IPOs and burn rates aren't new concepts. Many innovations, such as railroads, required huge up-front investments before returning any cash flow. Great fortunes always have been made by placing the right bets, and they have been lost the same way. Management Financiers provide capital that enables entrepreneurs to leap from garage to mass market. But to reach the scale necessary for mass marketing, operation of an industry has to become dominant over its innovation.
Innovators have to know when to step aside and let the adults take charge.
This is tough to do, especially when your name is over the door. Many great innovators of the past were terrible businessmen. Thomas Edison, for example, was a scientific genius but no financial wizard. He spent or gave away money faster than he could earn it. One of the most difficult decisions an entrepreneur has to make is when to hand off the business to the professional managers.