Amazon was founded in 1994 and posted its first profit in 2001. This doesn't quite meet your criteria of zero revenue (Amazon always had some) and going to expl

Amazon was founded in 1994 and posted its first profit in 2001. This doesn't quite meet your criteria of zero revenue (Amazon always had some) and going to explosive profitability (Amazon's first quarterly profit was 1 cent per share). Maybe a pharmaceutical startup would fit your criteria. One that's small enough to be focusing on just a few products, sucking up investor resources in R&D and approval, and then boom. I don't know enough about that world to nominate a candidate company, though. And the drastic contrast is due to regulation more than the business or product. Is your real question something like "are companies which end up mega-profitable also profitable in the small, early on?"