Fast-growing young companies with big ambitions often overspend heavily on everything (marketing, r&d, operations) relative to their current size. Their bet is that as they grow, they will gain unique dominance in their field, plus deeper engagement from customers, which will translate into much higher revenue/user and the emergence of a very profitable business.

This is a workable strategy! Examples include Amazon, Facebook, Workday, Snowflake and practically every biotech company. Some wait until they're profitable to go public; some don't. It's also a strategy that often fails. Lots of less famous examples are out there, too.

It's interesting that Coursera's 2020 revenue per current learner is about $8. I ran the numbers on Stanford ($6 billion budget; 17,000 enrolled students) and the revenue per learner is north of $300,000.

Now Stanford sells a vastly different product than Coursera does. (At least right now.) And the bulk of Stanford's revenue comes via grants, investment income and other stuff including ticket sales. Tuition revenue per learner is far less, though still well into the tens of thousands of dollars per year.

If you believe that over the next decade, the education dollar will be reallocated to the advantage of organizations like Coursera, the way to get rewarded for your prescience is to get in now and smile as you wait for the revenue/learner curve to bend your way.

I'm not minimizing the risks. But if your analysis ends with "they're losing money right now," you're shrinking your horizons to a strange degree.