this post was submitted on 11 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The miracles you can perform when you don’t have shareholders.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

It's not shareholders specifically, but management that doesn't give a shit about the company long term.
The business has a fiduciary duty to benefit the shareholders, but it doesn't have to be short term only, or at the cost of long term benefits.

Most publicly traded companies end up with leadership who are only interested in justifying their employment through the next earnings call or making sure the stock price has gone up between when they last got options and when they next vest.

Valve does good not because they don't have shareholders, but because their leadership is not gonna get fired for thinking about next year instead of next quarter. So they don't squeeze the consumers for every dime, so people stick with them, and developers stay even though their fee schedule is not the best because they have all the people.