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Then how do we categorize a startup if not by age (Facebook is already 5 years old) and size (hundreds of employees, billions in stock)?
by codexon 16y ago
Then how do we categorize a startup if not by age (Facebook is already 5 years old) and size (hundreds of employees, billions in stock)?
- pvg 16y agoIt is pretty arbitrary and Facebook is a late-stage startup but hundreds of employees, sky-high valuation and five years of age are not unheard of and still within 'startup' range, to me. Mushy factors include things like culture, innovation, risk. I'd say 'run by founder' also adds startup points.
- Retric 16y agoI would suggest stock value more than 50x peak profit probably works. A 5 year old billion dollar company that is never made more than 1 million a year is probably still a startup. A 3 year old 10 million dollar company that made 500k last year is probably not.
- code_duck 16y agoSo, the business is a 'startup' until it makes it?
- Retric 16y agoOnly if it's valued more than past revenues would suggest. IMO, Tesla Motors is still a startup Google is not. What separates them has more to do with the stability that comes from profit than it does an IPO or company culture.
- tedunangst 16y agoBy growth rate. Even a large company could be a startup if it doubles in size in a year.
- dminor 16y agoIf you have more money privately invested than money earned, you're probably a startup. If you're searching for a repeatable, scalable business model, you're probably a startup.
- code_duck 16y agoOr, your business might be a failure, yet past the point of being a startup. Clearly Facebook does not qualify as a failure, but they are not a startup in my estimation. They're an established business.
- varaon 16y ago>hundreds of employees Thousands, even. 1400+, according to Wikipedia.
- pbhjpbhj 16y agoSurely 1400+ is only one thousand and so not "thousands"; whilst it is 14 hundreds and so is "hundreds".