Guise, can’t agree it’s rent seeking either, looks more like getting paid in installments for a product plus getting paid to cover further development and support cost. Despite hefty gross margins of 60–80%, economic profit of a subscription (or whatever you name it) model is much smaller, if any. Here is a report on 69 public SaaS companies, saying median EBITDA margin is consistently negative at around -7%.

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    Volodymyr Nesterenko

    Written by

    managing partner @ VC firm