As long as the founders get to borrow lots of other people's money to use this strategy, they have won. Even if the company goes bankrupt or is bought at a low

As long as the founders get to borrow lots of other people's money to use this strategy, they have won. Even if the company goes bankrupt or is bought at a low valuation, they collected big wages and benefits for years and get to put their startup experience on their pitches for their next project. Subsidizing a project to make it grow and drive competitors out of the market has been fundamental to the US 'tech sector' since 2008 (eg. YouTube).