Why Does Recurring Revenue Matter?

ARR only matters if your strategy isn't to add value by repeated returns to the VC trough. If you're on the hype train (blockchain, AI, VR, EVs, Rockets, cloud, RISC-V, etc.) your per-share price will be dominated by how much cash you can convince the next round's investors to throw down. In that case ARR is irrelevant because the (most likely) way your investors get cash is when you convince a liquid company to purchase your startup. Then your investors convert their share of your company into something else (most likely cash, but maybe also shares in a company that does care about ARR.)

It always seemed to me that ARR for a startup is anathema because it provides data about the company's eventual ability to drive revenue. If you get a lot of revenue, that's great. But if your revenue is weak, you have to spin a story about why the structure of the market is such that it's operations DON'T generate profit.

Not everyone shares this opinion.