I see the profit angle brought out often in these discussions, and as someone that has worked at one of these unicorns with a recent IPO, I'd like to point out that profitability is not a black-and-white consideration. A company has many financial dials and switches, and ours specifically could have easily been profitable if they had chosen to do so. It was a very intentional decision to funnel money towards further growth, which frankly I had/have no issues with. I suspect that is the case with many B2B unicorns; not sure the B2C ones could make a similar transition as easily if circumstances called for it.
Not sure the dotcom crash is comparable - those were the days of companies getting millions without so much as a business plan, and going public months after being born. Sure, the companies without solid fundamentals are not going to survive in the long run, but as an industry, I don't think we're anywhere close to the crazy old days.
Not sure the dotcom crash is comparable - those were the days of companies getting millions without so much as a business plan, and going public months after being born. Sure, the companies without solid fundamentals are not going to survive in the long run, but as an industry, I don't think we're anywhere close to the crazy old days.