[boh]

The major problem with Lyft and the other unicorns is the growth already happened. The amount of additional growth necessary to sustain their supposed valuation is staggering and unlikely to occur, leaving the public markets paying for the exits of private investors(like Carl Icahn for instance). It would literally have to surpass Google-like growth to make it a worthwhile investment at the IPO price.

What we know about Lyft suggests it's overfunded and it's growth may be more the consequence of large investor inflows, rather than a successful business model.

People like to cite Amazon as proof that profits aren't necessary for a company's success, but even without arguing it as an obvious outlier, it wasn't worth $1 Billion when it IPOed in 1997. The public had a chance to participate in its growth rather than simply fund VC exuberance.