[buran77]

I'm sure startups will try anything if they think they can make some money out of it. So do investors. The problem is such an endeavor just has to make more money that you put into it, not necessarily be a sustainable or above board business. They're not disrupting the sector they operate in, they're disrupting the way they can operate outside of the law and be agile enough to not get pinned down by it.

They'll try something, squeeze as much money as they can from wherever they can, see if "the cost of doing business" is low enough that they can even pursue the shady business model as a standard operating procedure, or else at least survive and grow until they can go semi-legit. They will rely on the fact that authorities have inertia so it takes time until someone catches up to their shenanigans, investigates them, comes with a decision, then they can fight for a while, delay the inevitable until they they're cornered, restructure their operations a bit, and the chase starts again. Companies like Uber are still shady businesses that in many countries operated outside the law for more time than they operated within its boundaries. But they gave deep pockets and where there's money, there's a way.

Not that much different from organized crime businesses that start off as being one stop shops for anything regardless of law and regulation, and may eventually be spun out into semi-legitimate businesses with more or less above board practices.