When I started out in the investment business over thirty years ago, one of the first things that I learned was to differentiate between a great company and a great stock.
The Needham Growth conference last month showcased several outstanding software companies, leveraging big data and the Cloud. Most of these companies use an attractive software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model. These SaaS companies had impressive presentations and fire-side chats, espousing their scalable business models, growing customer base, land-and-expand client strategies, unique value propositions, and rosy outlooks. The twelve presenting companies on my watch-list had median revenue