The joke is that "start small and keep expenses low; focus on making enough money to live" was known in the past (and outside of the tech bubble) as simply "starting a business".
The title is a bit buzzword-laden, and GP is calling that out.
Not much of a joke that I think.. For some VC's have a stereotype of looking down on ramen profitability because it gets in the way of convincing young people to burn / spitball / "innovate" a decade of their lives away their 20's swinging for low percentage 100x returns in exchange for burn out, etc... The alternative of say, 10x, can be very profitable and stable and enable just as much.
Said differently..
For some, largely on the funded side, everyone's a statistic, and after generally "going hard", they inevitably "go home" because they're told there's no more money from investors, and not enough paying customers.
On the self-funded / lean / boot-strapped / ramen profitable side, you get to earn your keep to stay in business so no one can tell you to go home except your customers who stop paying you.
I'm not sure there was a "joke". Basically GP's saying that the marketing speak laden title is an artifact of our times. Really what does all those words mean that "we built a business" doesn't communicate?
