You're right; all these metrics can be easily manipulated, whereas revenue is more reliable. I guess you're talking about "acqui-hire," meaning the acquisition

You're right; all these metrics can be easily manipulated, whereas revenue is more reliable. I guess you're talking about "acqui-hire," meaning the acquisition of teams of 10-40 people for ~$25m. My broader point is that many startups scale to hundreds of employees, buying growth, but remain poor businesses. Headcount is a vanity metric similar to likes on social media or fundraising.