Or, how about this: the projections have always been absurdely inflated and were effectively predicated on not having to follow any local rules, thus avoiding t

Or, how about this: the projections have always been absurdely inflated and were effectively predicated on not having to follow any local rules, thus avoiding the time to market and legal overhead that traditional companies face when doing business. You cannot ignore reality forever. What you can do, as Uber proved, is borrow against the future and playing the VC ponzi game until that game no longer works... and hopefully you've IPO'd so the real cost of your early profits is distributed over the foolish greater population.