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"But though the graph has the word "startups" on it, it is not a graph of the number of startups, but of all new businesses." From what I have seen most of the
by janzer 11y ago
"But though the graph has the word "startups" on it, it is not a graph of the number of startups, but of all new businesses."
From what I have seen most of the world* that is not Silicon Valley, does define a startup as simply a new business. Yet whenever an SV person runs into someone understanding the term in the broad sense they don't go, "Sorry, I'm using the word in a more specialized way", they go "Sorry, you're using that word wrong". It seems to occur often enough that I feel like there must be a reason they feel the need to insist on it. Very similar to the word hacker in many ways.
* http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/start%E2%80%93up http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/start%E2%80%93up
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/start-up?q=startup http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_eng...
- Fomite 11y agoThis read to me as very disingenuous as well. Being able to dismiss a long-term decrease in new businesses by dismissing them as barbershops and whatnot (as if those kinds of small businesses don't matter) and then defining startups as "Whatever I need them to be today to make my point."
- edanm 11y agoBut that's not at all what he's doing. He's been consistently using that definition of startups for years, he's not just using it to make his point in this one article.