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Well the making more money than you spend part is pretty critical ... I’ll grant you that a business does not necessarily have to provide value to do so.

• colechristensen 7y ago
  Many companies spend years spending much more money than they make building themselves up, or simply surviving during a downturn. This is in fact the whole idea of investing in a startup - that they will have more money to spend than they make. Amazon spent most of its existence spending nearly as much or more money than it made and it is something like the 4th most valuable company in the world.
  • Swizec 7y ago
    Yes it takes some pain before you’re successful.
  • Pandabob 7y ago
    Yes but didn't Amazon IPO in 1999 and most of the money they've spent into building the company has been actual revenue, not VC or debt money? Seems like that's markedly different from what companies like Uber have been doing in the past decade.
    • aledalgrande 7y ago
      Exactly, reinvesting all the profits into growth is not the same as making no money. Break even has already been achieved by Amazon.
  • redis_mlc 7y ago
    > Amazon spent most of its existence spending nearly as much or more money than it made Bezos, like many other founders, is allergic to paying taxes. So that is one of the reasons everything was spent on growth. Essentially he used the public to fund his company. (He was already a millionaire from working in finance.)