'Profitable can have many more meanings than you'd think.'
Postmodernism meets accounting meets Bay Area startups. I like these threads were everyone isn't just a programmer, but an accounting expert.
This is hardly an area where startups are on the leading edge.
> For one contract, in July 2000, Enron and Blockbuster Video signed a 20-year agreement to introduce on-demand entertainment to various U.S. cities by year-end. After several pilot projects, Enron recognized estimated profits of more than $110 million from the deal, even though analysts questioned the technical viability and market demand of the service. When the network failed to work, Blockbuster withdrew from the contract. Enron continued to recognize future profits, even though the deal resulted in a loss.
Right, using accounting methods that were "generally recognized as having been invented at or by Enron, used nowhere else in the industry and at least passively, if not actively, misleading".
> For one contract, in July 2000, Enron and Blockbuster Video signed a 20-year agreement to introduce on-demand entertainment to various U.S. cities by year-end. After several pilot projects, Enron recognized estimated profits of more than $110 million from the deal, even though analysts questioned the technical viability and market demand of the service. When the network failed to work, Blockbuster withdrew from the contract. Enron continued to recognize future profits, even though the deal resulted in a loss.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_scandal#Mark-to-market_a...