[nilkn]

I'm so glad I work at a company right now that has never taken funding and is legitimately profitable. Hiring and expansion have been hard when you don't have access to far more cash than you could ever generate yourself, but it's hard to put a number on knowing that you won't be affected much by an industry downturn (doubly so since none of our customers are software companies).

[icelancer]

Yup. The only debt we have is a rotating LOC for physical inventory (we ship hard goods) of which we have 2x in cash on hand, but obviously debt service of inventory is more efficient than cash service of inventory.

I read HN and other sites and I am just in shock of the fact people are creating... basically nothing sustainable and hoping it will somehow magically become sustainable? It boggles the mind.

[jacquesm]

In fact everybody else's downturn will be your opportunity.