Endothermy
Hummingbirds must eat 2-3x their body weight daily or die within hours. Venture-backed startups face the same arithmetic: Uber burned $30 billion before its first profit, while WeWork collapsed when the feeding stopped - proving that endothermy's 10x metabolic cost over ectotherms is both its greatest strength and fatal vulnerability.
Endotherms (warm-blooded animals) maintain body temperature through metabolic heat generation. A hummingbird maintains 104°F body temperature with flying metabolic rate 10× resting rate, consuming 7,000 calories/pound of body weight daily (human equivalent: 200,000 calories/day). The Arctic shrew maintains 98°F at -40°F ambient (138°F differential), eating 3× body weight daily, catching prey every 2 hours or starving, heart beating 1,200 times/minute just to generate sufficient heat.
Business Application of Endothermy
Endotherm companies operate like venture-backed startups - high burn rate, create own momentum, unlimited growth potential but must constantly feed or die. Uber (burned $30B before profitability, achieved $130B valuation but nearly died multiple times from starvation) exemplifies this strategy.