They would also stop selling equity to private investors. They are likely diluting their own stake.

But they need the money. After all that has already been invested they still need more. That is all I need to know about any delusions that they are currently profitable.

I am not even sure that is true. We don’t know everything that is included or excluded from their calculation. I suspect there is a lot of funny math going on to get to profitability. Remember there was a lot of similar talks and reports about SpaceX and how profitable they were. The reality was much worse. I just don’t believe it until I see it in the S1. Even then they can hide quite a bit.

Have we considered that many of them are rather dumb.

The biggest bottleneck in most organizations is not the production of said work, but the bureaucracy surrounding it. AI isn’t going to solve that. So it really doesn’t matter if AI makes programmers 20, 30, 40 percent faster, they will still be facing the same bottleneck at the end.

It's also frequently the same old bottleneck/problem that we already consciously decided to move away from. We used to produce big binders of specifications. Then a lot of us switched over to "agile", or a more flexible, JIT'd style where you iterate as you go, because surprise, you learn a lot as you go. This remains as true as ever, even with agent help.

Would they charge me less if I was poor? If they comped a family of fours meals because they were below the poverty line I would argue it was almost progressive, but they are only doing this to extract more money from people who they think might not be as price sensitive.

Of course they will and if you are homeless and hungry wearing cardboard shorts, they will give you a bed and free feed.

The calculus that McDonalds continues to miss is people have a lot of choices when it comes to fast food. They have a lot of built up brand equity and nostalgia, but they seem pretty dead set on killing that.

I don't eat at McDonalds. My friends don't eat at McDonalds. The McDonalds is so bad where we live kids don't like McDonalds because the food is bad even as far as fast food standards go.

To keep raising money at this point, after all the money already raised and ahead of a seemingly imminent IPO should tell everyone everything they need to know about the state of their finances. I can’t wait to read OpenAI and Anthropic’s S1s.

I agree, but who are these alleged investors at this point?

My guess is investors already heavily invested and desperate for the IPO cashout. Pot odds, and all.

I agree. These investors are already completely exposed. Their only way out of the hole is to dig themselves deeper and wait for 60 days or whatever after IPO to recoup their investment.

It is also why they are valuing themselves so high. They need it to be that high. To return value to shareholders.

FOMO is a powerful drug.

1.1 million? You are basically telling them that they made the right choice to break the law.

I think the Duo is a really interesting product that I am not sure I would ever get, but the form factor is interesting. I don’t know if I would want it for out and about, but it is kind of the ultimate phone for around the house, which is a ridiculous thing to say, but it kind of bridges the gap to the iPad but is more handheld, which is nice.

I remember feeling at the time that the Colbert Report’s satire was too on the nose for my tastes.