TOL - 27th Nov, 2024
The ASX-listed 10-bagger with its sights on global domination
Livewire sat down with Life360's CEO and co-founder Chris Hulls for an exclusive conversation on the company's outlook.
Note: This interview was recorded on Thursday 21 November 2024.
Chris Hulls, the fresh-faced CEO and Co-Founder of family tracking app Life360 (ASX: 360), is unwaveringly bullish on the outlook for location tracking services globally.
Despite his recent stock selldown, which saw him offload 1.2% of his interest in the company or nearly $32 million worth of stock, Hulls believes that location sharing will prove itself to be a category with 90% penetration globally - it's only a question of how much of that opportunity Life360 can capture.
"I think the core use case is truly cross-border, cross-class, and cross-culture. We have states in the US that have 29% penetration, not within families, but of all phones," he says.
"I think as we build out different products for these different life stages, we can be the biggest in the world, even bigger than Apple, because almost everyone's in a family."
Expectations for Life360 are high - it's widely held by the investment community and punters alike. So, after the company's recent quarterly result, in which revenues fell about $5 million short of analyst expectations (and the company announced its revenue guidance could be about $4 million less than previously guided), its share price fell 12.40%. However, Hulls believes it is the company's best result yet.
"We had record net subscriber adds, record MAU additions, 50% year over year MAU growth. So, internally we think it was actually the best quarter in the company's history," Hulls says.
The company now has 77 million users globally and has started to integrate advertising partnerships into its platform - like Uber, where users will now get a notification to order a ride when they touch down at an airport, for example.
It's a big growth opportunity, a "gold mine", Hulls says - but unfortunately for shareholders, it's not going to happen overnight.
"I would like it to rival our subscription business eventually, and that will include things like lead generation - it won't be just banner ads. When I think about indirect monetisation, taking the data and the signals we have, I think that can be equivalent to the subscription [business]," Hulls says.
"That's going to be a very long journey to make that equivalent. Next year, we're definitely going to see a very significant ramp up. Then, I think we'll figure out what is the thing that's really working and we'll double down on that."
Hulls has hired a 15-year Google veteran Brian McDevitt as Life360's new Vice President of Ad Sales and Strategy, to build, scale and run the company's advertising business globally. McDevitt is working on that strategy now, Hulls says, and the team will be able to provide the market with visibility on advertising revenue expectations at Life360's full-year earnings result in February.
In this C-Suite Interview, Hulls takes investors through Life360's latest quarterly result, why he believes that 30% of the company's customers will be paying for subscriptions in the future, and outlines some of the new products and solutions Life360 is launching to serve "all life stages of a family" - including pet and elderly relative tracking (i.e. to help keep those with Alzheimer's safe, for example).
Hulls also shares the regions where the business is experiencing the most growth right now, why he believes that family tracking is set to become one of the biggest businesses in the world, and why the company chose the ASX as its listing destination.
Plus, for a little bit of fun, I also asked Hulls about his recent escapades of competitively growing pumpkins (last year, Hulls came 13th in the "Super Bowl" of pumpkin competitions - after growing a 450kg pumpkin).
Timecodes
- 0:00 - Intro
- 0:26 - CEO selldown and why investors shouldn't sell too
- 1:25 - The result and the $4 million guidance hole
- 2:14 - Why advertising revenues will be slow to ramp up
- 4:01 - Advertising revenue goals and timeframes
- 4:48 - Customer retention rates for paid subscriptions
- 6:18 - Is Apple a risk?
- 7:54 - Pet tracking opportunity
- 9:00 - Elderly relative tracking opportunity
- 10:18 - Global growth expectations
- 11:44 - Privacy isn't an issue, tracking to become mainstream
- 12:56 - Why Life360 listed on the ASX
- 15:44 - On growing pumpkins
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Ally Selby is the deputy managing editor at Livewire Markets, joining the team at the end of 2020. She loves all things investing, financial literacy and content creation, having previously worked for the likes of Financial Standard, Pedestrian Group, Your Money, Sky Business and Sky News.
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Livewire gives readers access to information and educational content provided by financial services professionals and companies (“Livewire Contributors”). Livewire does not operate under an Australian financial services licence and relies on the exemption available under section 911A(2)(eb) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) in respect of any advice given. Any advice on this site is general in nature and does not take into consideration your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making a decision please consider these and any relevant Product Disclosure Statement. Livewire has commercial relationships with some Livewire Contributors.
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Ally Selby is the deputy managing editor at Livewire Markets, joining the team at the end of 2020. She loves all things investing, financial literacy and content creation, having previously worked for the likes of Financial Standard, Pedestrian...
Expertise
Ally Selby is the deputy managing editor at Livewire Markets, joining the team at the end of 2020. She loves all things investing, financial literacy and content creation, having previously worked for the likes of Financial Standard, Pedestrian...
Expertise
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