Best of Business — September 2025

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    Article
    Avatar of wheresyouredWhere's Your Ed At·38w

    Why Everybody Is Losing Money On AI

    Generative AI companies are fundamentally unprofitable, with every major player from OpenAI to Anthropic losing billions of dollars annually. The economics are broken: companies like Cursor send 100% of their revenue to model providers, Perplexity spends 164% of revenue on compute costs, and OpenAI lost $5 billion in 2024 despite being the market leader. Inference costs are increasing rather than decreasing, making it impossible for AI startups to achieve profitability even with usage-based pricing models.

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    Article
    Avatar of jasonfriedJason Fried·35w

    What to do with $2M?

    A successful entrepreneur advises a young founder who recently sold his business for $2M to prioritize capital preservation over aggressive investment or reinvestment. The key recommendation is to keep the money safe in low-risk accounts rather than pursuing high-return opportunities, emphasizing that maintaining wealth is more important than growing it aggressively at a young age.

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    Article
    Avatar of gamesindustryGamesIndustry.biz·35w

    The painful lessons learned from layoffs

    Two game studios share their experiences with layoffs and strategies for avoiding them in the future. Spilt Milk Studios navigated publisher rejections by launching a Kickstarter and eventually rehired laid-off employees, while Aurora Punks scaled down from 50 to 20 people after rapid pandemic growth. Both studios emphasize the importance of diversified revenue streams, including work-for-hire projects and consulting, rather than relying solely on single game releases. The key lessons include maintaining multiple income sources, building sustainable team sizes, and focusing on consumer-driven revenue rather than depending entirely on publisher funding.

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    Article
    Avatar of sknexusSK NEXUS·35w

    Why So Many Startups Fail

    Explores the primary reasons why most startups fail, with a focus on funding challenges and misconceptions. Covers different types of startup funding and essential knowledge founders need before launching their ventures.

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