The usual things enterprise software companies do: spend on sales, marketing, and R&D on features that would be attractive to new leads. If they stopped doing

The usual things enterprise software companies do: spend on sales, marketing, and R&D on features that would be attractive to new leads. If they stopped doing those things and just served the existing customers who bring in the $1B revenue today, I’m guessing they could be profitable fairly quickly and start paying dividends (or returning capital through stock buybacks). But that kind of stable enterprise software company would be mostly attractive as a takeover target for a larger player or private equity; it’s not the story that investors in public markets want to hear. So Elastic’s valuation would be slashed. This doesn’t make the company a Ponzi though. Seeking growth is a valid strategy and one that’s still sought out by many investors despite the valuation correction from last year.