Research Solutions (RSSS) 17th Annual Midwest IDEAS Conference summary

Business overview and product strategy

• Focuses on SaaS workflow tools for research-intensive organizations, with 80%+ revenue from corporate clients and the rest from government and academic sectors.

• Platform supports research discovery, access, management, and limited creation, with Scite and Article Galaxy as core products.

• Transitioned from transactional article sales to SaaS, improving gross margins to 85%+ and increasing revenue stickiness.

• AI integration enables access to paywalled content via connectors for LLMs like ChatGPT and Copilot, enhancing research efficiency.

• Holds unique content licenses and AI rights, covering about 60% of global scientific content for AI usage.

Market positioning and competitive advantages

• Serves over 1,000 corporate customers, with deep penetration in pharma, medical device, and biotech verticals.

• Maintains long-term customer relationships, with average customer lifetime value exceeding seven years.

• Only provider offering near-universal access to scientific research in a single platform, akin to an 'iTunes' for research.

• First to market with connectors integrating research tools into major LLMs, driving larger deal sizes and new sales opportunities.

• Extensive publisher relationships (2,900+) and AI rights agreements provide significant business moats.

Financial performance and outlook

• SaaS platform now represents 43% of revenue, up from 39% last year, with ARR growing from $9M to $22M in four years.

• EBITDA reached $6M in the last 12 months, with net income expected to double year-over-year.

• Maintains a strong balance sheet with $12M+ in cash, no debt, and ongoing earn-out payments to be completed by June 2027.

• Expects low single-digit decline in transactional revenue next year, but platform growth and AI-related sales to offset declines.

• Net renewal rates around 100%, with goals to improve to 105–110% through upsells and reduced churn.