We Choose Profit

Also, the title is Why we choose profit.

tl;dr basecamp made profit a requirement of their company to prioritize self-direction. They gesture at alternatives like accepting investment or loans that would come with satisfying non customer priorities. They also gesture at reinvesting (ex hiring more or buying different capital equipment) as suboptimal for them, given that their company might not last long enough for them to recoup it. Basically, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.