A growing company with investors happy to throw away large amounts of money for years in case they end up with a unicorn doesn't need to be profitable.
A growing company that was bootstrapped and is trying to make something actually worth selling in order to fund further growth is an entirely different situation.
There are plenty of other options. One that can work well if you have a relatively small organisation and every person really counts is to set up a profit-sharing scheme. That gives everyone a personal stake in the success of the business and it can work out well for everyone without the complexity and uncertainty of any scheme based on equity or options.
A growing company that was bootstrapped and is trying to make something actually worth selling in order to fund further growth is an entirely different situation.