The Leadership Letter

Real correspondence from the people running real companies — and what it reveals about leadership.

How Square Turned a Payment Tool Into a Business Platform

The real moat isn't the hardware — it's every product a seller adopts after the first swipe.

To Our Shareholders: We are pleased with our second quarter results, which highlight strong growth at scale and a significant profitability milestone. Gross Payment Volume (GPV) for the second quarter was $12.5 billion, up 42% year over year. New-seller growth made up the majority of our GPV increase, while positive dollar-based retention from existing sellers also had a meaningful impact. Total net revenue was $439 million, up 41% year over year. Adjusted Revenue was $171 million, up 54% year over year, and exceeded the high end of our guidance. Net loss was $27 million, and we achieved positive Adjusted EBITDA of $13 million, which also exceeded the high end of our guidance. This represents an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 7%, an improvement of 7 points year over year and 14 points sequentially. This Adjusted EBITDA improvement reflects our increased scale and operating leverage, positive dollar-based retention from existing sellers, and our ability to drive new product adoption. We are excited about our results and how well positioned we are for the future. We started Square with the mission to enable sellers to accept payments anywhere and never miss a sale. Our focus on technology and design allows us to create products and services that are accessible, intuitive, and easy to use. This has enabled us to build a cohesive commerce ecosystem that extends into point-of-sale software, business loans, employee management, and much more. In addition, we are using data science and risk systems to service sellers of all sizes, significantly expanding our addressable market.

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SEC EDGAR Filing
SEC EDGAR · EX-99.1
Square, Inc. · EX-99.1 · filed 2016-08-03 · Accession 0001193125-16-670074
August 3, 2016
Public domain
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