> Take a look at some SaaS companies that have gone public in the last 5 years. Few are profitable. It's all about growth of revenue.

Who's kidding? I doubt you genuinely believe we've reached a new paradigm where bankruptcy is no longer a thing.

Correct. I don’t believe most of these businesses are viable long term. But that hasn’t kept me from profiting on the stocks...

Good for you.

But you were ostensibly addressing the idea of making it as an independent company - not whether and when revenues and profits might suddenly matter again.

I believe that Github could've done their own IPO at some point. They could've "made it" as an independent company, in that respect, without profits...

And after the proceeds from the IPO have been spent?

The great think about equity is you can keep issuing more of it, doing secondary offerings, diluting existing stockholders, and raising more money until your stock price has gone to zero. That takes decades.

>Few are profitable. It's all about growth of revenue. The profits are way down the line.

We are officially well on our way to 1999 bubble territory! Nothing matters but revenue growth, even if you're selling dollars for 50 cents.

I remember 1999. We’re not there yet. Let me know when the pets.com socket puppet shows up.

.. yeah but we make it up on volume!

Equity is absolutely a form of debt, especially when given to the kinds of VCs that demand high exits.

Maybe if there were VCs who would be happy to own part of the company and be satisfied with the dividends from Github's revenue, it'd be a different story.

Maybe startups should go out and get true debt financing, then they don't have to give up that valuable stock? Oh, wait a minute, they generally can't because they have no real assets to borrow against. No, equity is not debt.