Startups would rather stay young forever than grow up into dull, profitable companies

The startup industry has a peculiar relationship with age. Like a 65-yr-old sporting ripped jeans, hair implants and a skateboard, most startups make it their mission to never scale up. Maturity is considered an embarrassment best concealed beneath hipster jargon. Ostensibly, they exist to one day become established businesses. Yet, the prospect is horrifying. An established business must generate profits, pay dividends, maintain departments and employ entities like regional sales managers. A startup, instead, has a runway, burn rate, chief happiness officer and an inspirational founder who describes selling groceries as revolutionising nourishment.

The economics favour prolonged adolescence. A company losing ₹500 mn annually may command a valuation of ₹50 bn because it possesses enormous potential. The same company turning profitable risks becoming a 'dull enterprise' whose worth can be calculated using arithmetic. Nothing destroys financial romance quite like actual earnings. The ideal startup is perpetually scaling, never scaled, like a forever receding Mt Everest. Perhaps startup status should be treated like youth: a temporary privilege, not a lifelong entitlement. But that would require admitting that growing older is preferable to dying young. It seems, even bankruptcy is less humiliating than becoming a respectable company.