https://marco.org/2008/04/15/why-arent-there-more-googles-the-answers-very
Why aren’t there more Googles? The answer’s very simple. Because every company that had the potential to be economically revolutionary over the last five years sold out long before it ever had the chance to revolutionize anything economically. Think about that for a second. Every single one: Myspace, Skype, Last.fm, del.icio.us, Right Media, the works. All sold out to behemoths who are destroying, with Kafkaesque precision, every ounce of radical innovation within them.
— Umair Haque (via azspot).
Why is it such a strange idea for web startups to try to establish a profitable business model before being bought? And why is being bought the only way out?