Paul Graham wrote an excellent piece about the fundamentals of profitability regardless of external market conditions back in 2015.
Being default alive is when your business’s unit economics yield profitability.
The opposite, default dead, is the reliance on capital, valuation, and market conditions to continue operating.
This is an important concept to investigate further right now. With so much overvaluation in both public and private markets right now, we may be entering a period of correction. That’s when companies that remain default: dead will take the biggest hit.
And rightfully so. Businesses aren’t designed to make shareholders wealthy. They exist to serve customers, create job opportunities, and build communities. If you can’t do those things without requiring a constant influx of funding, it’s not the type of business that will flourish over the long term.