This is true for facebook, but false for 99% of other companies. At the end of the day, revenue - costs (profit) is what you're optimizing for.

I think dmor's point is that revenue can be a lagging indicator, and that some startups can suddenly turn on a revenue pump that makes watching revenue silly.

I agree with her - in 1% of cases. The problem is that for dmor, that 1% of cases is all that matters - because those cases are going to be the all or nothing billion dollar company cases, which is what she's aiming for. Facebook, AirBnB etc - all would have terrible numbers while starting up, then suddenly their numbers start to look great.