IZEA US Equity☆

izea-20241231

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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024

For the transition period from _________________ to _________________

Commission File No.: 001-37703

IZEA WORLDWIDE, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (407)674-6911

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class Trading Symbol (s) Name of each exchange on which registered

Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share IZEA The Nasdaq Capital Market

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes oNox

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes oNox

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yesx No o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes☒ No o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer ☐ Accelerated filer ☐

Non-Accelerated Filer ☒ Smaller reporting company ☒

Emerging growth company ☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes oNox

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates as of June 28, 2024 (the last business day of the registrant's most recently completed second fiscal quarter) was $29,043,605 based on the closing bid price of the registrant's common stock of $2.35 per share on such date. All executive officers and directors of the registrant and all 10% or greater stockholders have been deemed, solely for the purpose of the foregoing calculation, to be “affiliates” of the registrant.

As of March 25, 2025, 16,914,522 shares of our common stock were outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

None.

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Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2024

Table of Contents

Page

PART I

Item 1. Business 2

Item 1A. Risk Factors 7

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 20

Item 1C. Cybersecurity 20

Item 2. Properties 21

Item 3. Legal Proceedings 21

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 21

PART II

Item 6. Selected Financial Data 22

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 34

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm 36

Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2024 and 2023 37

Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements 43

Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 68

Item 9B. Other Information 69

Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 69

PART III

Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 70

Item 11. Executive Compensation 75

Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 85

PART IV

Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 86

Signatures 89

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Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Annual Report”) contains “forward-looking statements” intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this report, including those contained in Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and the notes to our consolidated financial statements, particularly those that utilize terminology such as “may,” “will,” “would,” “can,” “could,” “continue,” “design,” “should,” “expects,” “aims,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “believes,” “thinks,” “intends,” “likely,” “projects,” “plans,” “pursue,” “strategy,” “future,” “forecasts,” “goal,” “hopes,” or the negative of these words or other words or expressions of similar meaning, are forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on currently available operating, financial and competitive information, and are subject to inherent risks, uncertainties, and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. Future events and our actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those reflected in these forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to, the following:

•adverse economic or market conditions that may harm our business; including supply-chain issues, labor distribution, business closures, and inflationary pressures;

•a few of our customers accounting for a significant portion of our gross billings and accounts receivable, and the loss of, or reduced purchases from, these or other customers having a material adverse effect on our operating results;

•any erroneous or inaccurate estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies;

•our ability to raise the additional funding needed to fund our business operation in the future;

•our ability to satisfy the requirements for continued listing of our common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market;

•our ability to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting and effective disclosure controls and procedures;

•our ability to protect our intellectual property and other proprietary rights;

•our ability to maintain and grow our business;

•results of any future litigation and costs incurred in connection with any such litigation;

•competition in the industry;

•variability of operating results;

•our ability to maintain and enhance our brand;

•accuracy of tracking the number of user accounts;

•any security breaches or other disruptions compromising our proprietary information and exposing us to liability;

•our development and introduction of new products and services;

•our reliance on, and compliance with, open-source software;

•the successful integration of acquired companies, technologies, and assets into our portfolio of software and services;

•marketing and other business development initiatives;

•general government regulation;

•dependence on key personnel;

•the ability to attract, hire, and retain personnel who possess the technical skills and experience necessary to meet the service requirements of our customers;

•the potential liability concerning actions taken by our existing and past employees;

•any losses or issues we may encounter as a consequence of accepting or holding digital assets;

•impacts of the situation in the Middle East and the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and the global responses to them;

•risks associated with doing business internationally; and

•the other risks and uncertainties described in the Risk Factors section of this Annual Report.

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All forward-looking statements in this document are based on current expectations, intentions, and beliefs using information available to us as of the date of this Annual Report; we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

PART I

ITEM 1 – BUSINESS

Our Mission

Our mission is to make creator economy solutions for marketers. We offer solutions that range from creator agency services to creator technologies to a marketplace that connects marketers with creators. By fostering these connections, we light up the creator economy with IZEAs – social-first content, made by creators, that are culturally relevant and move at the speed of culture.

Corporate Information

IZEA Worldwide, Inc. (together with its wholly-owned subsidiaries, “IZEA” or the “Company”) is a Nevada corporation that was founded in February 2006 under the name PayPerPost, Inc. and became a public company in May 2011. In March 2016, the Company formed IZEA Canada, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary incorporated in Ontario, Canada.

The Company provides value through managing custom content workflow, creator search and targeting, bidding, analytics, and payment processing (the “Managed Services”). It also enables creators to monetize their content, creativity, and influence through global brands and marketers. IZEA compensates these creators for producing unique content, such as long and short-form text, videos, photos, status updates, and illustrations, for marketers or distributing such content on behalf of marketers through their websites, blogs, and social media channels.

While most marketers engage the Company to perform the Managed Services on their behalf, marketers may also access IZEA’s marketplaces to engage creators for influencer marketing campaigns or to produce custom content on a self-service basis by licensing the Company’s technology.

Industry Background and Trends

When IZEA first launched PayPerPost in 2006, the concept of a brand paying bloggers to create sponsored content on their blogs was new and highly controversial among marketers and content creators. The Company introduced the idea when there were no ads on Facebook, YouTube, or X (formerly Twitter), and social media was largely void of corporate marketing messages. Since then, the landscape has changed dramatically. Social media usage has increased to over 6 billion worldwide fueling the rapid growth of social media platforms such as YouTube, Meta and TikTok which have democratized the creation of content. In 2025, the number of social media users is projected to eclipse linear television viewers in the United States for the first time ever. This “Social Singularity” marks a significant shift in the marketing landscape and is prompting marketers to allocate more of their marketing spend to the creator economy. Marketing spend on influencer marketing tripled between 2019 and 2023 to more than $6 billion and is projected to continue to rise. Goldman Sachs estimates the total global addressable market of the creator economy to grow to $480 billion by 2027.

Our Business

IZEA is a creator economy solutions company that leverages its pioneering marketing technology to empower brands to engage and transact with a diverse range of social influencers and content creators. We pride ourselves on launching the innovative concept of an influencer marketplace in 2006 with the introduction of our inaugural platform, PayPerPost. Since then, we have evolved our product and service offerings in innovative ways to better serve our clients which span from Fortune 10 brands to independent content creators. Our product and service offerings come in three forms:

Creator Agency Services: Commonly referred to as ‘Managed Services,’ we partner with marketers to develop and execute influencer marketing campaigns. This includes marketing services related to creator strategy, creator partnerships, creator content, performance media and social commerce. Historically, these managed services have accounted for nearly all of our revenue. These services are supported by our proprietary creator technology platforms.

Creator Technologies:We offer proprietary technology platforms that enable managing creator campaigns, creator relationships and creator transactions. Clients can choose between two modes of engagement. Firstly, they can opt for our ‘Managed Services’, where our team of professionals oversees their initiatives. This hands-on approach allows our clients to fully leverage our expertise, from strategizing and planning to executing collaborations. Secondly, we offer ‘Software as a Service’ (“SaaS”) tools for those who prefer a more independent approach. With this option, customers can manage their own programs using our intuitive, self-service software tools.

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Creator Marketplaces: We operate a two-sided creator economy marketplace that connects brands and creators. In October 2022, we launched The Creator Marketplace (“Marketplace”) on IZEA.com, replacing and enhancing the functionality of Shake, a legacy marketplace product. IZEA.com provides creators with powerful tools to present their work to marketers (“Listings”). It allows marketers to search a database of influencers eager to work with brands and purchase directly through the platform. In addition to searching creator Listings, marketers can create their own “Casting Calls,” allowing them to solicit creators to participate in their campaigns openly. This offering makes it easier for Marketers to identify and establish communications with influencers. Rather than searching for influencers and doing outreach, influencers now come to brands.

Our Technologies

Our technology platforms have evolved over the years in response to user needs and industry dynamics. In January 2023 we launched IZEA Flex (“Flex”) as our flagship platform for enterprise influencer marketing, replacing The IZEA Exchange (“IZEAx”). Flex greatly improved upon process and workflows to be more ‘open’ and flexible to meet a continuum of customer campaign management requirements. This approach allowed marketers to work with influencers and their representation on any platform in whatever way they see fit - while retaining data, tracking, and operational organization. As AI has emerged as a new technology, we rapidly integrated AI into our exiting flagship platform and created a new innovative AI content platform called Form AI. Our two primary technologies are as follows:

Flex. Flex is a robust suite of tools that enhance IZEA’s ability to manage influencer marketing at scale. Beyond enabling seamless campaign execution, Flex empowers IZEA’s internal teams to measure influencer marketing performance with precision. Campaign metrics can be tracked at key points within the campaign and easily compared against benchmarks. Throughout 2024, we introduced several key features to the platform to enhance its capabilities in influencer marketing. The first significant addition is the ability to review draft content within the platform and involve clients in that process ensuring proper brand messaging before content goes live. We added a client-facing tool to review and approve talent lists before the talent is contracted, giving clients control and automating the engagement process. We built in Campaign Safeguards to provide our team with a tool to ensure their campaign spending (including influencer payouts and other campaign expenses) stays within the budget. We also introduced IZZY, an AI chat tool that contains knowledge of our creator database. Flex is comprised of multiple core modules:

•Discover allows customer and IZEA teams to search through content from millions of influencer social profiles while filtering across channels, demographics, and interests.

•Content Mine a content management tool that collects and measures influencer content, providing real-time insights and AI-powered content analysis of brands coupled with social monitoring tools that track hashtags, keywords, and brand mentions across leading social platforms to measure performance;

•Integrations provides deep integrations with tools such as Google Analytics and Shopify, unlocking additional data sources and insights for internal teams;

•Tracking Links delivers real-time tracking metrics for influencer marketing efforts, enabling conversion tracking, spend analysis, and purchase attribution when coupled with our integrations.

•Contacts centralizes contact management across the creator ecosystem, including influencers, agents, and legal representatives, with automated smart lists based on demographic data; and

•Transactions streamlines electronic creator payments, reducing processing costs and providing a searchable transaction database.

Beyond enabling seamless campaign execution, Flex empowers IZEA’s internal teams to measure influencer marketing performance with precision. Campaign metrics can be tracked at key points within the campaign and easily compared against benchmarks.

Throughout 2024, we introduced several key features to the platform to enhance its capabilities in influencer marketing. The first significant addition is the ability to review draft content within the platform and involve clients in that process ensuring proper brand messaging before content goes live. We added a client-facing tool to review and approve talent lists before the talent is contracted, giving clients control and automating the engagement process. We built in Campaign Safeguards to provide our team with a tool to ensure their campaign spending (including influencer payouts and other campaign expenses) stays within the budget. We also introduced IZZY, an AI chat tool that contains knowledge of our creator database.

Marketplace. In October 2022, we launched The Creator Marketplace (“Marketplace”) on IZEA.com, replacing and enhancing the functionality of Shake, a legacy marketplace product. IZEA.com provides creators with powerful tools to present their work to marketers (“Listings”). It allows marketers to search a database of influencers eager to work with brands and purchase directly through the platform. In addition to searching creator Listings, marketers can create their own “Casting Calls,” allowing them to solicit creators to participate in their campaigns openly. This offering makes it easier for Marketers to

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identify and establish communications with influencers. Rather than searching for influencers and doing outreach, influencers now come to brands.

In addition to the Marketplace functionality added to IZEA.com in 2022, we have implemented a suite of generative AI tools designed to help creators and marketers create content.

FormAI. Form AI unveiled by IZEA in June 2023, represents a significant advancement in integrating AI into the influencer marketing ecosystem. It is a comprehensive suite of AI tools designed specifically for those in the creator economy. FormAI helps users enhance their creative process and aids in text and visual content development.

With FormAI, IZEA is focused on increasing content production efficiency while lowering costs for marketers and creators. The platform seamlessly integrates advanced AI models—including ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, and DALL-E 3—into a unified, user-friendly experience with superior content control, predictability, and ease of use.

As we continue to refine our strategies, we remain dedicated to expanding Marketplace by integrating cutting-edge features, enhancing user experience, and ensuring our SaaS capabilities evolve alongside the influencer marketing industry. As brands grow and their needs become more sophisticated, Marketplace serves as a seamless gateway to Managed Services, providing them with advanced strategy, hands-on campaign execution, and access to premium talent they might not otherwise reach on their own.

Sales and Marketing

We sell influencer marketing and custom content campaigns through our client development team and platforms. We target regional, national, and global brands and advertising agencies in two primary ways:

Client Development Team.During the fourth quarter of 2024, we shifted our strategies to reduce costs, enhance efficiencies, and focus on serving all markets, including international clients, primarily on North American hub. Presently, our client development team (sales) is assigned throughout the U.S. and Canada, having ended our sales and marketing presence in Australia, China, and the United Kingdom. Client Development team members are responsible for proactively identifying and managing sales opportunities for brands and agencies.

Demand Generation. We utilize various marketing strategies and platforms to create demand for our Managed Services and SaaS offerings. Our demand-generation activities result in a large funnel of potential customers, and we view marketers and creators as our customers. We aim to funnel our customers into the right offering to accomplish their objectives, be it Managed Services, SaaS, or a combination thereof.

Our overarching strategy is to offer creator economy solutions at every stage of the customer journey, no matter the size of the customer today. Our software offerings start at $6 per month, while certain Managed Services customers may spend millions of dollars with us annually. Our SaaS solutions are designed to be low-cost and low-touch, requiring few IZEA personnel to manage customer relationships. Conversely, our Managed Services offering is a white glove premium service, with a team of professionals catering to each customer’s needs.

IZEA’s leadership team has an extensive background in marketing and has been responsible for implementing marketing programs for some of the world’s biggest companies. We focus our corporate marketing efforts on increasing brand awareness, communicating our platform advantages, generating qualified leads for our sales team, growing our creator network, and driving self-service sign-ups to our platforms. Our corporate marketing plan is designed to continually elevate brand awareness and generate demand for our software and services. We rely on a growing number of channels in this area, including third-party social media platforms (e.g., Meta, TikTok, and YouTube), paid search engine marketing, content marketing, influencer marketing, and events.

Customers and Revenue

We generate revenue primarily from our managed services when a marketer (typically a brand, agency, or partner) pays us to provide custom content, influencer marketing, amplification, or other campaign management services (“Managed Services”). Additionally, we generate revenue from subscription fees charged to access our software platforms, license and transaction fees from self-service customers, and fees such as inactivity fees, early cash-out fees, and other miscellaneous fees charged to users of our platforms (collectively, “SaaS Services Revenue”).

As discussed in more detail within “Critical Accounting Policies and Use of Estimates” under “Note 1. Company and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies,” under Part I, Item 7 herein, revenue from Self-service Fees is reported on a net basis. Revenue from all other sources, including Managed Services, Subscription and License Fees, and Other Fees, are reported on a gross basis. We categorize these sources into two primary groups: (1) Managed Services and (2) SaaS Services, which include Subscription and License revenues, as well as Other Fees.

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We provide services to customers in multiple industry segments. Our business serves companies and brands directly and indirectly through advertising and public relations agencies. In many cases, influencer marketing dollars flow through the advertising or public relations agency, even when we have a direct relationship with the brand.

We generate the majority of our revenue from our Managed Services customers. Managed Services accounted for approximately 97.7% and 98.7% of our revenue during the twelve months ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. SaaS Services accounted for approximately 2.3% and 1.3% of our revenue during the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, and 2023, respectively.

Changes in how we control and manage our platforms, contractual terms, business practices, or other changes in accounting standards or interpretations may affect our revenue reporting. For more information about our revenue recognition policies, see “Note 1. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” under Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report.

Most of our customers are in the United States (“U.S.”). Two customers each accounted for more than 10% of our revenue during the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, and one customer accounted for more than 10% of our revenue during the twelve months ended December 31, 2023.

Privacy and Security

We are committed to protecting the personal privacy of our marketers and creators. Any personal information we collect is processed in compliance with privacy laws (discussed below, under “Government Regulation”), and we believe that we employ reasonable and appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect personal information.

Competition

We face competition from multiple companies in the influencer and content marketing categories. Direct and indirect competitors in the influencer marketing space include Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Linqia, and Upfluence. We also face competition in the creator economy from companies such as Fiverr and Upwork. In addition, many traditional advertising agencies, public relations firms, and niche consultancies provide content development and conduct manual influencer outreach programs.

We also compete with traditional advertising media such as direct mail, television, radio, cable, and print for a share of marketers' total advertising budgets. Many current and potential competitors enjoy competitive advantages over us, such as longer operating histories, greater name recognition, larger customer bases, greater access to advertising space on high-traffic websites, and significantly greater financial, technical, sales, and marketing resources.

Proprietary Rights

Proprietary rights are crucial to our success and competitive position. We rely on intellectual property and trade secret laws, confidentiality procedures, and contractual provisions to evolve and secure our proprietary rights.

As of December 31, 2024, we owned 52 trademarks (32 domestic trademark registrations in the U.S. and 20 foreign registrations on the International Register) and had 4 total pending applications in the U.S. and Nigeria. During the year ended December 31, 2024, we abandoned 3 inactive U.S. trademarks. As of December 31, 2024, we also owned approximately 356 domain names related to the various aspects of IZEA’s products and services.

Government Regulation

We are subject to many foreign and domestic laws and regulations that affect companies conducting business on the Internet, many of which are still evolving and could be interpreted by regulators or the courts in ways that could adversely affect our business model. In the U.S. and abroad, laws relating to the liability of providers of online services for the activities of their users and other third parties are currently being tested by several claims. These regulations and laws may involve taxation, tariffs, privacy and data protection, consumer protection, content, copyrights, distribution, electronic contracts and other communications, and online payment services. In addition, governments may seek to censor content available on our platforms or attempt to block access to our platforms. Accordingly, adverse legal or regulatory developments could substantially harm our business.

We are subject to various federal, state, and international laws and regulations governing privacy, information security, and data protection laws (“Privacy Laws”). Legislators and/or regulators in the countries in which we operate are increasingly adopting or revising Privacy Laws. All U.S. states have passed data breach notification laws, and others have adopted or expanded laws and regulations that address the security of personal information and the collection and use of personal information through websites. In particular, California passed a broad-reaching consumer privacy law in June 2018, which went into effect on January 1, 2020, called the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”). In response to the CCPA, IZEA posted an updated California Privacy Notice on its websites. Virginia’s Consumer Data Protection Act (“CDPA”) came into effect on January 1, 2023, which is also when the California Privacy Rights and Enforcement Act of 2020 (“CPRA”) took effect, and new consumer privacy laws have been passed in 2024 in Florida, Montana, Oregon, and Texas; with new laws passed or

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expected to be passed in 2025 in Delaware, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Tennessee. The U.S. Congress has previously expressed consideration of the implementation of a national Privacy Law. Outside the U.S., the European Union’s (“EU”) General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which became effective May 25, 2018, has an extra-territorial scope and substantial fines (up to 4% of global annual revenue or €20M, whichever is greater), and also in 2018, Brazil passed a law similar to GDPR. Other countries have passed or are considering similar laws, such as India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act and China’s Personal Information Protection Law. Enforcement of Privacy Laws also has increased over the past few years. Accordingly, new, and revised Privacy Laws, together with stepped-up enforcement of existing Privacy Laws, could significantly affect our current and planned privacy, data protection, information security-related practices, our collection, use, sharing, retention, and safeguarding of consumer and/or employee information, and some of our current or planned business activities.

The U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act has provisions that limit but do not eliminate our liability for linking to third-party websites. These websites may contain materials that infringe on third parties’ copyrights or other intellectual property rights of third parties. We must comply with the statutory requirements of this act. Complying with these various laws could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices in a manner adverse to our business.

As an e-commerce service provider, we are subject to Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 (the “FTC Act”), which prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices, including advertising and marketing on the Internet. Many states have consumer protection laws similar to the FTC Act prohibiting unfair and deceptive business practices. In some instances, we are retained by marketers to manage their advertising campaigns through our platforms, thereby increasing our exposure as not only the service provider but also the medium through which advertisements are broadcast. In addition to those requirements, the marketers, creators, and agencies that use our platforms are subject to specific guidelines and regulations regarding online advertising, such as the Dot Com Disclosures - Information about Online Advertising, issued by the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”), the FTC’s Enforcement Policy Statement on Deceptively Formatted Advertisements, issued in 2015, and the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (known as the Endorsement Guide) which were adopted in 2009, updated and reissued by the FTC in 2013, and further clarified in 2015 and 2024, and are regularly enforced. The Endorsement Guide, for example, significantly extends the scope of potential liability associated with the use of testimonials and endorsements, including injecting endorsement requirements into advertising methods such as blogging, posting on Instagram, tweeting, and other online postings of sponsored advertisements by a creator. In particular, the Endorsement Guide provides that creators must always clearly and conspicuously disclose the material connection between the creator and the marketer, such as if they received consideration for blogging or posting about a particular product, service, brand, or the like, whether the consideration comprises something tangible (i.e. cash, discounts, objects that are provided to them at no cost, even for testing purposes) or intangible (such as accolades and more prominent future blogging or posting opportunities). In addition, the creator must not make claims about the product or service they are discussing that go beyond what the marketer could say about it. The Endorsement Guide further provides that the marketer should ensure that creators speaking on its behalf are provided guidance and training to ensure their claims, statements, and representations are truthful, transparent, and adequately substantiated, and monitor the activities of creators speaking on its behalf. Suppose a creator, blogger, agency, or marketer should fail to comply with the Dot Com Disclosures, the Endorsement Guide, or any other FTC rule, regulation, or policy, which may be manifest by making deceptive, misleading, or unsubstantiated claims and representations, failing to disclose a sponsorship relationship or otherwise. In that case, the various parties related to the advertising campaign (including the service provider of the platform over which the campaign is managed) may be subject to liability due to such non-compliance. In the event it was found that we (or one of our marketer customers) failed to comply with the FTC Act or state consumer protection laws, it could result in the potential imposition of equitable redress or penalties that could include monetary damages, a modification of certain business practices, or an order to cease certain aspects of our operations. Other countries, such as Canada and EU member states, also have laws, regulations, and rules that mirror the FTC Endorsement Guide and similar consumer protection laws and guidance.

More generally, if there is negative consumer perception and mistrust of the practice of compensating creators to endorse the marketers’ specific products, then marketers may become less interested in using influencer marketing platforms like ours as a means for advertising, which could, in turn, materially adversely affect our business and financial results.

We are committed to promoting ethical social sponsorship practices and have established terms of service for users of our platforms, which refer to the Endorsement Guide and include one or more of the following:

Mandatory Disclosure.Our terms of service require the disclosure of the sponsored relationship between the marketer and creator. Failure to disclose the sponsored relationship violates our terms of service, which may result in the withholding of payment for the sponsorship and the creator being removed from our network.

Freedom of Choice.Creators can choose which brands to work with and what sponsored content they want to publish. Our platforms do not auto-inject a marketer's message into an influencer's social media network.

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Authentic Voice.We encourage the creator to be honest when selecting sponsorships. Similarly, we enable marketers to create opportunities that allow the creator to write the sponsorship in their own words, provided that a creator always adheres to our terms of service and code of ethics, including disclosing their sponsored relationships at all times while using any of the platform.

Transparency of Identity.Our platforms are designed to be an open, safe environment for marketers, creators, and users. We do not cloak the identities of marketers or creators. Both parties involved in a potential transaction can see each other's profiles and make informed decisions before engaging with each other.

Pre-Publication Marketer Review.Marketers may request to review their sponsored content before publication and to request a change to the sponsored content before publication in the case of factual inaccuracies.

Reporting Violations.We have zero tolerance for violations of our terms of service and encourage the reporting of infringements directly to IZEA. If violations are reported, we promptly investigate them, and, in appropriate cases, marketers, creators, and users are removed from our network and prohibited from using our sites.

We believe and have included requirements within our terms of service, based on positions taken by certain federal courts and the FTC, that communications and messages disseminated by our platform users are subject to and must comply at all times with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) requirements.

To date, we have not been materially impacted by the rules governing messaging over social media networks and social sponsorship, including the CAN-SPAM Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991. However, we cannot predict the impact of future regulations on us and marketers and creators who use our platforms, nor can we predict the effects of attempts to circumvent our mechanisms designed to ensure compliance.

Employees

As of December 31, 2024, we had 110 full-time employees and 1 part-time employee. In connection with a strategic workforce realignment, 32 employees were notified in December of their termination, effective January 2, 2025. None of our employees is represented by a collective bargaining agreement, and we have not experienced any work stoppage. Our future success depends on our continuing ability to attract and retain highly qualified engineers, sales and marketing, account management, and senior management personnel.

Available Information

IZEA Worldwide, Inc. is incorporated in the state of Nevada. Our corporate address is 1317 Edgewater Dr. #1880, Orlando, FL 32804, and our telephone number is (407) 674-6911. We maintain a corporate website at https://izea.com. Our Annual Report, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K, including exhibits and amendments to those reports filed or furnished according to Sections 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, are available free of charge on our website, as soon as reasonably practicable after they have been filed with or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Our SEC reports and other filings can be accessed through the investor’s section of our website or https://www.sec.gov. Information on our website does not constitute part of this Annual Report or any other report we file or furnish with the SEC.

Investors and others should note that we use social media to communicate with our subscribers and the public about our Company, our services, new product developments, and other matters. Any information that we consider to be material to an investor’s evaluation of our Company will be included in filings accessible through the SEC website and/or may be disseminated using our investor relations website (https://izea.com) and press releases. However, we encourage investors, the media, and others interested in our Company to follow our social media channels: @izea on X (formerly Twitter), @izea on Instagram, @izea on TikTok, and IZEA on Facebook. The information contained in these social media channels is not part of and is not incorporated into or included in this Annual Report.

ITEM 1A – RISK FACTORS

You should carefully consider the factors discussed under this item regarding the numerous and varied risks, known and unknown, that may prevent us from achieving our goals. If any of these risks occur, our business, financial condition, or results of operation may be materially and adversely affected. In such a case, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and investors could lose all or part of their investment. These risk factors may not identify all risks that we face, and our operations could also be affected by factors that are not presently known to us or that we currently consider immaterial to our operations.

Risks Related to our Business and Industry

We have a history of annual net losses, expect future losses, and cannot assure you that we will achieve profitability.

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We have incurred significant net losses and negative cash flow from operations for most periods since our inception, which has resulted in a total accumulated deficit of $104.3 million as of December 31, 2024. For the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, we had a comprehensive loss of $18.7 million, including a $19.5 million loss from operations. We have not achieved profitability and cannot be certain that we will be able to realize sufficient revenue to achieve profitability. If we achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain it. Therefore, we may need to raise capital through new financings, which could include equity financing, such as additional issuances of common stock under our “at the market offering” program, which may be dilutive to stockholders, or debt financing, which would likely restrict our ability to borrow from other sources. In addition, securities we issue may contain rights, preferences, or privileges senior to those of the rights of our current stockholders. There can be no assurance that additional funds will be available on terms attractive to us or at all. If adequate funds are unavailable, we may be required to curtail or reduce our operations or be forced to sell or dispose of our rights or assets. An inability to raise adequate funds on commercially reasonable terms would have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operation, and financial condition, including the possibility that a lack of funds could cause our business to fail and liquidate with little or no return to investors.

A few of our customers account for a significant portion of our gross billings and accounts receivable, and the loss of, or reduced purchases from, these or other customers could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.

A significant portion of our gross billings and accounts receivable are attributable to a small number of customers. During the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, one customer accounted for more than 10% of gross billings, and two customers each accounted for more than 10% of total accounts receivable as of December 31, 2024. During the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, one customer accounted for more than 10% of gross billings, and one customer accounted for more than 10% of accounts receivable. The concentration of our sales with a relatively small number of customers makes us particularly dependent on positive and negative factors affecting those customers. If demand for our services from these customers increases, our results may be favorably impacted, while if their demand for our services decreases, they may reduce their purchases of or stop purchasing our services, and our operating results might suffer. The Company does not typically engage in contracts that are longer than one year, so most of our customers can reduce or cease business with us on a relatively short basis. The loss of a large customer and failure to add new customers to replace lost revenue would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

We may engage in acquisitions that could be difficult to integrate, divert the attention of key personnel, cause dilution to our shareholders and harm our financial condition and operating results.

We may make acquisitions of, or investments in, companies that we believe have products or capabilities that are a strategic or commercial fit with our current business or otherwise offer opportunities for our Company. In connection with these acquisitions or investments, we may issue common stock or other forms of equity that would dilute our existing shareholders’ percentage of ownership, incur debt and assume liabilities, and incur amortization expenses related to intangible assets or incur associated write-offs.

We may not be able to complete acquisitions on favorable terms. Even if we successfully integrate an acquired business, into our operations, there can be no assurance that we will realize the anticipated benefits. In the future, we may seek to acquire other businesses, with the expectation that the acquisition would result in various benefits for the combined Company, including, among others, business and growth opportunities and significant synergies from increased efficiency in client conversion and corporate support. Increased competition and/or deterioration in business conditions may limit our ability to expand the acquired business. As such, we may not realize the synergies, goodwill, business opportunities, and growth prospects anticipated with any acquisition.

Acquisitions may also have unanticipated tax, legal, regulatory, and accounting ramifications, including recording goodwill and non-amortizable intangible assets subject to impairment testing and potential periodic impairment charges and incurring amortization expenses related to certain intangible assets. For instance, if the acquired company has significant customer relationships or proprietary technology, these assets may be recorded as intangible assets and amortized over their estimated useful lives. Additionally, if the purchase price exceeds the fair value of the net assets acquired, the excess amount is recorded as goodwill, which must be tested for impairment at least annually. Unexpected changes in market conditions, financial performance, or synergies from the acquisition not materializing as expected could lead to impairment charges, impacting financial results. See Part II, Note 2 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, Business Acquisitions and Divestitures for a related discussion of our acquisition and subsequent divestiture of Hoozu Holdings PTY, Ltd.

We are a remote workforce, which subjects us to certain operational challenges, costs, risks, and potential harm to our business.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020, our workforce shifted from in-person to remote work, and we have since maintained this operating structure. We are therefore subject to the challenges, costs, and risks of having a remote workforce. For example, certain security systems in homes or other remote workplaces may be less secure than those previously used in our offices, which may subject us to increased security risks, including cybersecurity-related events, and expose us to

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data or financial loss risks associated with disruptions to our business operations. Members of our workforce who access Company data and systems remotely may not have access to robust technology, which could cause the networks, information systems, applications, and other tools available to those workers to be more limited or less reliable. We may also be exposed to risks associated with the locations of remote workers, including compliance with local laws and regulations or exposure to compromised internet infrastructure. Pursuant to various state laws, we are required to reimburse reasonable connectivity expenses for certain remote workers. Additionally, allowing members of our workforce to work remotely may create intellectual property risk if employees create intellectual property on our behalf while residing in a jurisdiction with unenforced or uncertain intellectual property laws. Further, if employees fail to inform us of changes in their work location, we may be exposed to additional risks without our knowledge. Remote working may also subject us to other operational challenges and risks. For example, remote working may adversely affect our ability to recruit and retain personnel who prefer an in-person work environment. If we cannot effectively maintain an entirely remote workforce, manage the cybersecurity and other risks of remote work, and maintain our corporate culture and workforce morale, our business could be harmed or otherwise negatively impacted.

We make numerous estimates or judgments relating to our critical accounting policies and these estimates create complexity in our accounting. If our accounting is erroneous or based on assumptions that change or prove to be incorrect, our operating results could change from investor expectations, which could cause our stock price to fall.

We are required to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) in the U.S. Such estimates and assumptions include, but are not limited to, judgments related to revenue recognition, stock-based compensation, credit risk, and values surrounding software development, intangible assets and goodwill, and their economic useful lives.

Various factors contribute to the complexity of our accounting. For example, the recognition of our revenue is governed by certain criteria that determine whether we report revenue either on a gross basis, as a principal, or on a net basis, as an agent, depending upon the nature of the sales transaction. Changes in how we control and manage our platforms, contractual terms, our business practices, or other changes in accounting standards or interpretations may change the reporting of our revenue on a gross-to-net or net-to-gross basis. As a result, we may experience significant fluctuations in our revenue depending on the nature of our sales and our reporting of such revenue and related accounting treatment without any change in our underlying business or net income. Our guidance or estimates about the combination of gross or net revenue are based upon the volumes and characteristics of the revenue mix during the period. Those estimates and assumptions may be inaccurate when made or rendered incorrect by subsequent changes in circumstances, such as changing the characteristics of our offerings or particular transactions in response to client demands, market developments, regulatory pressures, acquisitions, and other factors. In addition, we may incorrectly extrapolate from the revenue recognition treatment of prior transactions to future transactions that we believe are similar but that ultimately are determined to have different characteristics that dictate different revenue reporting treatment. These factors may make our financial reporting more complex and challenging for investors to understand, may make a comparison of our results of operations to prior periods or other companies more difficult, may make it more difficult for us to give accurate guidance, and could increase the potential for reporting errors.

Further, our acquisitions have imposed purchase accounting requirements, required us to integrate accounting personnel, systems, and processes, necessitated various consolidation and elimination adjustments, and imposed additional filing and audit requirements. Our business's ongoing evolution, underlying GAAP changes, and any future acquisitions will compound these complexities. Our operating results may be adversely affected if we make accounting errors or our judgments prove to be wrong, assumptions change, or actual circumstances differ from those in our assumptions, which could cause our operating results to fall below investor expectations or guidance we may have provided, resulting in a decline in our stock price and potential legal claims.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting, our ability to produce timely and accurate financial statements or comply with applicable laws and regulations could be impaired.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, we may not be able to accurately or timely report our financial condition or results of operations or prevent fraud, which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and, as a result, the value of our common stock.

A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. We cannot assure you that any existing material weaknesses have been identified or that we will not identify material weaknesses in the future. Any failure to maintain adequate disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting could adversely affect our business and results of operations and adversely impact our business, operating results, and financial condition.

If we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which would cause the price of our common stock to

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decline, and we may be subject to investigation or sanctions by the SEC. Furthermore, investor perceptions of our Company may suffer if, in the future, material weaknesses are found, and this could cause the price of our common stock to decline.

Historically, we have not relied upon patents to protect our proprietary technology, and our competitors may be able to offer similar products andservices, which would harm our competitive position.

Our success depends upon our proprietary technology. We do not have registered patents on any of our current platforms because we have determined that the costs of patent prosecution outweigh the benefits given the alternative of reliance upon copyright law to protect our computer code and other proprietary technology and properties. In addition to copyright laws, we rely upon service mark and trade secret laws, confidentiality procedures, and contractual provisions to establish and protect our proprietary rights. We enter into non-disclosure agreements with our employees and consultants as part of our confidentiality procedures. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our products to obtain and use information that consider proprietary or develop similar technology independently. Policing unauthorized use of our products is complex. While we cannot determine the extent to which piracy of our software products exists, software piracy can be expected to be a persistent problem. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect proprietary rights to as great an extent as do the laws of the U.S., and effective copyright, trademark, trade secret, and patent protection may not be available in those jurisdictions. Our means of protecting our proprietary rights may not be adequate to protect us from the infringement or misappropriation of such rights by others, and we cannot assure you that our competitors will not independently develop similar technology, duplicate our products and services, or design around any intellectual property rights we hold.

We cannot provide any assurance that our proprietary rights with respect to our products or services will be viable or have value in the future since the validity, enforceability, and type of protection of proprietary rights in Internet-related industries are uncertain and still evolving.

If third parties claim that we infringe their intellectual property rights, it may result in costly litigation.

We cannot assure you that third parties will not claim our current or future products or services infringe on their intellectual property rights. Any such claims, with or without merit, could cause costly litigation that could consume significant management time. As the number of product and services offerings in our market increases and functionalities increasingly overlap, companies such as ours may become increasingly subject to infringement claims. These claims, even if not meritorious, could be expensive to defend and could divert management’s attention from operating our business. These claims also might require us to enter into royalty or license agreements. If required, we may not be able to obtain such royalty or license agreements or obtain them on terms acceptable to us.

Further, in recent years, there has been significant litigation in the U.S. involving patents and other intellectual property rights, particularly in the software and Internet-related industries. If we become liable to third parties for infringing their intellectual property rights, we could be required to pay a substantial award of damages and develop non-infringing technology, obtain a license or cease selling the products that contain the infringing intellectual property. We may not be able to develop non-infringing technology or obtain a license, on commercially reasonable terms.

Intense competition in our target markets could impair our ability to grow and to achieve profitability.

The market for influencer and content marketing is highly competitive. We expect this competition to continue to increase, partly because there are no significant barriers to entry to our industry for operating in a Managed Services or an agency-type model. Increased competition may result in reduced pricing for managed campaigns, reduced margins, and reduced revenue due to lost market share. Our principal competitors include other companies that provide marketers with Internet advertising solutions and companies that offer pay-per-click search services.

Within the enterprise software unit of IZEA’s business (“SaaS Services”), while there is a higher technological barrier to entry, IZEA is vulnerable to new entrants with access to fresh capital and the ability to capitalize upon previous research and development investments made by us. This is particularly challenging given the minimal opportunity to protect our internet-based software via patents.

We also compete with traditional advertising media, such as direct mail, television, radio, cable, and print, for a share of marketers' total advertising budgets. Many current and potential competitors enjoy competitive advantages over us, such as longer operating histories, greater name recognition, larger customer bases, greater access to advertising space on high-traffic websites, and significantly greater financial, technical, sales, and marketing resources. As a result, we may be unable to compete successfully. If we fail to compete successfully, we could lose customers, and our revenue and results of operations could decline.

In addition, as we continue our efforts to expand the scope of our services, we may compete with a greater number of other media companies across an increasing range of different services, including in vertical markets where competitors may have advantages in expertise, brand recognition, and other areas. If existing or future competitors develop or offer products or

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services that provide significant performance, price, creative or other advantages over those offered by us, our business, prospects, results of operations, and financial condition could be negatively affected.

Our Flex and Marketplace platforms may not achieve sufficient market acceptance to be commercially viable for open marketplace or SaaS services.

In October 2022, we launched Marketplace on IZEA.com, replacing Shake with significantly upgraded functionality. In January 2023, we launched Flex, which replaced our legacy IZEAx platform, both for self-serve marketers to manage their influencer campaigns and for IZEA’s Managed Services business. If our marketers and creators do not perceive these platforms to be of high value and quality, we may not be able to retain them or acquire new marketers and creators. Our new platform license plans, which are materially lower than our previous platform license costs, require a larger number of customers to generate significant revenues, which we may be unable to achieve.

We must continue to attract and retain software customers to increase software related revenue and achieve profitability. If existing or future competitors develop or offer products or services that provide significant performance, price, creative or other advantages over this platform, demand for our platforms may decrease. In addition, we may experience attrition in our customers in the ordinary course of business resulting from several factors, including losses to competitors, mergers, closures, or bankruptcies. If we are unable to attract new customers in numbers sufficient to grow our business, or if too many customers are unwilling to offer products or services with compelling terms to our creators through our platforms, or if creators stop offering their services through our platform, our operating results will be adversely affected.

Our total number of user accounts may be higher than the number of our actual individual marketers or creators and may not be representative of the number of persons who are active users.

Our total number of user accounts on ourplatforms may be higher than the number of our actual individual marketers and creators because some may have created multiple accounts for different purposes, including other user connections. We define a user connection as a social account or blog added to our platforms under a user account. One user can add as many user connections as they like, and it is common for talent managers and large publishers to add several connections under a single account. Given the inherent challenges in identifying these creators, we do not have a reliable system to accurately determine the number of actual individual creators. Thus, we rely on the number of total user connections and user accounts to measure the size of our user base. In addition, the number of user accounts includes the total number of individuals who have completed registration through a specific date, minus those who have unsubscribed, and should not be considered representative of the number of persons who continue create to fulfill the sponsorships offered through our platforms actively. Many users may create an account but not actively participate in marketplace activities.

Delays in releasing enhanced versions of our products and services could adversely affect our competitive position.

As part of our strategy, we expect to periodically release enhanced versions of our platforms and related services. Even if our new versions contain the features and functionality our customers want, in the event we are unable to timely introduce these new product releases, our competitive position may be harmed. We cannot assure you that we will be able to complete the development of currently planned or future products in a timely and efficient manner. Due to the complexity of these products, internal quality assurance testing and customer testing of pre-commercial releases may reveal product performance issues, undesirable feature enhancements, or additional desirable feature enhancements that could lead us to postpone the release of these new versions. In addition, the reallocation of resources associated with any postponement would likely cause delays in the development and release of other future products or enhancements to our currently available products. Any delay in releasing other future products or enhancements of our products could adversely impact our financial results.

We rely on third-party social media platforms to provide the mechanism necessary to deliver influencer marketing, and any change in the platform terms, costs, availability, or access to these technologies could adversely affect our business.

We rely on third-party social media platforms such as Facebook/Instagram (collectively known as Meta), TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube for core aspects of influencer data. These platforms include technologies that provide some of the functionality required to operate the influencer marketing portion of our platform, as well as functionalities such as user traffic reporting, ad-serving, content delivery services, discovering services, and metrics. There can be no assurance that these providers will continue to make all or any of their technologies available to us on reasonable terms, or at all. Many of the social platforms offer their own competing marketplaces or services. Third-party social media platforms may start charging fees or otherwise change their business models in a manner that impedes our ability to use their technologies. In any event, we have no control over these companies or their decision-making for granting us access to their social media platforms or providing us with analytical data, and any material change in the current terms, costs, availability, or use of their social media platforms or analytical data could adversely affect our business.

On April 24, 2024, President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, legislation that would ban TikTok in the United States if ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, did not sell

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the platform to a non-Chinese owner within nine months. Although TikTok challenged the legality of this bill in court, the Supreme Court upheld the law. On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order granting TikTok a 75-day extension to comply with the law requiring a sale or ban of the platform in the United States. The negative impact of a TikTok ban could be material, impacting advertising and e-commerce. Given the ubiquitous use of TikTok by many influencers and the desire of brands to market on that platform, a ban could negatively impact the market for our services and social media marketing generally.

Our business depends on continued and unimpeded access to the Internet by us and by our customers and their end-users. Internet access providers or distributors may be able to block, degrade or charge for access to our content, which could lead to additional expenses to us and our customers and the loss of end-users and advertisers.

Products and services such as ours depend on our ability and the ability of our customers’ users to access the Internet. Currently, this access is provided by companies that have, or may have in the future, significant market power in the broadband and Internet access marketplace, including incumbent telephone companies, cable companies, mobile communications companies, and government-owned service providers. Some of these providers may take or have stated that they may take measures that could degrade, disrupt, or increase the cost of user access to products or services such as ours by restricting or prohibiting the use of their infrastructure to support or facilitate product or service offerings such as ours, or by charging increased fees to businesses such as ours to provide content or to have users access that content. In 2015, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) released an order, commonly referred to as net neutrality, that, among other things, prohibited (i) the impairment or degradation of lawful Internet traffic based on content, application, or service and (ii) the practice of favoring some Internet traffic over other Internet traffic based on the payment of higher fees. In December 2017, the FCC voted to overturn the net neutrality regulations imposed by the 2015 order. In April 2024, the FCC voted to reinstate the net neutrality regulations, but the reinstated rules were temporarily blocked by the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in August 2024 pending the resolution of legal challenges brought by internet service providers. This area of the law remains uncertain, and we cannot predict the final outcome of the challenges to legal protections of net neutrality at the state and federal level. In this regulatory environment, we could experience discriminatory or anti-competitive practices that could impede our growth, cause us to incur additional expense or otherwise negatively affect our business.

Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates could result in unanticipated losses that could adversely affect our results of operations and financial position.

We are exposed to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations because a portion of our sales, expenses, assets, and liabilities are denominated in foreign currencies. Changes in the value of foreign currencies, particularly the Canadian and Australian dollars, affect our results of operations and financial position. With respect to international sales initially priced using U.S. dollars as a cost basis, a decrease in the value of foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar would make our products less price competitive. Once the product is sold at a fixed foreign currency price, we could experience foreign currency gains or losses that could have a material effect on our operating results.

New tax treatment of companies engaged in Internet commerce may adversely affect the commercial use of our services and our financial results.

Due to the global nature of social media and our services, various states or foreign countries might attempt to regulate our transmissions or levy sales, income, or other taxes relating to our activities. Tax authorities at the international, federal, state, and local levels are reviewing the appropriate treatment of companies engaged in Internet commerce. New or revised international, federal, state, or local tax regulations may subject us or our creators to additional sales, income, and other taxes. We cannot predict the effect of current attempts to impose sales, income, or other taxes on commerce over social media. New or revised taxes, specifically sales taxes, VAT, and similar taxes would likely increase the cost of doing business online and decrease the attractiveness of advertising and selling goods and services over social media. New taxes could also increase the internal costs necessary to capture data and collect and remit taxes. Any of these events could have an adverse effect on our business and the results of operations.

We may become subject to government regulation and legal uncertainties that could reduce demand for our products and services orincrease the cost of doing business, thereby adversely affecting our financial results.

As described in the section “Business - Government Regulation,” we are subject to laws and regulations applicable to businesses generally and certain laws or regulations directly applicable to service providers for advertising and marketing Internet commerce. Due to the increasing popularity and use of social media, it is possible that some laws and regulations may become applicable to us or social media platforms on which we are dependent, or may be adopted in the future concerning social media covering issues such as:

•truth-in-advertising;

•user privacy;

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•taxation;

•right to access personal information;

•copyrights;

•distribution; and

•characteristics and quality of services.

The applicability of laws governing property ownership, copyrights, and other intellectual property, encryption, taxation, libel, and export or import matters to social media platforms is uncertain. Most of these laws were adopted before the broad commercial use of social media platforms and related technologies. As a result, they do not contemplate or address the unique issues of social media and associated technologies. Changes to these laws intended to address these issues, including recently proposed changes, could create uncertainty in the social media marketplace. Such uncertainty could reduce demand for our services or increase the cost of doing business due to increased litigation or service delivery costs.

Our influencer marketing business is subject to the risks associated with word-of-mouth advertising and endorsements, suchas violations of “truth-in-advertising” laws, the FTC Endorsement Guide, and other similar global regulatory requirements and, more generally, loss of consumer confidence.

As targeted advertising is increasingly scrutinized by regulators and the industry alike, a greater emphasis has been placed on educating consumers about their privacy choices on the Internet and providing them with the right to opt in or out of targeted advertising. The common thread throughout both targeted advertising and the FTC requirements described in detail in the section “Business - Government Regulation” is the increased importance placed on transparency between the marketer and the consumer to ensure that consumers know the difference between “information” and “advertising” on the Internet and are allowed to decide how their personal information will be used in the manner to which they are marketed. There is a risk regarding negative consumer perception of the practice of “undisclosed compensation” of social media users to endorse specific products. As described in the section “Business - Government Regulation,” we undertake various measures through controls across our platforms and by monitoring and enforcing our code of ethics to ensure that marketers and creators comply with the FTC's Endorsement Guide (and analogous laws and guidance in other countries) when utilizing our websites, but if competitors and other companies do not, it could create a negative overall perception for the industry. Not only will readers stop relying on social media and blogs for useful, timely, and insightful information that enriches their lives by having access to up-to-the-minute information that often bears different perspectives and philosophies, but a lack of compliance will almost inevitably result in greater governmental oversight and involvement in an already-highly regulated marketplace. A pervasive overall negative perception caused by a failure of our preventative measures or by others not complying with the FTC’s Endorsement Guide (among the FTC’s other acts, regulations, and policies, and analogous laws and guidance in different countries) could result in reduced revenue and results of operations and higher compliance costs for us.

Failure to comply with federal, state, and international privacy laws and regulations, or the expansion of current or the enactment of new privacy laws or regulations, could adversely affect our business.

A variety of federal, state, and international laws and regulations govern the collection, use, retention, sharing, and security of personal information (“Privacy Laws”), as described in the section “Business - Government Regulation.” Privacy Laws are evolving and subject to potentially differing interpretations. The EU’s GDPR requires companies to satisfy stricter requirements regarding the handling of personal and sensitive data, including its collection, use, protection, and the ability of persons whose data is stored to correct or delete such data about themselves. Other countries have or are expanding their Privacy Laws to follow suit, such as India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act and China’s Personal Information Protection Law. Complying with these new and expanded Privacy Laws will cause us to incur substantial operational costs or may require us to change our business practices. For example, noncompliance with the GDPR could result in proceedings against us by governmental entities or others, fines up to the greater of €20 million or 4% of annual global revenues, and damage to our reputation and brand. We also may find it necessary to establish systems to effectuate cross-border personal data transfers of personal information originating from the European Economic Area, Australia, Japan, and other non-U.S. jurisdictions, which may involve substantial expense and distraction from other aspects of our business.

We have made certain public statements about our privacy practices concerning collecting, using, and disclosing creators’ personal information on our websites and platforms. Several Internet companies have incurred penalties for failing to abide by the representations made in their public-facing privacy notices. In addition, several states have adopted legislation that requires businesses to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices to protect sensitive personal information and to provide notice to consumers in the event of a security breach. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with our public-facing privacy notices, FTC requirements or orders, or other federal, state, or international privacy or consumer protection-related laws, regulations, or industry self-regulatory principles could result in claims, proceedings, or actions against us by governmental or other entities or the incurring by us of other liabilities, which could adversely affect our business. In addition, a failure or perceived failure to comply with industry standards or our privacy policies and practices could

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result in losing creators or marketers and adversely affect our business. Federal, state, and international governmental authorities continue to evaluate the privacy implications of targeted advertising, such as cookies and other tracking technology. The regulation of these cookies and other current online advertising practices could adversely affect our business.

Our business depends on a strong brand, and if we are not able to maintain and enhance our brand, or if we receive unfavorable media coverage, our ability to expand our base of creators and marketers will be impaired and our business and operating results will be harmed.

The brand identity that we have developed has significantly contributed to the success of our business. We also believe that maintaining and enhancing the “IZEA” brand is critical to expanding our base of creators and marketers. Maintaining and enhancing our brand may require us to make substantial investments, and these investments may not be successful. If we fail to promote, maintain, and protect the “IZEA” brand or incur excessive expenses in this effort, our business, prospects, operating results, and financial condition will be materially and adversely affected. We anticipate that, as our market becomes increasingly competitive, maintaining and enhancing our brand may become increasingly complex and expensive. Unfavorable publicity or consumer perception of our platforms, applications, practices or service offerings, or the offerings of our marketers, could adversely affect our reputation, resulting in difficulties in recruiting, decreased revenue, and a negative impact on the number of marketers and the size of our creator base, the loyalty of our creators and the number and variety of sponsorships we offer each day. As a result, our business, prospects, results of operation, and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.

Our business depends on our ability to maintain and scale the network infrastructure necessary to operate our platforms and applications, and any significant disruption in service on our platforms and applications could result in a loss of creators or marketers.

Creators and marketers access our services through our platforms and applications. Our reputation and ability to acquire, retain, and serve our creators and marketers depend on the reliable performance of our platforms and applications and the underlying network infrastructure. If our creator base continues to grow, we will need increasing network capacity and computing power. We have and will continue to spend substantial amounts for cloud storage and computing power to handle the traffic on our platforms and data processing capabilities of our applications. The operation of these systems is expensive and complex and could result in operational failures. If our creator base or the amount of traffic on our platforms and applications grows more quickly than anticipated, we may incur significant additional costs. Interruptions in these systems, whether due to system failures, computer viruses, or physical or electronic break-ins, could affect the security or availability of our platforms and applications and prevent our creators and marketers from accessing our services. Third-party providers host our entire network infrastructure. Any disruption in these services or any failure of these providers to handle existing or increased traffic could significantly harm our business. Any financial or other difficulties these providers face may adversely affect our business, and we exercise little control over these providers, which increases our vulnerability to problems with the services they provide. If we do not maintain or expand our network infrastructure successfully or experience operational failures, we could lose current and potential creators and marketers or transactions between the two groups, which could harm our operating results and financial condition.

If our security measures are breached, or if our services are subject to attacks that degrade or deny the ability of users to access our platforms, our platforms and applications may be perceived as not being secure, marketers and creators may curtail or stop using our services, and we may incur significant legal and financial exposure.

Our platforms and applications and the network infrastructure that third-party providers host involve the storage and transmission of marketer and creator proprietary information, and security breaches could expose us to a risk of loss of this information, litigation, and potential liability. Our security measures may be breached due to the actions of outside parties, employee error, malfeasance, security flaws in the third-party hosting service that we rely upon, or any number of other reasons, and, as a result, an unauthorized party may obtain access to our data or our marketers’ or creators’ data. Additionally, outside parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees, marketers, or creators to disclose sensitive information to gain access to our data or our marketers’ or creators’ data. Although we do have security measures in place, we have had instances where some customers have used fraudulent credit cards to pay for our services. While these breaches of our security did not result in material harm to our business, any future breach or unauthorized access could result in significant legal and financial exposure, damage to our reputation, and a loss of confidence in the security of our platforms and applications that could potentially hurt our business. Because the techniques used to obtain and use unauthorized credit cards, obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems change frequently and often are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures on a timely basis. If an actual or perceived breach of our security occurs, the market perception of the effectiveness of our security measures could be harmed, and we could lose marketers, creators, and vendors and have difficulty obtaining merchant processors or insurance coverage essential for our operations.

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If our technology platforms contain defects, we may need to suspend their availability and our business and reputation would beharmed.

Platforms as complex as ours often contain unknown and undetected defects or performance problems. Many serious defects are frequently found immediately following the introduction and initial release of new platforms or enhancements to existing platforms. Although we attempt to resolve all defects that our customers believe would be considered serious before making our platforms available to them, our products are not defect-free. We may be unable to detect and correct defects before releasing our product commercially. We cannot ensure that undetected defects or performance problems in our existing or future products will not be discovered in the future or that known defects, considered minor by us, will not result in serious issues for our customers. Any such defects or performance problems may be considered serious by our customers, resulting in a decrease in our revenues.

Some aspects of our business processes include open-source software, which poses risks that could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, any failure to comply with the terms of one or more of these open-source licenses, or lawsuits enjoining the use of such licensed software, could negatively affect our business.

We incorporate open-source software into processes supporting our business and anticipate using open-source software in the future. Such open-source software may include software covered by licenses like the GNU General Public License, CreativeML, and Open RAIL-M. Certain aspects of various open-source licenses to which we are subject, as well as third-party services that use these licenses, have not been interpreted by U.S. courts. There is a risk that such licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to operate certain features of our systems, limits our use of the software, inhibits certain aspects of our systems, and negatively affects our business operations.

Some open-source licenses contain requirements that we make source code modifications or derivative works we create publicly available or available on unfavorable terms or at no cost, based upon the type of open-source software we use.

While we monitor our use of open-source software and try to ensure that none is used in a manner that would require us to disclose our proprietary source code or that would otherwise breach the terms of an open-source license, such use could inadvertently occur or could be claimed to have occurred, in part because open-source license terms are often ambiguous. We may face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or demanding the release or license of, modifications or derivative works that we have developed using such open-source software (which could include our proprietary source code or models) or otherwise seeking to enforce the terms of the applicable open-source license. These claims could result in litigation, and if portions of our proprietary AI models or software are determined to be subject to an open-source license, or if the license terms for the open-source software that we incorporate change, we could be required to publicly release all or affected portions of our source code, purchase a costly license, cease offering the implicated products or services unless and until we can re-engineer such source code in a manner that avoids infringement, discontinue or delay the provision of our offerings if re-engineering could not be accomplished on a timely basis or change our business activities, any of which could negatively affect our business operations and potentially our intellectual property rights. In addition, the re-engineering process could require us to expend significant additional research and development resources, and we may not be able to complete the re-engineering process successfully. If we were required to disclose any portion of our proprietary models publicly, we could lose the benefit of trade secret protection for our models.

In addition to risks related to license requirements, the use of certain open-source software can lead to more significant risks than the use of third-party commercial software, as open-source licensors generally do not provide support, warranties, indemnification, controls, or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the origin of the software. There is little legal precedent in this area, and any actual or claimed requirement to disclose our proprietary source code or pay damages for breach of contract could harm our business and could help third parties, including our competitors, develop products and services similar to or better than ours. The use of open-source software may also present additional security risks because the public availability of such software may make it easier for hackers and other third parties to determine how to breach our website and systems that rely on open-source software. Any of these risks associated with the use of open-source software could be challenging to eliminate or manage and, if not addressed, could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

We may be subject to lawsuits for information published on our websites or by our marketers or creators, which may adversely affect our business.

Laws relating to the liability of providers of online services for the activities of their marketers or their social media creators and the content of their marketers’ listings are currently unsettled. It is unclear whether we could be subject to claims for defamation, negligence, copyright or trademark infringement, or claims based on other theories relating to the information we publish on our websites, or the information published across our platforms. These claims have been brought, sometimes successfully, against online services and print publications. We may not successfully avoid civil or criminal liability for

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unlawful activities carried out by our marketers or our creators. Our potential liability for illegal activities of our marketers or our creators or the content of our marketers’ listings could require us to implement measures to reduce our exposure to such liability, which may require us, among other things, to spend substantial resources or to discontinue certain service offerings. Our insurance may not adequately protect us against these types of claims, and the defense of such claims may divert our management's attention from our operations. If we are subject to such lawsuits, it may adversely affect our business.

If we fail to detect click-fraud or other invalid clicks, we could lose the confidence of our marketers and advertising partners as a result of lost revenue to marketers or misappropriation of proprietary and confidential information, thereby causing ourbusiness to suffer.

“Click-fraud” is a form of online fraud when a person or computer program imitates a legitimate user by intentionally clicking on an advertisement to generate a charge per click without having actual interest in the target of the advertisement's link. We are exposed to the risk of fraudulent or illegitimate clicks on our sponsored listings. The security measures we have in place, designed to reduce the likelihood of click-fraud, detect click-fraud from occasionally. Although we do not charge customers on a cost-per-click basis, and the instances of click-fraud that we have detected to date have not had a material effect on our business, click-fraud could result in a marketer experiencing a reduced return on their investment in our advertising programs because the fraudulent clicks will not lead to revenue for the marketers. As a result, our marketers and advertising partners may become dissatisfied with our advertising programs, leading to losing marketers, advertising partners, and revenue. In addition, anyone who can circumvent our security measures could misappropriate proprietary and confidential information or cause interruptions in our operations. We may be required to expend significant capital and other resources to protect against such security breaches or to address problems caused by such breaches. Concerns over the security of the Internet and other online transactions and users' privacy may also deter people from using the Internet to conduct transactions that involve transmitting confidential information.

The influencer and content marketing industry is subject to rapid technological change and, to compete, we must continually enhance our products and services.

We must continue enhancing and improving our products and services' performance, functionality, and reliability. The influencer and content marketing industry is characterized by rapid technological change, changes in user requirements and preferences, frequent new product and service introductions embodying new technologies, and the emergence of new industry standards and practices that could render our products and services obsolete. In the past, we discovered that some of our customers desired additional performance and functionality not currently offered by our products. Our success will depend, in part, on our ability to develop new products and services that address our customers' increasingly sophisticated and varied needs and respond to technological advances and emerging industry standards and practices on a cost-effective and timely basis. Developing our technology and other proprietary technology involves significant technical and business risks. We may fail to use new technologies effectively or to adapt our proprietary technology and systems to customer requirements or emerging industry standards. If we cannot adapt to changing market conditions, customer requirements, or emerging industry standards, we may not be able to increase our revenue and expand our business.

The transition in certain of our leadership positions will be critical to our success, and our business could be negatively impacted if we do not successfully manage these transitions.

In September 2024, Edward Murphy resigned as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and as the Chairman of the Board, and Ryan Schram resigned as the Company’s President, Chief Operating Officer, and a member of the Board. The departure and transition of key leadership personnel can take significant knowledge and experience from our company. While this loss of knowledge and experience can be mitigated through a successful transition, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in such efforts. Further, if our new Chief Executive Officer formulates different or changed views, the future strategy and plans of our company may differ materially from those of the past. If we do not successfully manage senior leadership transitions, it could be viewed negatively by our customers, employees, or investors and could have an adverse impact on our business and strategic direction.

If we are unable to attract and retain qualified personnel, we may not be able to successfully manage our business and achieve our objectives.

Our future success and our ability to expand our operations depends in large part on our ability to attract and retain qualified engineers, sales and marketing, and senior management personnel. Competition for these types of employees is intense due to the limited number of qualified professionals and the high demand for them. We have in the past experienced difficulty in recruiting qualified personnel. In addition, current or future immigration laws may make it more difficult to hire or retain qualified engineers, further limiting the pool of available talent. Failure to attract, assimilate and retain personnel, including key management, technical, sales, and marketing personnel, would have a material adverse effect on our business and potential growth.

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Provisions in our charter, Nevada law and our Rights Agreement may discourage potential acquirers of the Company.

Our charter documents contain provisions that may have the effect of making it more difficult for a third party to acquire or attempt to acquire control of the Company, including enabling the Board to issue preferred stock with voting, conversion and exchange rights that may negatively affect the voting power or other rights of our common stockholders. In addition, we are subject to certain provisions of Nevada law that limit, in some cases, our ability to engage in certain business combinations with significant shareholders. In addition, on May 28, 2024, the Board declared a dividend to the holders of the Company’s common stock of one preferred share purchase right (a “Right”) per share of common stock. Each Right initially entitles the registered holder to purchase from the Company one one-thousandth of a share of Series A Junior Participating Preferred Stock, par value $0.001 per share, of the Company (the “Preferred Shares”) at a price of $8.25 per one one-thousandth of a Preferred Share, subject to adjustment. The Board declared the dividend and adopted the rights agreement containing the description and terms of the Rights, to protect stockholders from coercive or otherwise unfair takeover tactics; however, the Rights may have the effect of delaying or discouraging a merger, tender offer, or assumption of control of the Company not approved by the Board. As a result, whether due to the Rights or provisions in our charter and under Nevada law, acquisitions of us that our shareholders may consider in their best interests may not occur.

Risks Relating to our Common Stock

Our common stock may be delisted if we fail to maintain compliance with the requirements for continued listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market, and the price of our common stock and our ability to access the capital markets could be negatively impacted.

Our common stock is listed for trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market (“Nasdaq”) under the symbol “IZEA.” To maintain this listing, we must satisfy Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements, including, among other things, a minimum closing bid price requirement of $1.00 per share for continued inclusion on the Nasdaq Capital Market under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2) (the “Bid Price Rule”). In 2022, we fell out of compliance with the Bid Price Rule and regained compliance in 2023 by enacting a reverse stock split of our common stock at a ratio of 4 for 1.

Although we are currently in compliance with the Bid Price Rule, if we fail to meet this or any of the other continued listing requirements in the future, our common stock may be delisted from Nasdaq, which could reduce the liquidity of our common stock materially and result in a corresponding material reduction in the price of our common stock. In addition, delisting could harm our ability to raise capital through alternative financing sources on terms acceptable to us or at all and may result in the potential loss of confidence by investors, employees, and business development opportunities. Such a delisting likely would impair your ability to sell or purchase our common stock when you wish to do so. Further, if we were to be delisted from Nasdaq, our common stock may no longer be recognized as a “covered security,” we would be subject to regulation in each state in which we offer our securities. Thus, delisting from Nasdaq could adversely affect our ability to raise additional financing through the public or private sale of equity securities, significantly impact the ability of investors to trade our securities, and negatively impact the value and liquidity of our common stock.

We have raised and may raise in the future, additional capital to meet our business requirements and such capital raising may be costly or difficult to obtain and could dilute current stockholders’ ownership interests.

We have incurred losses since inception and expect to continue to incur losses until we can significantly grow our revenues. Therefore, we may need additional financing to maintain and expand our business.

The terms of any securities issued by us in future capital transactions may be more favorable to new investors and may include preferences, superior voting rights, and the issuance of warrants or other derivative securities, which may have a further dilutive effect on the holders of any of our securities then outstanding. In addition, we may incur substantial costs in pursuing future capital financing, including investment banking, legal, accounting, securities law compliance fees, printing and distribution expenses, and other costs. We may be required to bear the costs even if we are unable to complete any such capital financing. We may also be required to recognize non-cash expenses in connection with certain securities we issue, such as convertible promissory notes and warrants, which may adversely impact our financial results.

Exercises of stock options, warrants, and other securities will dilute your percentage of ownership and could cause our stock price to fall.

As of March 25, 2025, we had 16,914,522 shares of our common stock issued and outstanding, which excludes outstanding stock options to purchase 31,147 shares of our common stock at an average exercise price of $18.01 per share and unvested restricted stock units of 1,252,861 shares with an intrinsic value of $2.7 million. We also have reserved 1,310,817 shares of common stock under our May 2011 Equity Incentive Plan for issuing stock options, restricted stock, or other awards to purchase or receive, and 74,521 shares of common stock available for issuance under our 2014 Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

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On November 30, 2023, the IZEA Board of Directors adopted the IZEA Worldwide, Inc. 2023 Inducement Plan (the “Inducement Plan”) to accommodate equity grants to new employees hired by IZEA or its subsidiaries, including employment inducements in connection with acquisition transactions. Under the Inducement Plan, IZEA may grant restricted stock units (“RSUs”), including performance-based and time-based RSUs, with respect to up to a total of 1,800,000 shares of IZEA common stock. As permitted by Rule 5635(c)(4) of the Nasdaq Listing Rules, the Inducement Plan was adopted without stockholder approval. As of March 24, 2025, an aggregate of 50,000 RSUs, net of forfeitures are outstanding under the Inducement Plan.

In the future, we may grant these additional shares or issue new securities per terms defined in employment agreements or as part of additional incentive programs. The exercise, conversion, or exchange by holders of stock options, RSUs, or warrants for shares of common stock, or the issuance of new shares of common stock for additional compensation will dilute the percentage ownership of our stockholders. Issuance of a substantial number of shares of our common stock could cause the price of our common stock to fall and could impair our ability to raise capital by selling additional securities.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business, or our market, or if they adversely change their recommendations regarding our stock, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock is influenced by the research and reports that securities or industry analysts may publish about us, our business, our market, or our competitors. No person is under any obligation to publish research or reports on us, and any person publishing research or reports on us may discontinue doing so at any time without notice. If adequate research coverage is not maintained on our Company or if any of the analysts who cover us downgrade our stock or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business or provide relatively more favorable recommendations about our competitors, our stock price would likely decline. If any analysts who cover us were to cease coverage of our Company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

Our earnings are subject to substantial quarterly and annual fluctuations and to market downturns.

Our revenues and earnings may fluctuate significantly in the future. General economic or other political conditions may cause a downturn in the market for our products or services. A future downturn in the market for our products or services could adversely affect our operating results and increase the risk of substantial quarterly and annual fluctuations in our earnings. Our future operating results may be affected by many factors, including, but not limited, to our ability to retain existing or secure anticipated marketers and creators; our ability to develop, introduce, and market new products and services on a timely basis; changes in the mix of products developed, produced, and sold; disputes with our marketers and creators; and general economic conditions causing a reduction in spending by our customers. These factors affecting our future earnings are difficult to forecast and could harm our quarterly and/or annual operating results. The change in our earnings or general economic conditions may cause the market price of our common stock to fluctuate.

The price of our common stock in the public markets has experienced, and may in the future experience, extreme volatility due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control.

Since our common stock started trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market, it has been relatively thinly traded, and at times, been subject to price volatility. Recently, from January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2024, the closing price of our common stock ranged from a low of $1.91 on February 21, 2024, to a high of $3.42 on May 14, 2024. During the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, the closing price of our common stock averaged $2.75 with an average daily trading volume of 47,548 shares.

In addition to shares of our common stock, the stock market in general, and the stock prices of technology-based companies in particular, have experienced volatility that often has been unrelated to the operating performance of any specific public company. The market price of our common stock has historically experienced and may continue to experience significant volatility. As a result, the market price could fluctuate widely in price in response to various factors, many of which are beyond our control, including the following:

•changes in our industry;

•competitive pricing pressures;

•our ability to obtain working capital financing;

•additions or departures of key personnel;

•limited “public float” in the hands of a small number of persons whose sales or lack of sales could result in positive or negative pricing pressure on the market prices of our common stock;

•speculative trading practices of certain market participants;

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•actual or purported “short squeeze” trading activity;

•expiration of any Rule 144 holding periods or registration of unregistered securities issued by us;

•sales of our common stock;

•our ability to execute our business plan;

•operating results that fall below expectations;

•loss of any strategic relationship or significant customer;

•regulatory developments; and

•economic and other external factors.

These and other market and industry factors may cause the market price and demand for our common stock to fluctuate substantially, regardless of our actual operating performance, which may limit or prevent investors from readily selling their shares of common stock and may otherwise negatively affect the liquidity of our common stock.

Further, on some occasions, our stock price may be, or may be purported to be, subject to “short squeeze” activity. A “short squeeze” is a technical market condition that occurs when the price of a stock increases substantially, forcing market participants who had taken a position that its price would fall (i.e., who had sold the stock “short,”) to buy it, which in turn may create significant, short-term demand for the stock not for fundamental reasons, but rather due to the need for such market participants to acquire the stock to forestall the risk of even more significant losses. A “short squeeze” condition in the market for a stock can lead to short-term conditions involving very high volatility and trading that may or may not track fundamental valuation models.

In addition, in the past, class action litigation has often been instituted against companies whose securities have experienced periods of volatility in market price. Securities litigation brought against us following volatility in our stock price, regardless of the merit or ultimate results of such litigation, could result in substantial costs, which would hurt our financial condition and operating results and divert management’s attention and resources from our business.

General Risks

Adverse macroeconomic or market conditions may harm our business.

Adverse macroeconomic conditions, including inflation, slower growth or recession, new or increased tariffs and other barriers to trade, changes to fiscal and monetary policy, tighter credit, higher interest rates, high unemployment, and currency fluctuations, can materially adversely affect demand for the Company’s services. In addition, consumer confidence and spending can be adversely affected in response to financial market volatility, negative financial news, declines in income or asset values, changes to labor and healthcare costs, and other economic factors.

A downturn in the economic environment can also lead to increased credit and collectability risk on the Company’s trade receivables and declines in the fair value of the Company’s financial instruments. These and other economic factors can materially adversely affect the Company’s business, results of operations, and financial condition.

Geopolitical instability, including the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, could have a significant adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and cash flow in the future.

Geopolitical crises raise a host of potential threats and risk factors to consider, even though we do not conduct business directly in Ukraine or Russia and only conduct limited business connected to Israel. Geopolitical instability may lead to sanctions brought against aggressor countries that will impact the import, export, sale, and supply of goods and services with companies located in the U.S. and other regions. Many companies have ceased all operations in certain warring countries, with near- and short-term losses expected in the millions. This will have a negative impact on the global economy and affect economic and capital markets. A downturn in the economy could drive our customers to cancel or reduce existing bookings, which will result in a reduction in revenue.

In light of the dramatic sanctions imposed against Russia, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”) warned of the risk of Russian cyber-attacks on U.S. networks and critical infrastructure. While we do not think we are a likely target of a cyber-attack, we must be diligent in our IT controls and protect of our company’s, employee’s, vendor’s, and customers' data. If we do fall victim to such an attack, it could have an adverse effect on our business operations.

Public company compliance may make it more difficult to attract and retain officers and directors.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and new rules subsequently implemented by the SEC have required changes in the corporate governance practices of public companies. As a public company, we expect these rules and regulations to increase our compliance costs and make certain activities more time-consuming and costly. As a public company, we also expect that these

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rules and regulations may make it more difficult and expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance and we may be required to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. As a result, it may be more complex and costly for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our Board of Directors or as executive officers.

ITEM 1B - UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

ITEM 1C - CYBERSECURITY

Risk Management and Strategy

We have developed a cybersecurity program based on internationally recognized frameworks, such as SOC-2 compliance for systems and organization controls related to our software development, and maps to standards published by Center for Internet Security (CIS) for our day-to-day operational stance. We conduct regular scans, penetration tests, and vulnerability assessments to identify any potential threats or vulnerabilities in our systems. Our processes to assess, identify and manage the material risks from cyber threats include assessing the risks arising from threats associated with third party service providers, including cloud-based platforms.

We have developed a cyber crisis response plan for handling high severity security incidents and coordinating across multiple parts of the company. Our incident response team monitors threat intelligence feeds, handles vulnerability management and responds to incidents. In addition, we routinely perform training, simulations, and drills across company personnel.

Internally, we have a security awareness program which includes training that reinforces our information technology and security policies, standards and practices, and we require that our employees comply with these policies. The security awareness program offers training on how to identify potential cybersecurity risks and protect our resources and information. This training is mandatory for all employees on an annual basis, and it is supplemented by testing initiatives, including periodic phishing tests. We also provide specialized security training for certain employee roles, such as application developers. Finally, our privacy program requires all employees to take periodic awareness training on data privacy. This training includes information about confidentiality and security, as well as responding to unauthorized access to or use of information.

From time to time, we engage third-party service providers to enhance our risk mitigation efforts. For instance, we have engaged an independent cybersecurity advisor to lead a cybersecurity crisis simulation exercise that has been used by our senior leaders to prepare for a possible cyber crisis. In addition, we have engaged a security auditor and advisor in systems administration and penetration testing, a systems auditor and advisor for cybersecurity and compliance, an IT Systems auditor and assurance vendor and an email security and cybersecurity training partner. We also purchase insurance to protect us against the risk of cybersecurity breaches.

To date, risks from cybersecurity threats have not previously materially affected us, and we currently are not aware of risks from cybersecurity threats that are reasonably likely to materially affect us, including our business, strategy, results of operations or financial condition. However, as discussed more fully under “Item 1A – Risk Factors”, the sophistication of cyber threats continues to increase, and the preventative actions we take to reduce the risk of cyber incidents and protect our systems and information may be insufficient. Accordingly, no matter how well designed or implemented our controls are, we will not be able to anticipate all security breaches of these types and we may not be able to implement effective preventive measures against such security breaches in a timely manner.

Governance

Role of Management

IZEA’s CEO, our Director, Systems & Security, and our Senior Development Operations (DevOps) leader jointly manage of our cybersecurity risks. We have established a Security Council, which includes our CEO, Director, Systems & Security, Senior Manager, Systems & Security, Chief Financial Officer, General Counsel, and other senior officers, that meets quarterly to review cybersecurity and information security matters. The Security Council has primary management oversight responsibility for assessing and managing information security, fraud, vendor, data protection and privacy, and cybersecurity risks.

We have a security incident response framework in place. We use this incident response framework as part of our process to keep our management and Board of Directors informed about and monitor the prevention, detection, mitigation, and remediation of cybersecurity incidents. The framework is a set of coordinated procedures and tasks that our incident response team, under our CEO's direction, executes to ensure timely and accurate resolution of cybersecurity incidents. Our cybersecurity framework includes regular compliance assessments with our policies, standards, and applicable state and federal

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statutes and regulations. In addition, we validate compliance with our internal data security controls through security monitoring utilities and internal and external audits.

Our CEO and Director, Systems & Security, have extensive experience in the information technology area. In particular, our Director, Systems & Security has over twenty years of professional experience in the information security area, including as a result of his roles as a director of security, a security architect, and a software security engineer at various companies.

Role of the Board of Directors

The Board of Directors Audit Committee is responsible for the primary oversight of our information security and cybersecurity programs. The Audit Committee receives periodic reports from our CEO on cyber risks and threats, the status of initiatives to enhance our information security systems, assessments of our security posture, and insights into emerging threats. Additionally, the CEO reports to the Audit Committee on our Company-wide enterprise risk assessment, including evaluating cyber risks and threats. The Chair of the Audit Committee subsequently informs the full Board of these cybersecurity matters and key discussion topics and meeting materials and recommends updates to our information security policies and programs for Board approval.

ITEM 2 - PROPERTIES

As a virtual-first employer, we do not have any current physical locations, and all of our employees are working remotely. Our corporate mailing address is 1317 Edgewater Dr. #1880, Orlando, Florida 32804.

ITEM 3 – LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

From time to time, we may become involved in lawsuits and other legal proceedings arising in the ordinary course of our business. Litigation is subject to inherent uncertainties and adverse results in any litigation that may occur from time to time that may harm our business. As of March 25, 2025, we are not party to any legal proceedings or claims that we believe would or could have, individually or in the aggregate, a material adverse effect on us.

ITEM 4 – MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable.

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PART II

ITEM 5 - MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Common Stock Information

Our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol IZEA. As of March 25, 2025, we had approximately 104 shareholders of record of our common stock. This figure does not include beneficial owners whose shares are held in the names of various securities brokers, dealers, and registered clearing agencies.

Dividend Policy

We have never paid cash dividends to holders of our common stock, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future as we intend to retain any earnings for use in our business. Any future determination to pay dividends will be at the discretion of the Board of Directors and will depend upon our results of operations, financial condition, contractual restrictions, restrictions imposed by applicable law, and other factors the Board of Directors deems relevant.

Securities Authorized for Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans

See the section “Securities Authorized For Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans,” under Part III, Item 12 of this Annual Report.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

On November 30, 2023, the Board of Directors adopted the IZEA Worldwide, Inc. 2023 Inducement Plan (the “Inducement Plan”), allowing for a total of 1.8 million shares of IZEA common stock to new employees of IZEA and its subsidiaries. On December 1, 2023, the Company issued 328,354 performance-based grants under its 2023 Inducement Plan to five employees of Hoozu in conjunction with the acquisition of Hoozu, which grants were subsequently deemed to be forfeited for non-performance in conjunction with the December 2024 Hoozu divestiture.On October 15, 2024, the Company granted 50,000 shares in conjunction with the employment of our Chief Talent Officer. Shares associated with the Inducement Plan were registered on March 27th, 2025, under Form S-8.

Issuer Repurchases of Equity Securities

(1) On June 28, 2024, the Company announced the Board’s authorization of a stock repurchase program under which the Company may repurchase up to $5.0 million of its common stock from time to time, subject to market conditions. On September 6, 2024, in connection with the Cooperation Agreement (as defined in Item 7 below), the Board increased the authorization to $10.0 million. On September 30, 2024, the Company entered into an agreement adopted under the safe harbors provided by Rule 10b5-1 and Rule 10b-18 of the Exchange Act. The agreement provides for the purchase of up to $9.9 million of common stock, commencing on November 1, 2024, and terminating on the earliest of May 15, 2025, upon the aggregate number of shares being repurchased or upon certain other events.

ITEM 6 - RESERVED

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ITEM 7 – MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Company Overview

IZEA Worldwide, Inc. (“IZEA”, “Company,” “we”, “us” or “our”) is a leading innovator in the creator economy, specializing in providing value through managing custom content workflow, creator search and targeting, bidding, analytics, and payment processing. The Company’s mission is to make creator economy solutions for marketers. We offer solutions that range from creator agency services to creator technologies to a marketplace that connects marketers with creators. By fostering these connections, we light up the creator economy with IZEAs - social-first content, made by creators, that are culturally relevant and move at the speed of culture. champion the creators, empowering individuals to monetize their creativity, content, and influence.

IZEA made a significant mark in the industry by launching the first influencer marketplace, PayPerPost, in 2006, setting a precedent for the evolution of digital marketing platforms. Today, the Company caters to a diverse range of clients, including independent creators and Fortune 10 brands, offering services in influencer marketing, customer-generated content, and custom content creation. IZEA provides tech-enabled managed services and self-service software tools, accommodating the varying needs of its clientele and ensuring mutually beneficial collaborations within its ecosystem.

IZEA Flex is a robust suite of tools that enhance IZEA’s ability to manage influencer marketing at scale. Beyond enabling seamless campaign execution, Flex empowers IZEA’s internal teams to measure influencer marketing performance with precision. The platform boasts a suite of core modules, which together provide a comprehensive toolkit for optimizing influencer marketing campaigns. Flex is distinguished by its ability to quantify the ROI of marketing efforts at scale, complemented by the introduction of AI-powered tools that streamline content and creative campaign ideation.

On IZEA.com, the Company offers a dynamic environment where creators can showcase their work to marketers, and marketers can directly engage and hire influencers, simplifying the collaboration process. This platform, alongside the innovative use of generative AI tools in FormAI, underscores IZEA's commitment to facilitating content creation and enhancing the efficiency of digital marketing strategies.

Leadership and Strategy Transition

On September 6, 2024, the Board appointed Patrick J. Venetucci as the new Chief Executive Officer following the resignation of Edward H. (Ted) Murphy.Under the terms of their respective separation agreements, both Mr. Murphy and Ryan S. Schram, President, Chief Operating Officer, and Director, resigned their Director positions as of September 6, 2024, and their executive positions effective September 15, 2024. Neither resignation stemmed from any disagreement with the Company's management or Board.Concurrently, the Company entered into a cooperation agreement (the “Cooperation Agreement”) with GP Cash Management, Ltd., GP Investments, Ltd., Rodrigo Boscolo, and Antonio Bonchristiano (collectively, the "GP Parties"). As part of this agreement, the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”) appointed Mr. Bonchristiano and Mr. Boscolo as directors, filling the vacancies created by the departures of Ted Murphy and Ryan Schram. Mr. Bonchristiano serves on the Compensation Committee and Nominations and Corporate Governance Committee. Messers Bonchristiano and Boscolo serve on the newly created Strategy and Capital Allocation Committee.

In December 2024, the Company implemented elements of a strategic shift intended to accelerate its path to profitability, including the divestiture of unprofitable investments and targeted workforce reductions, primarily in product development and marketing, and aligning its sales and customer delivery teams into industry verticals to target growth opportunities and improve account management and customer retention. We also completed the divestiture of Hoozu Holdings on December 18, 2024 and realigned our sales and client development teams to serve all markets, including international, from our North American hub. The Company believes that related cost reductions and efficiency improvements will impact short and long-term profitability measures.

Key Components of Results of Operations

Overall consolidated results of operations are evaluated based on Revenue, Cost of Revenue, Sales and Marketing expenses, General and Administrative expenses, Depreciation and Amortization, and Other Income (Expense), net.

Revenue

We generate revenue primarily from our managed services, when a marketer (typically a brand, agency, or partner) pays us to provide custom content, influencer marketing, amplification, or other campaign management services (“Managed Services”). Additionally, we generate revenue from subscription fees charged to access our software platforms, license and transaction fees from self-service customers, and fees from such as inactivity fees, early cash-out fees, and other miscellaneous fees charged to users of our platforms (collectively, “SaaS Services Revenue”).

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Cost of Revenue

Our cost of revenue consists of direct costs paid to our third-party creators who provide the custom content, influencer marketing, or amplification services for our Managed Service customers, where we report revenue on a gross basis. It also includes internal costs for our campaign fulfillment and SaaS support departments. These costs include salaries, bonuses, commissions, stock-based compensation, employee benefit costs, and miscellaneous departmental costs related to the personnel responsible for supporting our customers and ultimately fulfilling our obligations under our contracts with customers.

Sales and Marketing

Our sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of salaries, bonuses, commissions, stock-based compensation, employee benefit costs, travel, and miscellaneous departmental costs for our marketing, sales, and sales support personnel. They also include marketing expenses such as brand marketing, public relations events, trade shows, marketing materials, and travel expenses.

General and Administrative

Our general and administrative (“G&A”) expense consists primarily of salaries, bonuses, commissions, stock-based compensation, employee benefit costs, and miscellaneous departmental costs related to our executive, finance, legal, human resources, and other administrative personnel. It also includes travel, public company, investor relations expenses, accounting, legal professional services fees, leasehold facilities, and other corporate-related expenses.

Within G&A, we incorporate technology and development costs, consisting primarily of our payroll costs for our internal engineers and contractors responsible for developing, maintaining, and improving our technology, as well as hosting and software subscription costs. These costs are expensed as incurred, except to the extent that they are associated with internal-use software that qualifies for capitalization, which is then recorded as software development costs in the consolidated balance sheet. When major software components are developed, we capitalize these as intangible assets. Depreciation and amortization related to these costs are separately stated under depreciation and amortization in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss.

G&A expenses include current period gains and losses on our acquisition costs payable and gains and losses from the sale of fixed assets. Impairments on fixed assets, intangible assets, and goodwill, are included as part of G&A expenses presented separately in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss when deemed material.

Depreciation and Amortization

Depreciation and amortization expenses consists primarily of amortization of our internal-use software and acquired intangible assets from our business acquisitions. To a lesser extent, we also have depreciation and amortization on equipment used by our personnel. Costs are amortized or depreciated over the estimated useful lives of the associated assets.

Other Income (Expense)

Interest Expense. Interest expense is primarily related to the payment plans for purchasing computer equipment.

Other Income. Other income consists primarily of interest income earned on investments, as well as realized gains and losses on foreign currency exchange transactions, primarily related to the Canadian and Australian Dollar..

Results of Operations for the Twelve Months Ended December 31, 2024 and 2023

The following table sets forth a summary of our consolidated statements of operations and the change between the periods:

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Twelve Months Ended December 31,

Costs and expenses:

Other income (expense):

Revenue

The following table illustrates our revenue by type, the percentage of total revenue by type, and the change between the periods:

Twelve Months Ended December 31,

Managed Services revenue during the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, decreased by $0.7 million, or 1.9%, from the same period in 2023. In January 2023, we announced the discontinuation of our relationship with a significant customer (referred to as the “non-recurring customer”). Managed Services revenue attributable to this non-recurring customer totaled approximately $8.1 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023. For the year ending December 31, 2024, Managed Services revenue from our recurring customer base reached $31.7 million, while Hoozu, which we divested in December 2024, contributed approximately $3.4 million.

SaaS Services revenue is generated by the self-service use of our technology platforms by marketers to manage their own content workflow, influencer marketing campaigns and associated fees. SaaS Service revenue increased to $0.8 million during the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, compared to $0.5 million in the same period of 2023. The increase is primarily due to a growing number of licensees but at lower average license pricing.

Cost of Revenue

Cost of revenue for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, was $21.2 million, a decrease of $0.4 million, or approximately 1.9%, compared to the same period in 2023. The cost of revenue associated with our non-recurring customer was approximately $6.0 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023. For the year ending December 31, 2024, the cost of revenue from our recurring customer base totaled $18.2 million, with Hoozu contributing approximately $3.0 million. Excluding costs related to Hoozu and our non-recurring customer in both periods, adjusted cost of revenue reflects a net increase of $3.0 million, or 19.5%, which was driven by lower average margins from our ongoing customer base.

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Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing expenses for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, increased by $1.6 million, or approximately 15.0%, compared to the same period in 2023. The increase was primarily driven by higher sales and related international contract sales compensation costs.

General and Administrative

General and administrative expenses for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, increased by $3.5 million, or approximately 26.7%, compared to the same period in 2023. The expense increase was primarily attributable to $1.3 million in severance costs related to executive departures and targeted workforce reductions, and $1.6 million in stock compensation mainly related to the accelerated vesting of equity awards. Additionally, professional services increased by $0.4 million, and contractor expenses rose by $0.6 million. These increases were partially offset by a $0.4 million reduction in software and licensing costs and $0.2 million in public company costs.

Impairment of Goodwill

In September 2024, the Company identified a triggering event related to changes in executive management and Board-level changes, including the Cooperation Agreement. As a result, the Company performed an interim goodwill impairment assessment using both the income approach (discounted cash flow method) and the market approach (guideline transaction method). The assessment determined that the carrying value of the Company’s IZEA reporting segment as of September 30, 2024, exceeded its fair value. Consequently, the Company recorded a $4.0 million impairment of goodwill related to prior IZEA acquisitions in September 30, 2024. Additionally, the Company conducted a qualitative assessment of the carrying value of its Hoozu reporting unit, which did not indicate impairment as of September 30, 2024.

Depreciation and Amortization

Depreciation and amortization expenses for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, increased by $0.4 million, or approximately 62.5%, compared to the same period in 2023.

Depreciation expense on property and equipment was approximately $0.1 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, and $0.1 million for 2023, respectively.

Amortization expenses were approximately $1.1 million and $0.6 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. Amortization expense related to internal-use software development costs was $0.8 million for 2024, up from $0.6 million in 2023, primarily due to $0.2 million of accelerated amortization for certain software assets no longer in use. This adjustment reflects the Company’s ongoing review of its software portfolio to align with current operational needs and strategic objectives, ensuring that the carrying value of these assets accurately reflects their utility and contribution to the business.

Other Income (Expense)

Interest expense totaled $8,129 during the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, compared to $8,226 in the prior year period.

Loss from divestiture of assets totaled $2.3 million during the twelve months ended December 31, 2024. This loss resulted from the sale of the Hoozu business unit, including the derecognition of goodwill, intangible assets, and other associated assets. The divestiture was part of the Company’s strategic initiative to streamline its portfolio and focus resources on core growth areas.

Other income net totaled $2.5 million in investment portfolio interest income for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, compared to $2.5 million in the prior year. Despite the stable income, the average return on invested capital increased from 4.3% in 2023 to 4.7% in 2024, driven by changes in portfolio composition and prevailing interest rates.

Net Loss

Net loss for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024 was $19.2 million, a 11.9 million increase from the net loss of $7.4 million for the same period in 2023. The increase in net loss was primarily driven by the impairment and derecognition of goodwill during the year, as well as a loss from the divestiture of Hoozu. Additionally, higher personnel costs related to executive departures and targeted workforce reductions, including severance and accelerated vesting of equity awards, as applicable, contributed to the increase in expenses.

Other Comprehensive Loss

Comprehensive loss includes unrealized gains on investment securities of $0.3 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, and unrealized losses of $0.5 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023.

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Key Metrics

We review the information provided by our key financial metrics, Managed Services Bookings, and gross billings to assess the progress of our business and make decisions on where to allocate our resources. As our business evolves, we may change the key financial metrics in future periods.

Managed Services Bookings

Managed Services Bookings is a measure of all sales orders received during a time period, less any cancellations received or refunds given during the same period. Sales order contracts vary in complexity with each customer and range from custom content delivery to integrated marketing services; our contracts generally run from several months for smaller contracts up to twelve months for larger contracts. We recognize revenue from our Managed Services contracts on a percentage of completion basis as we deliver the content or services over time, which can vary greatly. Historically, bookings have converted to revenues over a 6 month period on average. However, since late 2020, we have received increasingly larger and more complex sales orders, which, in turn, has lengthened the average revenue period to approximately 9 months, with the largest contracts taking longer to complete. During 2024, the time between bookings and revenue improved to an average of 7.5 months. For this reason, Managed Services Bookings, while an overall indicator of the health of our business, may not be used to predict quarterly revenues and could be subject to future adjustments. Managed Services Bookings is useful information as it reflects the number of orders received in one period, even though revenue from those orders may be reflected over varying amounts of time. We use the Managed Services Bookings metric to plan operational staffing, to identify key customer group trends to enlighten go-to-market activities, and to inform its product development efforts. Managed Services Bookings for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, was $39.1 million and $28.1 million, respectively.

Non-GAAP Financial Measure

Net Managed Services Revenue

Net managed services revenue is a non-GAAP measure of total managed services revenues less the external direct costs associated with this revenue. Direct costs include the cost of creators and outside services, such as technical and content production costs. We exclude labor and other internal expenses from this measure to determine our labor efficiency rate. We have a principal relationship in our managed services contracts, which requires us to recognize revenues on a gross basis. We track net managed services revenue by customer and customer vertical to aid in resource allocation and our efforts to accelerate our path to profitability; however, this does not impact how we recognize gross managed services revenue.

Adjusted EBITDA

Following the September 2024 change in management, our Chief Operating Decision Maker (“CODM”) and Board of Directors have emphasized our operating results for planning purposes to allocate resources to enhance the financial performance of our business. Adjusted EBITDA is a “non-GAAP financial measure” under the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). We define Adjusted EBITDA as operating income (or loss) from operations before depreciation and amortization, non-cash stock-based compensation, and other operating adjustments that are non-recurring or unusual to our core ongoing operations.

We use Adjusted EBITDA as a measure of operating performance, for planning purposes, to allocate resources to enhance the financial performance of our business and in communications with our Board of Directors regarding our financial performance. We believe that Adjusted EBITDA also provides valuable information to investors as it excludes non-cash transactions, and it provides consistency to facilitate period-to-period comparisons.

You should not consider Adjusted EBITDA in isolation or as a substitute for an analysis of our results of operations as under GAAP. Not all companies calculate Adjusted EBITDA similarly, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure. Moreover, Adjusted OCF has limitations as an analytical tool, including that Adjusted EBITDA:

•does not include stock-based compensation expense, which is a non-cash expense, but has been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, a significant recurring expense for our business and an essential part of our compensation strategy;

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•does not include stock issued for payment of services, which is a non-cash expense, but has been, and is expected to be for the foreseeable future, an important means for us to compensate our directors, vendors, and other parties who provide us with services;

•does not include depreciation and intangible assets amortization expense, impairment charges, and gains or losses on disposal of equipment, which is not always a current period cash expense, but the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future; and

•does not include non-operating activity, including interest income and other gains, losses, and expenses that we believe are not indicative of our ongoing core operating results, but these items may represent a reduction or increase in cash available to us.

Because of these limitations, Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered a measure of discretionary cash available to us to invest in the operation and growth of our business or as a measure of cash that will be available to us to meet our obligations. You should compensate for these limitations by relying primarily on our GAAP results and using these non-GAAP financial measures as supplements. In evaluating this non-GAAP financial measure, you should be aware that in the future, we may incur expenses similar to those for which adjustments are made in calculating Adjusted EBITDA. Our presentation of this non-GAAP financial measure should also not be construed to infer that our future results will be unaffected by unusual or non-recurring items.

The following table sets forth a reconciliation from the GAAP measurement of net loss to our non-GAAP financial measure of Adjusted EBITDA for the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, and 2023:

Twelve Months Ended December 31,

Impairment of goodwill and intangible assets 4,130,477 —

Adjustment to fair market value of digital assets (28,414) (90,320)

Non-cash stock issued for payment of services 319,070 300,015

Loss on sale of subsidiary 2,286,083 —

Non-recurring charges 7,668 —

Other non-cash items — (4,505)

Adjusted EBITDA as a % of Revenue (24.1) % (15.1) %

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Near-Term Liquidity and Capital Resources

The Company’s primary cash needs have historically been funding the development and integration of our technology platforms used in its business, marketing expenses, and general and administrative (“G&A”) expenses, including salaries, bonuses, and commissions. The Company has incurred losses and negative cash flow from operations for most periods since inception, primarily the result of costs associated with third-party creators, salaries, bonuses and stock-based compensation, and other G&A expenses, including technology and development costs, which has resulted in a total accumulated deficit of $104.3 million as of December 31, 2024. We anticipate a decline in near-term operating expenses as a result of our recent workforce reductions, the divestiture of unprofitable international business activities, and reduced investments in product development, marketing, and administrative functions. While we have not yet achieved profitability, and we will likely continue to invest in areas we expect will help us grow, we believe we have sufficient resources to fund operations and planned investments for at least the next twelve months.

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We had cash and cash equivalents of $44.6 million as of December 31, 2024, compared to $37.4 million as of December 31, 2023. This increase of $7.2 million is primarily the result of the maturing of certain investments, including $6.4 million classified as short-term investments.

Twelve Months Ended December 31,

Net cash (used for)/provided by:

Net cash used for operating activities was $11.5 million during the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, primarily driven by the continued use of cash to fund operating cash flow and to fund increases in net working capital. Net cash provided by investing activities was $19.8 million during the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, primarily due to the maturity of marketable securities. Net cash used for financing activities during the twelve months ended December 31, 2024 was $1.1 million, primarily driven by stock repurchase activity.

Long-Term Liquidity

We anticipate that our operating expenses will increase over time to support higher levels of revenue and required working capital financing as we continue to pursue the expansion of our business. We currently believe that we have adequate cash and long-term investments to fund our business growth for the next twelve months; however, should additional capital become necessary, we expect these funds would be financed predominately through proceeds from future equity, equity-based, or debt offerings, unless and until our operations are profitable and sustain our ongoing capital needs. As a result, our business success could significantly depend upon our ability to obtain the funding necessary to support our operations.

Financial Condition and Outlook

The Company has a strong Balance Sheet, including $51.1 million in cash and short-term investments, and no debt. Our capital expenditures represent the cost of developing new features for our internal-use technology and licensed products. Operating cash flows reflect our continued investment in the growth of our product licensing and managed services businesses.

As a part of our plan to reduce costs and accelerate our pathway to profitability, we exited unprofitable international initiatives, including the divestiture of Hoozu and the cessation of on-shore operations in China and the U.K. Additionally, we significantly lowered human capital costs through targeted reductions in product engineering, sales, and marketing. We have begun reorganizing our go-to-market teams to enhance account growth, improve retention, and drive new business growth.

We believe our core market is experiencing double-digit growth, presenting significant opportunities to expand within our current account base and acquire new accounts. While managed services revenue is down slightly in 2024, adjusting for the loss of a major customer in 2023 and the non-recurring Hoozu revenues in 2024, managed services revenue was approximately $31.7 million, reflecting a 16.3% year-over-year increase.

Our net loss in 2024 was significantly impacted by goodwill write-downs, one-time losses associated with exiting unprofitable operations, and staffing reduction costs. However, we expect that these strategic cost reductions will meaningfully reduce cash losses in the near term, strengthening our financial position and accelerating our path to profitability.

In 2024, we announced a stock buyback program of up to $10.0 million in value. Our 10b5-1 plan remains in place through May 15, 2025, subject to average trading volume limitations. Through March 25, 2025, we’ve purchased 385,947 shares at an average price per share of $2.70, investing $1.0 million. We plan to continue our buyback program as long as we believe our stock to be under-valued, either by extension of our 10b5-1 plan or by other methods available.

Critical Accounting Policies and Use of Estimates

We prepare our financial statements according to GAAP. Certain accounting policies require us to apply significant judgment defining the appropriate assumptions for calculating financial estimates. These judgments will be subject to an inherent degree of uncertainty by their nature. Our judgments are based upon the historical experience of the Company, terms of existing contracts, observance of trends in the industry, the information provided by our customers, and information available from other outside sources, as appropriate. For a summary of our significant accounting policies, please refer to Note 1 — Company and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies of this Annual Report. We consider accounting estimates to be critical accounting policies when:

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