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I know we've seriously beaten this dead horse, but where is the line between "new business" and "start-up" these days. It would seem to me that everything is b

• timr 18y ago
  Nevertheless, the only one of the three that is even approaching success is the bakery. The one traditional "startup" (rentingyourhome) does sound like every other internet entrepreneur -- in a bad way. His idea sounds like it has serious structural deficiencies, and now he's hiring indian lawyers to make up for the slack. Brilliant. Perhaps these structural deficiencies are the reason he's having the "standard challenges" to which you refer. Having a website does not change the basic rules of business. These small companies may not be "start-ups", but the lessons still apply: focus, don't overreach, make money fast.
• BenS 18y ago
  Apologies for my ignorance, but is there a link to the extended distinction between startup and new business? I don't quite see how the two are all that distinct, or why the distinction is useful?
  • brianlash 18y ago
    It's been my take that "startup" connotes something entrepreneurial, where "new business" (or "small business") connotes the start of something that's been done before. That's a meaningful distinction to make because it involves different skills, a different assumption of risk, and a different level of tenacity needed to be successful in one or the other. So startup = selling something different. It's about pitching people your idea, and positioning a product creatively in the market. New business is about being seen (e.g. consider starting a franchise pizza shop and advertising on local TV/in print). It's "new" because people didn't know it was there before. But it's not "startup" for lack of its differentiation along the lines of how that something is sold. I like this defition because it permits that a new company that sells the same old product (e.g. Threadless and their tees) may be called a startup for its ability to creatively position their products. Exactly when a company transitions from "startup" to "going conern" is another question.
  • tom 18y ago
    Building on what Brian said. A few more characteristics of a start-up: 1. Technology (often web based) plays the key role in the interaction between the company and it's clients / users. 2. The present market either doesn't exist, or functions in a fundamentally different way before / outside of the startup. 3. The start-up is not as geographically limitted as the new business. That's not to say that a start-up can't be location specific, but if it is, it should be a platform that can be applied to other locations. And a few characteristics of a new business: 1. A new business, like a say a bakery, is another instance of a proven business that addresses the market in the accepted, historical way. There are many bakeries, they are fundamentally no different from each other. In fact, it's likely one of the oldest professions still still actively being pursued. Each takes raw ingredients and makes baked goods out of them. Each then try to sell them for more than their costs. 2. New businesses are often very location specific and often rely heavily on face to face interaction, or local phone/email interaction to complete transactions. 3. New businesses often rely on physical goods or services for the basis of their offering, where with start-ups technology is often the basis for the interaction. Selling your new-businesses good via an online store, does not automatically make your new-business a start-up. In the case of the t-shirt entrepenuer and the baker, they are most certainly not start-ups, but just new-businesses trying to do business online. In short, a start-up is a new business, but a new business is not necessarily a start-up.