I may be old (is 34 already old?) but to me a "startup" by definition is the latter in your post, VC-style funding aimed at hyper-scaling. Hence the "up", from

I may be old (is 34 already old?) but to me a "startup" by definition is the latter in your post, VC-style funding aimed at hyper-scaling. Hence the "up", from the "start". Otherwise it's just a regular small business (most countries and stats institutes would have a specific name for these >10 employees companies, like "very small" business or whatever). There's confusion, imho, when we call any new company a startup just because it's operating in the tech industry (you can totally be a startup in any industry, so long as it has the potential to scale up dramatically). You can be a regular small business even in tech, you can be a startup-er in food. This is a 2x2 matrix. Also, funding can take many forms, e.g. some startups being groomed by corporations (I know HP did that sometimes, with former employees). You still get the big money and obligations, and you already have one major future client; but nowhere near the same level of nonsensical buzzing.