The venture capital samba:

1. Make free service (it’ll pan out, trust me bro).
2. 1 years passes… trust me bro
3. 3 years passes… look at all this user data we can sell - trust me bro
4. 2 more year passes… look, we’re going to have to fire some people…
5. 1 year passes… we’re not really making any money, so trust me bro - we’re only going to increase subscription fees a little…
6. 1 year later, increase subscription fees…
7. 1 year later, increase subscription fees…
8. 1 year later, increase subscription fees…
9. Listen, Mr Creditor - I have liquidity. So much liquidity. I’m rife with the stuff… increase subscription fees

And so forth, and so on…