Profits are important for a variety of reasons. In the startup world, Profits were never prioritised.

Drucker’s take on profit is really practice and focussed on business model validation.

Profit is not the explanation, cause, or rationale of business behavior and business decisions, but rather the test of their validity

BaseCamp and HEY the products are owned by 37 Signals and they explain their take on profits and this is one of the reasons.

Profits create stability for customers

Companies that lose buckets of money, or are beholden to public market swings they can’t control, or perpetually operate in the red, or require outside funding to fuel their growth and operations are putting their customers at risk. They mask the risk with big customer lists and big brand advertising, but the truth is if the company isn’t on stable footing, customers inherit the risk. It’s hard to depend on something that’s shaky at the core. Losing money often comes with layoffs, drastic cost cutting, reduced customer service, suffering quality, infighting, and loss of focus. Meanwhile, profitable companies have none of these issues, pressures, or forced compromises. Profitable companies are stable companies, and stable companies spell reliability for customers.