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Comment by bdangubic

21 days ago

> On top of that, Anthropic is losing money on it

This has got to be my favorite one of them all that keeps coming up in too many comments… You know who also was losing money in the beginning?! every successful company that ever existed! some like Uber were losing billions for a decade. and when was the last time you rode in a taxi? (I still do, my kid never will). not sure how old you are and if you remember “facebook will never be able to monetize on mobile…” - they all lose money, until they do not

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bdangubic

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ThrowawayR2  21 days ago

Anyone remember the dotcom bust?

  • qarl  21 days ago

    Oh yeah, I do. That whole internet thing was a total HOAX. I can't believe people bought into that.

    Can you imagine if Amazon, EBay, PayPal, or Saleforce existed today?

    • pjmlp  21 days ago

      Well, how is your Solaris installation going?

      I also remember having gone into research, because there were no jobs available, and even though I was employed at the time, our salaries weren't being paid.

      4 replies →

  • mikkupikku  20 days ago

    Remember that thing that caused it? That "Internet" thing? After those companies went bust it pretty much disappeared didn't it.

deaux  21 days ago

Completely detached from reality, brainwashed SV VC's who have made dumping the norm in their bubble.

I can guarantee you that 90% of successful businesses in the world made a profit their first year.

  • HWR_14  20 days ago

    1 year seems aggressive. Successful restaurants have around the first year as the average break even timeline, with the vast majority between 6 and 18 months.

    They are making a profit on each sale, but there are fixed costs to running a business.

    • deaux  20 days ago

      1 year isn't aggressive because of the modifier "successful". Most businesses that aren't profitable 12 months in go out of business not long after, having remained unsuccessful throughout their lifespan.

      Restaurants have comparatively high start up costs and ramp up time. Compare to e.g. a store selling clothes. If for successful restaurants the average time is already a year, then in general for successful businesses it's going to be less.

  • brookst  21 days ago

    I’ll bite. Share your data?

    Companies that were not profitable in their first year: Microsoft, Google, SpaceX, airBnB, Uber, Apple, FedEx, Amazon.

    If the vast majority of companies are immediately profitable, why do we have VC and investment at all? Shouldn’t the founders just start making money right aeay?

    • deaux  21 days ago

      > Companies that were not profitable in their first year: Microsoft, Google, SpaceX, airBnB, Uber, Apple, FedEx, Amazon.

      US Big Tech, US Big Tech, US Tech-adjacent, US Big Tech, US Big Tech, US Big Tech, FedEx, US Tech-adjacent.

      In other words, exactly what I was getting at.

      Also, a basic search shows Microsoft to have been profitable first year. I'd be very surprised if they weren't. Apple also seems to have taken less than 2 years. And unsurprisingly, these happen to be the only two among the tech companies you named that launched before 1995.

      Check out the Forbes Global 5000. Then go think about the hypothetical Forbes Global 50,000. Is the 50,000th most successful company in the world not successful? Of course not, it's incredibly successful.

      > why do we have VC and investment at all

      Out of all companies started in 2024 I can guarantee you that <0.01% have received VC investment by now (Feb 2026) and <1% of tech companies did. I'll bet my house on it.

qarl  21 days ago

I love how your comment is getting downvoted.

Like it's a surprise that startups burn through money. I get the feeling that people really have no idea what they're talking about in here anymore.

It's a shame.

  • cowl  21 days ago

    then you are misunderstaing the downvoting. it's not that the fact that they are burning money. it's the fact that this cost today 20k but that is not the real cost if you factor the it is losing money on this price.

    So Tomorrow when this "startup" will need to come out of their money burning phase, like every startup has to sooner or later, that cost will increase, because there is no other monetising avenue, at least not for anthropic that "wilL never use ads".

    at 20k this "might" be a reasonable cost for "the project", at 200k it might not.