I find these two statements so contradictory and fundamental that I don&#x27;t know which statement to believe:<p><i>There is a reason to save growth for last. While growth is quite important, and even thought we are in a market where growth is in particularly high demand, growth all by itself can be misleading. Here is the problem. Growth that can never translate into long-term positive cash flow will have a negative impact on a DCF model, not a positive one. This is known as “profitless prosperity.”</i> - Bill Gurley<p><i>If you want to understand startups, understand growth. Growth drives everything in this world. Growth is why startups usually work on technology—because ideas for fast growing companies are so rare that the best way to find new ones is to discover those recently made viable by change, and technology is the best source of rapid change. Growth is why it&#x27;s a rational choice economically for so many founders to try starting a startup: growth makes the successful companies so valuable that the expected value is high even though the risk is too. Growth is why VCs want to invest in startups: not just because the returns are high but also because generating returns from capital gains is easier to manage than generating returns from dividends. </i> - pg [0]<p>P.S. - Dang can you add the (2011) tag?<p>[0] - <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.paulgraham.com&#x2F;growth.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.paulgraham.com&#x2F;growth.html</a>