How I Crashed and Burned in Y Combinator

Re:How I Crashed and Burned in Y Combinator by CPLX on Saturday January 10, 2015 @05:07PM (#8868120)

Actually it's not that either.

Success in a business context means a positive rate of return on the resources invested. Or to refine one step further, a return that is positive and superior to the next best alternative for the deployment of said resources at a given level of risk.

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Re:How I Crashed and Burned in Y Combinator by 31reasons on Sunday January 11, 2015 @11:56AM (#8870421)

So Profit.

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Re:How I Crashed and Burned in Y Combinator by GoLocalApps on Monday January 12, 2015 @01:55PM (#8875691)

ROI /= Profit.

See Amazon (or as noted below, Instagram).

However I also think that is a problem for many people who want to startup. They don't usually think about how they'll show a profit and manage to run their business within that profit. Investor money gets them started and an exit by selling an unprofitable yet growing business to a larger company is the goal.

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Re:How I Crashed and Burned in Y Combinator by CPLX on Sunday January 11, 2015 @03:40PM (#8871211)

Profitability and return on investment are related concepts but are not the same thing.

Instagram, among many others, most certainly generated ample return on its initial invested resources without ever generating profits.

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