HashiCorp (HCP) Risk Factors

Our products are inherently complex and, like all software, despite extensive testing and quality control, have in the past and may in the future contain defects or errors, especially when first introduced, or not perform as contemplated. These defects, security vulnerabilities, errors, or performance failures could cause damage to our reputation, loss of customers or revenue, product returns, order cancellations, service terminations, or lack of market acceptance of our software, which could expose us to liability. Because our products involve sensitive, secure and/or mission-critical uses by our customers, we may be subject to increased scrutiny, potential reputational risk, or potential liability should our software fail to perform as contemplated in such deployments. We have in the past and may in the future need to issue corrective releases of our software to fix these defects, errors, or performance failures, which could require us to allocate significant research and development and customer support resources to address these problems. Techniques used to sabotage or obtain unauthorized access to systems or networks are constantly evolving and, in some instances, are not identified until launched against a target. We and our service providers may be unable to anticipate these techniques, react in a timely manner, or implement adequate preventative measures. Further, there can be no assurance that any limitations of liability provisions in our customer and user agreements, contracts with third-party vendors and service providers, or other contracts would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from any liabilities or damages with respect to any particular claim relating to a security breach or other security-related matter. Any cybersecurity insurance we carry may be insufficient to cover all liabilities we incur in connection with any privacy or cybersecurity incidents or may not cover the kinds of incidents for which we submit claims. For example, insurers may consider cyberattacks by a nation-state as an "act of war" and any associated damages as uninsured. We also cannot be certain that our insurance coverage will be adequate for data handling or data security liabilities actually incurred, that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all, or that any insurer will accept 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 have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition, as well as our reputation.

The market for our products is developing and we expect competition to increase over time. Our business is impacted by rapid changes in technology, customer needs, frequent introductions of new offerings, and improvements to existing offerings, all of which may increase the competitive pressures that we face. We provide offerings to address the needs of a wide variety of prospective customers that compete with other approaches and solutions. For example, internal IT teams sometimes attempt to "do it themselves" using source available software. While individuals and small teams can sometimes use our community products to solve their technical problems, larger enterprises face more complex needs that require our commercial products. For select companies adopting a single-cloud solution, we compete with the well-established public cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, or AWS, and their in-house offerings. We also compete with similar in-house offerings from Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and other cloud providers; legacy providers with point products such as CyberArk, VMware, and IBM; and alternative open-source projects, such as Google Istio. As the market for our products develops, the principal competitive factors in our market may include: product capabilities, including flexibility, scalability, performance, and security; ease of use; breadth of use cases; ability to integrate with existing IT infrastructure, cloud platforms, and on-premises environments; consistency of offerings across clouds; ability to implement multi-cloud provisioning, security, networking, and application deployment; speed of implementation and time to achieving value; ability to scale up and down dynamically on demand; robustness of professional services and customer support; price and total cost of ownership; adherence to certifications; size of customer base and level of user adoption; strength of sales and marketing efforts; scope of vendor ecosystem integrated with the products; ability to create new products and expanding the existing platform; ability to innovate around a cloud-delivered architecture; brand awareness, recognition, and reputation, particularly within the developer community; and ability to engage the community of users and partners. If we fail to innovate and improve our products and professional services to address these factors, we may become vulnerable to increased competition and therefore fail to attract new customers or lose or fail to renew existing customers, which would harm our business and results of operations. Some of our actual and potential competitors, especially more established companies, may expand their offerings to compete with ours. These companies may have advantages over us, such as longer operating histories, more established relationships with current and potential customers and commercial partners, significantly greater financial, technical, marketing, or other resources, stronger brand recognition, larger intellectual property portfolios, and broader global distribution and presence. In addition, our business model largely assumes our customers are committed to a multi-cloud strategy and will not bundle their cloud services with a single provider. However, if this assumption inaccurately reflects the decisions of our customers, our business will suffer. Some of our larger potential competitors and other cloud providers have substantially greater resources than we do and therefore may afford to bundle competitively priced related products and services, which may allow them to leverage existing commercial relationships, incorporate functionality into existing products, sell products with which we compete at zero or negative margins, offer fee waivers and reductions or other economic and non-economic concessions, maintain closed technology platforms, or render our products unable to interoperate with such platforms. Our actual or potential customers may prefer to bundle their cloud services with one of our potential competitors even if such competitors' individual products have more limited functionality compared to our software. These larger potential competitors are also often in a better position to withstand any significant reduction in technology spending and will therefore not be as susceptible to competition or economic downturns. Our potential competitors may also be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards, or customer requirements. In addition, some potential competitors may offer products or services that address one or a limited number of functions at lower prices, with greater depth than our products or in geographies where we do not operate. With the introduction of new technologies and new market entrants, we expect competition to grow in the future. Furthermore, our actual and potential competitors may establish cooperative relationships among themselves or with third parties that may further enhance their resources and offerings in the markets we address. In addition, third parties with greater available resources may acquire current or potential competitors. As a result of such relationships and acquisitions, our actual or potential competitors might be able to adapt more quickly to new technologies and customer needs, devote greater resources to the promotion or sale of their products, initiate or withstand substantial price competition, take advantage of other opportunities more readily, or develop and expand their offerings more quickly than we do. For all these reasons, we may not be able to compete successfully against our current or potential competitors.

We believe that developing and maintaining widespread awareness of our brand, especially with practitioners, is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our products and attracting new users and customers. Brand promotion activities may not generate user or customer awareness or increase revenue, and even if they do, any increase in revenue may not offset the expenses we incur in building our brand. Expenditures intended to maintain and enhance our brand may not be cost-effective or effective at all. Changes to our business practices may cause our brand to be viewed negatively by the practitioner community. For example, in August 2023, we announced that we changed our source code license to Business Source License v1.1 on all future releases of our core products, which may be viewed less favorably by practitioners. If we do not successfully maintain and enhance our brand, including any unauthorized misuse of our brand, we may have reduced pricing power relative to our competitors, we could lose users and customers, or we could fail to attract potential new customers or expand sales to our existing customers, all of which could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

Privacy, data protection, and data security have become significant issues in various jurisdictions where we offer our products and increasingly so as we sell more cloud offerings. We process certain personal data as part of our business operations, and our Vault product is specifically designed to assist our customers with management of their private and sensitive information. As we develop our cloud offerings and are able to process more data in the cloud, these issues become more significant. The regulatory frameworks for privacy, data protection, and data security issues worldwide are rapidly evolving and are likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future, particularly for data processed in the cloud. Federal, state, and non-U.S. government bodies or agencies have in the past adopted, and may in the future adopt, new laws and regulations or may make amendments to existing laws and regulations affecting data protection, data privacy, and/or data security and/or regulating the use of the internet as a commercial medium. Industry organizations also regularly adopt and advocate for new standards in these areas, and we are bound by certain contractual obligations relating to our use, storage, security, and other processing of personal data and other personally identifiable information. We also post privacy policies and have made, and may make, other representations regarding our privacy and data security practices. If we fail to comply with any of these laws, regulations, standards, or other obligations, or such public representations, or are alleged to have done so, we may be subject to investigations, enforcement actions, civil litigation, fines, and other penalties, all of which may generate negative publicity and have a negative impact on our business. In the United States, we may be subject to investigation and/or enforcement actions brought by federal agencies and state attorneys general and consumer protection agencies. We publicly post policies and other documentation regarding our practices concerning the processing, use, and disclosure of personally identifiable information. Although we endeavor to comply with our published policies and documentation, we may at times fail to do so or be alleged to have failed to do so. The publication of our privacy policy and other documentation that provide promises and assurances about privacy and security can subject us to potential state and federal action if they are found to be deceptive, unfair, or misrepresentative of our actual practices. Many states have enacted privacy and data security laws. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, which took effect on January 1, 2020, 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. Some observers have noted that the CCPA could mark the beginning of a trend toward more stringent privacy legislation in the United States. California has already amended and expanded the CCPA with a new law, the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, or CPRA, which came into effect as of January 1, 2023. Additionally, other U.S. states continue to propose, and in certain cases adopt, privacy-focused legislation. For example, Virginia, Colorado, Utah, and Connecticut have enacted comprehensive privacy legislation that went into effect in 2023; Florida, Montana, Oregon, and Texas have enacted similar legislation that went into effect in 2024; Delaware Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Tennessee have enacted similar legislation that will go into effect in 2025; and Indiana, Kentucky, and Rhode Island have enacted similar legislation that will go into effect in 2026. Some states also have proposed, and in certain cases adopted, sector-specific privacy legislation, such as Washington's My Health, My Data Act. Aspects of these state laws remain unclear, resulting in further uncertainty and potentially requiring us to modify our data practices and policies and to incur substantial additional costs and expenses in an effort to comply. A patchwork of differing state privacy and data security requirements will increase the cost and complexity of operating our business and increase our exposure to liability. Similarly, regulatory bodies such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission have issued disclosure rules and signaled a more aggressive posture regarding data security failures. Internationally, we or our customers must comply with the data security, privacy, and data protection requirements of each of the jurisdictions we operate in. Within the European Union, the European General Data Protection Regulation, or the GDPR, became fully effective on May 25, 2018, and applies to the processing (which includes the collection and use) of certain personal data. The GDPR imposes substantial obligations and risk upon our business. Administrative fines under the GDPR can amount up to 20 million Euros or four percent of the group's annual global turnover, whichever is highest. We may be required to incur substantial expense and to make significant changes to our business operations in an effort to comply with the obligations imposed by the GDPR, all of which may adversely affect our revenue and our business overall. Additionally, because the GDPR lacks a long enforcement history, we are unable to predict fully how the GDPR may be applied to us. Despite our efforts to attempt to comply with the GDPR, a regulator may determine that we have not done so and subject us to fines and public censure, which could harm our company. European privacy, data security, and data protection laws, including the GDPR, regulate and generally restrict the transfer of the personal data subject from Europe, including the European Economic Area, or EEA, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, to third countries that have not been found to provide adequate protection to such personal data, including the United States unless the parties to the transfer have implemented specific safeguards to protect the transferred personal data. The safeguard on which we have primarily relied for such transfers has been implementation of the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, or SCCs, in our relevant data transfer agreements. We have undertaken certain efforts to conform transfers of personal data from the European Economic Area, or the EEA, to the United States and other jurisdictions based on our understanding of current regulatory obligations and the guidance of data protection authorities. The EU-U.S. Privacy Shield program administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce was invalidated by the Court of Justice of the European Union, or CJEU, on July 16, 2020. The Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner invalidated the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield on similar grounds. In its July 16, 2020 opinion, the CJEU imposed additional obligations on companies when relying on SCCs to transfer personal data. The European Commission has published revised SCCs that are required to be implemented. The United Kingdom has adopted new standard contractual clauses, or the UK SCCs, that became effective as of March 21, 2022, and which are required to be implemented. The United States and European Union have replaced the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield transfer framework with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, or EU-U.S. DPF. On July 10, 2023, the European Commission adopted an adequacy decision in relation to the EU-U.S. DPF, allowing the EU-U.S. DPF to be utilized as a means of legitimizing EU-U.S. personal data transfers for participating entities, including us. We also have self-certified under a UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, or the Swiss-U.S. DPF. The EU-U.S. DPF already has faced legal challenges, and the CJEU's Schrems II decision, the revised SCCs and UK SCCs, guidance and opinions of regulators, and other developments relating to cross-border data transfer, including the EU-U.S. DPF, the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF, and the Swiss-U.S. DPF may be subject to challenges, future reviews, suspension, amendment, repeal, or limitations, and may require us to implement additional contractual and technical safeguards for any personal data transferred out of Europe, which may increase compliance costs, lead to increased regulatory scrutiny or liability, and which may adversely impact our business, financial condition and operating results. We may also experience hesitancy, reluctance, or refusal by European or multi-national customers to continue to use our products, or by current or potential new customers to consider or adopt our fully managed HCP cloud offerings, due to the potential risk exposure to such customers as a result of shifting business sentiment in Europe regarding international data transfers and the data protection obligations imposed on them. We may find it necessary to establish systems to maintain personal data originating from Europe in Europe, which may involve substantial expense and may cause us to need to divert resources from other aspects of our business, all of which may adversely affect our business. We may be unsuccessful in maintaining the conforming means of transferring personal data from Europe to other jurisdictions. We, and our customers, may face a risk of enforcement actions taken by European data protection authorities relating to cross-border personal data transfers. We also expect laws, regulations, industry standards and other obligations worldwide relating to privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity to continue to evolve, and that there will continue to be new, modified, and re-interpreted laws, regulations, standards, and other obligations in these areas. For example, the Network and Information Security Directive II, or NIS2, adopted in 2023, aims to enhance cybersecurity across critical infrastructure and essential services in the EU. It expands the scope of the 2016 NIS Directive to include additional sectors while enforcing stricter governance and accountability requirements. NIS2 requires all 27 EU member states to issue implementing legislation by October 2024; however, several EU member states have not finalized their respective legislation and guidance. Additionally, the Digital Operational Resiliency Act, or DORA, will become effective in January 2025, and will aim to establish a universal framework for managing and mitigating information and communication technology risk that will apply to entities in the financial sector and their third-party cloud service providers. The European Commission also has a draft regulation in the approval process that focuses on a person's right to conduct a private life. The proposed legislation, known as the Regulation of Privacy and Electronic Communications, or the ePrivacy Regulation, would replace the current ePrivacy Directive. Originally planned to be adopted and implemented at the same time as the GDPR, the ePrivacy Regulation is still being negotiated. If adopted, this regulation could have broad potential impacts on the use of internet-based services and tracking technologies, such as cookies. Further, the United Kingdom has enacted a Data Protection Act, and has implemented legislation referred to as the "UK GDPR," that substantially implements the GDPR in the United Kingdom following Brexit and the transition period that ended on December 31, 2020. This legislation provides for substantial penalties for noncompliance of up to the greater of £17.5 million or four percent of worldwide revenues. While the EU has deemed the United Kingdom an "adequate country" to which personal data could be exported from the EEA, this decision is required to be renewed after four years of being in effect and may be modified, revoked, or challenged in the interim, creating uncertainty regarding transfers of personal data to the United Kingdom from the EEA. Some countries also are considering or have passed legislation requiring local storage and processing of data, or similar requirements, which could increase the cost and complexity of delivering our products. Finally, we publish privacy policies and other documentation regarding our collection, use, disclosure, and other processing of personal information. Although we endeavor to adhere to these policies and documentation, we and the third parties on which we rely may at times fail to do so or may be perceived to have failed to do so. Such failures could subject us to regulatory enforcement action as well as costly legal claims by affected individuals or our customers. Because the interpretation and application of many laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection, and data security, along with industry standards, are uncertain, particularly as they relate to our cloud offerings, it is possible that these laws and regulations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our existing data management practices or the features of our products, and we could face fines, lawsuits, regulatory investigations, and other claims and penalties, and we could be required to fundamentally change our products or our business practices, which could have an adverse effect on our business. Any inability to adequately address privacy, data protection, and data security concerns, even if unfounded, or any actual or perceived failure to comply with applicable privacy, data protection, and data security laws, regulations, and other obligations, could result in additional cost and liability to us, damage our reputation, inhibit sales, and adversely affect our business. Furthermore, the costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, 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, data protection, and data security concerns, whether valid or not valid, may inhibit market adoption of our products, particularly in certain industries and countries outside of the United States. If we are not able to adjust to changing laws, regulations, and standards related to the internet, our business may be harmed.

Our results of operations may vary based on the impact of changes in our industry or the global economy on us or our customers. Current or future economic uncertainties or downturns could adversely affect our business and results of operations. Negative conditions in the general economy both in the United States and abroad, including conditions resulting from changes in gross domestic product growth, financial and credit market fluctuations, uncertain interest rates, inflationary pressures, interest rate increases, recessionary economic cycles, political turmoil, natural catastrophes, warfare, and terrorist attacks on the United States, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, or elsewhere, could cause a decrease in business investments by our customers and potential customers, including spending on information technology, and negatively affect the growth of our business. For example, rising interest rates and high levels of inflation have affected businesses across many industries, which has significantly constrained and may continue to constrain the budgets of our customers and prospective customers. To the extent our offerings are perceived by customers and potential customers as discretionary, our revenue may be disproportionately affected by delays or reductions in general information technology spending. Also, customers may choose to develop in-house software as an alternative to using our products. Moreover, competitors may respond to market conditions by lowering prices. We cannot predict the timing, strength, or duration of any economic slowdown, instability, or recovery, generally or within any particular industry. If the economic conditions of the general economy or markets in which we operate do not improve, or worsen from present levels, our business, results of operations, and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Our customers and employees are located worldwide, and our strategy is to continue to expand internationally. Our future results of operations depend, in part, on our ability to sustain and expand our penetration of the international markets in which we currently operate and to expand into additional international markets. We generated 32% and 30% of our revenue outside of the United States for the three months ended October 31, 2024, and 2023, respectively. Our ability to expand internationally involves various risks, including the need to invest significant resources in such expansion, and the possibility that returns on such investments will not be achieved in the near future or at all in these less familiar competitive environments. We may also choose to conduct our international business through partnerships. If we are unable to identify partners or negotiate favorable terms, our international growth may be limited. In addition, we have incurred and may continue to incur significant expenses in advance of generating material revenue as we attempt to establish our presence in particular international markets. Additional risks associated with our international operations include: - geopolitical conflicts, including military conflicts, that could damage the global economy;- unexpected changes in regulatory requirements, taxes, trade laws, tariffs, export quotas, custom duties, or other trade restrictions;- different labor regulations, especially in the European Union, where labor laws are generally more advantageous to employees as compared to the United States, including deemed hourly wage and overtime regulations in these locations;- exposure to many stringent and potentially inconsistent laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection, and data security, particularly in the European Union;- changes in a specific country's or region's political or economic conditions, including, but not limited to, inflationary pressures, recessionary economic cycles, and resulting governmental responses;- challenges inherent to efficiently managing an increased number of employees over large geographic distances, including the need to implement appropriate systems, policies, benefits, and compliance programs;- severe fluctuations in currency exchange rates;- risks relating to the implementation of exchange controls and trade protection regulations and measures in the United States or in other jurisdictions;- risks relating to enforcement of U.S. export control laws and regulations including the Export Administration Regulations, or EAR, and trade and economic sanctions, including restrictions promulgated by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, and other similar trade protection regulations and measures in the United States or in other jurisdictions;- greater difficulty in enforcing contracts and accounts receivable collection, and longer collection periods;- limitations on our ability to reinvest earnings from operations derived from one country to fund the capital needs of our operations in other countries;- limited or unfavorable intellectual property protection; and - exposure to liabilities under anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, or FCPA, and similar applicable laws and regulations in other jurisdictions. The expansion of our existing international operations and entry into additional international markets will require significant management attention and financial resources. Our failure to successfully manage our international operations and the associated risks could limit the future growth of our business. If we are unable to address these difficulties and challenges or other problems encountered in connection with our international operations and expansion, we might incur unanticipated liabilities or we might otherwise suffer harm to our business generally.

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. In addition, an increasing portion of our operating expenses is incurred outside of the United States. These operating expenses are denominated in foreign currencies and are subject to fluctuations due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates. In the future, we expect to have sales denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, which will subject our revenue to foreign currency risk. If we are not able to successfully hedge against the risks associated with currency fluctuations, our results of operations could be adversely affected. The United States has recently experienced historically high levels of inflation. If the inflation rate continues to increase, such as increases in the costs of labor and supplies, it will affect our expenses, such as employee compensation which accounts for a significant portion of our operating expenses. Additionally, the United States is experiencing historically low unemployment rates, which in turn, creates a competitive wage environment that may increase our operating costs. To the extent inflation leads to rising interest rates, resulting in higher borrowing costs to us, and has other adverse effects on the market, it may adversely affect our consolidated financial condition and results of operations.