EverCommerce's New CEO Faces AI Search Headwinds as Growth Slows
CEO transition and a pivot to cross-sell and payments come amid a customer acquisition slowdown.
EVCM · Earnings Call · 2026-08-05
A Change at the Top
EverCommerce, the vertical SaaS provider for service-based SMBs, has been through a rough patch since its 2021 peak, with shares down over 57% from their high. The second-quarter earnings call marked a significant inflection point: CEO Eric Remer announced his departure, handing the reins to Alex Goor, a Silver Lake veteran. Remer said, “I believe this is the right time for both me and EverCommerce to begin our next chapter.” — Eric Remer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (outgoing) · 2026-08-05 Goor, who has a long relationship with Silver Lake, expressed optimism about the future: “I think we can take what we're doing and really accelerate growth, and we have a lot of potential.” — Alexander Goor, Chief Executive Officer (incoming) · 2026-08-05 The transition is expected to bring a fresh perspective, with Goor signaling a focus on applying technology to sharpen execution.The Customer Acquisition Challenge
The more pressing issue is a slowdown in new business, particularly in EverPro. The company now expects full-year 2026 results to trend toward the lower end of its guidance range. Ryan Siurek, CFO, explained that while pricing actions are on track, the core challenge lies in organic growth. Matt Feierstein, President, attributed the customer acquisition softness to "evolving AI-driven search behavior that has created some headwinds on some organic acquisition in certain product lines." He detailed the response: “we are executing against a comprehensive plan that includes technical optimization, AI-focused content, authority building initiatives to improve visibility, position ourselves well as search continues to evolve.” — Matthew Feierstein, Executive (likely CFO or similar) · 2026-08-05 This marks a clear deviation from prior quarters, where management emphasized healthy demand. Just three months earlier, Evan Berlin had said, “We continue to see strong demand. The environment is still healthy.” — Evan Berlin, Unknown · 2026-05-08 The shift highlights the impact of the AI search disruption on SMB software.Payments and Cross-Sell as the Growth Engine
To offset softer new customer growth, EverCommerce is doubling down on its existing base. The company reported a 26% year-over-year increase in customers using more than one solution, and multi-solution customers now generate net revenue retention above 100%. Payments remain the core cross-sell driver. The legacy payment business is showing signs of stabilization, while the top six solutions saw TPV grow 16.4% year-over-year. This aligns with the company's broader strategy of building AI powered workflows for service SMBs, which Eric Remer highlighted in his prepared remarks. The focus on embedding payments at the point of sale and driving activation is designed to increase wallet share. Ryan Siurek noted, "We would expect the pricing elements to have relatively high confidence... on the organic side of the business, I would say that, that ramps through the year with the more significant portion of that coming through in Q4."The company has also been active in buybacks, repurchasing $14.8 million in Q2.If you look at the guide and what we achieved from a Q2 perspective, I would look at it in the context of roughly a 2% increase in growth for Q2, ramping to based on the midpoint of the guide for Q3, 3% and probably at the low end of the guidance range you can infer on the total amount to a little over 5.5% for Q4.