Title: 📊 PRO: This Week in Visuals — ADBE CHWY WLTH
Show: App Economy Insights / How They Make Money (appeconomyinsights.com) — Saturday PRO edition
Guest: Bertrand Seguin (author)
Date: 2026-09-12
URL: https://www.appeconomyinsights.com/p/pro-this-week-in-visuals-733
Length: written post (~1,000 words) — no timestamps
Note: Paid (PRO) written post; text captured verbatim via Stephen's logged-in Chrome session (custom-domain /account SSO warm-up first). Chart images viewed and their figures transcribed below as [Chart image — …] blocks at their position in the post; the hero image carries no data and the footer "How They Make Money" logo failed to download (HTTP 403, no data). Subscription-promo boilerplate and share/like counters omitted.

Welcome to the Saturday PRO edition of How They Make Money.

Over 300,000 subscribers turn to us for business and investment insights.

In case you missed it:

💍 How Oura Makes Money

☁️ Oracle: 850 Megawatts Later

Today at a glance:

🎨 Adobe: 100M Free Creators

🐶 Chewy: Treats Get Cut

📈 WealthFront: Assets Outrun Revenue

1. 🎨 Adobe: 100M Free Creators

[Chart image — Adobe Q3 FY26 Income Statement (quarter ending Aug. 2026): Creative & Marketing Professionals $4.7B (+13% Y/Y); Business Professionals & Consumers $1.9B (+16% Y/Y); Other $0.2B. Revenue $6.8B (+13% Y/Y). Cost of revenue ($0.8B). Gross profit $6.0B, 89% margin (+5pp Y/Y). Operating expenses ($3.6B): S&M ($1.8B), 27% of revenue (+1pp Y/Y); R&D ($1.3B), 19% of revenue (+2pp Y/Y); G&A ($0.5B), 7% of revenue (0pp Y/Y); Amortization ($40M). Operating profit $2.4B, 35% margin (+2pp Y/Y). Tax ($0.5B). Net profit $1.8B, 27% margin ((1pp) Y/Y). ARR $27.5B (+11% Y/Y); RPO $22.2B (+8% Y/Y).]

Adobe Q3 revenue rose 13% Y/Y to $6.8 billion ($60 million beat), with non-GAAP EPS of $6.13 ($0.04 beat). Total ARR grew 11% Y/Y to $27.5 billion. Margins expanded, while operating cash flow hit a Q3 record of $2.5 billion.

Creative freemium MAU surpassed 100 million, up more than 70% Y/Y, while Adobe crossed 1 billion total monthly active users. AI-first ARR also climbed above $650 million, growing more than 150% Y/Y, but still only 2% of the total.

The audience growth comes with a near-term tradeoff. Management acknowledged that the shift toward freemium contributed to slower net new ARR and RPO growth, as Adobe prioritizes acquisition and engagement before monetization. Agentic products and credit-based AI usage remain the main path to converting that engagement into revenue.

[Chart image — Adobe ARR (in $ billion), quarterly (Source: Fiscal.ai): Sep '23 19.3 · Dec '23 20.1 · Mar '24 20.5 · May '24 21.1 · Aug '24 21.8 · Nov '24 22.6 · Feb '25 23.5 · May '25 24.1 · Aug '25 24.7 · Nov '25 25.7 · Feb '26 26.1 · May '26 27.1 · Aug '26 27.5. Total change 42.19%, CAGR 12.4%.]

Source: Fiscal.ai

Adobe also named Anil Chakravarthy as its next CEO, effective December 1, with Shantanu Narayen moving to Executive Chair. Chakravarthy currently leads Adobe's Customer Experience business, signaling continuity around the push toward AI-powered workflows across creative and enterprise products.

Adobe raised FY26 revenue guidance slightly to $26.58–$26.63 billion (from $26.50–$26.60 billion). Q4 revenue guidance was slightly below expectations, sending shares modestly lower.

Bottom Line: Adobe is proving it can still attract users in the AI era. The harder part is converting them. Freemium creative users have now crossed 100 million and AI-first ARR is growing rapidly, but total ARR is still expanding only around 11%. The next phase of the story is monetization rather than adoption.

2. 🐶 Chewy: Treats Get Cut

[Chart image — Chewy Q2 FY27 Income Statement (chart label reads "Q1 FY27, Ending Aug. 2026"): Consumables $2.2B (+4% Y/Y); Hardgoods $0.4B (+14% Y/Y); Other $0.7B (+15% Y/Y). Revenue $3.3B (+7% Y/Y). Cost of revenue ($2.3B). Gross profit $1.0B, 30% margin (+0pp Y/Y). Operating expenses ($0.9B): G&A ($0.7B), 21% of revenue (0pp Y/Y); Advertising & Marketing ($0.2B), 6% of revenue (0pp Y/Y). Operating profit $0.1B, 3% margin (+1pp Y/Y). Interest $20M. Tax ($31M). Net profit $0.1B, 2% margin (+0pp Y/Y). Active customers 22M (+4% Y/Y); Net sale per customer $602 (+2% Y/Y); Autoship sales 85% (+2pp Y/Y).]

Chewy Q2 revenue rose 7% Y/Y to $3.33 billion ($10 million beat), while adjusted EPS of $0.36 was in line. Active customers grew 4% to 22 million, while net sales per active customer increased 2% to a record $602.

Autoship sales grew 9% and reached 85% of revenue, while adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 90 bps to 6.8%. However, some of the quarterly upside came from tariff refunds, rebate timing, and gift-card breakage, while gross margin was flat Y/Y.

Management said consumer spending on food and medications is holding up, while discretionary categories like treats have weakened more sharply. Chewy isn't assuming any consumer recovery or meaningful pricing benefit for the rest of the year. Meanwhile, Modern Animal and SmartPak are performing ahead of expectations, and Chewy Vet Care continues to grow at triple digits.

Chewy raised FY27 revenue guidance slightly to $13.46–$13.57 billion and narrowed adjusted EBITDA margin guidance to 6.7%–6.8%. Shares still fell 11% as investors focused on the pressured consumer and the quality of the margin beat.

Bottom Line: Chewy continues to gain customers and expand margins despite a strained pet market, but growth is increasingly concentrated in necessities. The good news is that Autoship, healthcare, and AI-driven efficiencies give it several levers that don't depend on consumers splurging on treats again.

3. 📈 Wealthfront: Assets Outrun Revenue

[Chart image — Wealthfront Q2 FY27 Income Statement (quarter ending July 2026): Cash Management $62M ((10%) Y/Y); Investment Advisory $29M (+31% Y/Y); Other $1M (+525% Y/Y). Revenue $92M (+1% Y/Y). Cost of revenue ($11M). Gross profit $81M, 88% margin ((1pp) Y/Y). Operating expenses ($64M): Product development ($34M), 37% of revenue (+14pp Y/Y); Marketing ($16M), 17% of revenue (+7pp Y/Y); G&A ($11M), 12% of revenue (+2pp Y/Y); Operations ($4M), 4% of revenue (+1pp Y/Y). Operating profit $17M, 18% margin ((25pp) Y/Y). Other $4M. Tax ($3M). Net profit $18M, 19% margin ((19pp) Y/Y). Platform Assets $99.0B (+12% Y/Y); Funded Clients 1.5M (+14% Y/Y).]

Wealthfront Q2 revenue rose just 1% Y/Y to $92 million (roughly in line), while GAAP EPS was $0.10 ($0.02 beat). Adjusted EBITDA margin remained strong at 41%.

The underlying asset growth was much better than the headline revenue:

Platform assets reached $99 billion, up 12% Y/Y, and crossed $100 billion after quarter-end.

Investment advisory assets jumped 30% to $54.1 billion.

Cash management assets fell 4% to $44.9 billion.

Funded clients grew 14% to 1.51 million.

That mix shift explains much of the disconnect. Cash still generates roughly 70% of Wealthfront's revenue, so lower interest rates are weighing on monetization even as clients move more money onto the platform. The longer-term opportunity is to diversify beyond that spread income.

Wealthfront is pushing in that direction with Home Lending, now available in California and Texas, alongside new custodial accounts and an upcoming expansion of its self-directed brokerage offering. Management says net deposits also improved in July and August after softer behavior from some recent customer cohorts.

Bottom Line: Wealthfront has now doubled platform assets in less than three years, but revenue is barely growing because its cash business remains highly exposed to interest rates. The investment side is scaling much faster, making the next phase about turning a growing $100 billion asset base into a more diversified revenue stream.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please reach out!

That's it for today!

Stay healthy and invest on!

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Author's Note (Bertrand here 👋🏼): The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are solely my own and should not be considered financial advice or any other organization's views.

Disclosure: I own AVGO, MDB, ZS, IOT, DOCU, PATH, and GTLB in App Economy Portfolio. I share my ratings (BUY, SELL, or HOLD) with App Economy Portfolio members.