[mtrovo]

I think the author is correct that more startups can be profitable earlier than they think. It comes down to making conscious decisions about hiring and focusing on customer value, it's that simple. The reason why that's not the case often comes from how blitzscaling and ZIRP became the norm for a few years, and how VC, especially post seed stage, started to resemble a Ponzi scheme, with investors trying to put lipstick on a pig and pass the bag down the road.

[earnesti]

The fact is, that for VC's it makes perfect sense to push for growth as much as possible. For every one of their portfolio startups. That doesn't necessarily make sense for the founders, who likely might prefer lower risk and profits instead.

VC's don't care about mediocre successes. They want couple of huge exits, and if the rest go bankrupt, they don't give a shit. That's the VC business model and all the great company-building "advice" they give, is actually just crafted to generate profits to them, not really to make sense for the founders or other stakeholders.

[fuzztester]

>They want couple of huge exits,

yes, exactly. what they want is what they (used to) call ten-baggers. meaning 10x their investment, prolly, I don't remember the exact meaning.

I said "used to", because that is from sometime ago, before the fuckheaded idea of so-called unicorns.

nowadays they want a million times their investment.