When Sprinklr unveiled “Project Bear Hug” in March of this year, the initiative was intended to signal a sharp pivot: fewer distractions from small accounts and a renewed push to stabilize, deepen, and expand relationships with its enterprise base.
Almost ten months on, the vendor is doubling down. The question now is whether the Bear Hug is doing more than squeezing harder and actually changing the trajectory of Sprinklr’s renewal and expansion business.
Is it ready to roar or more likely to settle down for hibernation?
During the latest earnings call, Sprinklr CEO Rory Read made the initiative’s importance abundantly clear.
“One of our most important initiatives is Project Bear Hug,” he said, emphasizing its focus on “deepening engagement with our top 700 customers, representing more than 80% of our total revenue.”
That shift – up from 500 accounts earlier in the year – reveals just how central the strategy has become to Sprinklr’s turnaround playbook.
Early Signs of Progress, But Sprinklr Isn’t Claiming Victory Yet
Sprinklr has spent the year rebuilding trust in accounts that churned or downsized during the company’s turbulent stretch.
Read highlighted “stronger C-suite relationships, tighter alignment with customer priorities and clear demonstration of Sprinklr’s value” as early signs that Project Bear Hug is moving the business in the right direction.
Yet the CEO repeatedly resisted declaring the strategy a proven success:
“This was a good quarter, no question… but it’s one quarter. We need to see several quarters in a row.”
That caution reflects Sprinklr’s still-shaky renewal landscape.
While forecasting has improved – Read said 3Q was “the first time we’ve seen real predictability in the numbers” – he stressed that Sprinklr remains in the “execution and transition phase,” not the acceleration phase he ultimately envisions.
“I’m very interested to see how 4Q, 1Q, 2Q perform,” Read added. “We have still significant improvements in all our key initiatives that we need to execute.”
What Bear Hug Looks Like Inside Troubled Accounts
During the Q&A section of the call, Aanalysts pressed Read for clarity on how Project Bear Hug is actually changing renewal outcomes.
Read pointed to the million-dollar cohort as evidence. “When he [Sprinklr CFO Anthony Coletta] talked about the $1 million-plus customers being a cohort growing 9% year-over-year with a net dollar expansion rate of 113%.
“That’s a very important metric. That shows the impact of Bear Hug.”
Still, the CEO didn’t offer neat formulas. Outcomes vary, and Sprinklr is often fighting to prevent declines rather than drive immediate growth. As Read explained:
“When we do have a troubled account, if we do Bear Hug well, we have seen situations where we were looking at a down-sell or even a significant down-sell. And we’ve been able to change that outcome.”
That may mean turning a steep contraction into a minor one, or preserving the customer entirely.
The through-line is relationship depth. “If you’re engaged with the customer, your competitors can’t be,” Read said, summarizing the spirit of the initiative.
Scaling the Bear Hug to 800 Accounts
The company is also stretching Bear Hug’s reach dramatically – now targeting more than 800 accounts, soon representing “about 90%” of revenue.
This expansion is partly fueled by lessons learned in the program’s first year. Read said he has met “over 450 customers” directly, outlining the following recurring themes:
“Poor execution, not delivering on commitments we made, choppy levels of support, and too many changes in the organization at the field level.”
Fixing those problems is now embedded into Bear Hug’s operating model.
Read described the new playbook succinctly, stating:
“Build the right account team, make sure you can create consistency, get an ongoing discussion with the customer every week, every month, be way ahead of renewals… focus on the concept of creating value and up-sell all along.”
Sprinklr has even developed what Read jokingly called “a utility belt like Batman” of programs designed to strengthen relationships, from improved service skills to next-generation platform deployments.
Still, he tempered expectations. “Do not get ahead of ourselves,” he warned. “We have work to do. We’re a work in progress.”
Is Project Bear Hug Working? A Qualified “Yes, So Far”
The initiative appears to be stabilizing Sprinklr’s enterprise base, slowing the renewal slide, and tightening alignment with top accounts. But the impact remains uneven, and Read is urging patience.
In terms of the timeline, Read explained that “Bear Hug will be about a year in place when we get to spring.
“That’s when I think we should see the full impact… at the end of 1Q, beginning of 2Q.”
In short: momentum is building, but the verdict isn’t in. For a company trying to reverse multi-year renewal declines, several clean quarters will matter more than any executive narrative.
Q3 Financial Highlights
Sprinklr’s Q3 results also provided important context for Bear Hug’s progress:
- Total revenue: $219.1 million, up 9% year-over-year
- Subscription revenue: $190.3 million, up 5% year-over-year
- Net dollar expansion: 102%, flat sequentially but a sign of stabilization
- $1M+ customer cohort: 145 accounts (down four from Q2), but revenue from this group rose 9% YoY with 113% NDR
- Non-GAAP operating income: $33.5 million (15% margin)
- Free cash flow: $15.5 million in Q3; nearly $140 million year-to-date excluding restructuring payments
Off the back of these numbers, Coletta underscored the company’s confidence in the strategy:
“We firmly believe that our Bear Hug focus will solidify our baseline and contribution from the top-tier enterprise customer over time.”
If Sprinklr can turn its recent “good 3Q” into a consistent pattern across the next few quarters, Project Bear Hug may prove to be more than a slogan – and become the cornerstone of a long-awaited return to sustainable enterprise growth.
