I worked for a company that was roughly 15 years old at the time and still very much in startup mode. In the end, it was a mechanism to shovel lots of money into the pocket of the CEO and some of the investors. It's why they never grew, aside from incompetence.
When they are profitable I’m guessing. Usually startups are suppose to grow as fast as they can even if it means running a deficit. Pretty ridiculous imo.