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As a counterexample, Google didn't show ads until 2000. http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2000/10/google-launches-self...

But the fundamentals were not ads. It was solid search. That's what delivered value to users and why they kept coming back.

you are confusing business and technology fundamentals.

Business fundamentals -- bottom-line numbers on the P&L statement -- are not furthered by increasing the number of active users alone, or by delighting users. Only ad revenue would increase the fundamentals being discussed here.

I disagree with the overall sentiment. Doing the right thing technology-wise and delighting users is what made google possible. Technology fundamentals != business fundamentals but the pre-not-bubble-but-maybe-bubble market did not have either one. Many companies were pure buzz with neither business nor technology figured out.

Then you're basically arguing semantics while agreeing with the sentiment in question here. You're saying that startups do best when they focus on delivering value to users first, and then figuring out a path to profit that preserves the first value. Which is a strategy that investors who make big bets on potential would also promote.

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