In a world of stock traders thinking about the next 10 minutes, cybersecurity company CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) is thinking about the next 10 years. And I believe that investing great Warren Buffett would heartily approve.
Don't misunderstand; I don't think that Buffett is looking to buy CrowdStrike stock. Buffett is known for only investing in companies that are easily understood. And being a cloud-based cybersecurity company, CrowdStrike isn't the easiest business to dissect. But Buffett loves management teams that think about the long term.
President Trump made waves in September after suggesting that publicly traded companies should no longer be required to report quarterly financial results. He made the same suggestion in 2018. At the time, Buffett weighed in, saying that he likes reading quarterly reports but he dislikes quarterly financial guidance, saying in a CNBC interview, "I've seen it lead to a lot of bad things."
Part of the Motley Fool investing philosophy is to buy and hold stocks for at least five years -- think long-term. But when management teams are focused on meeting quarterly expectations, it could incentivize short-term thinking, which is why Buffett dislikes short-term guidance. But CrowdStrike is thinking extremely long-term by laying out its guidance for the next decade.
From Sept. 15 to 18, CrowdStrike held its annual Fal.Con event. And this year, it laid out some pretty ambitious long-term goals. In its fiscal 2036 (which largely overlaps with calendar 2035), the company hopes to generate $20 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR).
For perspective, CrowdStrike generates ARR of $4.7 billion, as of its fiscal second quarter of 2026. To reach ARR of $20 billion in 10 years, the company will need to grow ARR at over a 15% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
To be clear, CrowdStrike has routinely posted far better growth than 15%. In fact, its slowest growth came earlier this year, when it reported 20% growth for the fiscal first quarter of 2026. As the chart below shows, its growth rate has steadily declined, but its average is well above 15%.
One of the primary ways that CrowdStrike grows its recurring revenue is when its customers purchase additional cybersecurity software services, called modules. There are many facets to protecting a business from cyberthreats, and the company's platform has around two dozen modules for many of these different needs.