As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 25, 2021

Registration No. 333-            

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM S-1

REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public:

As soon as practicable after this registration statement becomes effective.

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, 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 will file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement will thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or until the Registration Statement will 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 nor does it seek an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.

Subject to Completion. Dated                , 2021.

            Shares

Common Stock

This is the initial public offering of shares of common stock of DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc.

Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for our common stock. It is currently estimated that the initial public offering price will be between $                and $                per share. We have applied to list our common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “DOCN.”

We are an “emerging growth company” as defined under the federal securities laws and, as such, we have elected to comply with certain reduced reporting requirements for this prospectus and may elect to do so in future filings.

See “Risk Factors” beginning on page 13 to read about factors you should consider before buying our common stock.

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any other regulatory body 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.

We have granted the underwriters the right to purchase up to an additional                shares of common stock from us at the initial public offering price less the underwriting discount.

The underwriters expect to deliver the shares against payment in New York, New York on or about                 , 2021.

Prospectus dated                , 2021.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Neither we nor any of the underwriters have authorized anyone to provide any information or to make any representations other than those contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectus prepared by us or on our behalf to which we may have referred you in connection with this offering. Neither we nor the underwriters take responsibility for, or can provide assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. We are offering to sell, and seeking offers to buy, shares of our common stock only in jurisdictions where offers and sales are permitted. The information contained in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date of this prospectus, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or of any sale of our common stock.

For investors outside the United States: Neither we nor any of the underwriters have done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. Persons outside of 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.

Through and including                 , 2021 (the 25^th day after the date of this prospectus), all dealers effecting transactions in these securities, whether or not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a prospectus. This is in addition to a dealer’s obligation to deliver a prospectus when acting as an underwriter and with respect to an unsold allotment or subscription.

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Simplicity in all we DO

 

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We speak up when we have something to say and listen when others DO

 

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We are accountable to deliver on our commitments

 

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Love is at our core

The global community of software developers and entrepreneurs have been the foundation and inspiration for everything we do. Simplicity is a core value to us because it is a reminder to keep our customers top of mind in everything we do. Doing so enables us to keep our solutions tailored to them and allows them to focus on building their applications.

We speak up when we have something to say and listen when others DO is about our transparency and inclusivity. We want DigitalOcean to be a place where you know where we stand and no matter your background or experiences, you can find your voice and your place here. Our customers, employees and investors place enormous trust in us, and we have to be accountable to deliver to all of you. Last, but certainly not least, love is at our core. The love for our customers and for what we do in our jobs makes DigitalOcean a special place – you hear it in the voices of our customers and our employees every time they talk about DigitalOcean.

Our Hub for Good Initiative

In the spring of 2020, we launched Hub for Good as a way to donate a portion of our infrastructure to organizations looking to make a difference in serving their communities during this extraordinary time. This program was originally designed to support COVID-19 relief efforts, but we have now expanded the scope and resources of this program to support efforts to make the world a better place beyond alleviating the strains of the pandemic. Since launch, we have sponsored over 1,000 projects, including apps created to enable musicians to collaborate remotely, to provide a way for local citizens to contribute to restaurants and their workers, to translate the torrent of information being put out on TV and news into a language the hearing impaired can understand, to identify local residents in need and match them to volunteers to get them the food and medicine they need, and so many more.

Upon completion of our IPO, we are looking to further expand our investment in Hub for Good to promote the entrepreneurial and developer communities’ use of cloud computing to innovate and make our world a better place. We are joining the Pledge 1% movement and will be allocating a dollar amount equal to 1% of our equity valuation at the pricing of our IPO to expand our Hub for Good program over the next 10 years. We’re proud to expand Hub for Good, and we are excited that our technology can be a force for good across our world and to demonstrate that the community is bigger than just us.

In Closing

We would be honored to have you join us as an investor on our post-IPO journey. We believe we have an incredible opportunity to serve aspiring software developers and entrepreneurs throughout the world as they test their ideas, build their businesses and realize their dreams.

 

Yancey Spruill

Chief Executive Officer

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RISK FACTORS

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should consider and read carefully all of the risks and uncertainties described below, as well as other information included in this prospectus, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes appearing elsewhere in this prospectus, before making an investment decision. The risks described below are not the only ones we face. The occurrence of any of the following risks or additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. In such case, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you may lose some or all of your original investment.

Risk Factors Summary

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk because our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, as more fully described below. These risks and uncertainties include, among others:

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Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

Our recent growth may not be indicative of our future growth.

Our revenue was $203.1 million, $254.8 million and $318.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. You should not rely on the revenue growth of any prior quarterly or annual period as an indication of our future performance. Even if our revenue continues to increase, our revenue growth rate may decline in the future as a result of a variety of factors, including the maturation of our business. Overall growth of our revenue depends on a number of factors, including our ability to:

We may not successfully accomplish any of these objectives and, as a result, it is difficult for us to forecast our future results of operations. If the assumptions that we use to plan our business are incorrect or change in reaction to changes in our market, we may be unable to maintain consistent revenue or revenue growth, our stock price could be volatile, and it may be difficult to achieve and maintain profitability. You should not rely on our results or growth for any prior quarterly or annual periods as any indication of our future results or growth.

We have a history of operating losses and may not achieve or sustain profitability in the future.

We have incurred significant losses since inception. We generated net losses attributable to common stockholders of $36.0 million, $40.4 million and $43.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. As of December 31, 2020, we had an accumulated deficit of $167.0 million. While we have experienced significant revenue growth in recent periods, we are not certain whether or when we will obtain a high enough volume of sales to sustain or increase our growth or achieve or maintain profitability in the future. We also expect our costs and expenses will increase in future periods, which could negatively affect our future results of operations if our revenue does not increase. Our efforts to grow our business may be costlier than we expect, or the rate of our growth in revenue may be slower than we expect, and we may not be able to increase our revenue enough to offset our increased operating expenses. We may incur significant losses in the future for a number of reasons, including the other risks described herein, and unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications or delays, and other unknown events. If we are unable to achieve and sustain profitability, the value of our business and common stock may significantly decrease.

In addition, we expect to continue to expend substantial financial and other resources on:

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Additionally, we may encounter unforeseen operating expenses, difficulties, complications, delays, and other unknown factors that may result in losses in future periods. If our revenue growth does not meet our expectations in future periods, our business, financial position and results of operations may be harmed, and we may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future.

We have a limited operating history, which makes it difficult to forecast our future results of operations.

We were founded in 2012 and, as a result of our limited operating history, our ability to accurately forecast our future results of operations is limited and subject to a number of uncertainties, including our ability to plan for and model future growth. Our historical revenue growth should not be considered indicative of our future performance. Further, in future periods, our revenue growth could slow or our revenue could decline for a number of reasons, including slowing demand for our products, increasing competition, changes to technology, a decrease in the growth of our overall market, our failure to attract more small and medium sized business customers, or our failure, for any reason, to continue to take advantage of growth opportunities. We have also encountered, and will continue to encounter, risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by growing companies in rapidly changing industries, including the other risks and uncertainties described herein. If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties and our future revenue growth are incorrect or change, or if we do not address these risks successfully, our operating and financial results could differ materially from our expectations, and our business could suffer.

We expect fluctuations in our financial results, making it difficult to project future results, and if we fail to meet the expectations of securities analysts or investors with respect to our results of operations, our stock price and the value of your investment could decline.

Our results of operations have fluctuated in the past and are expected to fluctuate in the future due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. As a result, our past results may not be indicative of our future performance. In addition to the other risks described herein, factors that may affect our results of operations include the following:

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Any of these and other factors, or the cumulative effect of some of these factors, may cause our results of operations to vary significantly. If our quarterly results of operations fall below the expectations of investors and securities analysts who follow our stock, the price of our common stock could decline substantially, and we could face costly lawsuits, including securities class action suits.

If we are unable to attract new customers, including through our self-service customer acquisition model, retain existing customers and/or expand usage of our platform by such customers, we may not achieve the growth we expect, which would adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

In order to grow our business, we must continue to attract new customers in a cost-effective manner and enable these customers to realize the benefits associated with our products and services. Our business is usage-based and it is important for our business and financial results that our paying customers maintain or increase their usage of our platform and purchase additional products from us. Historically, we have relied on our self-service customer acquisition model for a significant majority of our revenue. While we are expanding our direct sales efforts and personnel, we expect a significant majority of our revenue to come from our self-service customer acquisition model in the coming years. If our self-service customer acquisition model is not as effective as we anticipate, our future growth will be impacted.

In addition, we must persuade potential customers that our products offer significant advantages over those of our competitors. As our market matures, our products evolve, and competitors introduce lower cost or differentiated products that are perceived to compete with our platform and products, our ability to maintain or expand usage of our platform could be impaired. Even if we do attract new customers, the cost of new customer acquisition, product implementation and ongoing customer support may prove higher than anticipated, thereby

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impacting our profitability. For example, while we maintain an active user community that serves as a support resource for our customers, there is no guarantee that our customers will continue to contribute to or utilize the community as a self-support resource, and any failure to maintain such an active community could require us to expend more resources on customer acquisition and customer support, and impact our profitability.

Other factors, many of which are out of our control, may now or in the future impact our ability to add new customers in a cost-effective manner, include:

The vast majority of our contracts with our customers are based on our terms of service, which do not require our customers to commit to a specific contractual period, and which permit the customer to terminate their contracts or decrease usage of our products and services without advance notice. Our customers generally have no obligation to maintain their usage of our platform. This ease of termination could cause our results of operations to fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter. Our customer retention may decline or fluctuate as a result of a number of factors, including our customers’ satisfaction with the security, performance, and reliability of our products, our prices and usage plans, our customers’ budgetary restrictions, the perception that competitive products provide better or less expensive options, negative public perception of us or our customers, and deteriorating general economic conditions. As a result, we may face high rates of customer churn if we are unable to meet our customer needs, requirements and preferences.

Our future financial performance also depends in part on our ability to expand our existing customers’ usage of our platform and sell additional products to our existing customers. Conversely, our paying customers may reduce their usage to lower-cost pricing tiers if they do not see the marginal value in maintaining their usage at a higher-cost pricing tier, thereby impacting our ability to increase revenue. In order to expand our commercial relationship with our customers, existing customers must decide that the incremental cost associated with such an increase in usage or subscription to additional products is justified by the additional functionality. Our customers’ decision whether to increase their usage or subscribe to additional products is driven by a number of factors, including customer satisfaction with the security, performance, and reliability of our platform and existing products, the functionality of any new products we may offer, general economic conditions, and customer reaction to our pricing model. If our efforts to expand our relationship with our existing customers are not successful, our financial condition and results of operations may materially suffer.

In addition, to encourage awareness, usage, familiarity and adoption of our platform and products, we may offer a credit to new customers who sign up for and use our platform. To the extent that we are unable to successfully retain customers after use of the initial credit, we will not realize the intended benefits of these marketing strategies and our ability to grow our revenue will be adversely affected.

The market for our platform and solutions may develop more slowly or differently than we expect.

It is difficult to predict customer adoption rates and demand for our products and services, the entry of competitive products or services or the future growth rate and size of the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and

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Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) markets. The expansion of these markets depends on a number of factors, including the cost, performance, and perceived value associated with cloud computing platforms as an alternative to more established and legacy systems, the ability of cloud computing platform providers to address heightened data security and privacy concerns, and the cost and effort associated with converting or transition from current systems to cloud-based systems. If we or other cloud computing platform providers experience security incidents, loss of customer data, disruptions or other similar problems, the market for these applications as a whole, including our platform and products, may be negatively affected. If there is a reduction in demand caused by a lack of customer acceptance, technological challenges, weakening economic conditions, data security or privacy concerns, governmental regulation, competing technologies and products, or decreases in information technology spending or otherwise, either now or in the future, the market for our platform and products might not continue to develop or might develop more slowly than we expect, which would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our core customer base consists of individual developers, early stage start-ups and small-to-medium size businesses. As these individuals and organizations grow, if we are unable to meet their evolving needs, we may not be able to retain them as customers. Our business will also suffer if the markets for our solutions proves less lucrative than projected or if we fail to effectively acquire and service such users.

Our core customer base consists of individual developers, early stage start-ups and small-to-medium size businesses, many of which plan for high growth. We expect that our path to growth will, in part, rely on scaling our platform to meet the needs of such customers as they increase usage of our platform. Accordingly, if such customers fail to grow as expected, then our path to growth may be adversely affected. In addition, our inability to offer both suitable services to support their businesses at scale and suitable and appropriately priced services for the initial state of their business, and could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We believe that the individual developer, early stage start-ups and small-to-medium size business markets are underserved, and we intend to continue to devote substantial resources to such markets. However, these customers and potential customers frequently have limited budgets and may choose to allocate resources to items other than our solutions, especially in times of economic uncertainty or recessions. If the individual developer, early stage start-ups and small-to-medium size business markets fail to be as lucrative as we project or we are unable to market and sell our services to such customers effectively, our ability to grow our revenues quickly and achieve or maintain profitability will be harmed.

As we expand our product offerings, we may also attract larger customers outside of our core customer base. Sales to larger customers involve risks that may not be present or that are present to a lesser extent with sales to smaller entities.

Sales to larger customers outside of our core customer base involve risks that may not be present or that are present to a lesser extent with sales to individual developers, early stage start-ups and small-to-medium size businesses, such as longer sales cycles, more complex customer requirements, substantial upfront sales costs, and less predictability in completing some of our sales. For example, larger customers may require considerable time to evaluate and test our solutions and those of our competitors prior to making a decision on whether to subscribe to our platform. Moreover, larger customers often begin to deploy our products on a limited basis, but nevertheless demand configuration, integration services and pricing negotiations, which increase our upfront investment in the sales effort with no guarantee that these customers will deploy our products widely enough across their organization to justify our substantial upfront investment.

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If we fail to timely release updates and new features to our platform and adapt and respond effectively to rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards, changing regulations, or customer needs, our platform and products may become less competitive.

Our ability to attract new users and customers, expand our customer base, and increase revenue from existing customers depends in large part on our ability to enhance and improve our existing platform and products, increase adoption and usage of our platform and products, and introduce new products and capabilities. The market in which we compete is relatively new and subject to rapid technological change, evolving industry standards, and changing regulations, as well as changing customer needs, requirements and preferences. The success of our business will depend, in part, on our ability to adapt and respond effectively to these changes on a timely basis, anticipate and respond to customer demands and preferences, address business model shifts, optimize our go-to-market execution by improving our cost structure, align sales coverage with strategic goals, improve channel execution and strengthen our services and capabilities in our areas of strategic focus. If we were unable to enhance our products and platform capabilities to keep pace with rapid technological and regulatory change, or if new technologies emerge that are able to deliver competitive products at lower prices, more efficiently, more conveniently, or more securely than our products, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

We expect that the number of integrations and developer tools we will need to support will continue to expand as developers adopt new technologies, and we will have to develop new or upgraded versions of our platform and products to work with those new platforms. This development effort may require significant engineering, sales and marketing resources, all of which would adversely affect our business. Any failure of our platform or products to operate effectively with future technologies and developer tools could reduce the demand for our platform and products. If we are unable to respond to these changes in a cost-effective manner, our platform may become less marketable and less competitive or obsolete, and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Our policies regarding user privacy could cause us to experience adverse business and reputational consequences with customers, employees, suppliers, government entities, users, and other third parties.

From time to time, government entities and law enforcement bodies may seek our assistance with obtaining information about our customers or users. Although we protect the privacy of our customers to the extent possible, we may be required from time to time to provide information about our customers to government entities and law enforcement bodies. In light of our privacy commitments, we may legally challenge law enforcement requests to provide access to our systems, customer Droplets, or other user content but may face complaints that we have provided information improperly to law enforcement or in response to third party abuse complaints. We may experience adverse political, business, and reputational consequences, to the extent that we (a) do not provide assistance to or comply with requests from government entities or challenge those requests publicly or in court or (b) provide, or are perceived as providing, assistance to government entities that exceeds our legal obligations. Any such disclosure could significantly and adversely impact our business and reputation.

We publish a transparency report on an annual basis to provide details of law enforcement and government requests we receive. Our transparency report also includes a list of certain actions we have taken in response to law enforcement requests, including disclosure of information in response to law enforcement requests, as well as our standard policies and procedures regarding any such requests. Both the publishing of our transparency report and, conversely, the actions we take or challenge in response to law enforcement requests could damage our business and reputation.

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We rely on third-party data center providers to ensure the functionality of our platform and products. If our data center providers fail to meet the requirement of our business, or if our data center facilities experience damage, interruption or a security breach, our ability to provide access to our platform and maintain the performance of our network could be negatively impacted.

We operate fourteen data centers through leases with third-party data center providers located in the United States, India, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and Singapore. Our business is reliant on these data center facilities. Given that we lease this data center space, we do not control the operation of these third-party facilities. Consequently, we may be subject to service disruptions as well as failures to provide adequate support for reasons that are outside of our direct control. All of our data center facilities and network infrastructure are vulnerable to damage or interruption from a variety of sources including earthquakes, floods, fires, power loss, system failures, computer viruses, physical or electronic break-ins, human error, malfeasance or interference, including by employees, former employees, or contractors, terrorism and other catastrophic events. We and our data centers have experienced, and may in the future experience, disruptions, outages and other performance problems due to a variety of factors, including infrastructure changes and capacity constraints, due to an overwhelming number of customers accessing our platform simultaneously. Data center facilities housing our network infrastructure may also be subject to local administrative actions, changes to legal or permitting requirements, labor disputes, litigation to stop, limit, or delay operations, and other legal challenges, including local government agencies seeking to gain access to customer accounts for law enforcement or other reasons. In addition, while we have entered into various agreements for the lease of data center space, equipment, maintenance and other services, the third party could fail to live up to the contractual obligations under those agreements.

Other factors, many of which are beyond our control, that can affect the delivery, performance, and availability of our platform and products include:

The occurrence of any of these factors, or our inability to efficiently and cost-effectively fix such errors or other problems that may be identified, could damage our reputation, negatively impact our relationship with our customers, or otherwise materially harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

The components of our global network are interrelated, such that disruptions or outages affecting one or more of our network data center facilities may increase the strain on other components of our network. In addition, the failure of any of our data center facilities for any significant period of time could place a significant strain upon the ongoing operation of our business, as we have only limited redundant functionality for these facilities, and there may be concentration issues regarding the storing and backup of customer data. Such a failure of a core data center facility could degrade and slow down our network, reduce the functionality of our products for our customers, impact our ability to bill our customers, and otherwise materially and adversely impact our business, reputation, and results of operations.

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In addition, if we do not optimize and operate these data center facilities efficiently, or if we fail to expand our data centers to meet increased customer demand, it could result in either lack of available capacity (resulting in poor service performance or technical issues) or excess data center capacity (resulting in increased unnecessary costs), both of which could result in the dissatisfaction or loss of customers and cause our business, results of operations and financial condition to suffer. As we continue to add product and service capabilities, our data center networks become increasingly complex and operating them becomes more challenging.

The terms of our existing data center agreements and leases vary in length and expire on various dates. Upon the expiration or termination of our data center facility leases, we may not be able to renew these leases on terms acceptable to us, if at all. Even if we are able to renew the leases on our existing data centers, rental rates, which will be determined based on then-prevailing market rates with respect to the renewal option periods and which will be determined by negotiation with the landlord after the renewal option periods, may increase from the rates we currently pay under our existing lease agreements. Migrations to new facilities could also be expensive and present technical challenges that may result in downtime for our affected customers. There can also be no assurances that our plans to mitigate customer downtime for affected customers will be successful.

If we or our third-party service providers experience a security breach or unauthorized parties otherwise obtain access to our platform or our customers’ data, we may incur significant liabilities and our reputation and business may be harmed.

Our platform and products involve the storage and transmission of data, including personally identifiable information, and security breaches or unauthorized access to our platform and products could result in the loss of our or our customers’ or users’ data, litigation, indemnity obligations, fines, penalties, disputes, investigations and other liabilities. We have been in the past and may continue to be in the future the target of cyber-attacks by third parties seeking unauthorized access to our or our customers’ or users’ data or to disrupt our ability to provide our services. While we have taken steps to protect the confidential and personal information that we have access to, our security measures or those of our third-party service providers that store or otherwise process certain of our and our customers’ or users’ data on our behalf could be breached or we could suffer a loss of our or our customers’ or users’ data. Our ability to monitor our third-party service providers’ data security is limited. Cyber-attacks, computer malware, viruses, social engineering (including spear phishing and ransomware attacks), and general hacking have become more prevalent in our industry, particularly against cloud services. In addition, errors due to the action or inaction of our employees, contractors, or others with authorized access to our network could lead to a variety of security incidents. Further, we do not directly control content that our customers or users store, use, or access in our products. If our customers or users use our products for the transmission or storage of personally identifiable information and our security measures are or are believed to have been breached as a result of third party action, employee error, malfeasance or otherwise, our reputation could be damaged, our business may suffer, and we could incur significant liability. In addition, our remediation efforts may not be successful.

We also process, store and transmit our own data as part of our business and operations. This data may include personally identifiable, confidential or proprietary information. There can be no assurance that any security measures that we or our third party service providers have implemented will be effective against current or future security threats. While we have developed systems and processes to protect the integrity, confidentiality and security of our and our customers’ or users’ data, our security measures or those of our third party service providers could fail and result in unauthorized access to or disclosure, modification, misuse, loss or destruction of such data.

Because there are many different security breach techniques and such techniques continue to evolve, we may be unable to anticipate attempted security breaches, react in a timely manner or implement adequate preventative measures. Third parties may also conduct attacks designed to temporarily deny customers or users access to our cloud services. Any security breach or other security incident, or the perception that one has occurred, could result in a loss of customer confidence in the security of our platform and damage to our brand,

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reduce the demand for our products, disrupt normal business operations, require us to spend material resources to investigate or correct the breach and to prevent future security breaches and incidents, expose us to legal liabilities, including litigation, regulatory enforcement, and indemnity obligations, and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. These risks are likely to increase as we continue to grow and process, store, and transmit increasingly large amounts of data.

Additionally, although we maintain cybersecurity insurance coverage, we cannot be certain that such coverage will be adequate for data security liabilities actually incurred, will cover any indemnification claims against us relating to any incident, will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all, or that any insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim. The successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceed available insurance coverage, or the occurrence of changes in our insurance policies, including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements, could adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, our customers require and expect that we and/or our service providers maintain industry-related compliance certifications, such as SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3, PCI-DSS, NIST 800-53, and others. There are significant costs associated with maintaining existing and implementing any newly-adopted industry-related compliance certifications, including costs associated with retroactively building security controls into services which may involve re-engineering technology, processes and staffing. The inability to maintain applicable compliance certifications could result in monetary fines, disruptive participation in forensic audits due to a breach, security-related control failures, customer contract breaches, customer churn and brand and reputational harm.

We may not be able to successfully manage our growth, and if we are not able to grow efficiently, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be harmed.

The growth and expansion of our business will continue to require additional management, operational and financial resources. As usage of our platform grows, we will need to devote additional resources to improving and maintaining our infrastructure and integrating with third-party applications. In addition, we will need to appropriately scale our internal business systems and our services organization, including customer support, to serve our growing customer base, and to improve our information technology and financial infrastructure, operating and administrative systems and our ability to effectively manage headcount, capital and processes, including by reducing costs and inefficiencies. Any failure of or delay in these efforts could result in impaired system performance and reduced customer satisfaction, which would negatively impact our revenue growth and our reputation. Even if we are successful in our expansion efforts, they will be expensive and complex, and require the dedication of significant management time and attention. We cannot be sure that the expansion of and improvements to our internal infrastructure will be effectively implemented on a timely basis, if at all, and such failures could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, we must also continue to effectively manage our capital expenditures by maintaining and expanding our data center capacity, servers and equipment, grow in geographies where we currently have a small presence and ensure that the performance, features and reliability of our service offerings and our customer service remain competitive in a rapidly changing technological environment. If we fail to manage our growth, the quality of our platform and products may suffer, which could negatively affect our brand and reputation and harm our ability to retain and attract customers and employees.

If we underestimate or overestimate our data center capacity requirements and our capital expenditures on data centers, servers and equipment, our results of operations could be adversely affected.

The costs of building out, leasing and maintaining our data centers constitute a significant portion of our capital and operating expenses. To manage our capacity while minimizing unnecessary excess capacity costs, we continuously evaluate our short and long-term data center capacity requirements in order to effectively manage our capital expenditures. We may be unable to project accurately the rate or timing of increases in volume of

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usage on our platform or to successfully allocate resources to address such increases, and may underestimate the data center capacity needed to address such increases, and in response, we may be unable to increase our data capacity, and increase our capital expenditures on servers and other equipment, in an expedient and cost-effective manner to address such increases. If we underestimate our data center capacity requirements and capital expenditure requirements, we may not be able to provide our platform and products to current customers or service the expanding needs of our existing customers and may be required to limit new customer acquisition or enter into leases or other agreements for data centers, servers and other equipment that are not optimal, all of which may materially and adversely impair our results of operations.

In addition, many of our data center sites are subject to multi-year leases. If our capacity needs are reduced, or if we decide to close a data center, we may nonetheless be committed to perform our obligations under the applicable leases including, among other things, paying the base rent for the balance of the lease term and continuing to pay for any servers or other equipment. If we overestimate our data center capacity requirements and capital expenditures, and therefore secure excess data center capacity and servers or other equipment, our operating margins could be materially reduced.

We rely on a limited number of suppliers for certain components of the equipment we use to operate our network and any disruption in the availability of these components could delay our ability to expand or increase the capacity of our platform or replace defective equipment.

We do not manufacture the products or components we use to build our platform and the related infrastructure. We rely on a limited number of suppliers for several components of the equipment we use to operate our platform and provide products to our customers. Our reliance on these suppliers exposes us to risks, including:

In addition, we are continually working to expand and enhance our platform features, technology and network infrastructure and other technologies to accommodate substantial increases in the volume of usage on our platform, the amount of content we host and our overall total customers. We may be unable to project accurately the rate or timing of these increases or to successfully allocate resources to address such increases, and may underestimate the data center capacity needed to address such increases, and our limited number of suppliers

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may not be able to quickly respond to our needs, which could have a negative impact on customer experience and our financial results. In the future, we may be required to allocate additional resources, including spending substantial amounts, to build, purchase or lease data centers and equipment and upgrade our technology and network infrastructure in order to handle increased customer usage, and our suppliers may not be able to satisfy such requirements. In addition, our network or our suppliers’ networks might be unable to achieve or maintain data transmission capacity high enough to process orders or download data effectively or in a timely manner. Our failure, or our suppliers’ failure, to achieve or maintain high data transmission capacity could significantly reduce consumer demand for our products. Such reduced demand and resulting loss of traffic, cost increases, or failure to accommodate new technologies could harm our business, revenue and financial condition.

If we do not or cannot maintain the compatibility of our platform with third-party applications that our customers use in their businesses, our business will be harmed.

Because our customers choose to integrate our products with certain capabilities provided by third-party providers, the functionality and popularity of our platform depends, in part, on our ability to integrate our platform and applications with developer tools and other third-party applications. These third parties may change the features of their technologies, restrict our access to their applications, or alter the terms governing use of their applications in a manner that is adverse to our business. Such changes could functionally limit or prevent our ability to use these third-party technologies in conjunction with our platform, which would negatively affect adoption of our platform and harm our business. If we fail to integrate our platform with new third-party applications that our customers use, we may not be able to offer the functionality that our customers need, which would harm our business.

We rely heavily on the reliability, security and performance of our internally developed systems and operations. Any difficulties in maintaining these systems may result in damage to our brand, service interruptions, decreased customer service or increased expenditures.

The reliability and continuous availability of the software, hardware and workflow processes underlying our internal systems, networks and infrastructure and the ability to deliver our products are critical to our business. Any interruptions resulting in our inability to timely deliver our products, or materially impacting the efficiency or cost with which we provide our products, would harm our brand, profitability and ability to conduct business. If third-party vendors increase their prices and we are unable to successfully pass those costs on to our customers, it could have a substantial effect on our results of operations.

We rely on third-party software for certain essential financial and operational services, and a failure or disruption in these services could materially and adversely affect our ability to manage our business effectively.

We rely on third-party software to provide many essential financial and operational services to support our business, including, without limitation, encryption and authentication technology, infrastructure operations, employee email, content delivery to customers, back-office support, credit card processing and other functions. Many of these vendors are less established and have shorter operating histories than traditional software vendors. Moreover, these vendors provide their services to us via a cloud-based model instead of software that is installed on our premises. As a result, we depend upon these vendors to provide us with services that are always available and are free of errors or defects that could cause disruptions in our business processes. Any failure by these vendors to do so, or any disruption in our ability to access the internet, would materially and adversely affect our ability to manage our operations. In addition, although we have developed systems and processes that are designed to protect customer and user data and prevent data loss and other security breaches, including systems and processes designed to reduce the impact of a security breach at a third-party service provider, such measures cannot provide absolute security.

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Performance problems or defects associated with our platform may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve our platform performance, especially during peak usage times and as our customer base grows and our platform becomes more complex. If our platform is unavailable or if our customers are unable to access our platform within a reasonable amount of time or at all, we may experience a loss of customers, lost or delayed market acceptance of our platform, delays in payment to us by customers, injury to our reputation and brand, legal claims against us, significant cost of remedying these problems and the diversion of our resources. In addition, to the extent that we do not effectively address capacity constraints, upgrade our systems as needed and continually develop our technology and network architecture to accommodate actual and anticipated changes in technology, our business, financial condition and results of operations, as well as our reputation, may be adversely affected.

Further, the software technology underlying our platform is inherently complex and may contain material defects or errors, particularly when new products are first introduced or when new features or capabilities are released. We have from time to time found defects or errors in our platform, and new defects or errors in our existing platform or new products may be detected in the future by us or our users. We cannot assure you that our existing platform and new products will not contain defects. Any real or perceived errors, failures, vulnerabilities, or bugs in our platform could result in negative publicity or lead to data security, access, retention or other performance issues, all of which could harm our business. The costs incurred in correcting such defects or errors may be substantial and could harm our business. Moreover, the harm to our reputation and legal liability related to such defects or errors may be substantial and could similarly harm our business.

The markets in which we participate are competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be harmed.

The markets that we serve are highly competitive and rapidly evolving. With the introduction of new technologies and innovations, we expect the competitive environment to remain intense. We compete primarily with large, diversified technology companies that focus on large enterprise customers and provide cloud computing as just a portion of the services and products that they offer. The primary vendors in this category include Amazon (AWS), Microsoft (Azure), Google (GCP), IBM and Oracle. We also compete with smaller, niche cloud service providers that typically target individuals and smaller businesses, simple use cases or narrower geographic markets. Some examples in this category include OVH, Vultr, Heroku, and Linode.

Our competitors vary in size and in the breadth and scope of the products offered. Many of our competitors and potential competitors, particularly our larger competitors, have substantial competitive advantages as compared to us, including greater name recognition and longer operating histories, larger sales and marketing and customer support budgets and resources, the ability to bundle products together, larger and more mature intellectual property portfolios, greater resources to make acquisitions and greater resources for technical assistance and customer support. Further, other potential competitors not currently offering competitive solutions may expand their product or service offerings to compete with our products and platform capabilities, or our current and potential competitors may establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties that may further enhance their resources and product offerings in our addressable market. Our competitors may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards, and customer requirements. An existing competitor or new entrant could introduce new technology that reduces demand for our products and platform capabilities.

In addition, some of our actual and potential competitors have been acquired by other larger enterprises and have made or may make acquisitions or may enter into partnerships or other strategic relationships that may provide more comprehensive offerings than they individually had offered or achieve greater economies of scale than us. In addition, new entrants not currently considered to be competitors may enter the market through acquisitions, partnerships or strategic relationships.

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For all of these reasons, we may not be able to compete successfully against our current or future competitors, and this competition could result in the failure of our platform to continue to achieve or maintain market acceptance, any of which would harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

We do not have sufficient history with our pricing model to accurately predict the optimal pricing necessary to attract new customers and retain existing customers. Our pricing model subjects us to various challenges that could make it difficult for us to derive sufficient value from our customers.

We have limited experience determining the optimal prices for our products and, as a result, we have in the past and expect that we will need to change our pricing model from time to time in the future. As the market for our products matures, or as new competitors introduce new products or services that compete with ours, we may be unable to attract new customers using the same pricing models as we have used historically. Pricing decisions may also impact the mix of adoption among our customers and negatively impact our overall revenue. Moreover, certain customers may demand substantial price concessions. As a result, in the future we may be required to reduce our prices or develop new pricing models, which could adversely affect our revenue, gross margin, profitability, financial position, and cash flow.

We generally charge our customers for their usage of our platform, and the add-on features and functionality they choose to enable. We do not know whether our current or potential customers or the market in general will continue to accept this pricing model going forward and, if it fails to gain acceptance, our business could be harmed.

If we fail to retain and motivate members of our management team or other key employees, or fail to attract additional qualified personnel to support our operations, our business and future growth prospects would be harmed.

Our success and future growth depend largely upon the continued services of our executive officers, particularly Yancey Spruill, our Chief Executive Officer. From time to time, there may be changes in our executive management team or other key employees resulting from the hiring or departure of these personnel. For example, a number of our executive officers have only recently joined us. If we do not successfully manage executive officer transitions, it could be viewed negatively by our customers, employees or investors and could have an adverse impact on our business. Our executive officers and other key employees are employed on an at-will basis, which means that these personnel could terminate their employment with us at any time. The loss of one or more of our executive officers, or the failure by our executive team to effectively work with our employees and lead our company, could harm our business.

In addition, to execute our growth plan, we must attract and retain highly qualified personnel. Competition for these personnel is intense, especially for engineers experienced in cloud computing and infrastructure solutions. From time to time, we have experienced, and we expect to continue to experience, difficulty in hiring and retaining employees with appropriate qualifications. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we have. If we hire employees from competitors or other companies, their former employers may attempt to assert that these employees or we have breached their legal obligations, resulting in a diversion of our time and resources. In addition, prospective and existing employees often consider the value of the equity awards they receive in connection with their employment. If the perceived value of our equity awards declines, experiences significant volatility, or increases such that prospective employees believe there is limited upside to the value of our equity awards, it may adversely affect our ability to recruit and retain key employees. If we fail to attract new personnel or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel, our business and future growth prospects would be harmed.

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Our corporate culture has contributed to our success and if we cannot maintain this culture as we grow, we could lose the innovation, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit we have worked hard to foster, which could harm our business.

We believe our corporate culture of rapid innovation, teamwork, and attention to customer support has been a key contributor to our success to date. We expect to continue to hire aggressively as we expand, and if we do not continue to maintain our corporate culture as we grow, we may be unable to foster the innovation, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit we believe we need to support our growth. Our substantial anticipated headcount growth may result in a change to our corporate culture, which could harm our business.

If we fail to maintain and enhance our brand, our ability to expand our customer base will be impaired and our business, financial condition and results of operations may suffer.

We believe that maintaining and enhancing the DigitalOcean brand is important to support the marketing and sale of our existing and future products to new customers and expand sales of our platform and products to existing customers. We also believe that the importance of brand recognition will increase as competition in our market increases. Successfully maintaining and enhancing our brand will depend largely on the effectiveness of our marketing efforts, our ability to provide reliable products that continue to meet the needs of our customers at competitive prices, our ability to maintain our customers’ trust, our ability to continue to develop new functionality and use cases, and our ability to successfully differentiate our products and platform capabilities from competitive products. Our brand promotion activities may not generate customer awareness or yield increased revenue, and even if they do, any increased revenue may not offset the expenses we incur in building our brand. If we fail to successfully promote and maintain our brand, our business, financial condition and results of operations may suffer.

Our ability to maintain customer satisfaction depends in part on the quality of our customer support. Failure to maintain high-quality customer support could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operation, and financial condition.

We believe that the successful use of our platform and products requires a high level of support and engagement for many of our customers, particularly our business customers. In order to deliver appropriate customer support and engagement, we must successfully assist our customers in deploying and continuing to use our platform and products, resolving performance issues, addressing interoperability challenges with the customers’ existing IT infrastructure, and responding to security threats and cyber-attacks and performance and reliability problems that may arise from time to time. Because our platform and products are designed to be highly configurable and to rapidly implement customers’ reconfigurations, customer errors in configuring our platform and products can result in significant disruption to our customers. Our support organization faces additional challenges associated with our international operations, including those associated with delivering support, training, and documentation in languages other than English. Increased demand for customer support, without corresponding increases in revenue, could increase our costs and adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

In addition, we rely on our user community to serve as a resource for questions on any part of our platform. Members of our user community are not obligated to participate in discussions with other users, and to the extent they do not, our customers’ ability to find answers to questions about our platform of services may suffer. If we are unable to develop self-service support resources that are easy to use and that our customers utilize to resolve their technical issues, or if our customers choose not to take advantage of these self-service support services, our customers’ experience with our platform may be negatively impacted.

There can be no assurance that we will be able to hire sufficient support personnel as and when needed, particularly if our sales exceed our internal forecasts. To the extent that we are unsuccessful in hiring, training, and retaining adequate support resources, our ability to provide high-quality and timely support to our customers

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will be negatively impacted, and our customers’ satisfaction and their usage of our platform could be adversely affected.

Unfavorable conditions in our industry or the global economy, or reductions in information technology spending, could limit our ability to grow our business and negatively affect our results of operations.

Our results of operations may vary based on the impact of unfavorable changes in our industry or the global economy on us or our customers and potential customers. Unfavorable conditions in the economy both in the United States and abroad, including conditions resulting from changes in gross domestic product growth in the United States or abroad, financial and credit market fluctuations, international trade relations, political turmoil, natural catastrophes, outbreaks of contagious diseases (such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic), warfare and terrorist attacks on the United States, Europe or elsewhere, could cause a decrease in business investments, including spending on information technology, disrupt the timing and cadence of key industry events, and negatively affect the growth of our business and our results of operations. For example, any reductions in information technology spending may fall disproportionately on outsourced and cloud-based solutions like ours. In addition, impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic may be exacerbated by the disproportionate impact it is having on the individual developers, early stage start-ups and small-to-medium size businesses that make a large portion of our customer base, many of which may be forced to shut down or limit operations for an indefinite period of time. Economic weakness, customer financial difficulties and constrained spending on information technology operations could adversely affect our customers’ ability or willingness to subscribe to our service offerings, delay purchasing decisions and lengthen our sales cycles, reduce the usage of our products and services, or increase churn, all of which could have an adverse effect on our sales and operating results. In addition, our competitors, many of whom are larger and have greater financial resources than we do, may respond to challenging market conditions by lowering prices in an attempt to attract our customers and may be less dependent on key industry events to generate sales for their products. Further, the increased pace of consolidation in certain industries may result in reduced overall spending on our products and solutions. We cannot predict the timing, strength, or duration of any economic slowdown, instability, or recovery, generally or how any such event may impact our business.

Our current operations are international in scope, and we plan further geographic expansion, creating a variety of operational challenges.

A component of our growth strategy involves the further expansion of our operations and customer base internationally. We are continuing to adapt to and develop strategies to address international markets, but there is no guarantee that such efforts will have the desired effect. For example, we anticipate that we will need to establish relationships with new partners in order to expand into certain countries, and if we fail to identify, establish and maintain such relationships, we may be unable to execute on our expansion plans. We expect that our international activities will continue to grow for the foreseeable future as we continue to pursue opportunities in existing and new international markets, which will require significant dedication of management attention and financial resources.

Our current and future international business and operations involve a variety of risks, including:

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If we invest substantial time and resources to further expand our international operations and are unable to do so successfully and in a timely manner, our business and results of operations will suffer.

We are exposed to fluctuations in currency exchange rates and interest rates, which could negatively affect our results of operations and our ability to invest and hold our cash.

Our sales are denominated in U.S. dollars, and therefore, our revenue is not subject to foreign currency risk. However, a strengthening of the U.S. dollar could increase the real cost of our platform to our customers outside of the United States, which could adversely affect our results of operations. Our operating expenses incurred outside the United States are denominated in foreign currencies and are subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates. If we are not able to successfully hedge against the risks associated with currency fluctuations, our results of operations could be adversely affected. In addition, we are exposed to fluctuations in interest rates, which has resulted in a negative interest rate environment, in which interest rates drop below zero. In this zero interest rate environment, any cash that we may hold with financial institutions, including cash proceeds received from this offering, will continue to yield a storage charge instead of earning interest income, and encourages us to spend our cash or make high-risk investments, all of which could adversely affect our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows.

Our international operations may subject us to potential adverse tax consequences.

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

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Our tax provision could also be impacted by changes in accounting principles, changes in U.S. federal, state, or international tax laws applicable to corporate multinationals such as legislation enacted in the United States, other fundamental law changes currently being considered by many countries, and changes in taxing jurisdictions’ administrative interpretations, decisions, policies, and positions. For example, on December 22, 2017, tax reform legislation referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or the Tax Act, was enacted in the United States The Tax Act makes broad and complex changes to the U.S. tax code including, among other things, 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 the expensing of certain capital expenditures, and the migration from a “worldwide” system of taxation to a territorial system. We are unable to predict whether any future changes will occur and, if so, the impact of such changes, including on the U.S. federal income tax considerations relating to the purchase, ownership and disposition of our common stock.

We could be required to collect additional taxes or be subject to other tax liabilities that may increase the costs our clients would have to pay for our products and adversely affect our results of operations.

An increasing number of states have considered or adopted laws that attempt to impose tax collection obligations on out-of-state companies. Additionally, the Supreme Court of the United States recently ruled in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. et al, or Wayfair, that online sellers can be required to collect sales and use tax despite not having a physical presence in the buyer’s state. In response to Wayfair, or otherwise, states or local governments may adopt, or begin to enforce, laws requiring us to calculate, collect, and remit taxes on sales in their jurisdictions. A successful assertion by one or more states requiring us to collect taxes where we presently do not do so, or to collect more taxes in a jurisdiction in which we currently do collect some taxes, could result in substantial tax liabilities, including taxes on past sales, as well as penalties and interest. The imposition by state governments or local governments of tax collection obligations on out-of-state sellers could also create additional administrative burdens for us, put us at a competitive disadvantage if they do not impose similar obligations on our competitors, and decrease our future sales, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Our ability to use our net operating losses to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations.

As of December 31, 2020, we had NOL carryforwards for federal and state income tax purposes of approximately $103.2 million and $128.1 million, respectively, which may be available to offset taxable income in the future, and which expire in various years beginning in 2032 for federal purposes and 2021 for state purposes if not utilized. A lack of future taxable income would adversely affect our ability to utilize these NOLs before they expire. Under the Tax Act, as modified by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or the CARES Act, federal net operating losses incurred in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such federal net operating losses in tax years beginning after December 31, 2020, is limited to 80% of taxable income. It is uncertain if and to what extent various states will conform to the Tax Act or the CARES Act. In general, under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change” (as defined under Section 382 of the Code and applicable Treasury Regulations) is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change NOLs to offset future taxable income. We may experience a future ownership change (including, potentially, in connection with this offering) under Section 382 of the Code that could affect our ability to utilize the NOLs to offset our income. Furthermore, our ability to utilize NOLs of companies that we have acquired or may acquire in the future may be subject to limitations. There is also a risk that due to regulatory changes, such as suspensions on the use of NOLs or other unforeseen reasons, our existing NOLs could expire or otherwise be unavailable to reduce future income tax liabilities, including for state tax purposes. For these reasons, we may not be able to utilize a material portion of the NOLs reflected on our balance sheet, even if we attain profitability, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us and could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.

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

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

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

Our leverage could adversely affect our financial condition, our ability to raise additional capital to fund our operations, our ability to operate our business, our ability to react to changes in the economy or our industry, divert our cash flow from operations for debt payments and prevent us from meeting our debt obligations.

As of December 31, 2020, our total indebtedness was approximately $263.7 million. Our leverage could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition, including:

A substantial majority of our indebtedness consists of indebtedness under our credit facility with KeyBank National Association, as administrative agent, and the other lenders party thereto, which matures in 2025. We may not be able to refinance our existing indebtedness because of our amount of debt, debt incurrence

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restrictions under our debt agreements or adverse conditions in credit markets generally. Our inability to generate sufficient cash flow to satisfy our debt obligations, or to refinance our indebtedness on commercially reasonable terms or at all, would result in an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, a portion of our capital expenditures, including expenditures on data centers, equipment and servers, is purchased through financing arrangements with third parties and other forms of indebtedness. If we are unable to meet our obligations under such financing arrangements, such vendors may seek recourse against us, including seizure of the financed equipment or severs.

Furthermore, we may incur significant additional indebtedness in the future. Although the credit agreement that governs substantially all of our indebtedness contains restrictions on the incurrence of additional indebtedness and entering into certain types of other transactions, these restrictions are subject to a number of qualifications and exceptions. Additional indebtedness incurred in compliance with these restrictions could be substantial. These restrictions also do not prevent us from incurring obligations, such as trade payables. To the extent we incur additional indebtedness, the significant leverage risks described above would be exacerbated.

Our credit agreement imposes significant operating and financial restrictions on us and our subsidiaries, which may prevent us from capitalizing on business opportunities.

The credit agreement that governs our credit facility imposes significant operating and financial restrictions on us. These restrictions limit the ability of our subsidiaries, and effectively limit our ability to, among other things:

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 compete effectively or 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 failure to comply with the restrictive covenants described above as well as other terms of our indebtedness or the terms of any future indebtedness from time to time could result in an event of default, which, if not cured or waived, could result in our being required to repay these borrowings before their due date. If we are forced to refinance these borrowings on less favorable terms or are unable to refinance these borrowings, our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.

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Our reported financial results may be adversely affected by changes in accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. If our estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies prove to be incorrect, our results of operations could be adversely affected.

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

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes appearing elsewhere in this prospectus. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, as provided in the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates.” The results of these estimates form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets, liabilities and equity, and the amount of revenue and expenses that are not readily apparent from other sources. Significant estimates, judgments, and assumptions used in our financial statements include, but are not limited to, those related to revenue recognition, accounts receivable and related reserves, useful lives and realizability of long lived assets, capitalized internal-use software development costs, assumptions used in the valuation of warrants, accounting for stock-based compensation, and valuation allowances against deferred tax assets. These estimates are periodically reviewed for any changes in circumstances, facts, and experience. Our results of operations may be adversely affected if our assumptions change or if actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our results of operations to fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, resulting in a decline in the market price of our common stock.

We may require additional capital to support the growth of our business, and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms, if at all.

We have funded our operations since inception primarily through equity and debt financings and sales of our products. We cannot be certain when or if our operations will generate sufficient cash to fully fund our ongoing operations or the growth of our business. We intend to continue to make investments to support our business, which may require us to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds. Additional financing may not be available on terms favorable to us, if at all. If adequate funds are not available on acceptable terms, we may be unable to invest in future growth opportunities, which could harm our business, operating results, and financial condition. If we incur additional debt, the debt holders would have rights senior to holders of common stock to make claims on our assets, and the terms of any debt could restrict our operations, including our ability to pay dividends on our common stock. Furthermore, if we issue additional equity securities, stockholders will experience dilution, and the new equity securities could have rights senior to those of our common stock. Because our decision to issue securities in the future will depend on numerous considerations, including factors beyond our control, we cannot predict or estimate the amount, timing, or nature of any future issuances of debt or equity securities. As a result, our stockholders bear the risk of future issuances of debt or equity securities reducing the value of our common stock and diluting their interests. Our inability to obtain adequate financing on terms satisfactory to us, when we require it, could significantly limit our ability to continue to support our business growth, respond to business challenges, expand our operations or otherwise capitalize on our business opportunities due to lack of sufficient capital. Even if we are able to raise such capital, we cannot assure you that it will enable us to achieve better operating results or grow our business.

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Acquisitions, strategic investments, partnerships, or alliances could be difficult to identify, pose integration challenges, divert the attention of management, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value, and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We have in the past and may in the future seek to acquire or invest in businesses, joint ventures, products and platform capabilities, or technologies that we believe could complement or expand our services and platform capabilities, enhance our technical capabilities, or otherwise offer growth opportunities. Further, our anticipated proceeds from this offering increase the likelihood that we will devote resources to exploring larger and more complex acquisitions and investments than we have previously attempted. Any such acquisition or investment may divert the attention of management and cause us to incur various expenses in identifying, investigating and pursuing suitable opportunities, whether or not the transactions are completed, and may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures. In particular, we may encounter difficulties assimilating or integrating the businesses, technologies, products and platform capabilities, personnel or operations of any acquired companies, particularly if the key personnel of an acquired company choose not to work for us, their infrastructure is not easily adapted to work with our platform, or we have difficulty retaining the customers of any acquired business due to changes in ownership, management or otherwise.

We could also face risks related to liability for activities of the acquired company before the acquisition, including intellectual property infringement claims, violations of laws, commercial disputes, tax liabilities and other known and unknown liabilities, and litigation or other claims in connection with the acquired company, including claims from terminated employees, users, former stockholders or other third parties, and our efforts to limit such liabilities could be unsuccessful. These transactions may also disrupt our business, divert our resources, and require significant management attention that would otherwise be available for development of our existing business. Any such transactions that we are able to complete may not result in any synergies or other benefits we had expected to achieve, which could result in impairment charges that could be substantial. In addition, we may not be able to find and identify desirable acquisition targets or business opportunities or be successful in entering into an agreement with any particular strategic partner. These transactions could also result in dilutive issuances of equity securities or the incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities, amortization expenses, incremental operating expenses or the impairment of goodwill, any of which could adversely affect our results of operations.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic and any related economic downturn could negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our operational and financial performance will depend on future developments. COVID-19 could adversely affect workforces, economies and financial markets globally, potentially leading to an economic downturn and a reduction in customer spending on our solutions or an inability for our customers, partners, suppliers or vendors or other parties with whom we do business to meet their contractual obligations. While it is not possible at this time to predict the duration and extent of the impact that COVID-19 could have on worldwide economic activity and our business in particular, the continued spread of COVID-19 and the measures taken by governments, businesses and other organizations in response to COVID-19 could adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic may be exacerbated by the disproportionate impact it is having on the individual developers, early stage start-ups and small-to-medium size businesses that make a large portion of our customer base, many of which may be forced to shut down or limit operations for an indefinite period of time. Economic weakness, customer financial difficulties and constrained spending on IT operations could adversely affect our customers’ ability or willingness to subscribe to our service offerings, delay purchasing decisions and lengthen our sales cycles, reduce the value of their contracts, or increase churn, all of which could have an adverse effect on our sales and operating results.

Moreover, to the extent the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects our business, financial condition and results of operations, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk

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Factors” section, including but not limited to, those related to our ability expand within our existing customer base, acquire new customers, develop and expand our sales and marketing capabilities and expand internationally.

Our business could be disrupted by catastrophic occurrences and similar events.

Our platform and the public cloud infrastructure on which our platform relies are vulnerable to damage or interruption from catastrophic occurrences, such as earthquakes, floods, fires, power loss, telecommunication failures, terrorist attacks, criminal acts, sabotage, other intentional acts of vandalism and misconduct, geopolitical events, disease, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and similar events. Despite any precautions we may take, the occurrence of a natural disaster or other unanticipated problems at our facilities or the facilities of our public cloud providers could result in disruptions, outages, and other performance and quality problems. If we are unable to develop adequate plans to ensure that our business functions continue to operate during and after a disaster and to execute successfully on those plans in the event of a disaster or emergency, our business would be seriously harmed.

Our business could be negatively impacted by changes in the United States political environment.

The 2020 presidential, congressional and state elections in the United States have resulted in significant uncertainty with respect to, and have and could further result in changes in, legislation, regulation, and government policy at the federal, state, and local levels. Any such changes could significantly impact our business as well as the markets in which we compete. Specific legislative and regulatory proposals discussed during election campaigns and more recently that might materially impact us include, but are not limited to, changes to trade agreements, immigration policy, import and export regulations, tariffs and customs duties, income tax regulations and the federal tax code, public company reporting requirements, and antitrust enforcement. Further, an extended federal government shutdown resulting from failing to pass budget appropriations, adopt continuing funding resolutions, or raise the debt ceiling, and other budgetary decisions limiting or delaying deferral government spending, may negatively impact U.S. or global economic conditions, including corporate and consumer spending, and liquidity of capital markets. To the extent changes in the political environment have a negative impact on us or on our markets, our business, results of operation and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected in the future.

Risks Related to Our Regulatory Environment

Activities of our customers or the content on their websites could subject us to liability.

We provide products and services that enable our customers and users to exchange information and engage in various online activities, and our products and services include substantial user-generated content. For instance, customers and users include content on their Droplets, post or generate content on our website’s community section, and offer applications and integrations through our marketplace. Customer or user content or activity may be infringing, illegal, hostile, offensive, unethical, or inappropriate, may violate our terms of service or a customer’s own policies, or may be intended to, or inadvertently, circumvent or threaten the confidentiality, integrity, security or availability of information or network services of other products, services, or systems, including, for example, by launching various attacks. We are not currently subject to lawsuits arising from the conduct of our customers or users, or subject to other regulatory enforcement actions relating to their content or actions, but we may be subject to such suits or measures in the future. Even if claims against us are ultimately unsuccessful, defending against such claims will increase our legal expenses and divert management’s attention from the operation of our business, which could adversely impact our business and results of operations, and our brand, reputation, and financial results may be harmed.

We (like other intermediary online service providers) rely primarily on two sets of laws in the U.S. to shield us from legal liability with respect to user activity. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, provides service

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providers a safe harbor from monetary damages for copyright infringement claims, provided that service providers comply with various requirements designed to stop or discourage infringement on their platforms by their users. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, or CDA, protects providers of an interactive computer service from liability with respect to most types of content provided over their service by others, including users. Both the DMCA safe harbor and Section 230 of the CDA face regular and current, calls for revision. In particular, a recent executive order by President Trump required, among other things, that the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, consider whether to conduct a rulemaking proceeding that might reinterpret and narrow the protections of Section 230 of the CDA. The FCC announced in October 2020 that it is commencing that rulemaking proceeding. In addition, a variety of bills have recently been introduced in the U.S. Congress that would seek to make changes to the scope of Section 230 of the CDA, including legislation in the U.S. Congress that, if enacted, would narrow the protections of Section 230 of the CDA. Enactment of this legislation or an unfavorable outcome of the FCC rulemaking could limit our ability to rely on the protections of Section 230 of the CDA. Furthermore, recent litigation has created uncertainty with respect to the applicability of DMCA protections to companies that host substantial amounts of user content. For these reasons and others, now or in the future, the DMCA, CDA, and similar provisions may be interpreted as not applying to us or may provide us with incomplete or insufficient protection from claims.

We do not typically monitor the content, activities, or Droplets of our customers or users, so inappropriate content may be posted or activities executed before we are able to take protective action, which could subject us to legal liability. Even if we comply with legal obligations to remove or disable content, we may continue to allow use of our products or services by individuals or entities who others find hostile, offensive, or inappropriate. The activities or content of our customers or users may lead us to experience adverse political, business and reputational consequences, especially if such use is high profile. Conversely, actions we take in response to the activities of our customers or users, up to and including banning them from using our products, services, or websites, may harm our brand and reputation.

In addition to liability based on our activities in the U.S., we may also be deemed subject to laws in other countries that may not have the same protections or that may impose more onerous obligations on us, which may impose additional liability or expense on us, including additional theories of intermediary liability. For example, in 2019, the EU approved a copyright directive that will impose additional obligations on online platforms, and failure to comply could give rise to significant liability. Other recent laws in Germany (extremist content), Australia (violent content), India (intermediary liability) and Singapore (online falsehoods), as well as other new similar laws, may also expose cloud-computing companies like us to significant liability. We may incur additional costs to comply with these new laws, which may have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Potential litigation could expose us to claims for damages and affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business could be affected by the enactment of new governmental regulations regarding the internet or the application of additional or different existing governmental regulation to our business, products, or services.

The legal and regulatory environment pertaining to the internet and products and services such as ours, both in the U.S. and internationally, is uncertain and may change. New laws may be passed, existing but previously inapplicable or unenforced laws may be deemed to apply, legal safe harbors may be narrowed, and courts may issue decisions affecting existing regulations or leading to new ones. Furthermore, legal and regulatory authorities, both in the U.S. and internationally, may characterize or recharacterize us and our business, products, or services in ways that would apply additional or different regulations to us. These changes could affect, among other things, areas related to our business such as the following:

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New laws or regulations, or new applications or interpretations of existing laws or regulations, could hinder growth and decrease acceptance, both of the internet and online services, or of our specific products or services, both generally or with respect to certain uses or industries. Such legal changes could increase our costs of doing business, subject our business to increased liability for non-compliance, or prevent us from marketing or delivering our services over the internet or in specific jurisdictions, thereby materially harming our business and results of operations.

The success of our business depends on our customers’ continued and unimpeded access to our platform on the internet and, as a result, also depends on internet providers and the related regulatory environment.

Our customers must have internet access in order to use our platform. Some internet providers may take measures that affect their customers’ ability to use our platform, such as degrading the quality of the content we transmit over their lines, giving that content lower priority, giving other content higher priority than ours, blocking our content entirely, or attempting to charge their customers more for using our platform.

In December 2010, the FCC adopted net neutrality rules barring internet providers from blocking or slowing down access to online content, thereby protecting services like ours from such interference. The FCC has repealed the net neutrality rules, and it is currently uncertain how the U.S. Congress will respond to this decision. To the extent network operators attempt to interfere with our platform, extract fees from us to deliver our platform or from customers for the use of our platform, or otherwise engage in discriminatory practices, our business could be adversely impacted. Within such a regulatory environment, we could experience discriminatory or anti-competitive practices that could impede our domestic and international growth, cause us to incur additional expense, or otherwise harm our business. The adoption of any new laws or regulations, or the application or interpretation of existing laws or regulations to the internet, could impact our customers’ continued and unimpeded access to our platform on the internet.

We are subject to stringent and changing privacy laws, regulations and standards, information security policies and contractual obligations related to data privacy and security. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could harm our business.

We have legal obligations regarding protection and appropriate use of personally identifiable and other proprietary information. We are subject to a variety of enacted and proposed federal, state, local and international laws, directives and regulations relating to the collection, use, security, transfer and other processing of personally identifiable information. The regulatory framework for privacy and security issues worldwide is rapidly evolving and as a result implementation standards and enforcement practices are likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future. We publicly post information about our privacy practices but we may be alleged to have failed to do so, which could subject us to potential regulatory or private party actions if they are

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found to be noncompliant, deceptive, unfair, or misrepresentative. In the United States, these include enforcement actions by federal agencies and state attorneys general. In addition, privacy advocates and industry groups have regularly proposed, and may propose in the future, self-regulatory standards with which we must legally comply or that contractually apply to us. If we fail to follow these security standards even if no customer or user information is compromised, we may incur significant fines or experience a significant increase in costs or reputational harm.

Laws in all states require businesses to provide notice to customers and users whose personally identifiable information has been disclosed as a result of a data breach and compliance can be costly. Further, California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, which became effective 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 provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that is expected to increase data breach litigation. The CCPA may increase our compliance costs and potential liability, and adversely affect our business. Further, California voters approved a new privacy law, the California Privacy Rights Act, or CPRA, in the November 3, 2020 election. Effective starting on January 1, 2023, the CPRA will significantly modify the CCPA, including by expanding consumers’ rights with respect to certain sensitive personal information. The CPRA also creates a new state agency that will be vested with authority to implement and enforce the CCPA and the CPRA. New legislation proposed or enacted in various other states will continue to shape the data privacy environment nationally. Certain state laws may be more stringent or broader in scope, or offer greater individual rights, with respect to confidential, sensitive and personal information than federal, international or other state laws, and such laws may differ from each other, which may complicate compliance efforts.

Most jurisdictions in which we operate have established legal frameworks for privacy and security with which we or our customers must comply, including the European Union, or EU. The EU has adopted the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which contains more robust obligations on data processors and heavier documentation requirements for data protection compliance programs by companies. The GDPR also introduced greater control for data subjects (including, for example, the “right to be forgotten”), increased data portability for EU consumers, data breach notification requirements and increased fines of up to 20 million euros or up to 4% of the annual global revenue of the noncompliant company, whichever is greater. Such penalties are in addition to any civil litigation claims by customers and data subjects. In addition to the foregoing, a breach of the GDPR could result in regulatory investigations, reputational damage, orders to cease/ change our processing of our data, enforcement notices, and/ or assessment notices (for a compulsory audit).

We will also be subject to evolving European Union laws on data export, where data is transferred outside the European Union to us or third parties only when a suitable data transfer solution exists to safeguard personal data. On July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union, or the CJEU, issued a decision called Schrems II that (a) calls into question certain data transfer mechanisms (such as the Standard Contractual Clauses) and (b) invalidates the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield on which many companies had relied as an acceptable mechanism for transferring such data from the EU to the U.S. Use of the Standard Contractual Clauses must now be assessed on a case-by-case basis taking into account the legal regime applicable in the destination country. We continue to investigate and implement contractual, organizational, and technical changes in response to Schrems II, but we cannot guarantee that any such changes will be sufficient under applicable laws and regulations or by our customers, governments, or the public. To the extent that we transfer personal data outside the European Union, there is risk that any of our data transfers will be halted, limited, or challenged by third parties.

Further, the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union, often referred to as Brexit, has created uncertainty with regard to data protection regulation in the United Kingdom. Since January 1, 2021, the United Kingdom has been a “third country” under the GDPR. The relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union in relation to certain aspects of data protection law remains unclear, for example whether (and when) an Adequacy Decision may be granted by the European Commission enabling data transfers from EU

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member states to the United Kingdom and the role of the UK Information Commissioner’s Office following the end of the transitional period. These changes will lead to additional costs and increase our overall risk exposure.

Where we transfer personal data outside the European Economic Area, or the EEA, or the United Kingdom to third parties, we do so in compliance with relevant data export requirements. There is no assurance that these contractual measures and our own privacy and security-related safeguards will protect us from the risks associated with the third-party processing, storage and transmission of such information. Any violation of data or security laws by our third-party processors could have a material adverse effect on our business and result in the fines and penalties outlined below.

In addition to the GDPR, the European Commission has another draft regulation, known as the Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications, or ePrivacy Regulation, that would replace the current ePrivacy Directive. New rules related to the ePrivacy Regulation are likely to include enhanced consent requirements in order to use communications content and metadata, which may negatively impact our platform and products and our relationships with our customers.

Complying with the GDPR and the ePrivacy Regulation, if and when the latter becomes effective, may cause us to incur substantial operational costs or require us to change our business practices. We may not be successful in our efforts to achieve compliance and may also experience difficulty retaining or obtaining new European or multi-national customers or significantly increased liability with respect to these customers pursuant to the terms set forth in our engagements with them. While we utilize data centers in the EEA to maintain certain customer and user data (which may include personal data) originating from the EU in the EEA, we may find it necessary to establish additional systems and processes to maintain such data in the EEA, which may involve substantial expense and distraction from other aspects of our business. Additionally, data localization requirements in other jurisdictions may cause us to incur potentially significant costs for establishing and maintaining facilities for storing and processing such data.

Privacy and data protection laws and industry standards around the world may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our existing practices or product and platform capabilities. If so, in addition to the possibility of fines, lawsuits, regulatory actions and penalties, costs for remediation, and damage to our reputation, we could be required to fundamentally change our practices or modify our products and platform capabilities, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business. Furthermore, the laws, regulations, and policies that are applicable to the businesses of our customers may limit the use and adoption of, and reduce the overall demand for, our products. Privacy and data security concerns, whether valid or not valid, may inhibit market adoption of our products, particularly in certain industries and foreign countries, including, for example, India, where new legislation is expected in the near term.

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 or civil liability and harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, U.S. domestic bribery laws, the UK Bribery Act, and other anti-corruption 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, their employees and their third-party intermediaries from authorizing, offering or providing, directly or indirectly, improper payments or benefits to recipients in the public or private sector. As we increase our international sales and business, we may engage with business partners and third party intermediaries to market our products and to obtain necessary permits, licenses, and other regulatory approvals, and 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.

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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. As we increase our international sales and business, our risks under these laws may increase.

Detecting, investigating, and resolving actual or alleged violations of anti-corruption laws, and responding to any action, can require a significant diversion of time, resources, and attention from senior management and significant defense costs and other professional fees. In addition, noncompliance with anti-corruption, anti-bribery, or anti-money laundering laws could subject us to whistleblower complaints, investigations, various penalties or debarment from contracting with certain persons, and other collateral consequences. If any subpoenas or investigations are launched, or sanctions are imposed, or if we do not prevail in any possible proceeding, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be harmed. In addition, responding to any action will likely result in a significant diversion of management’s attention and resources.

We are subject to governmental export and import controls and economic sanctions laws that could impair our ability to compete in international markets or subject us to liability if we are not in full compliance with applicable laws.

Our business activities are subject to various restrictions under United States export and similar laws and regulations, including the United States Department of Commerce’s Export Administration Regulations and various economic and trade sanctions regulations administered by the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls. The United States export control laws and United States economic sanctions laws include restrictions or prohibitions on the sale or supply of certain products and services to United States embargoed or sanctioned countries, governments, persons and entities. In addition, various countries regulate the import of certain technology and have enacted or could enact laws that could limit our ability to provide our customers access to our platform or could limit our customers’ ability to access or use our platform in those countries.

Furthermore, we incorporate encryption technology into certain of our products. U.S. export control laws require authorization for the export of encryption items. In addition, various countries regulate the import of certain encryption technology, including through import permitting and licensing requirements, and have enacted laws that could limit our ability to distribute our products and services or could limit our customers’ ability to implement our products and services in those countries. Obtaining the necessary authorizations, including any required license, for a particular transaction may be time-consuming, is not guaranteed, and may result in the delay or loss of sales opportunities.

Although we take precautions to prevent our platform from being provided in violation of such laws, our platform may have in the past, and could in the future be, provided inadvertently in violation of such laws, despite the precautions we take. If we fail to comply with these laws and regulations, we and certain of our employees could be subject to civil or criminal penalties, including the possible loss of export privileges and fines. We may also be adversely affected through penalties, reputational harm, loss of access to certain markets, or otherwise. In addition, various countries regulate the import and export of certain encryption and other technology, including import and export permitting and licensing requirements, and have enacted laws that could limit our ability to distribute our platform or could limit our users’ ability to access our platform in those countries.

Changes in our platform, or future changes in export and import regulations may prevent our users with international operations from utilizing our platform globally or, in some cases, prevent the export or import of our platform to certain countries, governments, or persons altogether. Any change in export or import regulations, economic sanctions, or related legislation, or change in the countries, governments, persons, or technologies targeted by such regulations, could result in decreased use of our platform by, or in our decreased ability to export or sell subscriptions to our platform to, existing or potential users with international operations. Any decreased use of our platform or limitation on our ability to export or sell our platform would likely adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial results.

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Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property

Any failure to obtain, maintain, protect or enforce our intellectual property and proprietary rights could impair our ability to protect our proprietary technology and brand.

Our success depends to a significant degree on our ability to obtain, maintain, protect and enforce our intellectual property rights. We rely on a combination of trademarks, service marks, trade secrets, patents, copyrights, contractual restrictions, and confidentiality procedures to establish and protect our intellectual and proprietary rights, including in our technology, know-how, and brand. Legal standards relating to intellectual property rights are uncertain, in both the United States and other jurisdictions in which we operate, and protecting, monitoring, and defending our intellectual property rights might entail significant expense. Intellectual property rights that we have or may obtain may be challenged, circumvented, invalidated or held unenforceable. Furthermore, even though we attempt to enter into contractual provisions with third parties to control access to, or the distribution, use, misuse, misappropriation, reverse engineering or disclosure of, our intellectual property or technology, no assurance can be given that these agreements will be sufficient or effective in protecting our intellectual property rights.

Moreover, intellectual property laws, standards, and enforcement mechanisms in foreign countries may be uncertain, may not be as protective of intellectual property rights as those in the United States, or may not be available to us. As we expand our international activities, our exposure to unauthorized copying and use of our products, services, and other intellectual property will likely increase.

Despite our efforts, we may be unable to adequately obtain, maintain, protect, and enforce our intellectual property rights or prevent third parties from infringing upon, misappropriating or otherwise violating our intellectual property rights. If we fail to protect our intellectual property rights adequately, our competitors may gain access to, or be able to replicate, our proprietary technology, products, or services, and our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects may be harmed. Our attempt to enforce our intellectual property rights, even if successful, could result in costly litigation or diversion of our management’s attention and resources, and, as a result, delay sales or the implementation or introduction of our products and platform capabilities, or injure our reputation.

We may become subject to intellectual property claims from third parties, which may subject us to significant liability, increased costs, and impede our ability to operate our business.

Our success depends, in part, on our ability to develop and commercialize our products and services without infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating the intellectual property rights of third parties. However, we may not be aware that our products, services, or intellectual property are infringing, misappropriating, or violating third party intellectual property rights. Additionally, the technology industry is characterized by the existence of a large number of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and other intellectual and proprietary rights. Companies in the industry are often required to defend against litigation claims based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation or other violations of intellectual property rights, and third parties may bring such claims against us. In addition, we may become subject to intellectual property disputes or otherwise subjected to liability for customer content on our platform. In the past, we have been involved in intellectual property disputes regarding our customer’s alleged infringement of third party intellectual property. We expect that the occurrence of infringement claims is likely to grow as the market for our platform and products grows.

Lawsuits are time-consuming and expensive to resolve, and they divert management’s time and attention, and our technologies or intellectual property may not be able to withstand third party claims against their use. Any intellectual property litigation to which we might become a party, or for which we are required to provide indemnification, may require us to do one or more of the following:

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We cannot predict the outcome of lawsuits and cannot ensure that the results of any such actions will not have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. Although we carry general liability insurance, our insurance may not cover potential claims of this type or may not be adequate to indemnify us for all liability that may be imposed. 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 harm our business and operating results. Moreover, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments and, if securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have an adverse effect on the price of our common stock.

We use open source software in our products, which could negatively affect our ability to sell our services or subject us to litigation or other actions.

We use open source software in connection with developing, operating, and offering our products, services, and technology, and we expect to continue to incorporate open source software in our products, services, and technology in the future.

Some open source projects have known vulnerabilities and architectural instabilities and are provided on an “as-is” basis which, if not properly addressed, could negatively affect the performance of our product. Few of the licenses applicable to open source software have been interpreted by courts, and there is a risk that these licenses could be construed in a manner that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to commercialize our products. For example, some open source licenses may, depending on the nature of our use and the terms of the applicable license, include terms requiring us to offer certain of our solutions for no cost, make our source code available, or license our modifications or derivative works under the terms of applicable open source licenses. From time to time, there have also been claims challenging the ownership rights in open source software against companies that incorporate it into their products, and the licensors of such open source software provide no warranties or indemnities with respect to such claims.

Moreover, we cannot ensure that we have incorporated open source software in our products, services, and technology in a manner that is consistent with the terms of the applicable license or our current policies and procedures. If an author or other third party that distributes such open source software were to allege that we had not complied with the conditions of one or more of these licenses, we or our customers could be subject to lawsuits, and we could incur significant legal expenses defending against such allegations, be subject to significant damages resulting from the suits, enjoined from the sale of our products that contained the open source software, and required to comply with onerous conditions or restrictions on these products, which could disrupt the distribution and sale of these products. Such litigation could be costly for us to defend, have a negative effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations, or require us to devote additional research and development resources to change or reengineer our products or take other remedial actions.

Indemnity provisions in various agreements to which we are party potentially expose us to substantial liability for infringement or misappropriation of intellectual property rights, failure to comply with data protection requirements and other losses.

Our agreements with our customers and other third parties may include indemnification provisions under which we agree to indemnify or otherwise be liable to them for losses suffered or incurred, including as a result

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of intellectual property infringement or misappropriation claims or for failure to comply with data protection requirements. Large indemnity payments could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Although we attempt to contractually limit our liability with respect to such indemnity obligations, we are not always successful and may still incur substantial liability related to them, and we may be required to cease use of certain functions of our platform or products as a result of any such claims. Any dispute with a customer or other third party with respect to such obligations could have adverse effects on our relationship with such customer or other third party and other existing or prospective customers, reduce demand for our products and services and adversely affect our business, financial conditions and results of operations. In addition, although we carry general liability insurance, our insurance may not be adequate to indemnify us for all liability that may be imposed or otherwise protect us from liabilities or damages with respect to claims alleging compromises of customer data, and any such coverage may not continue to be available to us on acceptable terms or at all.

Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock

Our stock price may be volatile, and the value of our common stock may decline.

The market price of our common stock may be highly volatile and may fluctuate or decline substantially as a result of a variety of factors, some of which are beyond our control, including:

Broad market and industry fluctuations, as well as general economic, political, regulatory, and market conditions including those related to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, may also negatively impact the market price of our common stock. The full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is unknown at this time, but could result in material adverse changes in our results of operations for an unknown period of time as the virus and its related political, social and economic impacts spread. In addition, technology stocks have historically experienced high

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levels of volatility. In the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their securities have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future, which could result in substantial expenses and divert our management’s attention.

No public market for our common stock currently exists, and an active public trading market may not develop or be sustained following this offering.

No public market for our common stock currently exists. An active public trading market for our common stock may not develop following the completion of this offering or, if developed, it 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.

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

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

Our directors, executive officers and principal stockholders exercise significant control over our company, which will limit your ability to influence corporate matters.

Our executive officers, directors and principal stockholders beneficially own approximately     % of our common stock. As a result, these stockholders, if they act together, will be able to control our management and affairs and all matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions. In addition, this concentration of ownership may delay or prevent a change in control of our company and make some future transactions more difficult or impossible without the support of these stockholders. The interests of these stockholders may not coincide with our interests or the interests of other stockholders.

Future sales of our common stock in the public market could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market following the completion of this 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. Many of our existing equityholders have substantial unrecognized gains on the value of the equity they hold based upon the price of this offering, and therefore they may take steps to sell their shares or otherwise secure the unrecognized gains on those shares. We are unable to predict the timing of or the effect that such sales may have on the prevailing market price of our common stock.

All of our directors and officers and the holders of substantially all of our capital stock and securities convertible into our capital stock are subject to lock-up agreements that restrict their ability to transfer shares of

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our capital stock until the opening of trading on the third trading day immediately following our release of earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2021, subject to certain exceptions; provided that:

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and either of Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC or J.P. Morgan Securities LLC may, in their sole discretion, permit our stockholders who are subject to these lock-up agreements to sell shares prior to the expiration of the lock-up agreements, subject to applicable notice requirements. If not earlier released, all of the shares of common stock subject to the lock-up agreements will become eligible for sale upon the opening of trading on the third trading day immediately following our release of earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2021, subject to certain exceptions for any shares held by our affiliates as defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act.

In addition, after this offering, up to 17,347,244 shares of our common stock may be issued upon exercise of outstanding stock options or upon settlement of outstanding RSUs as of December 31, 2020, and                 shares of our common stock are available for future issuance under our 2021 Plan and our ESPP, and will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent permitted by the provisions of various vesting schedules, exercise limitations, the lock-up agreements and Rule 144 and Rule 701 under the Securities Act. If these additional shares of common stock are sold, or if it is perceived that they will be sold, in the public market, the trading price of our common stock could decline.

We intend to register all of the shares of common stock subject to Restricted Stock Unit Awards and shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of outstanding options or other equity incentives we may grant in the future, for public resale under the Securities Act. The shares of common stock will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent such shares of common stock subject to Restricted Stock Unit Awards are issued or such options are exercised, subject to the lock-up agreements described above and compliance with applicable securities laws.

Further, based on shares outstanding as of December 31, 2020, holders of 71,334,137 shares, or approximately     % of our capital stock after the completion of this offering, will have rights, subject to some conditions, to require us to file registration statements covering the sale of their shares or to include their shares in registration statements that we may file for ourselves or other stockholders.

Our issuance of additional capital stock in connection with financings, acquisitions, investments, our equity incentive plans or otherwise will dilute all other stockholders.

We expect to issue additional capital stock in the future that will result in dilution to all other stockholders. We expect to grant equity awards to employees, directors and consultants under our equity incentive plans. We

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may also raise capital through equity financings in the future. As part of our business strategy, we may acquire or make investments in companies, products or technologies and issue equity securities to pay for any such acquisition or investment. Any such issuances of additional capital stock may cause stockholders to experience significant dilution of their ownership interests and the per share value of our common stock to decline.

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

The market price and trading volume of our common stock following the completion of this offering will be heavily influenced by the way analysts interpret our financial information and other disclosures. We do not have control over these analysts. If few securities analysts commence coverage of us, or if industry analysts cease coverage of us, our stock price would be negatively affected. If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, downgrade our common stock, or publish negative reports about our business, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our common stock could decrease, which might cause our stock price to decline and could decrease the trading volume of our common stock.

You will experience immediate and substantial dilution in the net tangible book value of the shares of common stock you purchase in this offering.

The initial public offering price of our common stock is substantially higher than the pro forma net tangible book value per share of our common stock immediately after this offering. If you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, you will suffer immediate dilution of $     per share, or $     per share if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option in full, representing the difference between our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after giving effect to the sale of common stock in this offering and the initial public offering price of $     per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus. See the section titled “Dilution.”

We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future and, as a result, your ability to achieve a return on your investment will depend on appreciation in the price of our common stock.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our capital stock, and we do not intend to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors. Accordingly, you may need to rely on sales of our common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on your investment.

We are an “emerging growth company,” and we cannot be certain if the reduced reporting and disclosure 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, and 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 the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or Section 404, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our 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. Pursuant to Section 107 of the JOBS Act, as an emerging growth company, we have elected to use the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. As a result, our consolidated financial statements may not be comparable to the financial statements of issuers who are required to comply with the effective dates for new or revised accounting standards that are applicable to public companies, which may make our common stock less attractive to investors. In addition, if we cease to be an emerging growth company, we will no longer be able to use the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards.

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We will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of: (1) the last day of the fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of this offering; (2) the last day of the first fiscal year in which our annual gross revenue is $1.07 billion or more; (3) the date on which we have, during the previous rolling three-year period, issued more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt securities; and (4) the last day of the fiscal year in which the market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates exceeded $700 million as of June 30 of such fiscal year.

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

We will incur increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to compliance with our public company responsibilities and corporate governance practices.

As a public company, we will incur significant legal, accounting, and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company, which we expect to further increase after we are no longer an “emerging growth company.” The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the listing requirements of the New York Stock Exchange, and other applicable securities rules and regulations impose various requirements on public companies. Our management and other personnel devote a substantial amount of time to compliance with these requirements. Moreover, these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. We cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we will incur as a public company or the specific timing of such costs.

If we are unable to maintain proper and effective internal controls over financial reporting, investor confidence in our company and, as a result, the value of our common stock may be adversely impacted. We previously identified and remediated a material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting.

Neither our management nor an independent registered public accounting firm has ever performed an evaluation of our internal controls over financial reporting in accordance with the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act because no such evaluation has been required. We will be required, pursuant to Section 404 to furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2022. In addition, our independent registered public accounting firm will be required to attest to the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting in our first annual report required to be filed with the SEC following the date we are no longer an “emerging growth company.” We have recently commenced the costly and challenging process of compiling the system and processing documentation necessary to perform the evaluation needed to comply with Section 404, but we may not be able to complete our evaluation, testing and any required remediation in a timely fashion once initiated. Our compliance with Section 404 will require that we incur substantial expenses and expend significant management efforts. 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 controls over financial reporting, we will be unable to certify that our internal controls over financial reporting is effective. A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal controls over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

In the course of preparing our audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2019, we identified a material weakness in our internal controls over financial reporting related to secondary

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sales transactions by current and former employees. Specifically, we did not design and maintain effective controls to evaluate and assess secondary sales transactions in our common stock to determine, in a timely manner, whether additional compensation expense was incurred based on the nature of the transaction. We have remediated this material weakness, which we believe has addressed the underlying cause of this issue. We have implemented measures designed to improve our internal controls over financial reporting, including monitoring and review procedures related to secondary sales transactions to ensure accounting personnel are timely informed of the transactions and can evaluate and record any additional compensation expense deemed necessary.

We cannot assure you that the measures we have taken to date, and actions we may take in the future, will prevent or avoid potential future material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting in the future. Any failure to maintain internal controls 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 controls over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm determines we have a material weakness or significant deficiency in our internal controls 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 decline, and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the SEC or other regulatory authorities. Failure to remedy any material weakness in our internal controls 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.

Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of our company more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management and limit the market price of our common stock.

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

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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, which is responsible for appointing the members of our management. In addition, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which generally, subject to certain exceptions, prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in any of a broad range of business combinations with any “interested” stockholder for a period of three years following the date on which the stockholder became an “interested” stockholder. Any of the foregoing provisions could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock, and they could deter potential acquirers of our company, thereby reducing the likelihood that you would receive a premium for your shares of our common stock in an acquisition.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will designate the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and, to the extent enforceable, the federal district courts of the United States of America as the exclusive forums for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which will restrict our stockholders’ ability to choose the 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: any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf; any action asserting a breach of a fiduciary duty; any action asserting a claim against us arising pursuant to the Delaware General Corporation Law, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation, or our amended and restated bylaws; or any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. The provisions would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act. In addition, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act, subject to and contingent upon a final adjudication in the State of Delaware of the enforceability of such exclusive forum provision.

These choice of forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees. If a court were to find either choice of forum provision contained in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions. For example, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware recently determined that the exclusive forum provision of federal district courts of the United States of America for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act is not enforceable. However, this decision may be reviewed and ultimately overturned by the Delaware Supreme Court. If this ultimate adjudication were to occur, we would enforce the federal district court exclusive forum provision in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation.

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This prospectus contains forward-looking statements about us and our industry that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this prospectus, including statements regarding our future results of operations or financial condition, business strategy and plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “will” or “would” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning the following:

You should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. 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 and operating results. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors described in the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this prospectus. 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. The results, events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements may not 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 on information available to us as of the date of this prospectus. And while we believe that information provides a reasonable basis for these statements, that information may be limited or incomplete. Our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain, and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely on these statements.

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 any forward-looking statements made in this prospectus to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this prospectus or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures or investments.

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MARKET, INDUSTRY AND OTHER DATA

This prospectus contains statistical data, estimates and forecasts, including related to our market opportunity, that are based on independent industry publications and other publicly available information, as well as other information based on our internal sources. This information involves many 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 other publicly available information. Further, while we believe our internal research is reliable, such research has not been verified by any third party. 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,” that could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in these publications and other publicly available information.

Certain information in the text of this prospectus is contained in independent industry publications. None of the industry publications referred to in this prospectus were prepared on our or on our affiliates’ behalf or at our expense. The source of these independent industry publications is provided below:

Information contained in the reports referenced above is not a part of this prospectus and the inclusion of these sources in this prospectus are for reference only.

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USE OF PROCEEDS

We estimate that we will receive net proceeds from the sale of the common stock that we are offering of approximately $             million (or approximately $             million if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares of our common stock from us in full) based on an assumed initial public offering price of $             per share of common stock, the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

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

The principal purposes of this offering are to create a public market for our common stock, facilitate our future access to the capital markets and increase our capitalization and financial flexibility. As of the date of this prospectus, we cannot specify with certainty all of the particular uses for the net proceeds to us from this offering. However, we currently intend to use the net proceeds we receive from this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses and capital expenditures. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds to acquire complementary businesses, services or technologies. However, we do not have agreements or commitments to enter into any acquisitions at this time.

We will have broad discretion over how to use the net proceeds to us from this offering. We intend to invest the net proceeds to us from the offering that are not used as described above in investment-grade, interest-bearing instruments.

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DIVIDEND POLICY

We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our capital stock. We currently intend to retain all available funds and future earnings, if any, to fund the development and expansion of our business, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future determination regarding the declaration and payment of dividends, if any, will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on then-existing conditions, including our financial condition, operating results, contractual restrictions, capital requirements, business prospects and other factors our board of directors may deem relevant.

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CAPITALIZATION

The following table sets forth our cash and cash equivalents and capitalization as of December 31, 2020:

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 related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.

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) each of cash, total assets and total stockholders’ deficit by $                million, assuming that the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. Similarly, each increase (decrease) of 1,000,000 shares in the number of shares of common stock offered by us would increase (decrease)

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each of cash, total assets and total stockholders’ deficit by $                million, assuming the assumed initial public offering price of $                per share of common stock remains the same, and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

The number of shares of common stock that will be outstanding after this offering is based on 88,803,340 shares of common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2020, and excludes:

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DILUTION

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

Our historical net tangible book value as of December 31, 2020 was $63.7 million, or $1.41 per share. Our pro forma net tangible book value as of December 31, 2020 was $                million, or $                per share. Pro forma net tangible book value per share represents the amount of our total tangible assets less our total liabilities, divided by the number of our shares of common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2020, after giving effect to: (1) the automatic conversion of all of our outstanding shares of convertible preferred stock into an aggregate of 45,472,229 shares of common stock in connection with the completion of this offering; and (2) the reclassification of the convertible preferred stock warrant liability to additional paid-in capital, as if such conversion, issuance and reclassification had occurred on December 31, 2020.

After giving effect to the sale by us 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, and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of December 31, 2020 would have been $                million, or $                per share. This amount represents an immediate increase in pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value of $                per share to our existing stockholders and an immediate dilution in pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value of $                per share to new investors purchasing common stock in this offering. We determine dilution by subtracting the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering from the amount of cash that a new investor paid for a share of common stock. The following table illustrates this dilution on a per share basis:

The dilution information discussed above is illustrative only and may change based on the actual initial public offering price and other terms of this offering. Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $                per share of common stock, 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 increase (decrease) the dilution to new investors by $                per share, in each case assuming the number of shares of common stock offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. Similarly, each increase or decrease of 1,000,000 shares in the number of shares of common stock offered by us would increase (decrease) our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value by approximately $                per share and decrease (increase) the dilution to new investors by approximately $                per share, in each case assuming the assumed initial public offering price of $                per share of common stock remains the same, and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

If the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares of common stock in full, the pro forma net tangible book value per share, as adjusted to give effect to this offering, would be $                per share, and

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the dilution in pro forma net tangible book value per share to investors in this offering would be $                per share.

The following table summarizes, as of December 31, 2020, on a pro forma as adjusted basis as described above, the number of shares of our common stock, the total consideration and the average price per share (1) paid to us by existing stockholders, and (2) to be paid by new investors acquiring our 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, before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

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 common stock offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions.

If the underwriters exercise their option to purchase an additional                shares in full, our existing stockholders would own    % and investors in this offering would own    % of the total number of shares of common stock outstanding upon the closing of this offering.

The number of shares of common stock that will be outstanding after this offering is based on 88,803,340 shares of common stock outstanding as of December 31, 2020, and excludes:

To the extent that any outstanding options are exercised or new options are issued under our stock-based compensation plans, or we issue additional shares of common stock in the future, there will be further dilution to investors participating in this offering.

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SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA

The selected consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020 and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2019 and 2020 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus.

You should read the consolidated financial data set forth below in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the accompanying notes and the information in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” contained elsewhere in this prospectus. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the full year or any other period in the future.

Stock-based compensation for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020 included compensation of $8.0 million, $12.1 million and $18.3 million, respectively, related to secondary sales of common stock by certain current and former employees, which is primarily included in General and administrative. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Comparison of Years Ended December 31, 2019 and 2020—Operating Expenses” and “—Comparison of Years Ended December 31, 2018 and 2019—Operating Expenses.”

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Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement our consolidated financial statements, which are prepared and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or GAAP, we provide investors with non-GAAP financial measures including: (i) adjusted gross profit and adjusted gross margin; and (ii) adjusted EBITDA. These measures are presented for supplemental informational purposes only, have limitations as analytical tools and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Our calculations of each of these measures may differ from the calculations of measures with the same or similar titles by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. Because of these limitations, when evaluating our performance, you should consider each of these non-GAAP financial measures alongside other financial performance measures, including the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP and our other GAAP results. A reconciliation of each of our non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP is set forth below.

Adjusted Gross Profit and Adjusted Gross Margin

We believe adjusted gross profit and adjusted gross margin, when taken together with our GAAP financial results, provides a meaningful assessment of our performance, and is useful for the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts.

We define adjusted gross profit as gross profit exclusive of stock-based compensation, amortization of capitalized internal-use software development costs and depreciation of our data center equipment included within Cost of revenue. We exclude stock-based compensation, which is a non-cash item, because we do not consider it indicative of our core operating performance. We exclude depreciation and amortization, which primarily relates to our investments in our data center servers that are long lived assets with an economic life of five years, because it may not reflect our current or future cash spending levels to support our business. While the Company intends to spend a significant amount on capital expenditures on an absolute basis in the coming years, the Company’s capital expenditures as a percentage of revenue has declined significantly and will continue to decline. We define adjusted gross margin as a percentage of adjusted gross profit to revenue.

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The following table presents a reconciliation of gross profit, the most directly comparable financial measure stated in accordance with GAAP, to adjusted gross profit, for each of the periods presented:

Adjusted EBITDA

We define adjusted EBITDA as net loss attributable to common stockholders, adjusted to exclude depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation, interest expense, income tax expense, loss on extinguishment of debt, restructuring and severance expense, asset impairment, revaluation of warrants and other charges. We believe that adjusted EBITDA, when taken together with our GAAP financial results, provides meaningful supplemental information regarding our operating performance and facilitates internal comparisons of our historical operating performance on a more consistent basis by excluding certain items that may not be indicative of our business, results of operations or outlook. In particular, we believe that the use of adjusted EBITDA is helpful to our investors as it is a measure used by management in assessing the health of our business, determining incentive compensation, evaluating our operating performance, and for internal planning and forecasting purposes.

Our calculation of adjusted EBITDA may differ from the calculations of adjusted EBITDA by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. Because of these limitations, when evaluating our performance, you should consider adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial performance measures, including our net loss attributable to common stockholders and other GAAP results. The following table presents a reconciliation of net loss attributable to common stockholders, the most directly comparable financial measure stated in accordance with GAAP, to adjusted EBITDA for each of the periods presented:

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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF

FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with the section titled “Selected Consolidated Financial Data” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. This discussion and analysis contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements related to our plans, objectives, expectations, intentions and beliefs. You should review the sections titled “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors” for a discussion of forward-looking statements and important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results described in or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in the following discussion and analysis.

Overview

DigitalOcean is a leading cloud computing platform offering on-demand infrastructure and platform tools for developers, start-ups and small and medium-sized businesses, or SMBs. We were founded with the guiding principle that the transformative benefits of the cloud should be easy to leverage, broadly accessible, reliable and affordable. Our platform simplifies cloud computing, enabling our customers to rapidly accelerate innovation and increase their productivity and agility. Over 570,000 individual and business customers currently use our platform to build, deploy and scale software applications. Our users include software engineers, researchers, data scientists, system administrators, students and hobbyists. Our customers use our platform across numerous industry verticals and for a wide range of use cases, such as web and mobile applications, website hosting, e-commerce, media and gaming, personal web projects, and managed services, among many others. We believe that our focus on simplicity, community, open source and customer support are the four key differentiators of our business, driving a broad range of customers around the world to build their applications on our platform.

Improving the developer experience and increasing developer productivity are core to our mission. Our developer cloud platform was designed with simplicity in mind to ensure that software developers can spend less time managing their infrastructure and more time turning their ideas into innovative applications to grow their businesses. Simplicity guides how we design and enhance our easy-to-use-interface, the core capabilities we offer our customers and our approach to predictable and transparent pricing for our solutions. We offer mission-critical infrastructure solutions across compute, storage and networking, and we also enable developers to extend the native capabilities of our cloud with fully managed application, container and database offerings. In just minutes, developers can set up thousands of virtual machines, secure their projects, enable performance monitoring and scale up and down as needed.

We generate revenue from the usage of our cloud computing platform by our customers, including but not limited to compute, storage and networking services. We recognize revenue based on the customer utilization of these resources. Our pricing is consumption-based and billed monthly in arrears, making it easy for our customers to track usage on an ongoing basis and optimize their deployments. The pricing for each of our products is available on our website. For example, the standard price for a Droplet is $5.00 per month, and our Managed Database product is available starting at $15.00 per month.

We have historically generated almost all of our revenue from our efficient self-service marketing model, which enables customers to get started on our platform very quickly and without the need for assistance. We focus heavily on enabling a self-service, low-friction model that makes it easy for users to try, adopt and use our products. For the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020, our sales and marketing expense was approximately 14%, 12% and 11% of our revenue, respectively. The efficiency of our go-to-market model and our focus on the needs of the individual and SMB markets have enabled us to drive organic growth and establish a truly global customer base across a broad range of industries.

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We had approximately 573,000 customers as of December 31, 2020, up from approximately 502,000 as of December 31, 2018. Our customers are spread across over 185 countries, and around two-thirds of our revenue has historically come from customers located outside the United States. In 2020, 38% of our revenue was generated from North America, 30% from Europe, 22% from Asia and 10% from the rest of the world. We have a growing number of customers with higher spending levels, and our existing customers are continuing to expand their business with us. Our average revenue per customer (which we refer to as ARPU) has increased significantly, from $35.97 in 2018 to $40.16 in 2019 to $47.78 in 2020. We have no material customer concentration as our top 25 customers made up 11%, 10% and 9% of our revenue in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively.

We have experienced strong and predictable growth in recent periods. The following graph shows our increasing quarterly revenue since 2014 and our annual run-rate revenue, or ARR, as of December 31, 2020. ARR as of the end of each month represents total revenue for that month multiplied by 12. Our ARR increased 25%, from $285 million as of December 31, 2019 to $357 million as of December 31, 2020.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

To date, the COVID-19 pandemic has not had a significant impact on our operations or financial performance. However, the extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our operational and financial performance depends on certain developments, including the duration and spread of the outbreak, its impact on industry events, and its effect on our customers, partners, suppliers and vendors and other parties with whom we do business, all of which are uncertain and cannot be predicted at this time. To the extent possible, we are conducting business as usual, with necessary or advisable modifications to employee travel and employee work locations, and conducting our marketing and sales activities virtually. We actively monitor the rapidly evolving situation related to COVID-19 and may take further actions that alter our business operations, including those that may be required by federal, state or local authorities, or that we determine are in the best interests of our employees, customers, partners, suppliers, vendors and stockholders. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic may impact our results of operations and financial condition remains uncertain.

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Key Factors Affecting Our Performance

Increasing Importance of Cloud Computing and Developers

Our future success depends in large part on the continuing adoption of cloud computing, proliferation of cloud-native start-ups and SMBs and the increasing importance of developers, all of which are driving the adoption of our developer cloud platform. We believe our market opportunity is large and that these factors will continue to drive our growth. We plan to continue to invest significantly in scaling across many organizational functions in order to grow our operations both domestically and internationally to capitalize on these trends.

Growing our Customer Base

We believe there is a substantial opportunity to further expand our customer base, and our future growth depends, in large part, on our ability to increase the number of customers using our cloud computing platform. We have historically attracted customers by offering a low-friction, self-service cloud platform combined with a highly-efficient self-service marketing model. Over the three-year period from 2018 to 2020, we have added an average of over 50,000 customers per year. We are investing in strategies that we believe will continue to drive new customer adoption, especially among SMB customers, such as implementing new marketing initiatives that further optimize our self-service revenue funnel and expanding our go-to market teams in select international locations. Our ability to attract new customers will depend on a number of factors, including our success in recruiting and expanding our sales and marketing organization and competitive dynamics in our target markets.

Increasing Usage by Our Existing Customers

Our customer base of more than 570,000 customers represents a significant opportunity for further consumption of our services. There are substantial opportunities to expand revenue within our large customer base through increased usage of our platform as our customers grow their businesses, adoption of additional product offerings and targeted sales initiatives focused on our larger customers. Our consumption-based pricing model makes it frictionless for customers to increase their usage of our platform as they require more compute and storage as they grow and scale. We have also expanded the breadth of our platform offerings and will continue to do so as we have experienced strong adoption of recently developed products. To accelerate this growth across our larger customers, we have recently complemented our self-service marketing model with internal go-to-market teams that are specifically focused on expanding our business with our larger customers. Our ability to increase the usage of our platform by existing customers will depend on a number of factors, including our customers’ satisfaction with our platform and product offerings, competition, pricing and overall changes in our customers’ spending levels.

Enhancing Our Platform and Product Offerings

We believe the market opportunity for serving developers, start-ups and SMBs is very large and goes far beyond providing the core IaaS services of compute, storage and networking. We have a history of, and will continue to invest significantly in, developing and delivering innovative products, features and functionality targeted at our core customer base. For example, our Managed Kubernetes and Managed Database offerings, which were launched in late 2018 and 2019, respectively, contributed approximately $4.8 million and $19.8 million of revenue in 2019 and 2020, respectively, and we expect revenue from these offerings to continue to grow. In addition, while we have not been focused on acquisition opportunities to drive our growth, we may pursue both strategic partnerships and acquisitions that we believe will be complementary to our business, accelerate customer acquisition, increase usage of our platform and/or expand our product offerings in our core markets. Our results of operations may fluctuate as we make these investments to drive usage and take advantage of our expansive market opportunity.

Key Business Metrics

We utilize the key metrics set forth below to help us evaluate our business and growth, identify trends, formulate financial projections and make strategic decisions. We are not aware of any uniform standards for

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calculating these key metrics, and other companies may not calculate similarly titled metrics in a consistent manner, which may hinder comparability.

Customers

We believe that the number of customers is an important indicator of the growth of our business and future revenue opportunity. We define a customer at the end of any period as a person or entity who has incurred usage in the period and, as a result, has generated an invoice of greater than $0 for that period. We treat each customer that generates an invoice as a unique customer, and a single organization with multiple divisions, segments or subsidiaries may be counted as multiple customers if they separately signed up on our platform. During 2019 and 2020, our number of customers increased by approximately 41,000 and 30,000, respectively, with approximately 573,000 customers as of December 31, 2020.

ARPU

We believe that our average revenue per customer, which we refer to as ARPU, is a strong indication of our ability to land new customers with higher spending levels and expand usage of our platform by our existing customers. We calculate ARPU on a monthly basis as our total revenue in that period divided by the number of customers determined as of the last day of that period. For a quarterly or annual period, ARPU is determined as the weighted average monthly ARPU over such three or 12-month period. Our ARPU has increased significantly, from $35.97 in 2018 to $40.16 in 2019 to $47.78 in 2020.

ARR

Given the renewable nature of our business, we view annual run-rate revenue as an important indicator of our current progress towards meeting our revenue targets and projected growth rate going forward. We calculate ARR at a point in time by multiplying the latest monthly period’s revenue by 12. ARR grew by 26% from December 31, 2018 to December 31, 2019 and 25% from December 31, 2019 to December 31, 2020.

Net Dollar Retention Rate

Our ability to maintain long-term revenue growth and achieve profitability is dependent on our ability to retain and grow revenue from our existing customers. We have a history of retaining customers for multiple years and in many cases increasing their spend with us over time. To help us measure our performance in this area, we monitor our net dollar retention rate. We calculate net dollar retention rate monthly by starting with the revenue from the cohort of all customers during the corresponding month 12 months prior, or the Prior Period Revenue. We then calculate the revenue from these same customers as of the current month, or the Current Period Revenue, including any expansion and net of any contraction or attrition from these customers over the last 12 months. The calculation also includes revenue from customers that generated revenue before, but not in, the corresponding month 12 months prior, but subsequently generated revenue in the current month and are therefore reflected in the Current Period Revenue. We include this group of re-engaged customers in this calculation because our customers frequently use our platform for projects that stop and start over time. We then divide the total Current Period Revenue by the total Prior Period Revenue to arrive at the net dollar retention rate for the relevant month. For a quarterly or annual period, the net dollar retention rate is determined as the average monthly net dollar retention rates over such three or 12-month period. Our net dollar retention rate for 2018, 2019 and 2020 was 101%, 100% and 103%, respectively, which includes approximately 3% from re-engaged customers in each of 2018, 2019 and 2020.

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In addition to net dollar retention rate, we monitor gross dollar retention rate as a measure of the churn of existing customers. We calculate gross dollar retention rate in the same manner we calculate net dollar retention rate, but without including the impact of expansion and contraction from the relevant customers (i.e., our gross dollar retention rate reflects only customer losses and does not reflect customer expansion or contraction). Our gross dollar retention rate for each of 2018, 2019 and 2020 was 86%, demonstrating the low churn of our customer base.

Capital Expenditures as a Percentage of Revenue

We consider capital expenditures as a percentage of revenue to be an important indicator of our efficiency of capital spend. We calculate capital expenditures as a percentage of revenue by dividing total capital expenditures during the period, including purchases of intangible assets, seller financed equipment purchases and acquisition of property and equipment from capital leases, by revenue. For 2018, 2019 and 2020, capital expenditures as a percentage of revenue was 57%, 37% and 38%, respectively. We expect our capital expenditures as a percentage of revenue to continue to decline over the next several years.

Components of Results of Operations

Revenue

We provide cloud computing services, including but not limited to compute, storage and networking, to our customers. We recognize revenue based on the customer utilization of these resources. Customer contracts are primarily month-to-month and do not include any minimum guaranteed quantities or fees. Fees are billed monthly, and payment is typically due upon invoicing. Revenue is recognized net of allowances for credits and any taxes collected from customers, which are subsequently remitted to governmental authorities.

We may offer sales incentives in the form of promotional and referral credits and grant credits to encourage customers to use our services. These types of promotional and referral credits typically expire in two months or less if not used. For credits earned with a purchase, they are recorded as contract liabilities when earned and recognized at the earlier of redemption or expiration. The majority of credits are redeemed in the month they are earned.

Cost of Revenue

Cost of revenue consists primarily of fees related to operating in third-party co-location facilities, personnel expenses for those directly supporting our data centers and non-personnel costs, including amortization of capitalized internal-use software development costs and depreciation of our data center equipment. Third-party co-location facility costs include data center rental fees, power costs, maintenance fees, and network and bandwidth expenses. Personnel expenses include salaries, bonuses, benefits, and stock-based compensation.

We intend to continue to invest additional resources in our infrastructure to support our product portfolio and scalability of our customer base. The level, timing and relative investment in our infrastructure could affect our cost of revenue in the future.

Operating Expenses

Research and Development Expenses

Research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel costs including salaries, bonuses, benefits and stock-based compensation. Research and development expenses also include amortization of capitalized internal-use software development costs for research and development activities, which are amortized over three years, and professional services, as well as costs related to our efforts to add new features to our existing offerings, develop new offerings, and ensure the security, performance, and reliability of our global cloud platform. We expect research and development expenses to increase in absolute dollars as we continue to invest in our platform and product offerings.

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Sales and Marketing Expenses

Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of personnel costs of our sales, marketing and customer support employees including salaries, bonuses, benefits and stock-based compensation. Sales and marketing expenses also include costs for marketing programs, advertising, and professional service fees. We expect sales and marketing expenses to continue to increase in absolute dollars as we enhance our product offerings and implement new marketing strategies.

General and Administrative Expenses

General and administrative expenses consist primarily of personnel costs of our human resources, legal, finance, and other administrative functions including salaries, bonuses, benefits and stock-based compensation. General and administrative expenses also include bad debt expense, software, payment processing fees, depreciation and amortization expenses, rent and facilities costs, and other administrative costs. We expect to incur significant additional legal, accounting and other expenses to support our transition to and operations as a public company, including costs associated with our compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We also expect general and administrative expenses to increase in absolute dollars as we continue to grow our business.

Other (Income) Expense

Other (income) expense consists primarily of interest expense on our credit facility and third-party equipment financing, loss on extinguishment of debt, and gains or losses on foreign currency exchange.

Income Tax Expense

Income tax expense consists primarily of income taxes in certain foreign and state jurisdictions in which we conduct business. We maintain a full valuation allowance on our U.S. federal and state deferred tax assets as we have concluded that it is more likely than not that the deferred assets will not be realized.

Results of Operations

The following table sets forth our results of operations for the periods presented:

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Stock-based compensation for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020 included compensation of $8.0 million, $12.1 million and $18.3 million, respectively, related to secondary sales of common stock by certain current and former employees, which is primarily included in General and administrative. See “Comparison of Years Ended December 31, 2019 and 2020—Operating Expenses” and “Comparison of Years Ended December 31, 2018 and 2019—Operating Expenses” below.

The following table sets forth our results of operations as a percentage of revenue for the periods presented: