It appears they were still at the "do things that don't scale" stage. Every company goes through this, even a diner. Why it took $13+ million to get there, though, is the real question.

Some companies (e.g. in biotech, autonomous vehicles) may take significant upfront costs, but anything requiring massive scale to be profitable means the margins are going to be razor thin (see: Amazon vs. Jet.com, freight shipping, payment processors).