Old customers spending more each year is the best growth there is

A data platform whose earliest customers keep increasing their spending year after year has the best kind of growth: it does not need a sales team to find it, and it compounds as long as customers keep putting more data to work.

Cohorts tell the truth

Averages hide what individual groups of customers are doing. Looking at each year's cohort separately shows whether older customers are still expanding or have plateaued. When customers several years in are still growing their spending, the product has become central to how they work.

That is also the growth most resistant to competition, because the data and the workloads are already there.

What I'm watching

• Spending growth by customer cohort
• The number of customers above large annual spending levels
• Consumption trends, which show whether usage is holding

Where I stand

Long, on cohorts that keep expanding long after they sign. It is growth that the customer base generates on its own.

What would change my mind

Older cohorts flattening while new ones slow. That would mean the platform is reaching saturation inside its customers, and growth would depend on finding new ones.