For years, founders were told to prioritise growth.
Then the market changed. Capital became more expensive, investors became more selective, and profitability came back into focus.
But the question should not really be growth or profitability.
It should be: where does the next pound create the most value?
A company growing quickly can still be inefficient. If customer acquisition is becoming more expensive, churn is rising or margins are weakening, headline growth can hide poor economics.
On the other hand, pushing for profitability too early can also be a mistake. If a company has strong retention, healthy margins and a predictable way to turn investment into recurring revenue, cutting growth spend simply to improve EBITDA may destroy more value than it creates.
The key is understanding the return on incremental spending.
If you invest another £100,000, what happens?
Does it generate £300,000 of high-quality recurring revenue? Does it shorten the path to scale? Or does it simply maintain the current growth rate while burning more cash?
That is the decision founders should focus on.
Cash position matters too. A company with 18 months of runway can take very different risks from one with three months left. Even good growth becomes dangerous if it removes too much financial flexibility.
This is also why profitability and cash flow should not be confused. A business can be profitable on paper and still struggle with liquidity because customers pay slowly or costs arrive before revenue.
The best companies tend to balance all three:
Growth tells you how quickly you are expanding.
Profitability tells you how efficiently you are operating.
Cash tells you how much time you have.
There is no universal answer.
Sometimes the right decision is to invest aggressively.
Sometimes it is to slow down and improve margins.
The important thing is that growth should be funded because the economics justify it, not simply because growth is the target.