Originally Posted by All Bizniz

I'm not saying we didn't have our struggles, but it's not unusual for start-ups to not be profitable for a few years... sometime many years. It all depends on the business/exit strategy. Cash flow/paying your creditors is sometimes all that's important in the beginning.

In VX's case, we were a privately held company for the first few years. During that time, the investors were making money hand over fist (20% return I think, in the super low interest rate environment of 2008 onwards) while VX showed a "loss" on the books.

Creative corporate accounting is used all the time by smart business leaders in pursuit of a larger strategic business objective.

I don't know if this was one of VX management's exit strategy, but we clearly saw them pivot to fattening the pig (solid profits in the books) and then quickly selling us off for a princely sum to the highest bidder.

And the rest is history...