Profitable companies can pay out annual or quarterly dividends to shareholders. That could even include employees.

Yes they can. And "traditional investors" might be perfectly fine with dividends plus a solidly run company (i.e. valuable on its own). It's just unlikely to satisfy investors who were promised either a nice exit or a hockey stick.

> It's just unlikely to satisfy investors who were promised either a nice exit or a hockey stick.

Agreed. In our case we offered to buy them out.