I don't think it's too silly of a concept. You can imagine a company having several departments: some which lose money, and some which make money. The departm

I don't think it's too silly of a concept. You can imagine a company having several departments: some which lose money, and some which make money. The departments that don't "generate revenue" per se can still be beneficial to the company as a whole, perhaps they provide publicity, they're good PR, they good morale, etc... Those departments, even though they lose money, have value to that company. With start-ups you can make something profitable, and surely that's preferred because you get your money back sooner, or you can build something that has value to someone else. In the end, you need just need to build something with value.