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I'll take a shot. In his post there is not one word about revenue, cashflow, plan for monetization , etc. It's the typical "Let's get more users" gauge of success.

Businesses make money.

Just look at exactly what he is saying. He is talking about his lack of user traction as a reason for why his startup fail. i.e. "my startup failed because i don't have enough users".

Businesses fail for one reason and one reason only. They spend more money than they make.

How is this a business?




The word "startup" wasn't used by the author of the post.


In the blog post he didn't, though it looks like the HN user (intregus) who submitted the link is the author of the post.


While I can understand your values (and agree with them) your definition would make YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and dozens more "not start-ups". Or businesses.


That might be closer to the truth than you think - Facebook being the exception, as it's actually pulling in decent revenues at the moment.

Imagine if every business was operated on the same principles as these magic-beans business model start-ups.....


And even in facebook's case: Revenue is one thing, profit is another...


"Businesses fail for one reason and one reason only. They spend more money than they make."

True, but that's not the definition of a business. Facebook and Twitter are certainly businesses. The "get users, figure out monetization" path is a real-business path (though I happen to think it's riskier).




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