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Big successes and sustainable businesses aren't necessarily the same thing.

I'm not sure what you mean by "sustainable businesses," but if you mean profitable businesses, big successes necessarily are that.

Is that true? Was Photobucket or MySpace a "big success"? They certainly sold for a lots of money, but profitable was never a strong suit was it?

By big successes I mean companies big enough to go public.

Honest question: by that definition, how many YC companies have been big successes?

I scanned this list, and don't see many public companies... http://yclist.com/

I guess Airbnb and Dropbox could go public if they wanted. The stock market likes companies that print money!

Yes, but profitable businesses aren't necessarily big successes.