[Pet_Ant]

> If the most incentivised lifecycle is to seek VC investment to make a non-susitainable product in the hope of being acquired and swallowed into The Borg and shut down, we still end up with less good products.

"Aim for the moon so if you miss you still end up amongst the stars."

The actual _goal_ is to be an independent successful company, but getting bought is the back up option that provides a safety net. If it was success-or-bust (no "-or-get-bought") the risk calculus would not make it worth it. It would make the American economy much more conservative and much more like Europe.

[floren]

But when the most common business plan is "1. Spend VC millions, 2. Acquire non-paying customers, 3. ???, 4. Profit!" it kinda seems like the un-written step 3 is "get acquired by a MAGMA company". You just say something like "oh, we'll get revenue by adding advertising / premium accounts later" as a fig-leaf for the public.