Games people play with cash flow
This is a pretty good article but missed an opportunity to comment in more detail on the 2020 startup/unicorn ecosystem.<p>"Malone’s entire strategy was built around a single fact: that you have to pay up front for cable systems, but then earn back your money via a stable stream of cash for years and years afterwards. Notice how this extreme demand for capital drove Malone to embrace debt, over other sources of capital. Now notice how closely this resembles the Software as a Service (SaaS) business model, which is the primary business model in today’s startup world."<p>Gotta spend money to make money. But I wish he had commented further on businesses that do this incorrectly, based on wishful thinking. He talks about the strengths of TCI, with an engineered "loss" that saves them money on taxes, or Amazon, whose decades of "unprofitability" helped them to build a long-term-profitable empire.<p>But what about Uber or DoorDash? Burning investor cash, chasing long-term revenue that will never come? How on Earth are they keeping this scam going? Why do people believe in it?