For the last few years, startups loved to boast about growth numbers. Revenue growth. Hiring growth. Growth, growth, growth, growth, growth.
But a funny thing has happened in the last year as it became harder to raise venture capital: Profitability has become the new vanity metric. And startups often use the definition that suits them best: It’s cash-flow positive for some businesses, Ebitda positive for others, or gross-margin positive when it’s convenient.
The latest reminder of this? Social analytics company Hootsuite blasted out a press release to reporters today with the headline, “Hootsuite announces it is cash flow positive.” To quote my own tweet: “2016.”
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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