Wow do I ever think you (and even 'damoncali below) are wrong about this. This is the opposite of a "useless post". This is a post about how lying to yourself about the definition of "profitable" can cost you tens of thousands of dollars.
Is it really? I mean, that makes sense if the only point of being an entrepreneur is to make money, and you're totally fine with working a $DAYJOB as an employee. But, for some of us, it's about more than the money, and fighting to make the startup succeed is totally "worth it" even if "it" is tens, or hundreds of thousands of dollars that we might otherwise have earned as an employee.
You cannot factor out opportunity costs when accounting for your business.
But if your company is bringing in $1500/mo after line-item expenses and before wages, you are making less than minimum wage; you are not profitable. Happy? Sure. Profitable? No.
You seem to be blurring the line between "the company is profitable" and "I (an individual) am profitable." It's certainly possible for the company to be profitable in a narrow sense (which can be an important bit of information) while you (the founder) as an individual are not.
But since a founder owns equity which he/she expects to become valuable in the future, it's a tradeoff some people choose to make - forgoing a salary now, so the company can thrive.
Perhaps the downvoters would like to explain their logic here? If a worker chooses to donate his/her time to the company, how is that a cost for the company? Again, there is a distinction between the finances of the company and the finances of the individual involved. It's entirely reasonable, for example, for a founder to "donate" his/her time to the company, because he/she expects to gain from their equity stake in the future.
Is it really? I mean, that makes sense if the only point of being an entrepreneur is to make money, and you're totally fine with working a $DAYJOB as an employee. But, for some of us, it's about more than the money, and fighting to make the startup succeed is totally "worth it" even if "it" is tens, or hundreds of thousands of dollars that we might otherwise have earned as an employee.
You cannot factor out opportunity costs when accounting for your business.
Indeed.