They didn't say that companies should be profitable at a year in. To my mind they just seemed to be responding to the slightly clickbait-y title, which focuses

They didn't say that companies should be profitable at a year in. To my mind they just seemed to be responding to the slightly clickbait-y title, which focuses on the valuation, which has some significance but is still pretty abstract. Still, headlines love the word "billion". The straight-news version of the headline would probably focus more on a16z's new round.