As a person in Wall Street who isn't in it just for the money, I resent your remark.

There are probably a few exceptions. Do you honestly disagree with the sentiment?

I was giving you a hard time. I don't think there's a significant percentage of people in finance for any reason other than money.

I am utterly fascinated with the capital markets and many aspects of finance. The returns reflect a true understanding of the markets. And yes, for the record, tech startups are in many ways less stressful than finance startups :)

As far as "altruism" is concerned, the value-add to society is wholly artificial: if our financial systems weren't structured to force retirement and pension funds to invest in the capital markets, I highly doubt anyone would say they were doing something good for the world.

keep drinking the kool-aid

You must think Steve Jobs has spent the last few years working at Apple, when he probably should have been doing something less stressful, because he wants yet another billion dollars?

I'm giving a example of someone who exemplifies the Silicon Valley mentality that I refer to above.

We were talking about people who do the exact opposite and try to get FU-money before they led companies to success.

Airbnb makes many millions in revenue and has phenomenal growth. They could easily sell the company today for hundreds of millions. That is success.

Instead of selling though, they're raising more money, taking some out themselves, and setting their sights on an even higher level of success.

Makes sense to me.

Well i see a company with strong competitors, high costs, no competitive advantage and insurance risks.

Their product is an inferior version of hotel rooms.

There is a high possibility that they are bankrupt some day.

What the founders are doing makes perfect sense to me, maybe there will never be an IPO or Exit.

Maybe studying economics diseased my brain, but i can't see why competitiveness doesn't matter any more.