"The best metric to choose is good old fashioned revenue."
The best metric to choose is good old fashioned profit.
I appreciate that growth can be hindered by making a profit, but isn't that what matters in the end? Amazon, Twitter, Box and many other public tech companies went public without turning a profit so it seems I'm wrong.
> The best metric to choose is good old fashioned profit
I agree that ultimately, the only measure is profit for a company you are building to operate. The only caveat being that in the early stages, it may require more investment, and you don't want to sacrifice good investment to higher profit when it could mean the ultimate decline of the company (and profit). This is why there could be a period of time where the revenue measure is simplest and meaningful.
With regard to at least Amazon, I think they are focused on the long game and profitability. Twitter and others I don't follow, but I would agree that from the outside, many seem not to focus on building sustainable, profitable business without continued funding or expectation of being sold.
I would say that revenue and marginal marginal contribution are the most important. It is OK to be unprofitable of you can fix it by growing and diluting fixed costs.
Early on profit will be negative by definition. (Otherwise they wouldn't need to raise money) This is advice for hypergrowth startups, not stable companies.
Growth is their priority. Yet, they make sure they have plenty money coming in to keep everyone paid, invest back in business, and have a pile of profit on occasion. Years ago, I did a research report on them. Back then, they were making a significant profit with just $200 mil in debt or so. They could've paid off total debt in just a few years if they paused to maintain the profit. They killed the profit on purpose to expand the then-new AWS. Smart decision. :)
The best metric to choose is good old fashioned profit.
I appreciate that growth can be hindered by making a profit, but isn't that what matters in the end? Amazon, Twitter, Box and many other public tech companies went public without turning a profit so it seems I'm wrong.