That's really shocking to hear such kind of experience. Bitcoin transactions are not so long to loose money on the price difference and bitcoin doesn't jump from 100$ to 2500$.
I thought a business which based on bitcoin is developing very profitable from a day to day. I remember a story when some guys were selling pizza per 20 BTC each! I doubt that their business ended the same like yours.
That depends on what they were doing with their BTC. If they were exchanging it for a fiat currency right away, they probably were losing money too. But if they were holding at least until bitcoin was $50 of course they were in profit.