Not that long ago, if you didn’t make a profit as an organisation, you didn’t last very long. Yes you could get a loan but ultimately you had to make a profit to pay it off.
Fast forward post the dot.com era and many venture backed companies run for years without turning a profit and they continue to grow and churn through piles of cash.
There are countless social media, crm, marketing automation, car makers, platform operators and many many others that might be changing long standing industries but struggle to become and remain profitable.
How long can it last? In the meantime, how does the little guy compete with the giants with seemingly endless investors willing to take the risk in the pursuit of the unicorn.
Our desire to get things faster and cheaper (or free) is ultimately a race to the bottom, and the risk with being in a race to the bottom is that you might win.
We need to re-think modern commerce otherwise there is no future for anyone but the mega businesses with deep pocketed investors.
