和社区的同学闲聊中，了解到一个词“Ramen profitable”，直译过来叫“拉面盈利”（总觉得哪里怪怪的）。

Ramen profitable means a startup makes just enough to pay the founders' living expenses. This is a different form of profitability than startups have traditionally aimed for.

"拉面盈利"意味着一家初创公司赚的钱刚好够负担创始团队的基本生活。 这是一种不同于传统初创公司的盈利目标

In the past, a startup would usually become profitable only after raising and spending quite a lot of money. A company making computer hardware might not become profitable for 5 years, during which they spent $50 million. But when they did they might have revenues of $50 million a year. This kind of profitability means the startup has succeeded.

过去，一家初创公司通常只有在筹集和花费大量资金后才能实现盈利。 比如一家计算机硬件制造公司可能在 5 年内花费了5000 万美元而没有任何盈利。 但与此同时，他们每年的收入可能也会达到 5000 万美元，即实现盈亏平衡。有这种收入能力，意味着这家初创公司已经成功。

Ramen profitability is the other extreme: a startup that becomes profitable after 2 months, even though its revenues are only $3000 a month, because the only employees are a couple 25 year old founders who can live on practically nothing. Revenues of $3000 a month do not mean the company has succeeded. But it does share something with the one that's profitable in the traditional way: they don't need to raise money to survive.

拉面盈利是另一个极端：一家月收入只有3000美元的初创公司，可能两个月后就开始盈利了。因为他们的员工或许只是一对 25岁左右的创始人 —— 他们可以用很低的成本来生活，这就够高了。
当然，每月3000 美元的收入并不意味着作为公司已经成功。 但它确实提供了与传统方式公司盈利方式并行的另一种模式：不以赚更多钱为目的来生存。

Ramen profitability is an unfamiliar idea to most people because it only recently became feasible. It's feasible for a lot of startups; especially for many software startups because they're now so cheap. For many, the only real cost is the founders' living expenses.

拉面盈利对大多数人来说还是新奇的，直到这两年变得可行。 对很多初创公司，尤其是saas软件项目来说都是可行的，因为它们可以低成本的运行。它们中的大多数，唯一真正的成本是创始团队的生活成本。

The main significance of this type of profitability is that you're no longer at the mercy of investors. If you're still losing money, then eventually you'll either have to raise more or shut down. Once you're ramen profitable this painful choice goes away. You can still raise money, but you don't have to do it now.

这种盈利模式的主要意义在于你不再受投资者的摆布。 如果您仍然在亏损，那么最终您将不得不筹集更多资金或关闭。 一旦你拉面盈利，这个痛苦的选择就会消失。 你仍然可以筹集资金，但你不必现在就这样做。