If you want one take-away from the Airtable deal
It isn't:
- Don't Raise Too Much (Last round investors get 1x back)
- Embrace AI (Airtable did)
- Move faster (Airtable stepped it up)
- VCs are evil (They agreed to the deal)
- Get profitable (Important, but didn't help per se when Airtable got there)
It is:
- Grow or Die. That's 2026.
20% growth (and presumably, not accelerating) at $500m ARR = 2.5x-4x ARR
That's it