3 ms·

>This right here is the root of the problem. It is so blatantly anti-competitive and cause extensive damage to society. It hurts small businesses, discourages i

>This right here is the root of the problem. It is so blatantly anti-competitive and cause extensive damage to society. It hurts small businesses, discourages innovation and quality, monopolizes the industry, increases consumer costs in the long runs, it entices investors to eschew fundamentals and gamble on hype. It's just no way to run a stable economy. We as a society need to find a stop to this or it can be disastrous in the long run. Surprised this is not more unpopular on HN. The entire YC model of startups is literally this, grow so big so fast you consume the entire market.

jacobr1 4y ago
> grow so big so fast you consume the entire market That isn't the unpopular part. The derided part is doing so with poor unit-economics. You still need to make a profit or what is the point? Another big difference is that is very common to run at a loss early on in the life of startup ... but when examined more closely the marginal costs should still make sense. If you are small enough that R&D overhead, or hiring ahead of revenue (growth investment) is overshadowing the top-line ... well that is the just normal startup finances. But there still needs to be a business model where it will make sense with enough sales, and the cost will have sub-linear growth relative to the revenue.
- adamsmith143 4y ago
  >Another big difference is that is very common to run at a loss early on in the life of startup How many Unicorns are actually making a profit? Hell how many Deca or Centi-Unicorns are profitable? There's probably hundreds of billions of value in companies that are not and don't have clear paths to profitability. So I think we've moved from it being ok to be unprofitable when you start a company to it being ok to be unprofitable for decades...

3 ms·

>This right here is the root of the problem. It is so blatantly anti-competitive and cause extensive damage to society. It hurts small businesses, discourages i

by adamsmith143 4y ago

jacobr1 4y ago
> grow so big so fast you consume the entire market That isn't the unpopular part. The derided part is doing so with poor unit-economics. You still need to make a profit or what is the point? Another big difference is that is very common to run at a loss early on in the life of startup ... but when examined more closely the marginal costs should still make sense. If you are small enough that R&D overhead, or hiring ahead of revenue (growth investment) is overshadowing the top-line ... well that is the just normal startup finances. But there still needs to be a business model where it will make sense with enough sales, and the cost will have sub-linear growth relative to the revenue.
- adamsmith143 4y ago
  >Another big difference is that is very common to run at a loss early on in the life of startup How many Unicorns are actually making a profit? Hell how many Deca or Centi-Unicorns are profitable? There's probably hundreds of billions of value in companies that are not and don't have clear paths to profitability. So I think we've moved from it being ok to be unprofitable when you start a company to it being ok to be unprofitable for decades...