Oh wow, I hadn't thought about it that way, that the end of free sodas isn't necessarily a bad thing, so long as done at a natural inflection point where it's t

Oh wow, I hadn't thought about it that way, that the end of free sodas isn't necessarily a bad thing, so long as done at a natural inflection point where it's transitioning out of startup mode and into a steady business model. My informal model of startups is that they're business that are bad at any one specific thing they do (or at least, not-necessarily-good), but are good at quickly iterating between different business models. Edge cases (all IMHO): Uber is still a startup because they have huge unresolved inefficiencies in their core ride-service model and are looking for ways to best make use of the network they've established. Amazon is not a startup because they have a steady business model that enables long-term production at scale. They certainly enter new markets and offer new services all the time, but do it much slower than a startup would (and often do it just by buying a startup). Same logic for Apple (not that anyone was saying otherwise). Quibi was not a startup because, from the beginning, they locked into a specific model and were slow to iterate.