Comment by mgfist

Yes but free cash flow is free cash flow, and that's what matters for survival (i.e. run-rate). So long as fcf is positive, you'll never go bankrupt.

Really what they don't tell you is how much SBC they have. That's what crushes public tech stocks so much. They'll have nice fcf, but when you look under the hood you realize they're diluting you by 5% every year. Take a look at MongoDB (picked one randomly). It went public in 2016 with 48.9m shares outstanding. Today, it has 81.7m shares outstanding. 67% dilution in 9 years.