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Worth looking at the 40% rule for SaaS: https://www.feld.com/archives/2015/02/rule-40-healthy-saas-c...

The rule states that a "sane" target for annual growth rate + profit margin is 40%. At a 100% YoY growth rate and -33% profit margins, Elastic is sitting at 70% -- making it pretty solid!



What is the 40% based on? Because there isn't a hint of justification in that post.

If customer acquisition costs are really high, then they're throwing good money after bad.

All of this talk of 'solid financials' while a company is losing money every quarter and whereupon there's no evidence of profit at the unit level ... is scary, it feels like one of those reddit ico pump-it-up chats.

It's all very highly speculative, is what it is. So let's hope it's a great company, with a solid offer and they manage the growth effectively.


You could say that.

You could also say that they are losing money today, and expecting to lose twice as much money next year.


Right. It's the first group who's buying the stock in the IPO, not the second.




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