HubSpot's free cash flow understates its earnings power, because its sales and marketing spend works like capital investment with a roughly 42-month payback. If it stopped spending on growth, a massive gusher of earnings and FCF would appear. Per @SouthernValue95, projects with 3-4 year paybacks are good returns on capital that depress FCF while a company grows fast, as at Microsoft, Google and Amazon now. x.comÂ
