We’ve written before about how start-ups tout so many metrics — other than, you know, profits. Number of customers, users, reach, influence, amount of Twitter followers, etc. But how do you actually make money?

It seems like investors in tech start-ups are starting to ask that same question. 

As many so-called unicorns have offered VC-subsidized special offers, products, and services in order to gain market share over the past decade, investors in these start-ups are now starting to demand they become profitable rather than just acquire customers by any means necessary, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“You can manufacture growth, and you can’t manufacture profit,” said Ryan Kulp, who formerly worked in venture capital and now runs a marketing start-up, Fomo, as quoted by the Journal. 

Indeed you can’t. Will the 2020s be the decade when start-ups pursue profitability over all else?