"Box's S-1 revealed that it generated $124 million in revenue last year while racking up losses of $168 million"
It sounds like they aren't profitable yet. I feel like so many companies I see on HN getting VC are just like this: They are running at a huge loss with no real working business model.
Not the whole storey. Spending on growth (investing in the company's future) is a normal activity for many firms. It can make you unprofitable. Startups are in this mode for years. It doesn't mean they don't have a business model. To determine that, you'd have to look at their marginal costs per customer and so on. Which those two numbers quoted don't hint at.
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"Box's S-1 revealed that it generated $124 million in revenue last year while racking up losses of $168 million"
It sounds like they aren't profitable yet. I feel like so many companies I see on HN getting VC are just like this: They are running at a huge loss with no real working business model.
Not the whole storey. Spending on growth (investing in the company's future) is a normal activity for many firms. It can make you unprofitable. Startups are in this mode for years. It doesn't mean they don't have a business model. To determine that, you'd have to look at their marginal costs per customer and so on. Which those two numbers quoted don't hint at.