I fully agree with your first point. The investors aren't doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, they think it's positive expectation in the long run.

I fully agree with your first point. The investors aren't doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, they think it's positive expectation in the long run. The second point makes sense too. I think a weaker argument along those lines still works, though -- Something like, "If they couldn't become profitable by raising prices they're burning that money." Ford is a profitable company, and if they set their prices to zero they would deliver more value than their cash hoard before they went bankrupt. If Lyft upped their prices to juuust below your marginal utility for a ride and still weren't profitable, the Pareto argument (plus a penny) is pretty solid.