Ask HN: Money or Growth: what is it right to focus on?

But, most new businesses are not startups in the way "startup" is defined in Silicon Valley and among seasoned venture capital investors. Outside of those communities, people use "startup" as a synonym for "new business". Ordinary people may call new restaurants and new architecture firms and new Ebay storefronts startups.

To put it another way, any business that is deciding between profitability and growth probably isn't a startup in the narrow sense in which organizations like YCombinator use the term. There are profitable startups, but they're profitable and growing.

There's nothing wrong with not being a startup in the narrow sense. Odds are that the competitor growing at 300% with no profits will run out of money and die. Most startups in the narrow technical sense do.

On the other hand, being a startup in the technical sense can provide access to investors seeking to maximize returns through equity growth rather than continuous cash flows...i.e. venture capital. For a company that wants to grow, this is a better alignment interests than with investors seeking dividends.

Finally, investor interest is not a good target. The target should be user interest. Building features should make customers happy. Making existing features better is an alternative that may make customers even happier. The goal is to make the product better.

A product can be good and not work in the US market. But it's more likely that a good product for a local market can be adapted to it.

Good luck.

But if your not making 3x times what it costs to get a customer than you might want to question your business. factor in time too.