Dropout's ability to offer profit sharing and prioritize creative experiments stems from not having external shareholders to satisfy. This simple business structure is the key enabler of its worker-friendly and artistically-driven policies, avoiding the need to hoard profits for outside investors.

The 20th-century view of shareholder primacy is flawed. By focusing first on creating wins for all stakeholders—customers, employees, suppliers, and society—companies build a sustainable, beloved enterprise that paradoxically delivers superior returns to shareholders in the long run.

The newsletter's founders intentionally resist expansion, avoiding the investor-driven pressure for scale that often compromises creative products. By focusing on a model that makes them happy and serves their existing audience, they've built a sustainable, highly profitable business without chasing growth for its own sake.

As early as 2018, OpenAI's stated mission was building AGI that "benefits all of humanity," justifying its non-profit structure. Even after becoming a commercial powerhouse via its capped-profit model, this core ethos has been a consistent public-facing guidepost for the company.

Patagonia deliberately restrains revenue growth, viewing it not as the primary goal but as a means to an end. The company's true objective is growth in environmental and social impact, for which financial growth is simply a funding mechanism. This redefines success away from purely financial metrics.

The Atlantic CEO took the job despite massive financial losses because the core product—the journalism—was exceptional. He believed a broken business model is far easier to fix than a mediocre product, making the high-risk turnaround feasible from the start.

Canva's core mission is a "two-step plan": 1) build a valuable company and 2) do good. Crucially, this isn't a sequential plan for after an exit. They believe step one fuels step two (and vice versa), integrating purpose directly into the business model from day one.

OpenAI's non-profit parent retains a 26% stake (worth $130B) in its for-profit arm. This novel structure allows the organization to leverage commercial success to generate massive, long-term funding for its original, non-commercial mission, creating a powerful, self-sustaining philanthropic engine.

For sole owner Peter Daring, the purpose of profit isn't endless expansion but creating a buffer for stability and peace of mind. After meeting his personal financial needs, he prioritizes running a sustainable business where he and his team can feel secure, rather than chasing maximum returns for external stakeholders.