As confidentially submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 6, 2021.

This draft registration statement has not been publicly filed with the

Securities and Exchange Commission and all information herein remains strictly confidential.

Registration No. 333-                

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM S-1

REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

LegalZoom.com, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

101 North Brand Boulevard, 11^{th Floor}

Glendale, California 91203

(323) 962-8600

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

Dan Wernikoff

Chief Executive Officer

LegalZoom.com, Inc.

101 North Brand Boulevard, 11th Floor

Glendale, California 91203

(323) 962-8600

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

Copies to:

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, 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, please 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 statement 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 Exchange Act.

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 pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act.  ☐

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE

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 of 1933, as amended, 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.

The information in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. These securities may not be sold 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 we are not soliciting offers to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.

Subject to completion, dated                , 2021

Preliminary prospectus

                    Shares

Common stock

This is the initial public offering of shares of our common stock. We are offering                 shares of our common stock and the selling stockholders identified in this prospectus are offering an additional                 shares of common stock. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders.

Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for our common stock. We currently expect the initial public offering price to be between $             and $             per share of common stock.

We intend to apply for listing of our common stock on                 under the symbol “LZ”.

We are an “emerging growth company” as defined under the U.S. federal securities laws and, as such, may elect to comply with certain reduced public company reporting requirements for this and future filings.

We and the selling stockholders have granted the underwriters an option for a period of 30 days to purchase up to an additional                  and                shares of common stock, respectively, at the initial public offering price, less the underwriting discounts and commissions.

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. See the section titled “Risk Factors” beginning on page 18.

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

The underwriters expect to deliver the shares of common stock to purchasers on                    , 2021.

                    , 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The information in this prospectus is not complete and is subject to change. No person should rely on the information contained in this document for any purpose other than participating in our proposed initial public offering, and only the prospectus dated                , 2021, is authorized by us to be used in connection with our proposed initial public offering. The prospectus will only be distributed by us and the underwriters named herein and no other person has been authorized by us to use this document to offer or sell any of our securities.

We have not, the selling stockholders have not, and the underwriters have not, authorized anyone to provide you any information or to make any representations other than those contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectus prepared by or on behalf of us or to which we have referred you. Neither we, the selling stockholders nor the underwriters take responsibility for, or provide any assurance as to the reliability of, any other information others may give you. This prospectus is an offer to sell only the shares offered hereby, and only under circumstances and in jurisdictions where it is lawful to do so. We are not, the selling stockholders are not, and the underwriters are not, making an offer to sell these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not 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 any sale of the shares of our common stock. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since that date.

Through and including                , 2021 (the 25^th day after the date of this prospectus), all dealers that buy, sell, or trade shares of our common stock, whether or not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a prospectus. This delivery requirement is in addition to the obligation of dealers to deliver a prospectus when acting as underwriters and with respect to their unsold allotments or subscriptions.

For investors outside the United States: Neither we, the selling stockholders nor any of the underwriters have done anything that would permit our initial public offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. Persons outside the United States who come into possession of this prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the offering of the shares of our common stock and the distribution of this prospectus outside of the United States.

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RISK FACTORS

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this prospectus, including the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus, before deciding whether to invest in our common stock. If any of the following risks occur, our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects could be harmed. In that event, the price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.

Risks Relating to Our Business and Industry

Our recent growth may not be indicative of our future growth and, if we continue to grow, we may not be able to manage our growth effectively.

We have experienced, and continue to experience, growth in operations and headcount, which has placed, and will continue to place, significant demands on our management team and our administrative, operational and financial infrastructure. In particular, the number of transactions processed grew from 691,000 transactions in 2019 to 892,000 in 2020, our number of subscription units increased from 883,000 in 2019 to 1,027,000 in 2020, and we have also significantly increased the size of our customer base over the last several years. We anticipate that we will continue to expand our operations and headcount in the near term. Our success will depend in part on our ability to manage this growth effectively. To manage the expected growth of our operations and personnel, we will need to continue to improve our operational, financial and management controls and our reporting systems and procedures. As we continue to grow, we must effectively integrate, develop and motivate a large number of new employees, and maintain the beneficial aspects of our corporate culture. To attract top talent, we have had to offer, and believe we will need to continue to offer, highly competitive compensation packages before we can validate the productivity of those employees. Failure to effectively manage our growth could result in difficulty or delays in providing services to customers, declines in service quality or customer satisfaction, increases in costs, difficulties in introducing new features or other operational difficulties. Any of these difficulties could adversely impact our brand and reputation, business, results of operations, financial condition or future prospects.

Our growth also makes it difficult to evaluate future prospects. Our ability to forecast our future operating results is subject to a number of uncertainties, including our ability to plan for and model future growth. If our assumptions regarding these uncertainties, which we use to plan our business, are incorrect or change in reaction to changes in our markets, or if we do not address these uncertainties successfully, our results of operations and financial condition could differ materially from our expectations, our business could suffer and the trading price of our stock may decline.

If we are unable to sustain our revenue growth rate, we may not maintain profitability in the future.

From 2019 to 2020, our revenue grew from $408.4 million to $470.6 million, which represents an annual growth rate of 15.2%. Although our revenue growth rate has increased in certain recent periods, even if our revenue increases in the future to higher levels on an absolute basis, our revenue growth rate may decline. As we grow our business, our revenue growth rate may slow in future periods due to a number of reasons. Any success that we may experience in the future will depend in large part on our ability to, among other things:

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If we are unable to maintain consistent revenue or revenue growth, our stock price could be volatile, and it may be difficult to maintain profitability. You should not rely on our revenue for any prior quarterly or annual periods as any indication of our future revenue or revenue growth.

Our future quarterly results of operations may fluctuate significantly due to a wide range of factors, which makes our future results difficult to predict.

Our revenue and results of operations have historically varied from period to period, and we expect that they will continue to do so as a result of a number of factors, many of which are outside of our control, including:

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Fluctuations in our quarterly operating results and the price of our common stock may be particularly pronounced in the current economic environment due to the uncertainty caused by the current COVID-19 pandemic and its potential future impact on consumer spending patterns, the success of small businesses and the formation of new small businesses, as well as the impacts of the reopening of the offline economy and lessening of restrictions on movement and travel. Fluctuations in our quarterly operating results may cause those results to fall below our financial guidance or other projections, or the expectations of analysts or investors, which could cause the price of our common stock to decline. Fluctuations in our results could also cause a number of other problems. For example, analysts or investors may change their models for valuing our common stock, particularly post-pandemic, we could experience short-term liquidity issues, our ability to retain or attract key personnel may diminish, and other unanticipated issues may arise.

We believe that our quarterly operating results may vary in the future and that period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful. For example, our overall historical growth rate and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic may have overshadowed the effect of seasonal variations on our historical operating results. Any seasonal effects may change or become more pronounced over time, which could also cause our operating results to fluctuate. You should not rely on the results of any given quarter as an indication of future performance.

We have a history of net losses, we anticipate increasing expenses in the future, and we may not be able to maintain profitability.

Since inception, we have incurred an accumulated deficit and may incur net losses in the foreseeable future. We generated net income of $7.4 million and $9.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, respectively. However, in most prior periods, we incurred net losses. At December 31, 2020, we had an accumulated deficit of $639.3 million.

We will need to generate and sustain increased revenue levels in future periods in order to maintain or increase our level of profitability. We expect our operating expenses to increase in the future as we expand our operations. Furthermore, as a public company, we will incur additional legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. If our revenue and gross profit do not continue to grow at a greater rate than our operating expenses, we will not be able to maintain or increase profitability. We may incur significant losses in the future for a number of reasons, including without limitation the other risks and uncertainties described herein. Additionally, we may encounter unforeseen operating or legal expenses, difficulties, complications, delays and other factors that may result in losses in future periods. If our expenses exceed our revenue, we may not maintain profitability and our business may be harmed.

If we fail to provide high-quality services, customer care and customer experience and add new services that meet our customers’ expectations, we may not be able to attract and retain customers.

In order to increase revenue and maintain profitability, we must attract new customers and retain existing customers. The rate at which new and existing customers purchase and renew subscriptions to our services

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depends on a number of factors, including those outside of our control. The quality and value of our services, customer care and customer experience, as well as the quality and accuracy of the services provided by our accountants and the independent attorneys who participate in our and our partner’s networks, are critical to our ability to attract and retain customers.

We have made substantial investments in developing our websites, mobile platform, legal documents, educational content, customer relationship management, automated supply chain and fulfillment, integrated digital workflow management and other dynamic online processes that comprise our online legal platform to improve the quality of our services, customer care and customer experience. We also intend to add new services and enhance our existing product and services. For example, in October 2020, we introduced LZ Tax, a LegalZoom fulfilled tax advisory service. We may fail to attract new customers or lose existing customers if these or future development efforts or services fail to meet changing customer preferences on a timely basis or if the independent attorneys who participate in our legal services plan, or legal plan, or the tax experts who complete the tax preparation services in our network fail to provide accurate, high-quality services, customer care and customer experience. In addition, larger enterprises may demand more support services and features, which puts additional pressure on us to satisfy the increased support required for these customers. If we are unable to attract new customers or lose existing customers, our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects would be adversely affected.

Additionally, we offer many forms of documents on our platform, such as business formations and wills, that must comply with the latest local jurisdiction requirements. While we have never experienced defects that have resulted in material liability, if there is a defect in any of our forms, or if we fail to update our forms to comply with new or modified jurisdiction requirements, this could result in negative consequences to our customers, legal liability, harm our brand and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

The independent attorneys who participate in our legal plans and attorneys who fulfill our attorney assisted legal offerings, as well as accountants who fulfill our tax offering, are critical to the success of our business. The failure or perceived failure of these independent attorneys and accountants to satisfy customer expectations could impede our ability to attract and retain customers. Further, the independent attorneys who participate in our legal plans and attorneys who fulfill our attorney assisted legal offerings have duties both to the courts and their clients. These duties, including the associated responsibilities, such as confidentiality and the rules relating to the attorney-client and attorney work product privileges, are paramount. Although we have not experienced this problem to date, there could be circumstances in which the attorneys who participate in our network and fulfill the attorney assisted offerings believe that in order to comply with these duties they may have to act against the interests of our stockholders and the short-term profitability of our business.

In addition, because our platform is available over the internet or on mobile networks, we need to continually modify and enhance our platform to keep pace with changes in internet-related hardware, software, communications and database technologies and standards. If we are unable to respond in a timely and cost-effective manner to these rapid technological developments and changes in standards, our platform may become less marketable, less competitive, or obsolete, and our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects will be harmed. If new technologies emerge that are able to deliver competitive services at lower prices, more efficiently, more conveniently or more securely, such technologies could adversely impact our ability to compete. Our platform must also integrate with a variety of network, hardware, mobile, and software platforms and technologies, and we need to continually modify and enhance its services to adapt to changes and innovation in these technologies. Any failure of our platform to operate effectively with future infrastructure platforms and technologies could reduce the demand for our platform. If we are unable to respond to these changes in a cost-effective manner, our platform may become less marketable, less competitive or obsolete, and our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects may be adversely affected.

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If we do not continue to innovate and provide a platform that is useful to our customers, we may not remain competitive, and our results of operations could suffer.

Our success depends on continued innovation to provide features that make our platform useful for our customers. We must continue to invest resources in technology and development in order to continually improve the simplicity and effectiveness of our platform. We may introduce significant changes to our platform or develop and introduce new and unproven services, including using technologies with which we have little or no prior development or operating experience. We have in the past invested resources and introduced new services that have failed to produce the customer interest that we expected, and we have since removed these services from our platform. If we are unable to continue offering innovative solutions or if new or enhanced solutions fail to engage our customers, we may be unable to attract additional customers or retain our current customers, which may adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition or future prospects.

Our business depends on business formations.

Our success significantly depends on business formations. The majority of our transaction revenue is generated by providing formation services to guide our customers through the transition from being aspiring business owners to actually launching their entities. In each of 2019 and 2020, a majority of our total transaction orders were derived from business formations. The number of business formations on our platform could decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including an overall decline in the number of U.S. business formations, an economic downturn, increased competition, regulatory obstacles, changes in law (including changes in tax laws and regulations) and dissatisfaction with our services. Any decline in the overall number of business formations or the number of business formations on our platform may adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition or future prospects.

Our subscription services are highly dependent upon our transaction products.

For the past few years, a significant amount of our revenue has been derived from our subscription services. In 2020, approximately 50% of our revenue came from subscriptions. Subscriptions have primarily originated from transactional customers who opted to become subscribers. However, we may not be able to predict whether sufficient numbers of our existing or new customers will continue to subscribe to our registered agent services, legal plans or other subscription services, or if they will continue to subscribe at the same rate. If we are unable to continue to convert our transactional customers to subscribers, our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects would be adversely affected.

Our business depends substantially on our subscribers renewing their subscriptions with us and expanding their use of our platform.

A large portion of our revenue stream comes from our subscriptions for small businesses and individuals. For us to maintain or improve our operating results, it is important that we retain our existing customers and that our subscribers renew their subscriptions with us when the existing subscription term expires. Our subscribers have no obligation to renew their subscriptions upon expiration, and we cannot assure you that subscribers will renew subscriptions at the same or higher level of service, if at all.

We cannot accurately predict renewal rates. Our retention rate may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including subscribers’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction with our platform, the effectiveness of our customer support services, the quality and perceived quality of the services provided by our tax professionals and the independent attorneys who participate in our legal plan network, the attorneys who fulfill our attorney assisted offering, our pricing, the prices of competing products or services, the effects of global economic conditions, regulatory changes or reductions in subscribers’ spending levels. If we are unable to attract new subscribers to grow our subscription services, if subscribers cancel their subscriptions at a higher rate than anticipated or do not renew their subscriptions or renew on less favorable terms, our business, results of

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operations, financial condition and future prospects would be adversely affected. If our renewal rates fall below the expectations of the public market, securities analysts or investors, the price of our common stock could also be harmed.

Our business depends on our ability to drive additional purchases and cross-sell to paying customers.

Our future success depends on our ability to expand our relationships with our customers by selling additional solutions to serve their needs, by offering more subscription products that increase engagement. This may require more sophisticated and costly sales efforts. Similarly, the rate at which our customers purchase additional services from us depends on a number of factors, including general economic conditions and customer reaction to pricing of these services. If our efforts to sell additional services to our customers are not successful, our business, results of operations, financial condition or future prospects may be harmed.

The legal solutions market is highly competitive.

We operate in a very competitive industry. We face intense competition from law firms and solo attorneys, online legal document services, legal plans, secretaries of state, tax preparation companies and other service providers. The online legal solutions market is evolving rapidly and is becoming increasingly competitive. Other companies that focus on the online legal document services market or business formations, such as BizFilings, LegalShield, MyCorporation, and RocketLawyer, and law firms that may elect to pursue the online legal document services market, can and do directly compete with us. Law firms and solo attorneys, who provide in-person consultations and are able to provide direct legal advice that we cannot offer due to laws and regulations regarding the unauthorized practice of law, or UPL, compete with us offline and have or may develop competing online legal services. We compete in the registered agent services business with several companies that target small businesses, including Wolters Kluwer, and these competitors have extensive experience in this market. In addition, if U.S. state agencies increase their offerings of free and easy-to-use business formation services, such as limited liability company formations and other document filings, or filing portals to the public, it could have a significant adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. For example, states such as Nevada and Louisiana offer online portals where consumers may file their articles of organization for free other than filing fees. We also compete in tax advisory service business with several companies, including H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt.

Our business depends on our brand and reputation.

We believe our brand has contributed to the success of our business and we have made substantial investments to build and strengthen our brand and reputation. Maintaining and enhancing the LegalZoom brand and our reputation is critical to growing and retaining our customer base. Regulatory proceedings, consumer claims, litigation, customer complaints or negative publicity through word-of-mouth, social media outlets, blogs, the Better Business Bureau and other sources related to our business practices, as well as customer care, data privacy and security issues, or reputation of our endorsers, irrespective of their validity, could diminish confidence in our services and adversely affect our brand and reputation and our ability to attract and retain customers.

Our services, as well as those of our competitors, are regularly reviewed and commented upon by online and social media sources. Negative reviews, or reviews in which our competitors’ services are rated more highly than ours, irrespective of their accuracy, could negatively affect our brand and reputation. We have in the past received negative reviews wherein our customers expressed dissatisfaction with our services, including dissatisfaction with our customer support, our billing policies and the way our subscriptions operate, and we may receive similar reviews in the future. If we do not handle customer complaints effectively, our brand and reputation may suffer. We may lose our customers’ confidence, they may choose not to renew their subscriptions or additional services from us, and we may fail to attract new customers. In addition, maintaining and enhancing our brand and reputation may require us to incur significant expenses and make substantial investments, which may not be successful. If we fail to successfully promote and maintain our brand and reputation, or if we incur

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excessive expenses in doing so, our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects may be adversely affected.

Furthermore, our brand and reputation are in part reliant on third parties, including the independent attorneys and accountants who participate in our and our partner’s networks. The failure or perceived failure of these attorneys and accountants to satisfy customer expectations could negatively impact our brand and reputation.

If our marketing efforts are unsuccessful, our ability to attract new customers or retain existing customers may be adversely affected, which may adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

Our ability to attract new customers and retain existing customers depends in large part on the success of our marketing channels. Our primary marketing channels that generate traffic for our websites include search engine marketing, television, radio, and our inside sales team.

We rely on both algorithmic and paid listing internet search results to drive customer traffic to our websites. Algorithmic listings are determined and displayed solely by a set of formulas designed by internet search engine companies, such as Google and Bing. Paid listings can be purchased and then are displayed if particular words or terms are included in a customer’s internet search. We bid on words or terms we expect customers will use to search for our services in the search engine’s auction system for preferred placement on its results page. Placement in paid listings is generally not determined solely on the bid price, but also considers the search engines’ assessment of the quality of the website featured in the paid listing and other factors. Our ability to maintain or increase customer traffic to our websites from internet search engines is not entirely within our control. For example, internet search engines sometimes revise their algorithms to optimize their search result listings or maintain their internal standards and strategies. Changes in search algorithms could cause our websites to receive less favorable placement and reduce traffic to our websites. In addition, we bid for paid listings against our competitors and third parties that may outbid us for preferred placement, which could adversely impact advertising efficiency and customer acquisition efforts. If competition for paid listings increases, we may be required to increase our marketing expenses or reduce the number or prominence of these paid listings. If we reduce our internet search engine advertising, the number of customers who visit our websites could decline significantly. Additionally, changes in regulations could limit the ability of search engines and social media platforms, including but not limited to Google and Facebook, to collect data from users and engage in targeted advertising, making them less effective in disseminating our advertisements to our target customers.

A reduction or loss of any of our advertising channels may adversely affect our ability to attract new customers, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

We depend on top talent, including our senior management team, to grow and operate our business, and if we are unable to hire, retain and motivate our employees, we may not be able to grow effectively, which may adversely affect our business and future prospects.

Our future success will depend upon our continued ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate and retain top talent. Competition for such talent is intense. We have from time to time experienced, and we expect to continue to experience, difficulty in hiring and retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications which may, among other things, impede our ability to execute our growth strategies. If we are not able to effectively attract and retain quality employees, our ability to achieve our strategic objectives will be adversely impacted, our brand or reputation could suffer, and our business will be adversely affected. Our ability to execute efficiently depends upon contributions from all of our employees and our senior management team. In addition, from time to time, there may be changes in our senior management team that may be disruptive to our business. If our senior management team, including any new hires that we may make, fails to work together effectively and execute our plans and strategies on a timely basis, our business and future prospects may be adversely affected.

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If we cannot attract additional, qualified independent attorneys to participate in our legal plan network to service the needs of our legal plan subscribers, if we cannot attract additional, qualified certified public accountants, enrolled agents, and tax professionals to service the needs of our subscribers, or if these attorneys, accountants and tax professionals encounter regulatory issues that prevent them from being able to service the needs of our customers, we may not be able grow and maintain our legal plan subscription business effectively and our business, revenue, results of operations and future prospects may be adversely affected.

Our business and success depend in part on our strategic relationships with third parties, including our partner ecosystem, and our business would be harmed if we fail to maintain or expand these relationships.

We depend on, and anticipate we will continue to depend on, various third-party relationships to sustain and grow our business. For example, we partner with a variety of third parties to provide business license services, bookkeeping services, credit card and banking services, productivity tools and business insurance, among others. Our sales and our customers’ user experience are dependent on our ability to connect and integrate easily to such third-party solutions. We may fail to retain and expand relationships for many reasons, including due to third parties’ failure to maintain, support, or secure their technology platforms in general, restrictions imposed by regulatory compliance, and our integrations in particular. Any such failure could harm our relationship with our customers, our reputation and brand, and our business and results of operations.

As we seek to add different types of partners to our partner ecosystem, it is uncertain whether these third parties will be successful in building integrations, co-marketing our solutions to provide a significant volume and quality of lead referrals and orders, or continuing to work with us as their own products evolve. Identifying and negotiating new and expanded partner relationships requires significant resources. In addition, integrating third-party technology can be complex, costly, and time-consuming. Third parties may be unwilling to build integrations, and we may be required to devote additional resources to develop integrations for business applications on our own. The contracts applicable to third parties’ development tools may be unfavorable and add costs or risks to our business or may require us to push additional contract terms to our customers that affect our relationship with our customers. Providers of business applications with which we have integrations may decide to compete with us or enter into arrangements with our competitors, resulting in such providers withdrawing support for our integrations. In addition, any failure of our solutions to operate effectively with business applications could reduce the demand for our solutions and harm to our business. If we are unable to respond to these changes or failures in a cost-effective manner, our solutions may become less marketable, less competitive, or obsolete, and our results of operations may be negatively impacted.

If we are unable to effectively manage and minimize errors, failures, interruptions or delays caused by third parties, or if our third-party service providers cease to do business with us, our ability to deliver services to our customers, business, brand and reputation and results of operations may be adversely affected.

We rely on third parties to fulfill portions of the services we offer and to support our operations. For example, we rely on government agencies, including secretary of state offices and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, to process business formation documents and intellectual property applications. If these agencies are unable or refuse to process submissions in a timely manner, including as a result of any government shutdowns or slowdowns, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, our brand and reputation may be adversely affected, or customers may seek other avenues for their business formation or intellectual property needs. We also utilize other third parties in connection with the fulfillment and distribution of our services, including the independent attorneys in our legal plan network, as well as accountants and tax professionals through our subscription plans, and a third party to support our registered agent subscription services. Our platform also interoperates with certain third-party sites. As a result, our results may be affected by the performance of those parties and the interoperability of our platform with other sites. If certain third parties limit certain integration functionality, change their treatment of our services at any time, or experience quality issues, such as bugs and defects, our revenue, results of operations and future prospects may be adversely affected.

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In addition, we may be unable to renew or replace our agreements with these third parties on comparable terms, or at all. Moreover, we cannot guarantee that the parties with which we have relationships can and will continue to devote the resources necessary to operate and expand our platform. Further, some of these third parties offer, or could offer, competing services or also work with our competitors. As a result of these factors, many of these third parties may choose to develop alternative 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 our revenue, results of operations and future prospects may be adversely affected. 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. We may also be held responsible for obligations that arise from the actions or omissions of these third parties.

We also utilize various types of data, technology, intellectual property and services licensed or otherwise obtained from unaffiliated third parties in order to provide certain elements of our solutions. We exercise limited control over these third parties, which increases our vulnerability to problems with the services they provide for us and to security incidents or breaches affecting the data and information they hold or process on our behalf. Any errors or defects in any third-party data or other technology could result in errors in our solutions that could harm our business, damage our reputation and result in losses in revenue, and we could be required to undertake substantial additional research and expend significant development resources to fix any problems that arise. In addition, such licensed data, technology, intellectual property and services may not continue to be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Any loss of the right to use any of these on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, could result in delays in producing or delivering our solutions until equivalent data, technology, intellectual property or services are identified and integrated, which delays could harm our business. In this situation we would be required to either redesign our solutions to function with such equivalent data, technology, intellectual property or services available from other parties or to develop these components or services ourselves, which would result in increased costs and potential delays in service. Furthermore, we might be forced to limit the features available in our current or future solutions. If we fail to maintain or renegotiate any of these data, technology or intellectual property licenses or services, we could face significant delays and diversion of resources in attempting to develop similar or replacement technology, or to license and integrate a functional equivalent of the relevant data, technology, intellectual property or service. The occurrence of any of these events may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and future prospects.

The estimates of market opportunity and forecasts of market growth included in this prospectus may prove to be inaccurate, and even if the market in which we compete achieves the forecasted growth, our business could fail to grow at similar rates, if at all.

Market opportunity estimates and growth forecasts included in this prospectus are based on data published by third parties and on internally generated data and assumptions, which are subject to significant uncertainty and are based on assumptions and estimates that may not prove to be accurate. We have not independently verified any third-party information and cannot assure you of its accuracy or completeness. While we believe our market size estimates are reasonable, such information is inherently imprecise. Even if the market in which we compete meets the size estimates and growth forecasted in this prospectus, our business could fail to grow for a variety of reasons, which would adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects. For more information regarding the estimates of market opportunity and the forecasts of market growth included in this prospectus, see the section titled “Market, Industry and Other Data.”

We may also face potential competition from large internet providers, such as Amazon or Alphabet, who may choose to enter into the online legal solutions business. These businesses have disrupted multiple industries and routinely enter new verticals. While they have no particular expertise in providing legal solutions online, their extensive resources and brand recognition would make them formidable competitors and could adversely affect our business.

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Our direct and indirect competitors, whether they are online legal document providers, legal plan providers, law firms, accounting firms, solo attorneys or large internet providers, may also be developing innovative and cost-effective services, including automated corporate formation document processing, that target our existing and potential customers. We expect to face increasing competition from offline and online legal services providers in our market, and our failure to effectively compete with these providers could result in revenue reductions, reduced margins, and loss of market share, any of which could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

Our failure to successfully address the evolving market for transactions on mobile devices and to build mobile products could harm our business.

A significant and growing portion of our customers access our platform through mobile devices. Almost half of our traffic is through mobile devices. The number of people who access the internet and purchase services through mobile devices, including smartphones and handheld tablets or computers, has increased significantly in the past few years and is expected to continue to increase. If we are not able to provide customers with the experience and solutions they want on mobile devices, we may not be able to attract or retain customers or convert our website traffic into customers and our business may be harmed.

While we have created mobile applications and versions of some of our web content, if these mobile applications and versions are not well received by customers, or if they don’t offer the information, services and functionality required by customers that widely use mobile devices, our business may suffer and we may experience difficulty in attracting and retaining customers. In addition, we face different fraud risks and regulatory risks from transactions sent from mobile devices than we do from personal computers. If we are unable to effectively anticipate and manage these risks, our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects may be harmed.

We may acquire or invest in companies, which may divert our management’s attention and result in additional dilution to our stockholders.

We have in the past acquired or invested in businesses, products or technologies that we believed could complement or expand our current platform, enhance our technical capabilities or otherwise offer growth opportunities. As part of our business strategy, we may in the future continue to seek to acquire or invest in businesses, products or technologies that we believe could complement or expand our services, enhance our technical capabilities or otherwise offer growth opportunities. The risks we face in connection with acquisitions, whether or not they are consummated, include:

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We have in the past faced these difficulties successfully integrating some of our acquisitions and we may face similar problems in the future. We may also decide to restructure, divest or sell businesses, products or technologies that we have acquired or invested in. The occurrence of any of these risks could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects and could adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

Our focus on the long-term best interests of our company and our consideration of all of our stakeholders, including our stockholders, customers, employees, and other stakeholders that we may identify from time to time, may conflict with short- or medium-term financial interests and business performance, which may negatively impact the value of our common stock.

We believe that focusing on the long-term best interests of our company and our consideration of all of our stakeholders, including our stockholders, customers, partners, the communities in which we operate, and other stakeholders we may identify from time to time, is essential to the long-term success of our company and to long-term stockholder value. Therefore, we have made decisions, and may in the future make decisions, that we believe are in the long-term best interests of our company and our stockholders, even if such decisions may negatively impact the short- or medium-term performance of our business, results of operations, and financial condition or the short- or medium-term performance of our common stock. Our commitment to pursuing long-term value for the company and its stockholders, potentially at the expense of short- or medium-term performance, may materially adversely affect the trading price of our common stock, including by making owning our common stock less appealing to investors who are focused on returns over a shorter time horizon. Our decisions and actions in pursuit of long-term success and long-term stockholder value, which may include changes to our platform to enhance the experience of our customers, partners and the communities in which we operate, including by improving the trust and safety of our platform, enable equitable access to legal and compliance services, investing in our relationships with our customers, partners, and employees, investing in and introducing new services, or changes in our approach to working with local or national jurisdictions on laws and regulations governing our business, may not result in the long-term benefits that we expect, in which case our business, results of operations, and financial condition, as well as the trading price of our common stock, could be materially adversely affected.

We may not effectively ensure that online services and physical locations are protected from significant outages, denial or degradation of service attacks, natural disasters, including adverse weather conditions, and other disruptions, any of which could adversely affect our brand and reputation, business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

A key element of our continued growth is the ability of our customers to access our websites and mobile applications and our ability to fulfill orders placed through such platforms. Our systems may not be adequately designed with the necessary reliability to avoid performance delays, disruptions or outages that could be harmful to our business. In addition, any steps we take to increase the reliability and redundancy of our systems may be expensive and may not be successful in preventing system failures. At times we have experienced, or may in the future experience, website disruptions, outages, and other performance problems due to a variety of factors,

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including infrastructure maintenance, human or software errors, ransomware attacks, capacity constraints, denial of service, fraud or security attacks. In some instances, we may not be able to identify the cause or causes of these website or mobile application performance problems within an acceptable period of time. It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve our website or mobile application performance, especially during peak usage times, if the number of online services we offer increases, our services become more complex, or our customer traffic grows. If our websites or mobile applications are unavailable when customers attempt to access them, our customers may seek other solutions to address their needs and may not return to our websites or mobile applications in the future. To the extent that we do not effectively address future capacity constraints, upgrade and protect our systems, and continually develop our online legal platform to accommodate actual and anticipated technology changes, our brand and reputation, business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects could be adversely affected.

In particular, our online services may be vulnerable to denial or degradation of service attacks or ransomware attacks, which are designed to adversely impact our operations by reducing the capacity or availability of our IT systems, the speed of operations of online services or disrupt the public’s ability to access websites or applications. Although we have taken steps to prevent these attacks and mitigate their potential impact on our systems and operations, such steps may be ineffective to prevent service disruptions or outages. We have experienced denial-of-service attacks in the past, and we may be subject to additional attacks or threats of attacks in the future. Any similar events or failure to maintain performance, reliability, security and availability of our legal document services and online technology platform to the satisfaction of our customers may harm our brand and reputation, as well as our ability to retain existing customers and attract new customers, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects. Further, if our customers are unable to access the information they store on our platform for even limited periods of time, data protection laws may require us to notify regulators and affected individuals, which may increase the likelihood of regulatory investigations into our data protection practices, loss of customers, litigation and other liabilities.

Our operations and online services also rely on the continued functioning and accessibility of certain physical locations, including our product fulfillment locations and data centers, which are vulnerable to damage or interruption from natural disasters, adverse weather conditions, power losses, telecommunication failures, terrorist attacks, human errors, break-ins and similar events. The occurrence of a natural disaster or other unanticipated problems at our facilities could result in lengthy interruptions in our services. We may not be able to efficiently relocate our fulfillment and delivery operations due to disruptions in service if one of these events occurs and our insurance coverage may be insufficient to compensate us for such losses. Because the Los Angeles area, where our corporate and executive headquarters is located, is in an earthquake fault zone and because both the Los Angeles area and Austin, Texas, where our operational headquarters is located, are subject to the increased risk of wildfires, tornadoes, and power outages, we are particularly sensitive to the risk of damage to, or total destruction of, our primary offices and two of our key fulfillment and delivery centers. Although we are insured up to certain limits against any certain losses or expenses that may result from a disruption to our business due to earthquakes or wildfires, either of these events, if incurred, could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

We have been or are involved in, and may in the future become involved in, litigation matters that are expensive and time consuming, and, if resolved adversely, could harm our brand and reputation, business, results of operations, financial condition or future prospects.

We have been or are involved in lawsuits and other actions brought by customers, purported competitors, regulators, and other parties alleging that we engage in the unauthorized practice of law, unfairly compete or otherwise violate the law. The plaintiffs in these actions generally seek monetary damages, penalties, and/or injunctive relief. While we have denied and continue to deny all of the allegations and claims asserted in these proceedings, and we believe our services do not constitute the practice of law, unfairly compete, or otherwise violate the law, we cannot predict the outcome of such proceedings or the amount of time and expense that will

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be required to resolve these and other proceedings. If such litigation were to be determined adversely to our interests, or if we were forced to settle such matters for a significant amount, such resolutions or settlements could have a negative effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects. We anticipate that we will continue to be a target for such lawsuits in the future. Any litigation to which we are a party may result in an onerous or unfavorable judgment that may not be reversed upon appeal, or we may decide to settle lawsuits on unfavorable terms. In addition, defending these claims is costly and can impose a significant burden on management and employees, and we may receive unfavorable preliminary or interim rulings in the course of litigation. Any such negative outcome could result in payments of substantial monetary damages or fines, injunctive relief, adverse effects on the market price of our common stock or changes to our products or business practices, and accordingly our brand and reputation, business, results of operations, financial condition, or future prospects could be materially and adversely affected.

We also may encounter future claims. For example, our U.K. subsidiary operates as an alternative business structure (ABS), which allows corporate entities to become licensed providers of reserved legal activities in that jurisdiction. As a result, our U.K. subsidiary may be susceptible to potential claims from clients, such as breach of contract, product liability, negligence, or other claims. Any such claims could result in reputational damage or an adverse effect on our results of operations. In addition, while we believe this structure is legally permissible, it is generally untested in U.S. courts and we cannot assure you that it will insulate us from claims of CPL or UPL. Even though our U.K. subsidiary holds professional liability insurance, limiting its liability in accordance with its engagement letters with clients, such insurance and limitations in liability may not insure or protect against all potential claims or sufficiently indemnify us or our U.K. subsidiary for all liability that may be incurred. Any such liability, inclusive of the costs and expenses that may be incurred in defending any such claims, that exceeds the insurance coverage could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, or future prospects.

Furthermore, our employees may, from time to time, bring lawsuits against us regarding injuries, a hostile workplace, discrimination, wage and hour disputes, sexual harassment, or other employment issues. In recent years there has been an increase in the number of discrimination and harassment claims against employers generally. Coupled with the expansion of social media platforms, employer review websites and similar devices that allow individuals access to a broad audience, these claims have had a significant negative impact on some businesses. Certain companies that have faced employment- or harassment-related claims have had to terminate management or other key personnel and have suffered reputational harm that has negatively impacted their business, including their ability to attract and hire top talent. If we were to face any employment- or harassment-related claims, our business could be negatively affected in similar or other ways.

As we face increasing competition and gain an increasingly high profile, including in connection with our initial public offering, third parties may make intellectual property rights claims, file lawsuits or initiate regulatory actions or other proceedings against us. In addition, we may introduce new services, including in areas where we currently do not compete, which could increase our exposure to lawsuits, regulatory actions, or intellectual property claims. Defending against lawsuits, regulatory actions, and other intellectual property claims is costly and can place a significant burden on management and employees. If such claims are made against us, there can be no assurances that favorable final outcomes will be obtained and, if resolved adversely, may result in changes to or discontinuance of some of our services, potential liabilities or additional costs, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

We are subject to risks related to accepting credit and debit card payments that may harm our business or expose us to additional costs and liabilities.

We accept payments from our customers primarily through credit and debit card transactions. Our customers generally pay for transactions in advance by credit or debit card except for certain services provided under installment plans where we allow customers to pay for their order in two or three equal payments. For credit and debit card payments, we pay interchange and other fees, which may increase over time and raise our

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operating costs and lower profitability. We rely on third parties to provide payment processing services, including the processing of our credit and debit card transactions, and to provide payment collection services, and it could interrupt our business if these third parties become unwilling or unable to provide these services to us, or if we are otherwise unable to collect payments. For example, if our processing vendors have problems with our billing software, or the billing software malfunctions, we could lose customers who subscribe to our legal plans, registered agent services and other subscription services, which could decrease our revenue. In addition, if our billing software fails to work properly and, as a result, we do not automatically charge our subscribers’ credit cards on a timely basis or at all, our revenue could be adversely affected.

We are also subject to payment card industry rules, certification requirements and rules governing electronic funds transfer, any of which could change or be reinterpreted to make it more difficult for us to comply. Our failure to comply fully with these rules or requirements may subject us to fines, higher transaction fees, penalties, damages, and civil liability and may result in the loss of our ability to accept credit and debit card payments, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

Risks Relating to Our Financial Condition, Indebtedness and Capital Requirements

Our business is subject to seasonal fluctuations that may cause our results of operations to vary from period to period.

Many of the factors that contribute to seasonal fluctuations in our results of operations are out of our control. We have experienced, and expect that we will continue to experience, seasonality in the number of orders placed and when we enter into subscription agreements with customers. Customers tend to place a higher number of orders and enter into new or renewed subscriptions in the first quarter of the year, which is when we believe the demand for forming businesses is the highest. Further seasonality is reflected in the timing of our revenue recognition in the second quarter, when we typically recognize a high amount of revenue from orders placed in the first quarter but fulfilled in the second quarter. Also, we generally see demand for our services decline around the beginning of the third quarter as a result of summer vacations and in the last two months of the fourth quarter as a result of the winter holidays. Seasonality in our business may cause period-to-period fluctuations in certain of our operating results and financial metrics and thus limit our ability to predict our future results.

Our results of operations may not immediately reflect downturns or upturns in sales because we recognize revenue from our customers over the term of their paid subscriptions with us.

We recognize revenue from paid subscriptions to our services over the respective term of the subscription period. After a short introductory trial period, if any, most paying subscribers make a one-year subscription commitment, with the upcoming annual subscription fee paid upon subscribing. As a result, much of our revenue is generated from the recognition of deferred revenue relating to subscriptions entered into during previous quarters. Consequently, a shortfall in demand for our services or a decline in new or renewed subscriptions in any one quarter may have a small impact on the revenue that we recognize for that quarter but could negatively affect our revenue in future quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales and potential changes in our pricing policies or rate of customer expansion or retention may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods. In addition, a significant majority of our costs are expensed as incurred, while revenue is recognized over the life of the subscription agreement. As a result, growth in the number of customers could continue to result in our recognition of higher costs and lower revenue in the earlier periods of our subscription agreements. Finally, our subscription-based revenue model also makes it difficult for us to rapidly increase our revenue through additional sales in any period, as revenue from new customers and significant increases in the size of subscriptions with existing customers must be recognized over the applicable subscription term.

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We track certain financial and operating metrics with internal systems and tools and do not independently verify such metrics. Certain of our financial and operating 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 financial and operating metrics, including key business metrics such as number of transactions, number of subscription units and average revenue per customer, with internal company data, systems and tools that are not independently verified by any third party. Our internal systems and 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 publicly disclose. If the internal systems and tools we use to track these metrics undercount or overcount performance or contain algorithmic or other technical errors, the data we report may not be accurate. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates of our metrics for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring how our services are used across large populations globally. For example, there are customers who have multiple subscriptions, which we treat as multiple subscription units for purposes of calculating our subscription units.

In addition, limitations or errors with respect to how we measure data or with respect to the data that we measure may affect our understanding of certain details of our business, which could affect our long-term strategies. If our financial and operating metrics are not accurate representations of our business, or if we discover material inaccuracies in our metrics, our reputation may be harmed, and our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects could be adversely affected.

We are in the process of implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning, or ERP, software system and challenges with the implementation of the system may impact our business and operations.

We are in the process of implementing a company-wide ERP software program and the related infrastructure to support future growth and to integrate our processes. Our ERP software program has involved, and will continue to involve, substantial expenditures on system hardware and software, as well as design, development and implementation activities. The implementation of the ERP software program may prove to be more difficult, costly, or time consuming than expected, and it is possible that the system will not yield the benefits anticipated. Any disruptions, delays or deficiencies in the design and implementation of our new ERP software program could materially impact our operations and adversely affect our ability to process orders, fulfill contractual obligations or otherwise operate our business. Additionally, future cost estimates related to our new ERP software system are based on assumptions that are subject to wide variability.

We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and, if our remediation of these material weaknesses is not effective, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations, which may adversely affect investor confidence and the price of our common stock.

We have identified three material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

The material weaknesses we identified are listed below:

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These material weaknesses resulted in adjustments to our current and prior year financial statements primarily related to debt extinguishment costs, goodwill, revenue, accounts receivable, foreign exchange expense and deferred revenue, and could result in a misstatement of any account balances or disclosures that would result in a material misstatement to the annual or interim consolidated financial statements that would not be prevented or detected.

In response to the identified material weaknesses, we are in the process of designing and implementing a plan to remediate the material weaknesses identified, including:

We cannot assure you that that these measures will significantly improve or remediate the material weaknesses described above. The implementation of these measures is ongoing and will require validation and testing of the design and operating effectiveness of internal controls over a sustained period of financial reporting cycles. If the steps we take do not remediate the material weaknesses in a timely manner, there could continue to be a reasonable possibility that these control deficiencies or others would result in a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements that would not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. This, in turn, could jeopardize our ability to comply with our reporting obligations, limit our ability to access the capital markets and adversely impact our stock price.

We and our independent registered public accounting firm were not required to perform an evaluation of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020 in accordance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that we have identified all, or that we will not in the future have additional, material weaknesses. Material weaknesses may still exist when we report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as required by reporting requirements under Section 404 after the completion of this offering. If we are unable to successfully remediate the existing material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting, and our stock price, may be adversely affected and we may be unable to maintain compliance with the applicable stock exchange listing requirements.

Implementing any appropriate changes to our internal controls may distract our officers and employees, entail substantial costs to modify our existing processes and take significant time to complete. These changes may not, however, be effective in maintaining the adequacy of our internal controls, and any failure to maintain that adequacy, or consequent inability to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis, could increase our operating costs and harm our business. In addition, investors’ perceptions that our internal controls are inadequate or that we are unable to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis may harm our stock price and make it more difficult for us to effectively market and sell our services to new and existing customers.

If we are unable to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in the future, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports and the market price of our common stock may decline.

As a public company, we will be required to maintain internal control over financial reporting and to report any material weaknesses in such internal control. In addition, beginning with our 2022 annual report on Form

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10-K to be filed in 2023, we will be required to furnish a report by management on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404. This assessment will need to include disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. In addition, our independent registered public accounting firm will be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting beginning with our first annual report on Form 10-K following the date on which we are no longer an “emerging growth company.”

We have commenced the costly and challenging process of compiling the system and processing documentation necessary to perform the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404, and we may not be able to complete our evaluation, testing and any required remediation in a timely fashion. Our compliance with Section 404 will require that we incur substantial accounting expense and expend significant management efforts. We currently do not have an internal audit group, and we will need to hire additional accounting and financial staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge and compile the system and process documentation necessary to perform the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404.

During the evaluation and testing process of our internal controls, if we identify one or more material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we will be unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective. We cannot assure you that there will not be additional material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting in the future. Any failure to maintain internal control over financial reporting could severely inhibit our ability to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations. If we are unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm determines we have a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, the market price of our common stock could be negatively affected, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the stock exchange on which our securities are listed, the SEC, or other regulatory authorities, which could also require additional financial and management resources. Failure to remedy any material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or to implement or maintain other effective control systems required of public companies, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets.

We have substantial indebtedness, which reduces our capability to withstand adverse developments or business conditions.

We have incurred substantial indebtedness. In November 2018, we entered into an amended first lien credit and guarantee agreement, or the 2018 Credit Agreement, with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., an affiliate of one of the underwriters in this offering, as administrative agent, and the other lenders party thereto, which provided for $575.0 million of loans, consisting a $535.0 million term loan, or the 2018 Term Loan, and $40.0 million of availability under a revolving credit facility, or the 2018 Revolving Facility. We refer to the 2018 Term Loan and 2018 Revolving Facility collectively as the 2018 Credit Facility. Pursuant to the 2018 Credit Agreement, debt under the 2018 Credit Facility is guaranteed by certain of our material wholly owned domestic restricted subsidiaries and is secured by substantially all of our and such subsidiaries’ assets and property, including our and such subsidiary’s intellectual property.

Borrowings under the 2018 Term Loan bear interest, at our option, at a rate equal to either (a) the London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR (or a comparable successor rate approved by the administrative agent and us), subject to a 0.00% floor, plus a margin of 4.50% per annum or (b) the Base Rate, defined as the greatest of the prime rate, the federal funds rate plus one-half of 1.00%, and the sum of one-month LIBOR plus 2.00% per annum, subject to a floor of 1.00%, plus a margin of 3.50% per annum. Each such margin may decrease depending on our total net first lien leverage ratio. The 2018 Term Loan is required to be repaid in quarterly installments of 0.25% of the outstanding principal, with the remaining outstanding principal due on maturity on November 21, 2024. The 2018 Term Loan must be repaid with proceeds of certain asset sales, debt issuances and a portion of our annual excess cash flow.

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Loans under the 2018 Revolving Facility may be borrowed, at our option, at a rate equal to (i) LIBOR or Euro LIBOR (or a comparable successor rate approved by the administrative agent and us), in each case, subject to a 0.00% floor, plus a margin of 4.00% per annum or (ii) the Base Rate, defined as the greatest of the prime rate, the federal funds rate plus one-half of 1%, and the sum of one-month LIBOR plus 1.00% per annum, subject to a floor of 1.00%, plus a margin of 3.00% per annum. Each such margin may decrease depending on our total net first lien leverage ratio. The 2018 Revolving Facility has a commitment fee of 0.375% per annum, which steps down to 0.25% per annum upon achieving a certain total net first lien leverage ratio level. The 2018 Revolving Facility is due in full on maturity on November 23, 2023.

At December 31, 2020, our total aggregate indebtedness under the 2018 Credit Agreement was $524.3 million of principal outstanding under the 2018 Term Loan and we had $40.0 million available for additional borrowings under 2018 Revolving Facility. We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering to repay $             million of the outstanding indebtedness under the 2018 Term Loan, and we expect to have $             million outstanding under the 2018 Term Loan immediately after such repayment. Our payments on our outstanding indebtedness are significant in relation to our revenue and cash flow, which exposes us to significant risk in the event of downturns in our businesses (whether through competitive pressures or otherwise), our industry or the economy generally, since our cash flows would decrease but our required payments under our indebtedness would not. Economic downturns may impact our ability to comply with the covenants and restrictions in the 2018 Credit Agreement and may impact our ability to pay or refinance our indebtedness as they come due, which may (i) allow the lenders under the 2018 Credit Facility to accelerate the debt under the 2018 Credit Facility and/or seize our assets, including our intellectual property, (ii) allow third parties to terminate certain contracts to which we are a party or (iii) otherwise adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

Despite our current indebtedness level, we and our restricted subsidiaries may be able to incur substantially more indebtedness, which could further exacerbate the risks associated with our substantial indebtedness.

Although the terms of the agreements governing our outstanding indebtedness contain restrictions on the incurrence of additional indebtedness, such restrictions are subject to a number of important exceptions and indebtedness incurred in compliance with such restrictions could be substantial. If we and our restricted subsidiaries incur significant additional indebtedness, the related risks that we face could increase. If new debt is added to our or our subsidiaries’ current debt levels, the related risks that we now face would increase, and we may not be able to meet all our debt obligations. See the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Borrowings.”

The agreements governing our indebtedness require us to meet certain operating and financial covenants and place restrictions on our operating and financial flexibility. If we raise additional capital through debt financing, the terms of any new debt could further restrict our ability to operate our business.

The 2018 Credit Agreement contains affirmative and negative covenants, indemnification provisions and events of default. The affirmative covenants include, among others, administrative, reporting and legal covenants, in each case subject to certain exceptions. The negative covenants include, among others, limitations on our and certain of our subsidiaries’ abilities to, in each case subject to certain exceptions:

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The 2018 Credit Agreement also contains a financial covenant with respect to the 2018 Revolving Facility that requires us to maintain a total net first lien leverage ratio of 7.90:1.00 on the last day of any fiscal quarter during which our 2018 Revolving Facility usage exceeds 35% of the 2018 Revolving Facility capacity. As a result of the restrictions described above, we will be limited as to how we conduct our business and we may be unable to raise additional debt or equity financing to take advantage of new business opportunities. The terms of any future indebtedness we may incur could include more restrictive covenants. We cannot assure you that we will be able to maintain compliance with these covenants in the future and, if we fail to do so, that we will be able to obtain waivers from the lenders or amend the covenants.

Our ability to comply with the covenants and restrictions contained in the 2018 Credit Agreement may be affected by economic, financial and industry conditions beyond our control. The restrictions in the 2018 Credit Agreement may prevent us from taking actions that we believe would be in the best interests of our business and may make it difficult for us to execute our business strategy successfully or effectively compete with companies that are not similarly restricted. Even if the 2018 Credit Agreement is terminated, any additional debt that we incur in the future could subject us to similar or additional covenants.

The 2018 Credit Agreement includes customary events of default, including: failure to pay principal, interest or certain other amounts when due; material inaccuracy of representations and warranties; violation of covenants; specified cross-default and cross-acceleration to other material indebtedness; certain bankruptcy and insolvency events; certain events relating to ERISA; certain undischarged judgments; material invalidity of guarantees or grant of security interest; and change of control, in certain cases subject to certain thresholds and grace periods. In addition, if we fail to sell at least 15% of our issued and outstanding common stock in connection with this offering, then if certain of our stockholders do not continue to maintain voting control over the election of directors after this offering, we could be deemed to have undergone a change of control, which would constitute an event of default under the 2018 Credit Agreement.

Our failure to comply with the restrictive covenants described above as well as other terms of our indebtedness could result in an event of default, which, if not cured or waived, could result in the lenders declaring all obligations, together with accrued and unpaid interest, immediately due and payable and take control of the collateral, potentially requiring us to renegotiate the 2018 Credit Agreement on terms less favorable to us. If we are forced to refinance these borrowings on less favorable terms or are unable to refinance these borrowings, our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects could be adversely affected. In addition, such a default or acceleration may result in the acceleration of any future indebtedness or result in the termination of certain other contracts with third parties, in each case to which a cross-acceleration or cross-default provision applies. If we are unable to repay our indebtedness, lenders having secured obligations, such as the lenders under the 2018 Credit Agreement, could proceed against the collateral securing the indebtedness. In any such case, we may be unable to borrow under our 2018 Credit Facility and may not be able

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to repay the amounts due under our 2018 Credit Facility. This could have serious consequences to our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects and could cause us to become bankrupt or insolvent.

When LIBOR is discontinued, borrowing costs under the 2018 Credit Agreement or agreements governing any of our future indebtedness will be calculated using another reference rate, which may cause substantial uncertainty as to the effect of such replacement on our borrowing costs

On November 30, 2020, the Chief Executive of the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA, which regulates LIBOR, announced that the FCA intends to cease the publication of one-week and two-month LIBOR by the end of 2021 and all other LIBOR tenors (overnight, one-month, three-month, six-month and 12-month) on June 30, 2023. In addition, the U.S. Federal Reserve, in conjunction with the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, a steering committee consisting of large U.S. financial institutions, is considering replacing U.S. dollar LIBOR with the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, or SOFR, a new index calculated by short-term repurchase agreements, backed by Treasury securities. Although there have been a few transactions utilizing SOFR and similar rates, it is unknown whether these alternative reference rates will attain market acceptance as replacements for LIBOR. LIBOR is used as a benchmark reference throughout the 2018 Credit Agreement. While the 2018 Credit Agreement provides fallback language in the event LIBOR ceases to be published, including the possibility of designation of a replacement rate by the administrative agent under the 2018 Credit Agreement, there is substantial uncertainty as to the effect of such replacement on our borrowing costs. In addition, in such event, we may need to renegotiate the 2018 Credit Agreement in order to determine the interest rate to replace LIBOR with the new standard that is established. There is currently no definitive information regarding the future utilization of LIBOR or of any particular replacement rate. As such, the potential effect of any such event on our borrowing costs or the effectiveness of certain related transactions such as hedges cannot yet be determined.

We are subject to fluctuations in interest rates.

Borrowings under the 2018 Credit Facility are subject to variable rates of interest and expose us to interest rate risk. In April 2019, we entered into interest rate swap agreements for an aggregate notional amount of $131.9 million to swap our variable interest rate on our 2018 Term Loan for a fixed interest rate of 2.2745%. The interest rate swaps were to expire in March 2022. In March 2020, in response to a drop in LIBOR, we modified our interest rate swap agreements to extend the terms to March 2024 and also lower the fixed interest rate from 2.2745% to a revised average rate of 1.6786%. Our obligations under these interest rate swaps (and any other derivative transaction entered into with the administrative agent, an arranger, a lender or any affiliate thereof under the 2018 Credit Facility) are secured by substantially all of our and our subsidiaries’ assets and property, including our and our subsidiaries’ intellectual property on a pari passu basis with the 2018 Credit Facility.

We may decide to enter into additional derivative financial instruments in the future. If we do, we may not maintain interest rate swaps, caps or other applicable financial instruments with respect to all of our indebtedness and any financial instrument we enter into may not fully mitigate our interest rate risk, may prove disadvantageous or may create additional risks.

Certain of our indebtedness may be denominated in foreign currencies, which subjects us to foreign exchange risk, which could cause our debt service obligations to increase significantly.

The 2018 Credit Agreement’s 2018 Revolving Facility also permits borrowings denominated in Euros, GBP and other alternative currencies that may be approved by the administrative agent and revolving lenders. See the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Borrowings.” Such non-U.S. dollar-denominated debt may not necessarily correspond to the cash flow we generate in such currencies. Sharp changes in the exchange rates between the currencies in which we borrow and the currencies in which we generate cash flow could adversely affect us. In

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the future, we may enter into contractual arrangements designed to hedge a portion of the foreign currency exchange risk associated with any non-U.S. dollar-denominated debt. If these hedging arrangements are unsuccessful, we may experience an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

Changes in tax laws or tax rulings could affect our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

The tax regimes we are subject to or operate under, including income and non-income taxes, are unsettled and may be subject to significant change. Changes in tax laws, regulations, or rulings, or changes in interpretations of existing laws and regulations, could affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. For example, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or the Tax Act, made broad and complex changes to the U.S. tax code, including changes to U.S. federal tax rates, additional limitations on the deductibility of interest, both positive and negative changes to the utilization of future net operating loss, or NOL, carryforwards, allowing for the expensing of certain capital expenditures, and putting into effect the migration from a “worldwide” system of taxation to a largely territorial system. The issuance of additional regulatory or accounting guidance related to the Tax Act could affect our tax obligations and effective tax rate in the period issued. In addition, many countries in Europe, as well as a number of other countries and organizations, have recently proposed or recommended changes to existing tax laws or have enacted new laws that could significantly increase our tax obligations in the countries where we do business or require us to change the manner in which we operate our business.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has been working on a Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project, and issued a report in 2015, an interim report in 2018, and is expected to continue to issue guidelines and proposals that may change various aspects of the existing framework under which our tax obligations are determined in many of the countries in which we do business. Similarly, the European Commission and several countries have issued proposals that would change various aspects of the current tax framework under which we are taxed. These proposals include changes to the existing framework to calculate income tax, as well as proposals to change or impose new types of non-income taxes, including taxes based on a percentage of revenue. For example, several countries have proposed or enacted taxes applicable to digital services, which could apply to our business.

Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards may be limited.

We have incurred substantial losses during our history and may not be able to maintain profitability. Unused U.S. federal NOLs for taxable years beginning before January 1, 2018, may be carried forward to offset future taxable income, if any, until such unused NOLs expire. Under legislation enacted in 2017, informally titled the Tax Act, as modified by legislation enacted on March 27, 2020, entitled the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or the CARES Act, U.S. federal NOLs incurred in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017, can be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such U.S. federal NOLs in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2020 is limited to 80% of taxable income. It is uncertain if and to what extent various states will change their tax laws to conform to the Tax Act or the CARES Act.

At December 31, 2020, we had U.S. federal and state NOL carryforwards of $11.7 million and $49.8 million, respectively. Of the $11.7 million U.S. federal NOL carryforwards, $7.4 million may be carried forward indefinitely with utilization limited to 80% of taxable income. The remaining $4.3 million will begin to expire in 2031. The state NOL carryforwards begin to expire in 2022.

In addition, under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, and corresponding provisions of state law, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” which is generally defined as a greater than 50 percentage point change (by value) in its equity ownership over a three-year period, the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change NOL carryforwards to offset its post- change income or taxes may be limited. We have completed a Section 382 study and have determined that none of our net operating losses

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will expire solely due to Section 382 limitations. However, we may experience ownership changes as a result of our initial public offering or in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership, some of which may be outside of our control. This could limit the amount of NOLs that we can utilize annually to offset future taxable income or tax liabilities. Subsequent ownership changes and changes to the U.S. tax rules in respect of the utilization of NOLs may further affect the limitation in future years. In addition, at the state level, there may be periods during which the use of NOLs is suspended or otherwise limited, which could accelerate or permanently increase state taxes owed.

Changes in our effective tax rate or tax liability may have an adverse effect on our results of operations.

We are subject to income taxes in the United States and various foreign jurisdictions. The determination of our worldwide provision for income taxes and other tax liabilities requires significant judgment by management, and there are many transactions where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. We believe that our provision for income taxes is reasonable, but the ultimate tax outcome may differ from the amounts recorded in our consolidated financial statements and may affect our financial results in the period or periods in which such outcome is determined.

Our effective tax rate could increase due to several factors, including:

Any of these developments could adversely affect our results of operations.

Changes in tax laws or regulations that are applied adversely to us or our customers may have a material adverse effect on our business, cash flow, financial condition or results of operations.

New income, sales, use, or other tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations or ordinances could be enacted at any time, which could adversely affect our business operations and financial performance. Further, existing tax laws, statutes, rules, regulations, or ordinances could be interpreted, changed, modified, or applied adversely to us. For example, the Tax Act enacted many significant changes to the U.S. tax laws. Future guidance from the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities with respect to the Tax Act may affect us, and certain aspects of the Tax Act could be repealed or modified in future legislation. For example, the CARES Act modified certain provisions of the Tax Act. In addition, it is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to the Tax Act, the CARES Act, or any newly enacted federal tax legislation. Changes in corporate tax rates, the realization of net deferred tax assets relating to our operations, the taxation of foreign earnings, and the deductibility of expenses under the Tax Act or future reform legislation could have a material impact on the value of our deferred tax assets, could result in significant one-time charges, and could increase our future U.S. tax expense.

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Risks Relating to Legal, Compliance and Regulatory Matters

Our business and services subject us to complex and evolving U.S. and foreign laws and regulations regarding the unauthorized practice of law, legal document processing, legal plans, and other related matters.

Our business involves providing services that meet the legal and accounting needs of our customers and, as a result, is subject to a variety of complex and evolving U.S. and foreign laws and regulations, including the following:

Our business operations also subject us to laws and regulations relating to general business practices, and the manner in which we offer our services to customers subjects us to various consumer laws and regulations, including false advertising, payment laws, telephone sales, email marketing, automatic contract or subscription renewal, and deceptive trade practices.

The scope of these laws and regulations are often vague and broad, and their applications and interpretations are often uncertain and conflicting. Compliance with these disparate laws and regulations requires us to structure our business and services differently in certain jurisdictions. Additionally, these laws and regulations are evolving, and changes in such laws could require us to significantly change the ways in we structure our business and services. These laws and regulations could also make it more difficult for us to convert our transactional customers to subscribers or attract new subscribers to grow our subscription services. We dedicate significant management time and expense to dealing with these issues and expect that these issues will continue to be a significant focus as we expand into other services and jurisdictions.

In addition, any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with applicable laws and regulations may subject us to regulatory inquiries, claims, suits and prosecutions. For example, in February 2020, a complaint was filed in California against us alleging violations of the Florida Security of Communications Act for violations of privacy based on a claim of wiretapping. We may be the subject of similar complaints in the future. We have also

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incurred in the past, and expect to incur in the future, costs associated with responding to, defending, resolving, and/or settling proceedings, particularly those related to UPL, competitor claims and the provision of our services more generally. We can give no assurance that we will prevail in such regulatory inquiries, claims, suits and prosecutions on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Responding to, defending and/or settling regulatory inquiries, claims, suits and prosecutions may be time-consuming and divert management and financial resources or have other adverse effects on our business. A negative outcome in any of these proceedings may result in claims, changes to or discontinuance of some of our services, potential liabilities or additional costs that could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, future prospects and brand.

Our U.K. subsidiary, being a “licensed body” law firm, is subject to restrictions under the LSA.

Under the LSA, there are restrictions on the holding of “restricted interests” in “licensed body” law firms. A restricted interest for the purpose of these restrictions is an interest of 10% or more in the issued share capital of the licensed body or the parent company of such licensed body. As our wholly owned UK subsidiary is a licensed body for the purposes of the LSA, the restrictions referred to above will apply to any holder(s) of 10% or more of our common stock following the completion of this offering.

The consent of the U.K. Solicitors Regulatory Authority, or the SRA, is required should any person who is a “non-deemed approved lawyer” seek to acquire a restricted interest. It is a criminal offense in the United Kingdom for any “non-deemed approved lawyer” to acquire a restricted interest without having given prior notification to the SRA or, having given prior notification to the SRA, to acquire a restricted interest without having obtaining the SRA’s consent. The SRA may attach conditions to any consent that it may give in respect of the holding of a restricted interest. However, should any stockholder wish to consider owning a stake in our common stock in excess of this threshold, it is possible for the SRA to be approached and grant pre-approval in advance of any such acquisition.

The SRA can force any person who acquires a restricted interest in contravention of the applicable rules to divest its share ownership in the licensed body (or its parent company). The SRA also has the ability to suspend or revoke the relevant entity’s licensed body status in respect of any such contravention. Any suspension or revocation of our U.K. subsidiary’s licensed body status would have a serious detrimental impact on our business, and, in such circumstances, we would seek to collaborate with the SRA to minimize any resultant business disruption.

If the independent professionals who participate in our or our partner’s networks are characterized as employees, we would be subject to employment and withholding liabilities and regulatory risks.

We structure our relationships with the independent attorneys and independent accountants who participate in our and our partner’s networks in a manner that we believe results in an independent contractor relationship, not an employee relationship. On the other hand, our LZ Tax offering is fulfilled by our own employee accountants and tax professionals. An independent contractor is generally distinguished from an employee by his or her degree of autonomy and independence in providing services. A high degree of autonomy and independence is generally indicative of a contractor relationship, while a high degree of control is generally indicative of an employment relationship. Although we believe that the independent attorneys and independent accountants who participate in our and our partner’s networks are properly characterized as independent contractors, tax or other regulatory authorities may in the future challenge our characterization of these relationships. If such regulatory authorities or state, federal or foreign courts were to determine that these attorneys or accountants are employees, and not independent contractors, we would be required to withhold income taxes, to withhold and pay social security, Medicare and similar taxes, to pay unemployment and other related payroll taxes and could face allegations of UPL or CPL. We would also be liable for unpaid past taxes and subject to penalties. As a result, any determination that these independent attorneys or independent accountants are our employees could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

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We are subject to stringent and changing laws, regulations and standards, and contractual obligations related to data privacy and security. The actual or perceived failure to comply with applicable data protection, privacy, and security laws, regulations, standards, and other requirements could adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial conditions.

We are subject to numerous foreign and domestic laws, regulations, and standards regarding privacy and data security governing the personal information and other data that we may collect, store, use, or process. Privacy has become a significant issue in the United States. The regulatory framework for privacy issues is rapidly evolving and is likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future. Many government bodies and agencies have adopted or are considering adopting laws and regulations regarding the collection, use, storage, destruction, and disclosure of personal information and breach notification procedures. We are also required to comply with laws, rules and regulations relating to data security. Interpretation of these laws, rules and regulations in applicable jurisdictions is ongoing and cannot be fully determined at this time.

In June 2018, California adopted the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, or CCPA, which took effect on January 1, 2020. The CCPA gives California residents expanded rights to access and delete their personal information, opt out of certain personal information sharing, and receive detailed information about how their personal information is used. The CCPA also provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that is expected to increase litigation involving misuse of personal information of California residents. The CCPA may increase our compliance costs and potential liability. In addition, California voters recently approved the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, or CPRA, which goes into effect on January 1, 2023. It is expected that the CPRA would, among other things, give California residents the ability to limit the use of their personal information, further restrict the use of cross-contextual advertising, establish restrictions on the retention of personal information, expand the types of data breaches subject to the CCPA’s private right of action, provide for increased penalties for CPRA violations concerning California residents under the age of 16, and establish a new California Privacy Protection Agency to implement and enforce the new law. Some observers have noted that the CCPA and CPRA could mark the beginning of a trend of states adopting more stringent privacy legislation in the United States, which could further increase our compliance costs, potential liability and adversely affect our business.

The global data protection landscape is also rapidly evolving, and we expect that there will continue to be new and proposed laws, regulations, and industry standards concerning privacy, data protection, and information security, and we cannot yet determine the impact that such future laws, regulations and standards may have on our business. For example, in May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation, or the GDPR, went into effect in the EU. The GDPR imposes stringent data protection requirements and to date, has increased compliance burdens on us, including by mandating burdensome documentation requirements and granting certain rights to individuals to control how we collect, use, disclose, retain and process information about them. The GDPR also provides for more robust regulatory enforcement and greater penalties for noncompliance than previous data protection laws, including fines of up to €20 million or 4% of global annual revenue of any noncompliant company for the preceding financial year, whichever is greater.

European data protection laws including the GDPR also generally prohibit the transfer of personal information from Europe to the United States and most other countries unless the parties to the transfer have implemented specific safeguards to protect the transferred personal information. The Court of Justice of the European Union, or CJEU, recently raised questions about whether the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, one of the primary mechanisms used by U.S. companies to import personal information from Europe, complies with the GDPR. While the CJEU upheld the validity of Standard Contractual Clauses, the CJEU ruled that the underlying data transfers must be assessed on a case-by-case basis by the data controller to determine whether the personal information will be adequately protected. Further, the European Commission recently proposed updates to the Standard Contractual Clauses. At present, there are few if any viable alternatives to the Standard Contractual Clauses and, therefore, there is uncertainty regarding how to ensure that transfers of personal information from Europe to the United States comply with the GDPR. As such, any transfers by us, or

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our third-party service providers, of personal information from Europe may not comply with European data protection laws; may increase our exposure to the GDPR’s heightened sanctions for violations of its cross-border data transfer restrictions; and may reduce demand for our services from companies subject to European data protection laws. Loss of our ability to transfer personal information from Europe may also require us to increase our data processing capabilities in those jurisdictions at significant expense.

Further, the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union, often referred to as Brexit, has created uncertainty with regard to the regulation of data protection in the United Kingdom, including with respect to whether laws or regulations will apply to us consistent with the GDPR in the future and how data transfers to and from the United Kingdom will be regulated. Following December 31, 2020, and the expiry of transitional arrangements between the United Kingdom and European Union, the data protection obligations of the GDPR continue to apply to U.K.-related processing of personal data in substantially unvaried form under the so-called U.K. GDPR (i.e., the GDPR as it continues to form part of U.K. law by virtue of section 3 of the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended). However, going forward, there is increasing risk for divergence in application, interpretation and enforcement of the data protection laws as between the United Kingdom and European Economic Area, or EEA. Furthermore, the relationship between the United Kingdom and the EEA in relation to certain aspects of data protection law remains uncertain. For example, it is unclear whether transfers of personal data from the EEA to the United Kingdom will be permitted to take place on the basis of a future adequacy decision of the European Commission, or whether a transfer mechanism such as the SCCs will be required. Under the post-Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom and European Union have agreed that transfers of personal data to the UK from EEA member states will not be treated as ‘restricted transfers’ to a non-EEA country for a period of up to four months from January 1, 2021, plus a potential further two months extension, or the “Extended Adequacy Assessment Period.” Although the current maximum duration of the Extended Adequacy Assessment Period is six months, it may end sooner, for example, in the event that the European Commission adopts an adequacy decision in respect of the United Kingdom, or the United Kingdom amends the U.K. GDPR and/or makes certain changes regarding data transfers under the U.K. GDPR/Data Protection Act 2018 without the consent of the European Union (unless those amendments or decisions are made simply to keep relevant U.K. laws aligned with the European Union’s data protection regime). If the European Commission does not adopt an adequacy decision in respect of the United Kingdom prior to the expiry of the Extended Adequacy Assessment Period, from that point onwards the United Kingdom will be an inadequate third country under the GDPR and transfers of personal data from the EEA to the United Kingdom will require a ‘transfer mechanism’ such as the Standard Contractual Clauses.

The type of challenges we face in Europe will likely also arise in other jurisdictions that adopt laws similar in construction to the GDPR or regulatory frameworks of equivalent complexity. For example, Brazil enacted the General Data Protection Law, New Zealand enacted the New Zealand Privacy Act, China released its draft Personal Information Protection Law, and Canada introduced the Digital Charter Implementation Act.

Compliance with these and any other applicable privacy and data security laws, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and Code Section 7216, and regulations is a rigorous and time-intensive process, and we may be required to put in place additional mechanisms to ensure compliance with the new data protection rules. Any failure or perceived failure by us or third parties working on our behalf to comply with applicable laws and regulations, any privacy and data security obligations pursuant to contract, our stated privacy or security policies, or obligations to customers or other third parties may result in governmental enforcement actions (including fines, penalties, judgments, settlements, imprisonment of company officials and public censure), civil claims, litigation, damage to our brand and reputation and loss of goodwill (both in relation to existing customers and prospective customers), any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operations and financial performance.

Additionally, some providers of consumer devices and web browsers have implemented, or announced plans to implement, means to make it easier for Internet users to prevent the placement of cookies or to block other

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tracking technologies, which could, if widely adopted, result in the use of third-party cookies and other methods of online tracking becoming significantly less effective. The regulation of the use of these cookies and other current online tracking and advertising practices or a loss in our ability to make effective use of services that employ such practices could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Breaches and other types of security incidents of our networks or systems, or those of our third-party service providers, could negatively impact our ability to conduct our business, our brand and reputation, our ability to retain existing customers and attract new customers, and may cause us to incur significant liabilities and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, and future prospects.

We collect, use, store, transmit and process data and information about our customers, employees and others, some of which may be sensitive, personal, or confidential. Any actual or perceived breach of our security measures or those of our third-party service providers could adversely affect our business, operations and future prospects. A third party that is able to circumvent our security measures or those of our third-party service providers may access, misappropriate, delete, alter, publish or modify this information, which could cause interruptions in our business and operations, fraud or loss to third parties, regulatory enforcement actions, litigation, indemnity obligations and other possible liabilities, as well as negative publicity. Widespread negative publicity may also result from real, threatened or perceived security compromises affecting our industry, competitors, and customers. Concerns regarding data privacy and security could cause some of our customers to stop using our services and fail to renew their subscriptions. This discontinuance in use and failure to renew could harm our business, results of operations, financial condition, and future prospects.

Our internal computer systems, cloud-based computing services, and those of our current and any future third-party service providers are vulnerable to interruption. Cyberattacks and other malicious internet-based activity, such as computer malware, hacking, and phishing attempts, continue to increase. In addition to traditional computer “hackers,” malicious code (such as viruses, worms and ransomware), social engineering, cyber extortion and personnel theft or misuse, sophisticated nation-state and nation-state supported actors now engage in similar attacks (including advanced persistent threat intrusions). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our employees are temporarily working remotely, which may pose additional data security risks. We may also be the subject of denial of service attacks, server malfunction, software or hardware failures, loss of data or other computer assets, adware or other similar issues. While we have security measures in place designed to protect customer information and prevent data loss and other security breaches, we cannot guarantee that our, or our third-party service providers’ security measures will be sufficient to protect against unauthorized access to, or other compromise of, personal information confidential or proprietary information. The techniques used to sabotage or to obtain unauthorized access to our platform, systems, networks and/or physical facilities in which data is stored or through which data is transmitted change frequently, and we have not always been able in the past and may be unable in the future to anticipate such techniques or implement adequate preventative measures or stop security breaches that may arise from such techniques. As a result, our safeguards and preventive measures may not be adequate to prevent current or future cyberattacks and security incidents, including security breaches that may remain undetected for extended periods of time, which can substantially increase the potential for a material adverse impact resulting from the breach.

We are required to comply with laws, rules and regulations that require us to maintain the security of personal information. We may have contractual and other legal obligations to notify relevant stakeholders of security breaches. We operate in an industry that is prone to cyberattacks. Failure to prevent or mitigate cyberattacks could result in the unauthorized access to such data, including personal information. Most jurisdictions have enacted laws requiring companies to notify individuals, regulatory authorities, and others of security breaches involving certain types of data. In addition, our agreements with certain customers and partners may require us to notify them in the event of a security breach. We have experienced and may in the future experience personal information security breaches as to which we are legally required to notify individuals, customers, regulators, the media and others. Such disclosures are costly, could lead to negative publicity, may cause our customers to lose confidence in the effectiveness of our security measures and not use our services, and

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require us to expend significant capital and other resources to respond to and/or alleviate problems caused by the actual or perceived security breach. In addition, the costs to respond to a cybersecurity event or to mitigate any security vulnerabilities that may be identified could be significant, including costs for remediating the effects of such an event, paying a ransom, restoring data from backups, and conducting data analysis to determine what data may have been affected by the breach. In addition, our efforts to contain or remediate a security breach or any vulnerability exploited to cause a breach may be unsuccessful, and efforts and any related failures to contain or remediate them could result in interruptions, delays, loss in customer trust, harm to our reputation, and increases to our insurance coverage.

We may not have adequate insurance coverage for security incidents or breaches, including fines, judgments, settlements, penalties, costs, attorney fees and other impacts that arise out of incidents or breaches. Although we maintain cyber liability insurance, we cannot assure you that such insurance coverage will be adequate to cover liabilities actually incurred or that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceeds our available insurance coverage, or results in changes to our insurance policies (including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements), could have an adverse effect on our business. Our risks are likely to increase as we continue to expand, grow our customer base, and process, store, and transmit increasingly large amounts of confidential, proprietary and sensitive data.

We are subject to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, and similar laws, and non-compliance with such laws can subject us to criminal and/or civil liability and harm our business.

We are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, the U.S. domestic bribery statute contained in 18 U.S.C. § 201, the U.S. Travel Act, the U.K. Bribery Act, and other anti-bribery and anti-money laundering laws in the countries in which we conduct activities. Anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws have been enforced aggressively in recent years and are interpreted broadly to generally prohibit companies and their employees and third-party intermediaries from authorizing, offering, or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or benefits to recipients in the public or private sector. In addition, we or our third-party intermediaries may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities. We can 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.

While we have policies and procedures to address compliance with such anti-corruption laws, we cannot assure you that all of our employees and agents will not take actions in violation of our policies and applicable law, for which we may be ultimately held responsible.

Detecting, investigating and resolving actual or alleged violations of anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws can require a significant diversion of time, resources, and attention from senior management. In addition, noncompliance with anti-corruption, anti-bribery, or anti-money-laundering laws could subject us to whistleblower complaints, investigations, sanctions, settlements, prosecution, other enforcement actions, disgorgement of profits, significant fines, damages, other civil and criminal penalties or injunctions, suspension and/or debarment from contracting with certain persons, the loss of export privileges, reputational harm, adverse media coverage, and other collateral consequences. If any subpoenas or investigations are launched, or governmental or other sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible civil or criminal litigation, our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects could be materially harmed. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a materially significant diversion of management’s attention and resources and significant defense costs and other professional fees. Enforcement actions and sanctions could further harm our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

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Risks Relating to Intellectual Property

Our use of open source software could negatively affect our proprietary technologies and our ability to offer and sell subscriptions to our products and could subject us to possible litigation.

Certain of the technologies we currently use incorporate open source software (OSS), and we expect to continue to utilize OSS in the future. OSS is licensed by its authors under a variety of license types. Some of these licenses (often called “hereditary” or “viral” licenses) contain requirements that could cause us to make available the source code of the modifications or derivative works that we create based upon the licensed OSS, and that we license such modifications or derivative works under the terms of a particular open source license granting third parties certain rights of further use. By the terms of such open source licenses, we also could be required to release the source code of our proprietary (closed-source) software, and to make our proprietary software available under open source licenses, if we combine and/or distribute our proprietary software with such open source software in a manner that triggers the obligation of the license. Although we monitor our use of open source software in a manner designed to avoid such risks, we cannot be sure that all OSS and their associated licenses are reviewed prior to use in our proprietary software, that our programmers have not incorporated open source software into our proprietary software in a manner triggering such adverse licensing obligations, or that they will not do so in the future. Additionally, the terms of many open source licenses have not been interpreted by U.S. or other courts, and these licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to commercialize our products. We may face claims from others claiming ownership of open source software or patents reading on that software, rights to our intellectual property or breach of open source license terms, including a demand for release of material portions of our source code or otherwise seeking to enforce the terms of the applicable open source license. These claims could result in litigation, which could be costly to defend, require us to purchase a costly license (such as a commercial version of an open source license), require us to establish additional specific open source compliance procedures, or require us to devote additional research and development resources to remove open source elements from or otherwise change our solutions, any of which would have a negative effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects. Any of the foregoing could disrupt and harm our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

If we are unable to adequately protect our intellectual property to prevent unauthorized use or appropriation, the value of our brand and other intangible assets, as well as our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects may be adversely affected.

We rely and expect to continue to rely on confidentiality and license agreements with our employees, consultants and third parties, and on trademark, copyright, trade secret, and domain name protection laws, to protect our proprietary rights. We have no issued patents, and have 17 U.S. trademark registrations and 17 pending U.S. trademark applications, and additional trademark registrations outside of the United States. Third parties may knowingly or unknowingly infringe on or challenge our proprietary rights, and pending and future trademark or other intellectual property applications may not be approved. In addition, effective intellectual property protection may not be available in every country in which we operate or intend to operate our business. In these cases, we may expend significant time and expense to prevent infringement and enforce our rights. We cannot assure you that others will not offer services or concepts that are substantially similar to ours and compete with our business. If the protection of our proprietary rights is inadequate to prevent unauthorized use or appropriation, the value of our brand and other intangible assets may be diminished and competitors may be able to more effectively mimic our services, business practices or operations, which may have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

Confidentiality agreements with employees and others may not adequately prevent disclosure of trade secrets and proprietary information.

We have devoted substantial resources to the development of our intellectual property and proprietary rights. In order to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights, we rely in part on confidentiality

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agreements with our employees, licensees, independent contractors and other advisors. These agreements may not effectively prevent disclosure of confidential information and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of unauthorized disclosure of confidential information. In addition, others may independently discover trade secrets and proprietary information, and in such cases we could not assert any trade secret rights against such parties. Costly and time-consuming litigation could be necessary to enforce and determine the scope of our proprietary rights, and failure to obtain or maintain trade secret protection could adversely affect our competitive business position.

Risks Relating to Ownership of Our Common Stock and this Offering

The market 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, if at all.

The initial public offering price for our common stock will be determined through negotiations between the underwriters and us and may vary from the market price of our common stock following our initial public offering. If you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, you may not be able to resell those shares at or above the initial public offering price, if at all. We cannot assure you that the initial public offering price of our common stock, or the market price following this offering, will equal or exceed prices in privately negotiated transactions of our shares that have occurred from time to time prior to this offering. The market price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:

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Broad market and industry fluctuations, as well as general economic, political, regulatory and market conditions such as recessions, interest rate changes or international currency fluctuations, may negatively impact the market price of our common stock. If the market price of our common stock after this offering does not exceed the initial public offering price, you may not realize any return on your investment in us and may lose some or all of your investment. In the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future. Securities litigation against us could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention from other business concerns, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

A significant portion of our total outstanding shares are restricted from immediate resale but may be sold into the market in the near future, which could cause the market price of our common stock to drop significantly, even if our business is performing well.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market after our initial public offering, or the perception that these sales might occur, could depress the market price of our common stock and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. We are unable to predict the effect that such sales may have on the prevailing market price of our common stock. After this offering, we will have                  outstanding shares of common stock, based on the number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2020, assuming no exercise by the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares in this offering. This number includes                shares that we are selling in this offering, which may be resold in the public market immediately without restriction, unless purchased by our affiliates. The remaining                shares of our common stock outstanding after this offering, based on                shares outstanding as of December 31, 2020, are currently restricted as a result of securities laws, lock-up agreements or other contractual restrictions that restrict transfers for at least 180 days after the date of this prospectus, subject to certain extensions, but will generally be able to be sold after the offering as described in the sections titled “Shares Eligible for Future Sale” and “Underwriting.”

After this offering, the holders of                shares of common stock, or    % of our total outstanding common stock, based on                shares outstanding as of December 31, 2020 and giving effect to the sale of shares by us, will be entitled to rights pursuant to an investors’ rights agreement and related agreements, subject to some conditions, to require us to file registration statements covering their shares or to include their shares in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or other stockholders. If these holders of our common stock sell a large number of shares by exercising their registration rights, they could adversely affect the market price for our common stock. If we file a registration statement for the purposes of selling additional shares to raise capital and are required to include shares held by these holders pursuant to the exercise of their registration rights, our ability to raise capital may be impaired. We intend to register all shares of common stock that we may issue under our equity compensation plans. Once we register these shares, they can be freely sold in the public market upon issuance, subject to volume limitations applicable to affiliates and the lock-up agreements described in the section titled “Underwriting.”

No public market for our common stock currently exists, and 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. Although we expect to apply to list our common stock on                , an active trading market may not develop following the completion of this

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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 fair value of your shares. An inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital to continue to fund operations by selling shares and may impair our ability to acquire other companies or technologies by using our shares as consideration.

If you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, you will experience substantial and immediate dilution.

The initial public offering price of our common stock will be substantially higher than the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our common stock as of December 31, 2020, immediately after this offering. Therefore, if you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, you will pay a price per share that substantially exceeds our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share immediately after this offering. Based on an assumed initial public offering price of $                 per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range on the cover page of this prospectus, you will experience immediate dilution of $                 per share, or $                 per share if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares in this offering in full, representing the difference between our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering and the initial public offering price per share. If outstanding options or RSUs are exercised or settled in the future, you will experience additional dilution. See the section titled “Dilution” for additional information.

We have broad discretion in the use of our cash and cash equivalents, including the net proceeds from this offering, and may use them ineffectively, in ways with which you do not agree or in ways that do not increase the value of your investment.

We intend to use the net proceeds to us from this offering primarily for general corporate purposes, including working capital and capital expenditures, and to repay $                 of the outstanding indebtedness under the 2018 Term Loan. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds for the acquisition of, or investment in, technologies, solutions, businesses or assets that complement our business or operations, although we have no present commitments or agreements to enter into any such acquisitions or investments after this offering. However, we will have broad discretion over the uses of the net proceeds, as well as our cash and cash equivalents, and we may spend or invest them in ways that our stockholders disagree with, that cause the price of our common stock to decline or that could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future, which could reduce the attractiveness of our stock to some investors.

Although we have paid cash dividends to our stockholders in the past, we currently intend to retain any future earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business, and we do not expect to declare or pay any dividends in the foreseeable future. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors. In addition, the 2018 Credit Agreement contains restrictions on our ability to pay dividends. As a result, you must rely on sales of your common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on your investments for the foreseeable future.

Concentration of ownership of our common stock among our existing executive officers, directors and principal stockholders may prevent new investors from influencing significant corporate decisions.

Based upon our shares of our common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2020, upon the completion of this offering, our executive officers, directors and stockholders who owned more than 5% of our outstanding common stock before this offering will, in the aggregate, beneficially own shares representing approximately    % of our outstanding common stock. If our executive officers, directors and stockholders who

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owned more than 5% of our outstanding common stock acted together, they may be able to significantly influence all matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election and removal of directors and approval of any merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. The concentration of voting power and transfer restrictions could delay or prevent an acquisition of our company on terms that other stockholders may desire or result in the management of our company in ways with which other stockholders disagree.

Provisions in our corporate charter documents and provisions under Delaware law could make an acquisition of us, which may be beneficial to our stockholders, more difficult and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management.

Provisions in our corporate charter and our bylaws that will become effective upon the completion of this offering may discourage, delay or prevent a merger, acquisition or other change in control of us that stockholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which you might otherwise receive a premium for your shares. These provisions also could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock, thereby depressing the market price of our common stock. In addition, because our board of directors is responsible for appointing the members of our management team, these provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our board of directors. Among other things, these provisions:

Moreover, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which prohibits a person who owns 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock from merging or combining with us for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person acquired 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock, unless the merger or combination is approved in a prescribed manner. These provisions could discourage potential acquisition proposals and could delay or prevent a change in control transaction. They could also have the effect of discouraging others from making tender offers for our common stock, including transactions that may be in your best interests. These provisions may also prevent changes in our management or limit the price that investors are willing to pay for our stock.

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Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forums for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as will be in effect upon the completion of this offering, will provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for the following types of actions or proceedings under Delaware statutory or common law:

The provisions would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, or the Exchange Act. Furthermore, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all such Securities Act actions. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to entertain such claims. To prevent having to litigate claims in multiple jurisdictions and the threat of inconsistent or contrary rulings by different courts, among other considerations, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will further provide that the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause or causes of action arising under the Securities Act, including all causes of action asserted against any defendant to such complaint. For the avoidance of doubt, this provision is intended to benefit and may be enforced by us, our officers and directors, the underwriters to any offering giving rise to such complaint, and any other professional entity whose profession gives authority to a statement made by that person or entity and who has prepared or certified any part of the documents underlying the offering.

While the Delaware courts have determined that such choice of forum provisions are facially valid, a stockholder may nevertheless seek to bring a claim in a venue other than those designated in the exclusive forum provisions. In such instance, we would expect to vigorously assert the validity and enforceability of the exclusive forum provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. This may require significant additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions and there can be no assurance that the provisions will be enforced by a court in those other jurisdictions.

These exclusive 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 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 either exclusive-forum provision in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur further significant additional costs associated with resolving the dispute in other jurisdictions, all of which could seriously harm our business.

General Risk Factors

As a public company, we will be subject to more stringent federal and state law requirements.

As a public company, we will be subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the Dodd-Frank Act, the listing requirements             , and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Despite reforms made possible by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (the JOBS Act), compliance with these rules and regulations will nonetheless increase our legal and financial compliance

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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.

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 we believe may result in threatened or actual litigation, including by competitors and other third parties. If such claims are successful, our business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects could be harmed, 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 brand and reputation, business, results of operations, financial condition and future prospects.

We may also be subject to more stringent state law requirements. For example, on September 30, 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senator Bill 826, or SB 826, which generally requires public companies with principal executive offices in California to have a minimum number of females on the company’s board of directors. By December 31, 2019, each public company with principal executive offices in California was required to have at least one female on its board of directors. By December 31, 2021, each public company is required to have at least two females on its board of directors if the company has at least five directors, and at least three females on its board of directors if the company has at least six directors. The new law does not provide a transition period for newly listed companies. Additionally, on September 30, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 979, or AB 979, which generally requires public companies with principal executive offices in California to include specified numbers of directors from “underrepresented communities.” A director from an “underrepresented community” means a director who self-identifies as Black, African American, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Native Hawaiian, Alaska Native, gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. By December 31, 2021, each public company with principal executive offices in California is required to have at least one director from an underrepresented community. By December 31, 2022, a public company with more than four but fewer than nine directors will be required to have a minimum of two directors from underrepresented communities, and a public company with nine or more directors will need to have a minimum of three directors from underrepresented communities. Similar to SB 826, AB 979 does not provide a transition period for newly listed companies. If we fail to comply with either SB 826 or AB 979, we could be fined by the California Secretary of State, with a $100,000 fine for the first violation and a $300,000 fine for each subsequent violation of either law, and our reputation may be adversely affected.

We also expect that being a public company and these new 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 committee and compensation committee, and qualified executive officers.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, or publish negative reports about our business, our share price and trading volume could decline.

Our stock price and trading volume will be heavily influenced by the way analysts and investors interpret our financial information and other disclosures. If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, delay publishing reports about our business or publish negative reports about our business, regardless of accuracy, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will, to some extent, depend on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. We do not have any control over these analysts. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our shares or change their opinion of our shares, our

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share price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause our share price or trading volume to decline. Even if our common 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. Over-reliance by analysts or investors on any particular metric to forecast our future results may result in forecasts that differ significantly from our own.

Regardless of accuracy, unfavorable interpretations of our financial information and other public disclosures could have a negative impact on our stock price. If our financial performance fails to meet analyst estimates, for any of the reasons discussed above or otherwise, or one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrade our common stock or change their opinion of our common stock, our stock price would likely decline.

The COVID-19 pandemic could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

In connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, governments have implemented significant measures, including closures, quarantines, travel restrictions and other social distancing directives, intended to control the spread of the virus. Companies have also taken precautions, such as requiring employees to work remotely, imposing travel restrictions and temporarily closing businesses. To the extent that these restrictions remain in place, additional prevention and mitigation measures are implemented in the future, or there is uncertainty about the effectiveness of these or any other measures to contain or treat COVID-19, there has been and continues to be an adverse impact on global economic conditions and consumer confidence and spending, which could adversely affect our business as well as the demand for our products. The fluid nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainties regarding the related economic impact are likely to result in sustained market turmoil, which could also have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Further, the COVID-19 pandemic may impact customer demand. Our customers may be impacted if governments continue to implement regional business closures, quarantines, travel restrictions and other social distancing directives to slow the spread of the virus. To the extent our customers’ operations are negatively impacted, our customers may reduce demand for or spending on our products, or customers may delay payments to us or request payment or other concessions. There may also be significant reductions or volatility in demand for our services, as well as the temporary inability of customers to purchase our products due to illness, quarantine or financial hardship, shifts in demand away from one or more of our products, decreased consumer confidence and spending or pantry-loading activity, any of which may negatively impact our results, including as a result of an increased difficulty in planning for operations.

The extent of the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on our operational and financial performance will depend on future developments, including the duration and intensity of the pandemic, all of which are uncertain and difficult to predict considering the rapidly evolving landscape. As a result, it is not currently possible to ascertain the overall impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business. However, if the pandemic continues to persist as a severe worldwide health crisis, the disease could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects, and may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section.

We are an “emerging growth company,” and we cannot be certain if the reduced reporting requirements applicable to “emerging growth companies” will make our common stock less attractive to investors.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act. For as 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 of 2002, or Section 404, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our

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periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved.

We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. 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. We may take advantage of some or all of these reporting exemptions until we are no longer an “emerging growth company.” We will remain an “emerging growth company” until the earlier of (i) the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (ii) the last day of the fiscal year in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion, (iii) the last day of the first fiscal year in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means in part that the market value of our common stock that is held by non- affiliates equals or exceeds $700 million as of the prior June 30th, and (iv) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period.

As an “emerging growth company,” the JOBS Act allows us to delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have elected to avail ourselves of this exemption from new or revised accounting standards and, therefore, we will not be subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies.”

Our reported financial results may be adversely affected by changes in accounting principles generally accepted in the United States.

U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, are subject to interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or 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 February 2016, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-02, Leases, also known as ASC 842, which will require lessees to recognize a right-of-use assets and lease liabilities for operating leases, initially measured at the present value of the lease payments, on its balance sheet for operating leases. The standard also requires a lessee to recognize a single lease cost, calculated so that the cost of the lease is allocated over the lease term, on a generally straight-line basis.

We are planning to adopt ASC 842 effective January 1, 2022. We are in the process of evaluating the impact ASC 842 will have on our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures. Our prior historical financial information for the year ended December 31, 2020 and prior periods will continue to be reported in accordance with historical accounting standards. These or other changes to existing rules may harm our operating results and affect the comparability of our results from period to period.

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This prospectus, including the sections titled “Prospectus Summary,” “Risk Factors,” “Use of Proceeds,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Business,” contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this prospectus, including statements regarding our strategy, future financial condition, future operations, projected costs, prospects, plans, objectives of management and expected market growth, are forward-looking statements. These statements may relate to, but are not limited to, expectations of future operating results or financial performance, capital expenditures, use of proceeds from this offering, introduction of new services and enhancements to our current platform, regulatory compliance, plans for growth and future operations, the size of our addressable market and market trends, as well as assumptions relating to the foregoing. In some cases you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “project,” “should,” “will,” “would,” or the negative or plural of these words or similar expressions. Actual events or results may differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, and these differences may be material and adverse.

We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus primarily on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, prospects, business strategy and financial needs. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors described in the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this prospectus. These risks are not exhaustive. Other sections of this prospectus include additional factors that could adversely affect our business and financial performance. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time and it is not possible for us to predict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus. We cannot assure you that the results, events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur, and actual results, events or circumstances could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.

In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this prospectus, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements.

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, levels of activity, performance and events and circumstances may be materially different from what we expect.

The forward-looking statements made in this prospectus relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this prospectus to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations, except as required by law.

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MARKET, INDUSTRY AND OTHER DATA

This prospectus contains estimates and information concerning our industry, including market size and growth of the markets in which we participate, that are based on industry publications and reports. In some cases, we do not expressly refer to the sources from which these estimates and information are derived. This information involves a number of assumptions and limitations, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to these estimates. We have not independently verified the accuracy or completeness of the data contained in these industry publications and reports. The industry in which we operate is subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in the section titled “Risk Factors.” These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in these publications and reports.

The sources of certain statistical data, estimates, and forecasts contained in this prospectus are the following independent industry sources:

In addition, statements in this prospectus referring to Dynata refer to the collection and analysis of aided and unaided brand awareness data that is shared with us on a quarterly basis by Dynata LLC, a global online market research firm, based on surveys hosted by Dynata from the period of 2015-2020.

Statements in this prospectus referring to the Kantar study refer to an addressable market sizing study of small businesses under 50 employees and consumers aged 25-65 in the United States conducted with data provided by Kantar Consulting, a marketing and sales consultancy, in February 2019, which we commissioned.

Statements in this prospectus referring to the Magid study refer to a small and mid-sized business opportunities study based on panel data of business owners and LegalZoom customers conducted by Magid Consulting Inc. in March 2021, which we commissioned.

We monitor our estimated share of total business formations in the United States every year, which we estimate to be 4.4 million. There are many widely-cited sources of data on small business formation. The U.S. Census reports business formation statistics for new businesses with employees. This data relates to employer firms, and is based on new employer identification number, or EIN, applications with the IRS and statistical estimates of the number of EIN applications that will result in a new employee. In 2020, there were 4.4 million EIN applications, with 1.5 million categorized as high propensity to turn into a business with payroll. The U.S. Census also reports the total number of sole proprietorships operating in the United States based on IRS filings. A small business is considered a sole proprietorship by default if it does not officially form. However, sole proprietorships that have formed as an LLC may file with the IRS as a sole proprietorship. There is no reliable data for the number of LLCs in operation or the number of new sole proprietorships formed. We analyze employer firm data and secretary of state filings to derive our estimate of small businesses formed each year.

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USE OF PROCEEDS

We estimate that the net proceeds to us from the sale of the shares of our common stock offered by us will be approximately $        million, based on an assumed initial public offering price of $        per share, the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. If the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares from us in this offering is exercised in full, we estimate that our net proceeds will be approximately $        million, after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. We will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of common stock in this offering by the selling stockholders.

Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $        per share, the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) the net proceeds to us from this offering by approximately $        million, assuming the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions payable by us. Similarly, each increase (decrease) of 1.0 million shares in the number of shares of common stock offered by us would increase (decrease) the net proceeds to us from this offering by approximately $        million, assuming the assumed initial public offering price remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions payable by us.

The principal purposes of this offering are to increase our capitalization and financial flexibility, create a public market for our common stock and facilitate our future access to the public capital markets. We currently intend to use the net proceeds to us from this offering primarily (1) to repay $        of the outstanding indebtedness under our 2018 Term Loan, which matures on November 21, 2024, and which may carry, at our option, an interest rate equal to either (a) LIBOR (or a comparable successor rate approved by the administrative agent and us), plus a margin of 4.50% per annum, or (b) the base rate plus a margin of 3.50% per annum, which margin may decrease depending on our total net first lien leverage ratio, and with the base rate being the highest of (i) the federal funds rate plus 1/2 of 1%, (ii) the prime rate as publicly announced by JPMorgan Chase, (c) LIBOR plus 1.00%, and (d) 2%, which indebtedness is as further described in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Borrowings,” and (2) for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses and capital expenditures. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds for the acquisition of, or investment in, technologies, businesses, products, services or other assets that complement our business or operations, although we have no present commitments or agreements to enter into any acquisitions or investments.

The expected use of net proceeds from this offering represents our intentions based upon our current plans and business conditions, which could change in the future as our plans and business conditions evolve. We cannot predict with certainty all of the particular uses for the proceeds of this offering or the amounts that we will actually spend on the uses set forth above. Our management will have broad discretion in applying the net proceeds of this offering. Pending their use, we intend to invest the net proceeds of this offering in a variety of capital-preservation investments, including short- and intermediate-term investments, interest-bearing investments, investment-grade securities and government securities and money market funds.

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DIVIDEND POLICY

Although we have paid cash dividends on our capital stock in the past, we currently intend to retain any future earnings for use in the operation of our business and do not intend to declare or pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any further determination to pay dividends on our capital stock will be at the discretion of our board of directors, subject to applicable laws, and will depend on our financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, general business conditions, and other factors that our board of directors considers relevant. In addition, the 2018 Credit Agreement contains restrictions on our ability to pay dividends.

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CAPITALIZATION

The following table shows our cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash equivalent and our capitalization as of December 31, 2020 on:

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You should read this table together with the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.

If the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares of common stock from us and the selling stockholders in full, pro forma as adjusted cash and cash equivalents, additional paid-in capital, total stockholders’ deficit, total capitalization, and shares of common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2020 would be $        , $        , $        , $        , and         , respectively. The pro forma as adjusted information set forth above is illustrative only and will change based on the actual initial public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing.

The total number of shares of our common stock issued and outstanding, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted, in the table above is based on 171,199,023 shares of common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2020, which gives effect to the pro forma transactions described above and excludes:

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DILUTION

If you invest in our common stock, your ownership interest will be diluted to the extent of the difference between the initial public offering price per share of our common stock and the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our common stock immediately after this offering. The historical net tangible book value as of December 31, 2020 was $        million, or $    per share. Historical net tangible book value per share is our historical net tangible book value divided by the number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2020.

Our pro forma net tangible book value as of December 31, 2020 was $        million, or $        per share of our common stock, based on the total number of shares of our common stock outstanding as of that date. Pro forma net tangible book value per share represents our total tangible assets less our total liabilities, divided by the number of outstanding shares of common stock, after giving effect to: (1) the automatic conversion of all 23,081,080 shares of our outstanding redeemable convertible preferred stock as of December 31, 2020 into an aggregate of 46,162,160 shares of our common stock upon the completion of this offering and the related reclassification of the carrying value of the redeemable convertible preferred stock to stockholders’ deficit upon the completion of this offering; (2) additional stock-based compensation expense of approximately $        million associated with certain options and RSUs for which the performance condition is satisfied upon the completion of this offering, assuming the offering occurred on January 1, 2020, recorded as an increase to additional paid-in capital and accumulated deficit; (3) the vesting and settlement of        RSUs outstanding as of December 31, 2020, net of                shares surrendered for withholding taxes (based on an assumed        % tax withholding rate), that will vest upon the completion of this offering; and (4) the lapse of the restriction on $25.0 million of our restricted cash equivalent upon the repayment of a personal loan by a former executive prior to the completion of this offering.

After giving effect to (1) the sale of                shares of common stock in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $        per share, the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting the estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us and (2) the repayment of $        million of our outstanding indebtedness under the 2018 Term Loan after the completion of this offering, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of December 31, 2020 would have been $        million, or $        per share. This represents an immediate increase in pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value of $        per share to our existing stockholders and an immediate dilution of $        per share to new investors purchasing common stock in this offering.

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

Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $        per share, the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth 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 $         per share and the dilution per

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share to new investors participating in this offering by $        per share, assuming that 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 estimated underwriting discounts and commissions payable by us. Similarly, an increase of 1.0 million in the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering by $        and decrease the dilution per share to new investors participating in this offering by $        per share, assuming the assumed initial public offering price of $        per share, the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions payable by us. A decrease of 1.0 million shares in the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would decrease the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering by $        per share and increase the dilution per share to new investors participating in this offering by $        per share, assuming the assumed initial public offering price of $        per share, the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions payable by us.

If the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase an additional        shares of our common stock from us and the selling stockholders, the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our common stock after giving effect to this offering would be $        per share, representing an immediate increase in the pro forma net tangible book value per share to existing stockholders of $        per share, and immediate dilution of $        per share to new investors participating in this offering.

Sales by the selling stockholders in this offering will cause the number of shares held by existing stockholders to be reduced to                  shares, or     % of the total number of shares of our capital stock outstanding following the completion of this offering, and will increase the number of shares held by new investors to                  shares, or     % of the total number of shares of our capital stock outstanding following the completion of this offering. After giving effect to the sale of shares in this offering by us and the selling stockholders, if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares from us and the selling stockholders, the number of shares held by existing stockholders will be reduced to                shares, or    % of the total number of shares of our common stock outstanding following the completion of this offering, and will increase the number of shares held by new investors to                shares, or    % of the total number of shares outstanding following the completing of this offering.

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

The foregoing table and calculations (other than the historical net tangible book value calculation) are based on 171,199,023 shares common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2020, which gives effect to the pro forma transactions described above and excludes:

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To the extent that any outstanding options are exercised, new options or other equity awards are issued under our equity incentive plans, or we issue additional shares in the future, there will be further dilution to new investors participating in this offering.

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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF

FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations should be read together with the section titled “Prospectus Summary—Summary Consolidated Financial and Other Data,” and our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes included elsewhere within this prospectus. This discussion includes both historical information and forward-looking information that involves risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Our actual results may differ materially from management’s expectations as a result of various factors, including but not limited to those discussed in the sections titled “Risk Factors” and “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.” The objective of this section is to provide investors an understanding of the financial drivers and levers in our business and describe the financial performance of the business.

Overview

LegalZoom is a leading online platform for legal and compliance solutions in the United States. In 2020, 10% of new limited liability companies, or LLCs, and 5% of new corporations in the United States were formed via LegalZoom. Our unique position at business inception allows us to become a trusted business advisor, supporting the evolving needs of a new business across its lifecycle. Along with formation, LegalZoom offerings include ongoing compliance and tax advice and filings, trademark filings, and estate plans. Additionally, we have unique insights into our customers and leverage our product as a channel to introduce small businesses to leading brands in our partner ecosystem, solving even more of their business needs. We operate across all 50 states and over 3,000 counties in the United States, and have more than 20 years of experience navigating complex regulation and simplifying the legal and compliance process for our customers.

The U.S. legal and regulatory landscape is broad and varied, complex, opaque, and constantly evolving, in particular with respect to the following:

Many small businesses operate without forming a legal entity, unintentionally introducing financial risk to the owners’ personal assets. The businesses that recognize that risk upfront often struggle to address it. Once they understand the need to be protected, they often do not know what to do, where to turn or how much it will cost to get help. Even when formed properly, small businesses often fail to comply with ongoing compliance requirements, thereby reintroducing personal liability or facing significant financial and operational risk. Furthermore, these difficulties are becoming more acute as the number of U.S. business formations increase, driven by various macroeconomic factors such as the rise of the gig economy and remote work, accentuating the need for a trusted, cost-effective, digital-first and simple legal and compliance solution.

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LegalZoom commenced operations in 2000 so more people could access legal help. Initially, we focused on business formation, intellectual property, and estate planning. Over the years, we have expanded our offerings to cover a broader set of legal, compliance, tax and business services for small businesses. In 2020, we helped form 10% of all new LLCs and helped incorporate 5% of all new corporations in the United States. In addition, 6% of all trademark registration applications in the United States in 2020 were made through LegalZoom. At December 31, 2020, we had over 1.0 million subscription units outstanding and were one of the largest registered agent providers for small businesses in the United States. As a result of this success, we have become the leading brand in online legal services, with 70% aided brand awareness as of December 2020 according to a 2020 study hosted by Dynata.

As a result of our traction with our customers, we have achieved economies of scale that we expect to continue to leverage as we accelerate the growth of our business. We generated revenue of $408.4 million in 2019 and $470.6 million in 2020, representing a year-over-year increase of 15.2%. We had net income of $7.4 million and $9.9 million in 2019 and 2020, respectively. We generated net cash flow from operating activities of $52.7 million in 2019 and $93.0 million in 2020. Adjusted EBITDA decreased from $97.2 million in 2019 to $88.0 million in 2020 as we decided to invest further in marketing spend and the launch of new Attorney Assist and Tax products. Free cash flow increased from $34.3 million in 2019 to $82.5 million in 2020 primarily as a result of growing deferred revenue driven by an increase in subscription units, an increase in accounts payable due to the timing of our payments and lower capital expenditures for the purchase of property and equipment, including capitalization of internal-use software. For 2019 and 2020, our free cash flow included cash payments for interest of $37.3 million and $27.9 million, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow are not financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. For further information about Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow, see the section titled “—Non-GAAP Financial Measures.”

Our Business Model

Our business model is to attract customers to LegalZoom at the time of business formation, and then continue to serve their legal and compliance needs for life with our mix of transaction and subscription services. Given this dynamic, growth in overall U.S. business formations is a key driver of our business. Overall, growth of U.S. business formations has proven to be consistent over time, while also being highly resilient to market downturns, growing 28 out of the past 30 years. Furthermore, our growth in business formations has outpaced overall business formation trends each year since we began tracking the data in 2006.

We processed 378,000 business formations in 2020. Alongside this initial business formation transaction, we offer subscription services and third-party partner offerings to help our small business customers with additional legal and business needs. Given the trust that we establish with small businesses at the time of formation, during 2020, over 60% of our small business customers purchased one year of one of our subscription services at the time of their initial formation purchase, and over half of our small business customers purchased at least one third-party solution at time of business formation. We consider our ability to attach additional products and services to a business formation as indicative of the value we are driving for small businesses.

We generate traffic through a combination of organic content, search and media spend across a diverse set of channels. Our first interaction with potential customers is typically through our free, proprietary educational content, through which we earn trust and drive significant organic traffic. Most of our customers interact with our content before making a purchase. Additionally, our inside sales team utilizes inbound and outbound customer interactions to establish themselves as trusted advisors by helping our potential customers through the formation process, including by explaining the products and services they may need, generally resulting in AOV and higher subscription attach rates.

We continue to engage our customers after their initial purchase. For example, after forming their small business, our customers can opt to register their company name and/or logo as a trademark or protect their

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intellectual property with a patent or copyright. Additionally, as forming a company is an important life event, some of our small business customers opt to purchase an estate plan offering to protect themselves personally as well. Since 2017, 27% of transaction customers made additional purchases after their initial order.

We primarily serve small business customers with our transaction and subscription offerings. We also offer transaction products and subscriptions to consumers. The majority of our revenue is from our small business customers. Transaction offerings include legal documents, business filings, and related services for small business owners and their families, such as business formations, annual compliance filings, intellectual property, estate planning documents, forms and agreements. Subscription offerings include compliance solutions and credentialed professional subscription services, including legal and tax advisory services. Approximately two-thirds of our gross subscription units as of December 31, 2020 were for our registered agent service, a subscription service that most states require for businesses to receive legal notices and critical mail. We also introduce our customers to a variety of third-party partners, giving them access to critical services they need to start and run their business, such as business license services, bookkeeping services, banking services, productivity tools and business insurance, among others.

Our Evolution

LegalZoom started with a narrow focus on business formation, intellectual property and estate planning, and has since expanded into a broad platform, with professional expertise and expanded services, both legal and non-legal, to better meet the needs of small businesses.

We have created a powerful financial model that is characterized by:

Accelerating growth. We have seen accelerating revenue growth in our business, increasing from 4% year-over-year growth in the quarter ended March 31, 2020 to 24% in the quarter ended December 31, 2020. This growth has been driven by accelerating business formations, coupled with efficient customer acquisition. Business formation growth accelerated from a decline of (3%) for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 to an increase of 37% for the quarter ended December 31, 2020, as compared to the comparable period in 2019. In addition, we have leveraged our leading brand, significant organic traffic, disciplined customer acquisition strategy and strong competitive position to acquire new customers efficiently. Over the past several years, we have generated a lifetime value in excess of customer acquisition costs within the first 90 days of establishing a customer relationship in the United States.

Attractive subscription model. The sizeable and growing subscription portion of our business gives us highly recurring revenue. At December 31, 2020, over 85% of our subscription units were on annual terms billed at the start of the term. Additionally, in 2020, our average revenue per subscription unit, or ARPU, was $241.

Ability to drive additional purchases and cross-sell customers. Given the trusted relationship we establish with customers at time of business formation, we are able to develop ongoing relationships which allows us to sell them additional products and services over time. During 2020, over 60% of our small business customers purchased one year of one of our subscription services at the time of their initial formation purchase, and over half of our small business customers purchased at least one third-party solution at time of business formation. In addition, our ongoing customer engagement drives repeat purchase behavior. For example, in 2020, 27% of our transaction customers had also transacted with us in a prior year.

Strong margins. Our technology-enabled platform with a largely variable cost structure yields efficient unit economics. In addition, our subscription services have a higher gross margin than our transaction products, and as they have become an increasing percentage of our revenue mix over the years, overall gross margin has increased. Given these dynamics, we have been able to drive consistently high Adjusted EBITDA margins. While our Adjusted EBITDA decreased from $97.2 million in 2019 to $88.0 million in 2020 as we invested further in marketing spend and launched new Attorney-Assist and Tax Products, we generated strong Adjusted EBITDA margins of 23.8% and 18.7%, respectively.

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High cash flow generation. As a result of our operating efficiencies, we have been able to generate significant cash flow. In addition to our profitability, we generally receive customer payments for our transaction and subscription services prior to rendering services, driving favorable working capital dynamics. Coupled with our cash generation, we are not highly capital intensive. For the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, our capital expenditures for the purchase of property and equipment, including capitalization of internal-use software, averaged approximately 3.4% of total revenue. As a result of these dynamics, we generated net cash from operating activities of $52.7 million in 2019 and $93.0 million in 2020 and free cash flow of $34.3 million in 2019 and $82.5 million in 2020.

Key Business Metrics

In addition to the measures presented in our consolidated financial statements, we regularly monitor the following financial and operating metrics to evaluate the growth of our business, measure the effectiveness of our marketing efforts, identify trends, formulate financial forecasts and make strategic decisions.

Number of business formations

We define the number of business formations in a given period as the number of LLC formations, incorporations and not-for-profit formations completed on our platform in such period. We consider the number of business formations to be an important metric considering that it is typically the first product or service small business customers purchase on our platform, creating the foundation for additional products and subsequent subscription and partner revenue as they adopt additional products and services throughout their business lifecycles.

The below table sets forth the number of business formations for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020:

The growth in number of business formations on our platform during 2020 was primarily due to improved growth in overall U.S. business formations. Additionally, our market share of business formations increased and we expect to continue to grow our market share of new business formations.

Number of transactions

We define the number of transactions in a given period as gross transaction order volume, prior to refunds, on our platform during such period, excluding transactions from our subsidiary, Beaumont ABS Limited, which was divested in April 2020. Transactions may include one or more services purchased at the same time. For example, a customer of our business formation services may choose to form an LLC and purchase an operating agreement and business licenses at the same time. This constitutes a single transaction. Refunds, or partial refunds, may be issued under certain circumstances pursuant to the terms of our customer satisfaction guarantee. We consider the number of transactions to be an important metric considering that our new customers generally begin their LegalZoom journey with a transaction, creating the foundation for generating subsequent subscription and partner revenue.

The below table sets forth the number of transactions for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020:

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We achieved 29.1% growth in transactions during 2020, due to improved growth in U.S. business formations such as LLCs and incorporations, as well as increased growth in estate planning transactions, in part due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect to grow transactions, however the growth may fluctuate period over period based on variability of overall business formations and estate planning transactions. In 2020, consumer transactions comprised approximately one-third of total transactions. We expect this proportion to decrease over time as we invest more in small businesses and growth in estate planning transactions normalizes.

Average order value

We define AOV for a given period as total transaction revenue divided by total number of transactions in such period, excluding revenue and related transactions from our subsidiary, Beaumont ABS Limited, or Beaumont, which was divested in April 2020. We consider average order value to be an important metric given it indicates how much customers are spending on our platform. Estate planning transactions are generally at a lower price point, making our overall average order value lower than our typical price point for small business formations.

The below table sets forth the average order value for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020:

Average order value increased by 2.6% from 2019 to 2020. This trend was driven by an increase in the proportion of small business formations relative to total transactions. Our goal is to grow average order value as we increase transactional product attach rates and the mix of higher-value credentialed professional assisted products. Growth may fluctuate period over period based on estate planning transactions and our ability to introduce and sell higher-value products.

Number of subscription units

We define the number of subscription units in a given period as the paid subscriptions that remain active at the end of such period. For the majority of newly acquired subscriptions, we include those that are at least 60 days past their subscription order dates to account for our satisfaction guarantee. Subscriptions acquired through our partner integrations and by customers in the United Kingdom are counted as subscription units upon purchase.

We consider the number of subscription units to be an important metric since subscriptions enable us to increase lifetime value through deeper, longer-term relationships with customers. Subscriptions typically range from 30 days to one year in duration and the vast majority of our new subscriptions originate from business formation orders and have an annual term. Our customers can have multiple subscriptions at the end of a period. For example, a popular combination for a new small business owner is attorney advice and registered agent subscriptions. Our registered agent offering comprised approximately two-thirds of our subscription units as of December 31, 2020.

The below table sets forth the number of subscription units as of December 31, 2019 and 2020:

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We achieved 16.3% growth in our number of subscription units in 2020 as compared to 2019 reflecting strong growth from our registered agent and attorney advice subscriptions primarily due to increased business formations and improved retention, partially offset by the result of our strategic decision to increase the initial price of our registered agent subscription. We aim to continue to grow subscription units by increasing attach rates and retention rates.

Average revenue per subscription unit

We define ARPU as of a given date as subscription revenue for the 12-month period ended on such date, or LTM, divided by the average number of subscription units at the beginning and end of the LTM period. We consider ARPU to be an important metric because it helps to illustrate our ability to deepen our relationship with our existing customers as they purchase incremental and higher-value services. We have generated ARPU expansion in recent years, and in 2020, ARPU increased 2.6% from 2019.

The below table sets forth ARPU for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020:

We expect ARPU to remain relatively stable over time, as we plan to focus more of our efforts on increasing the number of subscription units rather than increasing pricing on existing subscription plans.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement our consolidated financial statements, which are prepared and presented in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, we use certain non-GAAP financial measures, as described below, to understand and evaluate our core operating performance. These non-GAAP financial measures, which may be different than similarly titled measures used by other companies, are presented to enhance investors’ overall understanding of our financial performance and should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information about our financial performance, enhance the overall understanding of our past performance and future prospects and allow for greater transparency with respect to important measures used by our management for financial and operational decision-making. We are presenting these non-GAAP measures to assist investors in seeing our financial performance using a management view and because we believe that these measures provide an additional tool for investors to use in comparing our core financial performance over multiple periods with other companies in our industry.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin

We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income adjusted to exclude interest expense, net, provision for income taxes, depreciation and amortization, other income, net, stock-based compensation, losses from impairments of goodwill, long-lived and other assets, impairments of available-for-sale debt securities, acquisition related expenses, restructuring expenses, legal reserves and settlements, and certain other non-recurring expenses and income. Our Adjusted EBITDA financial measure differs from GAAP in that it excludes certain items of income and expense. We define Adjusted EBITDA margin as Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue.

Adjusted EBITDA is one of the primary performance measures used by our management and our board of directors to understand and evaluate our financial performance and operating trends, including period-to-period comparisons, to prepare and approve our annual budget, develop short- and long-term operational plans and determine appropriate compensation plans for our employees. Accordingly, we believe that Adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our results of operations in the same manner as our management team and board of directors. In assessing our performance, we exclude

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certain expenses that we believe are not comparable period over period. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered in isolation of, or as an alternative to, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. There are a number of limitations related to the use of Adjusted EBITDA rather than net income, which is the nearest GAAP equivalent of Adjusted EBITDA, and it may be calculated differently by other companies in our industry, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure. Some of these limitations include that the non-GAAP financial measure:

The following table presents a reconciliation of net income, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, to Adjusted EBITDA for each of the periods indicated:

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Adjusted EBITDA decreased from $97.2 million in 2019 to $88.0 million in 2020. The decrease of $8.9 million primarily reflects an investment in customer acquisition media spend, which increased by $52.0 million in 2020 as we invested to expand our customer base and build on our digital brand leadership and awareness, as well as an increase in cost of revenue of $17.7 million driven by increases in customer care and fulfillment costs, partially offset by an increase in revenue of $62.2 million. We expect our Adjusted EBITDA to increase in absolute dollars in the near term, although the rate at which our Adjusted EBITDA may grow could vary based upon the interplay of the foregoing factors.

Free cash flow

Free cash flow is a liquidity measure used by management in evaluating the cash generated by our operations after purchases of property and equipment including capitalized internal-use software. We consider free cash flow to be an important metric because it provides useful information to management and investors about the amount of cash generated by our business that can be used for strategic opportunities, including investing in our business and strengthening our balance sheet. Once our business needs and obligations are met, cash can be used to maintain a strong balance sheet and invest in future growth. The usefulness of free cash flow as an analytical tool has limitations because it excludes certain items, which are settled in cash, does not represent residual cash flow available for discretionary expenses, does not reflect our future contractual commitments, and may be calculated differently by other companies in our industry. Accordingly, it should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of other GAAP financial measures, such as net cash provided by operating activities.

The following table presents a reconciliation of net cash provided by operating activities, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, to free cash flow:

We experienced an increase in our free cash flow from 2019 to 2020 as a result of an increase in net cash provided by operating activities, which was primarily due to an increase of $23.2 million in deferred revenue driven by an increase in subscription units as well as a $12.4 million increase in accounts payable due to the timing of our payments. Additionally, we recorded a decrease in purchase of property and equipment related to less capitalization of internal-use software projects. We expect our free cash flow to increase in absolute dollars in the near term, although the rate at which our free cash flow may grow could vary based upon the interplay of the factors discussed above.

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For 2019 and 2020, our free cash flow included cash payments for interest related to our 2018 Credit Facility of $37.3 million and $27.9 million, respectively.

Key Factors Affecting Our Performance

We believe that our future performance will depend on many factors, including the following:

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Key Components of our Results of Operations

Revenue

We generate revenue from the sources identified below.

Transaction revenue. Transaction revenue is primarily generated from our customized legal document services upon fulfillment of these services. Transaction revenue is gross of filing fees and net of cancellations, promotional discounts, sales allowances and credit reserves. Until April 2020, when we ceased providing such services, we also generated transaction revenue from our residential and commercial conveyancing business in the United Kingdom, and revenue for these services was recognized when delivered to the customer. Until July 2019, when we ceased providing such services, we also generated revenue from litigation services in the United Kingdom, and we recognized this revenue based on the time incurred by the attorneys at their market billing rates. In 2020, we commenced providing tax advice and filing services in the United States which are recognized at the point in time when the customer’s tax return is filed and accepted by the applicable government authority.

Subscription revenue. Subscription revenue is generated primarily from subscriptions to our registered agent services, compliance packages, attorney advice, and legal forms services, in addition to software-as-a-service, or SaaS, subscriptions in the United Kingdom. In the fourth quarter of 2020, we commenced providing tax, bookkeeping and payroll subscription services. We recognize revenue from our subscriptions ratably over the subscription term. Subscription terms generally range from thirty days to one year. Subscription revenue includes the value allocated to bundled free-trials for our subscription services and is net of promotional discounts, cancellations, sales allowances and credit reserves and payments to third-party service providers such as legal plan law firms and tax service providers.

For transaction and subscription revenue, we generally collect payments and fees at the time orders are placed and prior to services being rendered. We record amounts collected for services that have not been performed as deferred revenue on our consolidated balance sheet. The transaction price that we record is generally based on the contractual amounts in our contracts and is reduced for estimated sales allowances for price concessions, charge-backs, sales credits and refunds, which are accounted for as variable consideration when estimating the amount of revenue to recognize.

Partner revenue. Partner revenue consists primarily of one-time or recurring fees earned from third-party providers from leads generated to such providers through our online legal platform. Revenue is recognized when the related performance-based criteria have been met. We assess whether performance criteria have been met on a cost-per-click or cost-per-action basis.

See the section titled “—Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates—Revenue Recognition” for a description of the accounting policies related to revenue recognition, including arrangements that contain multiple deliverables.

Cost of revenue

Cost of revenue includes all costs of providing and fulfilling our services. Cost of revenue primarily includes government filing fees; costs of fulfillment, customer care and credentialed professionals, and related

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benefits, including stock-based compensation, and costs of independent contractors for document preparation; telecommunications and data center costs, amortization of acquired developed technology, depreciation and amortization of network computers, equipment and internal-use software; printing, shipping and handling charges; credit and debit card fees; allocated overhead; legal document kit expenses; and sales and use taxes. We defer direct and incremental costs primarily related to government filing fees incurred prior to the associated service meeting the criteria for revenue recognition. These contract assets are recognized as cost of revenue in the same period the related revenue is recognized.

We expect our cost of revenue to increase in absolute dollars as we continue to invest in enhancing our customer experience and in new product development, including expert-assisted offerings for our Tax and Attorney-Assisted services.

Gross profit and gross margin

Gross profit, or revenue less cost of revenue, and gross margin, or gross profit as a percentage of revenue, have been and will continue to be affected by various factors, primarily the mix between transaction, subscription and partner revenue. Our gross margin on subscription and partner revenue is higher than our gross margin on transaction revenue. Our gross margin expansion is also driven by automation improvements and digitization efforts. Further, our acquisitions of other companies have negatively impacted our gross margin in the short term, and any such future acquisitions could have a similar effect.

We expect our gross profit to increase in absolute dollars and our gross margin to increase modestly over the long term as we continue to focus on growing higher-margin subscription revenue and invest in fulfillment automation technologies. However, our gross margin could fluctuate from period to period due to fulfillment rates and seasonality.

Operating expenses

Our operating expenses consist primarily of sales and marketing, technology and development, general and administrative expenses, and to a lesser extent, impairments of goodwill, long-lived assets and other assets, in addition to a loss on sale of a business in 2020.

Sales and marketing

Sales and marketing expenses consist of customer acquisition media costs; compensation and related benefits, including stock-based compensation for marketing and sales personnel; media production; public relations and other promotional activities; general business development activities; an allocation of depreciation and amortization and allocated overhead. Customer acquisition media costs consist primarily of search engine marketing, television and radio costs. Marketing and advertising costs to promote our services are expensed in the period incurred. Media production costs are expensed the first time the advertisement is aired.

We intend to continue to make significant investments in sales and marketing to drive additional revenue, further penetrate our expanding addressable market, and build on our digital brand leadership and awareness. As a result, we expect our sales and marketing expenses to continue to increase in absolute dollars and to be our largest operating expense category for the foreseeable future. Upon the closing of this offering, we are expected to incur significant stock-based compensation expense for certain options and restricted stock units, or RSUs, that may vest upon this offering. See the section titled “Prospectus Summary—Summary Consolidated Financial and Other Data” for additional information.

Technology and development

Technology and development expenses consist primarily of personnel costs and related benefits, including stock-based compensation, expenses for outside consultants, an allocation of depreciation and amortization and

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allocated overhead. These expenses include costs incurred in the development and implementation of our websites, mobile applications, online legal platform, research and development and related infrastructure. Technology and development expenses are expensed as incurred, except to the extent that such costs are associated with internal-use software costs that qualify for capitalization.

We expect our technology and development expenses to continue to increase in absolute dollars for the foreseeable future as we invest in new products and services, enhancing our customer experience, and in production automation technologies. We expect our technology and development expenses to remain relatively consistent or increase as a percentage of our revenue over the long term, although our technology and development expenses may fluctuate as a percentage of our revenue from period to period due to seasonality and the timing and extent of these expenses. Upon the closing of this offering, we are expected to incur significant stock-based compensation expense for certain options and RSUs that may vest upon this offering. See the section titled “Prospectus Summary—Summary Consolidated Financial and Other Data” for additional information.

General and administrative

Our general and administrative expenses relate primarily to compensation and related benefits, including stock-based compensation, for executive and corporate personnel, professional and consulting fees, an allocation of depreciation and amortization, allocated overhead and legal costs. We expense legal costs for defending legal proceedings as incurred.

We expect our general and administrative expenses to increase in absolute dollars for the foreseeable future due to additional costs associated with accounting, compliance, insurance and investor relations as we become a public company.

We expect our general and administrative expenses to decrease as a percentage of our revenue over the long term, although our general and administrative expenses may fluctuate as a percentage of our revenue from period to period due to seasonality and the timing and extent of these expenses. Upon the closing of this offering, we are expected to incur significant stock-based compensation expense for certain options and RSUs that may vest upon this offering. See the section titled “Prospectus Summary—Summary Consolidated Financial and Other Data” for additional information.

Interest expense, net

Interest expense, net, consists primarily of interest expense on our 2018 Credit Facility, hedging instruments, capital lease obligations, amortization of debt issuance costs and annual commitment fees on our 2018 Revolving Facility. Interest and other expense, net, decreased in 2020 primarily due to a decrease in interest rates on our 2018 Term Loan.

We expect interest expense, net, to decrease in the near term following our repayment of $         million of our outstanding indebtedness under our 2018 Term Loan with a portion of the net proceeds of this offering.

Income taxes

Our provision for income taxes consists of current and deferred federal, state and foreign income taxes. See the section titled “—Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates—Income Taxes.”

In 2020, we had federal net operating loss, or NOL, carryforwards of $11.7 million which will begin to expire in 2031. In 2020, we had state NOL carryforwards of $49.8 million, which will begin to expire in 2022. In 2020, we had foreign NOL carryforwards of $32.4 million which can be carried forward indefinitely and are not subject to expiration. In general, under Sections 382 and 383 of the Code, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” generally defined as a greater than 50% change, by value, in its equity ownership by certain stockholders over a three-year period, the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change NOLs and other pre-change tax attributes, such as research tax credits, to offset its post-change income or taxes may be limited.

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We had an ownership change in prior years, and as a result certain federal and state NOLs were limited pursuant to Section 382 of the Code. This limitation has been accounted for in calculating our available NOL carryforwards. We may experience an ownership change in the future as a result of this offering or subsequent changes in our stock ownership, some of which changes are outside our control. If we undergo another ownership change, our ability to further utilize federal NOLs could be limited by Section 382 of the Code. Furthermore, for federal NOLs arising in tax years beginning after December 31, 2020, the Tax Act limits a taxpayer’s ability to utilize federal NOL carryforwards to 80% of taxable income. In addition, NOLs arising in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017 can be carried forward indefinitely. However, carryback of such NOLs is generally prohibited, except that, under the CARES Act, federal NOLs generated in 2018, 2019 and 2020 may be carried back to each of the five taxable years preceding the taxable year in which the loss arises. For these reasons, we may not be able to utilize a material portion of any NOLs that are generated in tax years ending after December 31, 2020. In addition, at the state level, there may be periods during which the use of NOLs is suspended or otherwise limited, which could accelerate or increase our state taxes owed.

Results of Operations

The following table sets forth our consolidated statement of operations data for each of the periods indicated. The period-to-period comparison of financial results should not be considered as a prediction or indicative of our future results.

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Stock-based compensation expense increased in 2020 primarily relates to recent equity grants to new executive officers.

The following table sets forth our consolidated statement of operations data as a percentage of revenue for each of the periods indicated.

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Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2019 and 2020

Revenue