented 88% of total revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2018, an increase of $23.5 million, or 28%, as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2017. Marketplace revenue increased primarily due to an increase in GSV. GSV grew by 30% period-over-period, primarily driven by a 22% increase in the number of core clients, and higher client spend retention, which increased from 92% as of June 30, 2017 to 106% as of June 30, 2018. Additionally, the number of projects increased 12% from approximately 1.0 million in the six months ended June 30, 2017 to approximately 1.1 million in the six months ended June 30, 2018. We believe these increases were primarily due to investments in marketing to acquire new clients and drive brand awareness and research and development to build new product features. Additionally, late in the second quarter of 2016, we introduced a client payment processing and administration fee that generated $13.3 million of revenue in the six months ended June 30, 2017 and $16.8 million of revenue in the six months ended June 30, 2018.

Managed services revenue represented 12% of total revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2018 as compared to 12% for the six months ended June 30, 2017. The increase of $2.9 million, or 25%, was primarily

 

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due to an increase in the amount of freelancer services engaged by a client through our managed services offering.

Cost of Revenue and Gross Margin

 

		Six Months Ended June 30,
		2017				2018				$ Change				% Change
		(dollars in thousands)
Cost of revenue		$	30,953			$	40,074			$	9,121				29%
Components of cost of revenue:
Costs of freelancer services to deliver managed services			9,583				12,052				2,469				26%
Other components of cost of revenue			21,370				28,022				6,652				31%
Total gross margin			68%				67%

Cost of revenue increased by $9.1 million, or 29%, for the six months ended June 30, 2018 as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2017. The increase was primarily due to increases of $3.4 million in payment processing fees due to an increase in client spend on our platform, $1.9 million in third-party hosting costs, and $1.2 million in personnel-related costs due to an increase in personnel to support our growth. Costs of freelancer services to deliver managed services increased by 26% to $12.1 million for the six months ended June 30, 2018 from $9.6 million for the six months ended June 30, 2017. The increase was due to an increase of $2.9 million, or 25%, in managed services revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2018 as compared with the same period in 2017. In general, the cost of freelancer services to deliver managed services is correlated to our managed services revenue.

Total gross margin was 67% for the six months ended June 30, 2018 compared to 68% in the six months ended June 30, 2017. The decrease in gross margin was due primarily to third-party hosting costs that grew at a slightly faster rate than total revenue.

Research and Development

 

		Six Months Ended June 30,
		2017				2018				$ Change				% Change
		(dollars in thousands)
Research and development		$	21,005			$	26,303			$	5,298				25%
Percentage of total revenue			22%				22%

Research and development expense increased by $5.3 million, or 25%, for the six months ended June 30, 2018, as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2017 and was consistent as a percentage of total revenue. The increase was primarily due to an increase in personnel-related costs of $5.7 million, driven by development of new products and features, and an increase of $0.5 million in licensed software and $0.4 million in facilities-related costs, partially offset by $1.7 million of internal-use software costs that were capitalized.

Sales and Marketing

 

		Six Months Ended June 30,
		2017				2018				$ Change				% Change
		(dollars in thousands)
Sales and marketing		$	23,701			$	36,087			$	12,386				52%
Percentage of total revenue			25%				30%

Sales and marketing expense increased by $12.4 million, or 52%, for the six months ended June 30, 2018 as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2017. This increase was primarily due to increases of $6.2 million in personnel-related costs to build out our enterprise sales team, including sales commissions that we expense as incurred, and $4.9 million in marketing and advertising costs associated with online and local marketing programs to drive brand awareness and attract new users.

 

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General and Administrative

 

		Six Months Ended June 30,
		2017				2018				$ Change				% Change
		(dollars in thousands)
General and administrative		$	16,463			$	22,395			$	5,932				36%
Percentage of total revenue			17%				18%

General and administrative expense increased by $5.9 million, or 36%, for the six months ended June 30, 2018 as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2017. This increase was primarily due to increases of $3.4 million in personnel-related costs, which included adding additional personnel in our finance organization, $1.2 million in facilities-related expenses and $1.0 million in professional expenses related to us preparing to become a public company.

Provision for Transaction Losses

 

		Six Months Ended June 30,
		2017				2018				$ Change				% Change
		(dollars in thousands)
Provision for transaction losses		$	1,784			$	2,720			$	936				52%
Percentage of total revenue			2%				2%

Provision for transaction losses increased $0.9 million, or 52%, for the six months ended June 30, 2018 as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2017. This increase was primarily due to an increase in our outstanding trade and client receivables balance.

Interest Expense and Other (Income) Expense, Net

 

		Six Months Ended June 30,
		2017				2018				$ Change				% Change
		(dollars in thousands)
Interest expense		$	430			$	1,085			$	655				152%
Other (income) expense, net			(185	)			422				607				328%

Interest expense increased $0.7 million, or 152%, for the six months ended June 30, 2018 as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2017. This increase was due to an increase in outstanding borrowings in the six months ended June 30, 2018 as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2017, offset by a lower interest rate.

Other (income) expense, net increased $0.6 million, or 328%, for the six months ended June 30, 2018 as compared to the six months ended 2017. This increase was primarily due to an increase of $0.3 million resulting from the revaluation of our warrant liability and an increase of $0.3 million in net losses from foreign currency transactions.

Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2016 and 2017

Revenue

 

		Year Ended December 31,
		2016				2017				$ Change				% Change
		(dollars in thousands)
Marketplace		$	138,484			$	178,046			$	39,562				29%
Percentage of total revenue			84%				88%
Managed services		$	25,961			$	24,506			$	(1,455)				(6)%
Percentage of total revenue			16%				12%
Total revenue		$	164,445			$	202,552			$	38,107				23%

 

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Total revenue increased by $38.1 million, or 23%, to $202.6 million in 2017 as compared to 2016.

Marketplace revenue represented 88% of total revenue in 2017, an increase of $39.6 million, or 29%, in 2017 as compared to 2016. Marketplace revenue increased primarily due to an increase in GSV. GSV grew by 20%, primarily driven by a 13% increase in the number of core clients, and higher client spend retention, which increased from 85% for the year ended December 31, 2016 to 99% for the year ended December 31, 2017. Additionally, the number of projects increased 13%, from over 1.6 million in 2016 to over 1.8 million in 2017. We believe these increases were primarily due to investments in marketing to acquire new clients and drive brand awareness and research and development to build new product features. Marketplace revenue also grew, to a lesser extent, due to the Upwork Standard pricing model change implemented in the second quarter of 2016.

We changed our Upwork Standard pricing model late in the second quarter of 2016 to implement a tiered freelancer service fee based on cumulative lifetime billings by the freelancer to each client. Previously, we had typically charged freelancers a flat 10% fee. The goal of the pricing change was to encourage longer-term relationships between freelancers and clients on our platform, allowing us to attract more projects, and to align client incentives with our incentives to use lower cost payment methods. Additionally, late in the second quarter of 2016, we introduced a client payment processing and administration fee that generated $12.6 million of marketplace revenue in 2016 and $27.9 million of marketplace revenue in 2017.

Managed services revenue represented 12% of total revenue in 2017 as compared to 16% in 2016. The decrease of $1.5 million, or 6%, was primarily due to a decline in the amount of freelancer services used by the client using our managed services offering.

Cost of Revenue and Gross Margin

 

		Year Ended December 31,
		2016				2017				$ Change				% Change
		(dollars in thousands)
Cost of revenue		$	62,578			$	65,443			$	2,865				5%
Components of cost of revenue:
Costs of freelancer services to deliver managed services			21,051				19,986				(1,065	)			(5)%
Other components of cost of revenue			41,527				45,457				3,930				9%
Total gross margin			62%				68%

Cost of revenue increased by $2.9 million, or 5%, in 2017 as compared to 2016. This increase was primarily due to increases of $3.6 million in payment processing fees as a result of an increase in client spend on our platform, $0.9 million in third-party hosting costs as a result of our transition to AWS and increased transaction volume on our platform, and $2.9 million in personnel-related costs from an increase in personnel to support our growth, partially offset by a decrease of $2.6 million in amortization of intangibles that related to developed technology and $0.5 million in amortization that related to capitalized internal-use software and platform development. Costs of freelancer services to deliver managed services decreased by $1.1 million, or 5%, due to a decline in the amount of freelancer services used by the client using our managed services offering. In general, the cost of freelancer services to deliver managed services is directly correlated to our managed services revenue.

Total gross margin improved from 62% in 2016 to 68% in 2017 primarily driven by the introduction of the payment processing and administration fee to clients in June 2016.

Research and Development

 

		Year Ended December 31,
		2016				2017				$ Change				% Change
		(dollars in thousands)
Research and development		$	37,902			$	45,604			$	7,702				20%
Percentage of total revenue			23%				23%

 

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Research and development expense increased by $7.7 million, or 20%, in 2017 as compared to 2016 and was consistent as a percentage of total revenue at 23%. The increase was primarily due to an increase in personnel-related costs, driven by development of new products and features.

Sales and Marketing

 

		Year Ended December 31,
		2016				2017				$ Change				% Change
		(dollars in thousands)
Sales and marketing		$	37,437			$	53,044			$	15,607				42%
Percentage of total revenue			23%				26%

Sales and marketing expense increased by $15.6 million, or 42%, in 2017 as compared to 2016. This increase was primarily due to increases of $8.5 million in personnel-related costs to build out our enterprise sales team, including sales commissions that we expense as incurred, and $6.2 million in marketing and advertising costs associated with online and local marketing programs to drive brand awareness and attract new users.

General and Administrative

 

		Year Ended December 31,
		2016				2017				$ Change				% Change
		(dollars in thousands)
General and administrative		$	35,446			$	37,334			$	1,888				5%
Percentage of total revenue			22%				18%

General and administrative expense increased $1.9 million, or 5%, in 2017 as compared to 2016. This increase was primarily due to increases of $2.8 million of personnel-related costs and $0.5 million in audit and accounting-related costs in preparation to become a public company, partially offset by a $1.1 million legal settlement resulting from a trademark dispute accrued in 2016.

Provision for Transaction Losses

 

		Year Ended December 31,
		2016				2017				$ Change				% Change
		(dollars in thousands)
Provision for transaction losses		$	5,550			$	4,250			$	(1,300)				(23)%
Percentage of total revenue			3%				2%

Provision for transaction losses decreased $1.3 million, or 23%, in 2017 as compared to 2016. This decrease was primarily due to improvements in managing transaction losses and chargebacks for fraud on our platform and bad debt expense associated with our trade and client receivables as we improved on collections from enterprise clients.

Interest Expense and Other (Income) Expense, Net

 

		Year Ended December 31,
		2016				2017				$ Change				% Change
		(dollars in thousands)
Interest expense		$	858			$	960			$	102				12%
Other (income) expense, net			908				62				(846)				(93)%

Interest expense increased $0.1 million, or 12%, in 2017 as compared to 2016. This increase was due to a higher amount of outstanding borrowings in 2017 as compared to 2016.

Other (income) expense, net decreased $0.8 million, or 93%, in 2017 compared to 2016. This decrease was primarily due to a decrease of $0.5 million in net losses from foreign currency transactions and a decrease of $0.3 million in prepayment fees paid to a lender.

 

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Quarterly Results of Operations

The following tables summarize our selected unaudited quarterly consolidated statements of operations data for each of the eight quarters in the period ended June 30, 2018. The information for each of these quarters has been prepared on a basis consistent with our audited financial statements and, in the opinion of management, includes all adjustments of a normal, recurring nature that are necessary for the fair statement of the results of operations for these periods in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The data should be read in conjunction with our audited financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for a full year or in any future period.

 

		Three Months Ended
		Sept. 30, 2016				Dec. 31, 2016				Mar. 31, 2017				Jun. 30, 2017				Sept. 30, 2017				Dec. 31, 2017				Mar. 31, 2018				Jun. 30, 2018
		(in thousands)
Revenue:
Marketplace		$	37,328			$	38,195			$	40,860			$	43,078			$	46,186			$	47,922			$	51,959			$	55,454
Managed service			6,542				6,009				5,886				5,707				6,076				6,837				7,259				7,227
Total revenue			43,870				44,204				46,746				48,785				52,262				54,759				59,218				62,681
Cost of revenue			14,884				14,805				15,025				15,928				16,894				17,596				19,617				20,457
Gross profit			28,986				29,399				31,721				32,857				35,368				37,163				39,601				42,224
Operating expense:
Research and development(1)			10,069				9,859				10,303				10,702				11,514				13,085				13,491				12,812
Sales and marketing(1)			8,845				10,964				12,327				11,374				13,626				15,717				19,673				16,414
General and administrative(1)			8,577				10,627				8,623				7,840				8,952				11,919				11,176				11,219
Provision for transaction losses			1,515				1,619				883				901				1,073				1,393				1,270				1,450
Total operating expenses			29,006				33,069				32,136				30,817				35,165				42,114				45,610				41,895
Income (loss) from operations			(20	)			(3,670	)			(415	)			2,040				203				(4,951	)			(6,009	)			329
Interest expense			205				217				223				207				199				331				529				556
Other (income) expense, net			29				480				(160	)			(25	)			260				(13	)			249				173
Income (loss) before income taxes			(254	)			(4,367	)			(478	)			1,858				(256	)			(5,269	)			(6,787	)			(400	)
Income tax benefit (provision)			28				7				(9	)			(2	)			(45	)			78				3				(12	)
Net income (loss)		$	(226	)		$	(4,360	)		$	(487	)		$	1,856			$	(301	)		$	(5,191	)		$	(6,784	)		$	(412	)

 

(1)

Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:

 

		Three Months Ended
		Sept. 30, 2016				Dec. 31, 2016				Mar. 31, 2017				Jun. 30, 2017				Sept. 30, 2017				Dec. 31, 2017				Mar. 31, 2018				Jun. 30, 2018
		(in thousands)
Cost of revenue		$	50			$	44			$	52			$	141			$	48			$	49			$	52			$	53
Research and development			281				470				461				378				432				526				550				538
Sales and marketing			226				226				267				388				312				332				340				331
General and administrative			955				1,662				830				774				734				1,122				946				871
Total		$	1,512			$	2,402			$	1,610			$	1,681			$	1,526			$	2,029			$	1,888			$	1,793

 

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The following table sets forth our unaudited quarterly consolidated results of operations data for each of the periods indicated as a percentage of total revenue:

 

		Three Months Ended
		Sept. 30, 2016				Dec. 31, 2016				Mar. 31, 2017				Jun. 30, 2017				Sept. 30, 2017				Dec. 31, 2017				Mar. 31, 2018				Jun. 30, 2018
Revenue:
Marketplace			85%				86%				87%				88%				88%				88%				88%				88%
Managed service			15				14				13				12				12				12				12				12
Total revenue			100				100				100				100				100				100				100				100
Cost of revenue			34				33				32				33				32				32				33				33
Gross profit			66				67				68				67				68				68				67				67
Operating expense:
Research and development			23				22				22				22				22				24				23				20
Sales and marketing			20				25				27				23				26				28				33				27
General and administrative			20				24				18				16				19				22				19				18
Provision for transaction losses			4				4				2				2				2				3				2				2
Total operating expenses			67				75				69				63				69				77				77				67
Income (loss) from operations			(1)				(8)				(1)				4				(1)				(9)				(10)				—
Interest expense			—				1				—				—				—				1				1				1
Other (income) expense, net			—				1				—				—				—				—				—				—
Income (loss) before income taxes			(1)				(10)				(1)				4				(1)				(10)				(11)				(1)
Income tax benefit (provision)			—				—				—				—				—				—				—				—
Net income (loss)			(1)%				(10)%				(1)%				4%				(1)%				(10)%				(11)%				(1)%

Quarterly Revenue, Cost of Revenue, Gross Profit, and Gross Margin Trends

Over the periods presented, we have experienced growth in total revenue. Our marketplace revenue has generally grown at a faster rate than our managed services revenue, and as a result the percentage of total revenue from our marketplace offering has either increased or stayed constant over the periods presented. Cost of revenue has generally grown at a slower rate than revenue. This improvement is due to the cost of payment processing growing slower than revenue as we introduced new pricing in the second quarter of 2016, the cost of freelancer services for managed services grew at a slower rate than total revenue as our marketplace revenue has become a larger part of our business. This improvement in cost of revenue has been offset by increased third-party hosting costs. As a result of cost of revenue growing slower than revenue over the periods presented our gross margin has improved.

Quarterly Expense Trends

We have historically invested in marketing spend in the first and fourth quarters to drive brand awareness and performance marketing. In the quarter ended December 31, 2017, we spent and expensed marketing dollars to develop an offline brand awareness campaign. We launched that campaign in the quarter ended March 31, 2018, leading to an increase in marketing expenses in the quarter ended March 31, 2018. We also invested in hiring our enterprise sales team throughout 2017 and 2018. We invest in research and development at approximately the same rate as revenue growth and quarterly variations in the percentage of revenue allocated to research and development costs are due to variations in personnel costs and capitalized internal-use software and

 

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platform development cost. General and administrative expenses increased during the quarters ended December 31, 2016 and 2017 primarily related to increased headcount and professional services to support our growth and preparation to become a public company.

Interest expense increased starting in the quarter ended December 31, 2017 as we drew down an additional $19.0 million under our Loan Agreement.

Financial and Operational Metrics

 

		Three Months Ended
		Sept. 30, 2016				Dec. 31, 2016				Mar. 31, 2017				Jun. 30, 2017				Sept. 30, 2017				Dec. 31, 2017				Mar. 31, 2018				Jun. 30, 2018
		(in thousands, except percentages)
Core clients			77.0				76.5				77.2				78.6				82.6				86.4				91.0				95.7
Gross services volume (GSV)		$	289,372			$	295,246			$	311,134			$	332,021			$	353,495			$	376,511			$	402,248			$	432,284
Client spend retention			85%				85%				89%				92%				95%				99%				103%				106%
Marketplace revenue		$	37,328			$	38,195			$	40,860			$	43,078			$	46,186			$	47,922			$	51,959			$	55,454
Adjusted EBITDA		$	3,506			$	(53	)		$	2,257			$	4,761			$	2,762			$	(1,871	)		$	(3,057	)		$	3,313

The following table presents a reconciliation of net income (loss) to adjusted EBITDA, the most directly comparable financial measure prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP, for each of the periods presented:

 

Three Months Ended

Sept. 30, 2016

Dec. 31, 2016

Mar. 31, 2017

Jun. 30, 2017

Sept. 30, 2017

Dec. 31, 2017

Mar. 31, 2018

Jun. 30, 2018