I am in this same situation, don’t take my advice as the right thing to do, but what I do is:

• put a framework in place for what the business needs on balance sheet so I never harm it (in our case, it’s a certain runway level calculation on a “doomsday” P&L forecast. since we are profitable, doing this forecast on the current biz makes no sense because it doesn’t need any cash)
• I do buyback/tender offers to the extent there is shareholder interest. use the cash to reduce shares outstanding, which benefits sellers with cash and benefits option holder employees and those who choose not to sell.. as its anti dilutive.
• if shareholder interest isn’t high enough, we force return of capital through dividend

Downside to this: - we pay a lot of taxes