"Box's S-1 revealed that it generated $124 million in revenue last year while racking up losses of $168 million"
It sounds like they aren't profitable yet. I feel like so many companies I see on HN getting VC are just like this: They are running at a huge loss with no real working business model.
Not the whole storey. Spending on growth (investing in the company's future) is a normal activity for many firms. It can make you unprofitable. Startups are in this mode for years. It doesn't mean they don't have a business model. To determine that, you'd have to look at their marginal costs per customer and so on. Which those two numbers quoted don't hint at.
It sounds like they aren't profitable yet. I feel like so many companies I see on HN getting VC are just like this: They are running at a huge loss with no real working business model.