1. Generate revenue w/ good unit economics. 2. Scale revenue. 3. Return value (this can happen much later). 4. Scale value returned. My 2c, but preemptively returning value is unimportant if the value that's being returned is minimal. If you're unable or choose not to invest in growth, it makes sense to return value. If you invest in growth and fail to grow, you will be held accountable. It is possible to return some value without returning it all. Generally speaking, most teams do not spend enough effort on (2) and think more investors (private and liquid) should be pushing teams on (2).