"VC-Backed Startup Is Profitable" should not be a headline worth making. But far too many Web 2.0 ventures don't bring in enough revenue, let alone profits, and some don't even have a revenue model. We see a lot of gritty entrepreneurs with profitable bootstrapped SaaS ventures. But the number of VC-backed startups less than 5 years old that are profitable is sadly low. That's why we wrote about Blurb back in October 2008.

Like an increasing number of private companies, Blurb is starting to report its financial results publicly, almost as if it were a public company. This presumably serves the purpose of both reassuring customers that the business is healthy and attracting potential acquirers.

Allow us to quote shamelessly from Blurb's press release (at least it prevents errors):

Quiz: which would you prefer: a company with $200 million in advertising revenue that is burning cash, or a business with $30 million in subscription revenue that is profitable? The first describes Facebook, the second describes Blurb. Yes, it is almost absurd to make the comparison. But the point is that old business maxim: revenue is vanity, and profit is sanity.