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Firstround shills for their founders like no other. No mention of the discipline as it relates to profitability, a healthy CAC:LTV, equity efficiency - but plenty of vanity metrics to go around, naturally amount of money raised and team size. These VC fluff pieces are increasingly insufferable PR.

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It's insane to refer to this article as a fluff piece. It's a detailed, transparent, numerical, inside look at how a particular founder runs various aspects of her business.

It's one of the least fluffy pieces I've seen about a startup.

Is this one of those “great businesses” that’s never turned a profit and will disappear like a puff of smoke in the next economic downturn?

I'd say it's more likely to peter out/be acquired and killed due to the overall lack of vision. Discipline is good for local optimization, but it doesn't build huge companies on its own.

Read the article.

See where she says "we're default alive" in an email to her company?

That means they were profitable back in 2016. I assume now with extra capital that might not be the case, but that's the re-invest in the growth strategy, a la Amazon (which is smart).

First Round is not an investor in Front.

They don’t put these pieces together out of a collegial respect for random entrepreneurs.

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Correct, it's called content marketing. YC does it too.

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