In that era I worked for a company that pivoted from a software developer to what we’d call a SaaS. They had incredible margins but had to spend some capital to expand... and they had the ability to take big share in some lucrative areas.

But they had a hard time raising money because they were too big and were profitable. They ended up being acquired by some big dumb dotcom conglomerate and the spun back out at a 5x return to a big evil company who was smart, invested in the platform and makes a lot of money.

IMO it’s an example of the “bulls run, pigs get slaughtered” idea... these funds have to swing for home runs, then panic when rough times loom.