Blackbird plc

Management did not report revenue or EPS. It did report that subscription growth in Q3 is estimated at around 235%, conversion improved from around 1% in March to 2.4% at the end of June and 3.4% by the end of September, churn is down to 11%, and ARR rose from around GBP 30,000 in June to around GBP 90,000 at the end of September. Management also said there were over 7,300 videos made and exported in September and 2,500 last week alone. Forward-looking, the team said it expects similar growth to continue as marketing and product improvements stay in sync, and it is focusing Q4 spend on YouTube, remarketing, digital PR, and AI/LLM discovery; no formal financial guidance was given.

Ian McDonough framed the quarter as evidence that the “revenue engine” is starting to work, pointing to better conversion, lower churn, and stronger product-market fit with marketing teams. He said the business is focusing on acquiring users with lifetime value that can exceed acquisition cost, and repeatedly stressed that recent momentum came from combining product improvements with restarting marketing after a freeze. His tone was cautiously optimistic but defensive on governance and financing questions, especially around cash and board structure.

No CFO was present, and the team said they would respond in writing to some cost questions. In the call, management addressed funding by saying they are monitoring cash closely, do not rule out a raise, and at this stage would look to equity rather than debt; they also said they are keeping options open on financing. On capital allocation, they said they will continue investing in marketing where the economics work, with a focus on improving CAC, conversion, and retention rather than broad-based spend.

Analysts pressed on the gap between user counts and paid subscribers, the runway/cash position, board independence, dilution versus debt, and whether the company should consider private equity or revenue financing. Management explained that the 3.4% conversion rate is a current snapshot and not the full-history rate since payments launched, and that earlier user acquisition was heavily weighted to lower-converting geographies like India and the Philippines before shifting to the U.S. and U.K. They also said teams convert better than hobbyists/creators, that Meta is being used mainly for contributed attribution and remarketing, and that AI is a complement rather than a threat because it can speed editing and new feature development.