Except that his starting point was that there are two kinds of currently established "startup" businesses: profitable but indirectly dependent on capital for gr

Except that his starting point was that there are two kinds of currently established "startup" businesses: profitable but indirectly dependent on capital for growth, and not profitable but growing and dependent on capital for life :) This eco-system discussion does not include extremely young businesses who would not be in a position to be profitable or dependent on credit markets yet (that's addressed elsewhere). Note that he's talking about profitable businesses who may not have intended to be sold, discovering that while their runway still looks infinite, it may appear now to need extra money to repair and maintain that they can not easily find anymore. For the not-yet-existent company, you still need to become profitable -- and generate an outsized ROI relative to a big company desperate to continue to grow. If you can do that, at any time, you should do ok.