That's what publicly traded companies are. They literally can't do "this is going well, let's continue going well", because in that case there'd inevitably be s

That's what publicly traded companies are. They literally can't do "this is going well, let's continue going well", because in that case there'd inevitably be someone out there who thinks "but it could go even better". And with their optimistic projections, they are willing to pay more than even the happiest "yay, this is going well and will go well forever" considers the shares to be worth. Ownership by the biggest optimist is inevitable and when they discover that their hopes were unfounded and there's no even bigger optimist the take the bag, they'll rather burn the house for an imagined chance of still winning than accept the losses. (VC funded is no different of course, that's just a shortcut to arrive at the optimism-race without ever going through "this is going well")