Sonder Says New Public Company Visibility Helps Close Deals in Premium Locales
Skift Take
Sonder began feeling an adverse impact from the Omicron outbreak in late November 2021, and that spilled over into January and February, hurting its booking numbers. Still, the forecast is for a 2022 revenue jump of 100 to 110 percent as it inks new deals in more lucrative markets.
Greater visiblity is often a double-edged sword for newly public companies. But in Sonder's inaugural earnings call on Wednesday, chief financial officer Sanjay Banker said that increased exposure has been a good thing, enabling it to close better deals with developers in what the company calls internally "A markets."
"This transaction itself has allowed us to create more visibility, transparency, confidence in the company, which allows us to get better deals," Banker said. "And so period-to-period, quarter-to-quarter, sort of the market zeitgeist may emphasize different things, but we're seeing a broad tailwind, and that's what Francis described as a flywheel effect."
