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Comment by seiji | Hacker News Reader

Reminder: "profit" is left over money. Profit means you've paid all your expenses (including people's salaries), and you still have money left over.

You can be not-profitable forever and still have a working company.

In fact, some organizations are even specifically set up to be "not profitable."

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Not-for profit companies have profit, they just redistribute the profits at the end. Any company that never has profit is doomed to fail.

By definition, not-for-profit companies don't make a profit. If your company's expenses are always as high as its revenues, then the company can survive forever. So I don't see what your point is.

A lot of them pay supra-market salaries to certain employees with ties to the handpicked, perpetual, unaccountable board.

Although nominally non-profits such corporations are fairly indistinguishable from partnerships.

At least in the US, non-profits may make a profit, it's just that they can't have owners who receive the profits (or managers/insiders who receive undue compensation). Any profits must remain within the organization and dedicated to its mission.

(Although "non-profit" is the common name, in this sense it's better to think of it as shorthand for "not for profit", meaning that achieving financial profits for its owners/insiders is not its legal purpose.)

Same in France, non-profits are allowed to make profit but you can’t plan it (you’re supposed to plan that you’ll spend as much money as you receive but it doesn’t always happen) and you can’t give it to your people. (source: I run a non-profit)

You mean reinvest. If they distributed the profits, they'd be for profit.

How does YC make any money on non-profits they invest in then?

We don't. The money we put into non-profits is a donation and there's no financial return.

http://ycombinator.com/np.html

State-run utilities? Public transportation?

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