How did PocketNC survive and thrive? A hardware startup that should have failed

The PocketNC is an amazing machine for the price. I still have trouble seeing how they are turning a profit, kudos if they are!!!

But the article worries me. Are we now supposed to be surprised that startups work like actual businesses and understand their costs and work within them? That should be a baseline expectation. If anything, this is what success should look like; not a "we did all the dumb things but won the lottery" story.