The hottest Profitability Substack posts right now

Predictability is crucial in social interactions - knowing the devil you know can be better than the angel you don't.
Having a history or personal connection with someone can lead to profitable collaborations, even if they are generally inferior.
Social and cultural structures that enhance predictability can create more scenarios for successful collaborations, even if they are arbitrary.

OpenAI faces challenges with profitability due to expensive product costs compared to revenue.
Sora presents a solution for OpenAI through AI-generated videos that can reduce movie production costs significantly.
Licensing Sora to studios via a deal with Azure could revolutionize the movie-making industry by making production more cost-effective.

American business leaders in Japan believe that corporate governance reforms could lead to more acquisitions of healthy Japanese businesses by foreign companies.
Despite corporate governance reforms aiming for better efficiency and profitability, companies have not significantly divested or improved their core competencies.
Recent data shows that despite improvements in profitability, it may be due to artificial factors rather than actual corporate efficiency gains.

Good businesses can make profits and turn those profits into cash flow for investors. It's important to think about both profit and cash flow, especially during tough economic times.
Growth, profitability, and reinvestment are crucial to a company's value. Companies that grow their revenue while managing costs effectively are usually the most successful.
How well a company reinvests can affect its growth and profitability. Efficient reinvestment means more gains and better overall performance in the market.

Dollar profits can sound impressive, but they don't tell the whole story. A big profit number doesn’t mean much if it’s tiny compared to total revenue or investment.
Profit margins provide insight by showing profits as a percentage of revenue. However, comparing margins between different businesses isn't easy due to varying pricing strategies.
Returns on investment, like return on equity, give a clear view of how well a company uses its money. This measure helps to evaluate profitability across different industries.

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Some businesses are really tough, even for great companies. For example, many car manufacturers struggle to make a profit.
Certain industries, like airlines and automobiles, face structural issues that make it hard for companies to succeed consistently. This can be due to factors like competition and high legacy costs.
For consumers, it's important that these companies eventually find a way to make money. We rely on cars and airlines, so it's beneficial for them to be profitable.

The recent Bitcoin halving really affected how much miners earn. Even though their revenue dropped, rising Bitcoin prices helped a bit.
Publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies are seeing a lot of ups and downs compared to Bitcoin itself. Firms with better equipment and finances are doing better than others.
Bitcoin miners need to keep upgrading their technology and operations to stay competitive, especially after big events like halving that change their earnings.

Modern AIs like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini can do fast, low‑cost research and analysis that replaces a lot of human thinking.
Most people limit AI to the chatbox or simple copilots for small productivity gains, but AI can also be used in many other ways to learn from customers, cut costs, and transform how companies make money.
A free live event for executives in Central London on 5 February 2026 will share practical, non‑technical tips to use AI for profit, and a recording is available for those who can’t attend.