Companies like Stripe can become profitable in a simple way: by cutting R&D. And they'd stay profitable for a while, before fading into obsolescence. For most

Companies like Stripe can become profitable in a simple way: by cutting R&D. And they'd stay profitable for a while, before fading into obsolescence. For most tech companies, the right long-term strategy is to spend heavily on R&D and growth, using up all profits and some investor money to do so. The exception is established companies in a declining industry, where the right answer is to cut R&D and growth to nothing and try to extract as much profit as possible in the remaining years.