If you have high fixed costs, say to produce high-quality films, and you can grow your audience 40% per year with reasonable marketing expenditures, you have li

If you have high fixed costs, say to produce high-quality films, and you can grow your audience 40% per year with reasonable marketing expenditures, you have little chance to "bring in more than you spend" for several years until your subscriber base is large enough to cover the high fixed costs. If you spend more on marketing than the customer lifetime value, or if you have high churn, then yes, you have a failed business. But if you have reasonable marketing, high growth, low churn, then you will have a fairly incredible money printing machine in the future. And there are many people willing to give you $10 now if you promise a portion of this future profit machine!