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Classpass was founded in 2013. Wonderschool was founded in 2012. Can we stop calling companies that age a startup? Or at least stop using them as examples? I me
by cowsandmilk 7y ago
Classpass was founded in 2013. Wonderschool was founded in 2012. Can we stop calling companies that age a startup? Or at least stop using them as examples? I mean, the article then goes on to call Airbnb a "home rental start-up". It isn't a start-up, it is over a decade old and has over 10,000 employees.
- _bxg1 7y agoAnd yet we all know what they mean when they call those companies "startups". The term has drifted pretty far from its original meaning, but it does carry a new meaning even though it's almost completely different
- TazeTSchnitzel 7y agoIt means they're VC-backed webapps from San Francisco?
- _bxg1 7y agoRoughly. I would broaden the colloquial meaning to "new-wave tech companies". Ones from the past decade that aren't FAANG and maintain an agile culture (or at least purport to), and have a certain San Francisco sheen to them even if they aren't actually from there
- maxerickson 7y agoI feel like you are now vigorously explaining that the other poster was right, that we should use some other name.
- _bxg1 7y agoI'm not arguing one way or the other, I'm just observing that "startup" is an overloaded term in 2020, and maybe the new definition is a bit silly, but it's also really hard to get everyone in a society to change the vocabulary they've become accustomed to.
- renewiltord 7y agoIt's a bit like asking you to define just how many grains of rice there are in a heap. You may be unable to do so and yet know a heap when you see it.
- brain5ide 7y agoBecause investing in a .com would be bonkers.
- rumanator 7y ago> And yet we all know what they mean when they call those companies "startups". That isn't true at all. These companies were startups almost a decade ago, but since then they already matured and strayed very far from the classification. This is like calling a 40yo man a teenager just because he was one in the distant past.
- benatkin 7y agoAnother thing that's more than half a decade old is your objection. The term "startup" has come to have a broad meaning. The meaning of words changes over time. Fortunately, new terms often come along to fill gaps. In this case there is the term early-stage startup.
- StavrosK 7y agoSo "startup" now means "company" and "early-stage startup" means "startup". I look forward to having to call them "incipient early-stage startup".
- yborg 7y agoI guess startup is generally understood now to mean a VC-backed company that doesn't make any money.
- digitaltrees 7y agoI think it’s more about the nature of growth potential. Hyper growth with a hockey stick is the measure.
- travisjungroth 7y agoAirbnb claims to make money.
- skissane 7y agoOften, a "startup" just means a private company that plans to go public but hasn't done so yet (as opposed to already public companies, and private companies that don't plan on going public)
- Klinky 7y agoNo, that sounds like a private company trying to sound trendy. A startup has a small number of employees to start with and a 2 - 3 year window to go big, fizzle out, or pivot into a small - medium sized business. You're not a "startup" forever, nor does eventually marketing yourself as one, actually make you one.
- umanwizard 7y agoFor better or worse, in colloquial American English, "startup" means a particular type of company, and is only weakly correlated with age.
- gamblor956 7y agoTo most of America, the term "startup" means a vaguely tech-ish company which doesn't know how to make a profit. As a former techie, I strongly agree with that usage.
- dreamcompiler 7y agoAnd sometimes a de facto scam (WeWork) or full-on scam (Theranos) because the investors caught FOMO fever and couldn't be bothered with due diligence.
- bdcravens 7y agoThe company I work for has been profitable from day one. I think we'd be proud to say then that we were never a startup :-)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- Jagat 7y agoPeople often (wrongly) refer to pre-IPO companies as startups. Chick-fil-a, the chicken sandwich 40 year old startup.
- cjblomqvist 7y agoCompletely agree. I find the terms startup and scaleup as useful. Both aim for the same thing, but are in very different phases (pre/post business model validation). Then of course, in reality it's not that clear whether you're one or the other....
- daenz 7y agoI worked for a self-proclaimed "startup" that was 10 years old. At some point, it's really just another word for "we don't have our shit together."
- WJW 7y agoHahaha so true. The one I rebranded itself as "scaleup" around its 10th birthday when "startup" became untenable.
- KoftaBob 7y agoThe term "start up" generally means any relatively young company (compared to companies that are multiple decades old) that's growing rapidly in revenue and/or valuation. The number of employees isn't as relevant.
- gamblor956 7y agoWhile PG tried to redefine the term "startup" to include "growing rapidly in revenue" or whatever, this redefinition never took hold outside of a very limited sphere centered in Silicon Valley. Outside of the valley, startup means a company that doesn't know how to make money.
- yellowapple 7y agoAnd more precisely: any company that's young relative to incumbents / dominant competitors in the space (beyond a certain proportion, of course; a 99-year-old company is obviously not a startup even if compared to a 100-year-old competitor, but a 5-year-old company would be, IMO). I personally think reliance on VC money is a more reliable indicator, though.
- manigandham 7y agoIndeed. Startup = entirely new business model. That's what venture capital is designed for. Otherwise it's just a small business, until it becomes medium, big, public, etc.
- hogFeast 7y agoThe reason AirBnb is a startup is because it makes no money. A company stops being a startup when you aren't relying on someone cutting you a check every month to keep it all going. Most of these companies will now fold. The number of employees or, even, revenue is irrelevant.
- missedthecue 7y agoI still see Tesla commonly called a startup
- hogFeast 7y agoI would have been in that camp. But it is probably unfair. I still think the company is a dumpster fire but the big investments that Musk is making are, in part, driven by actual revenue. ...now that isn't wholly true. Musk seems to be able to keep raising debt without hitting equity. Over and over, he just finds utter idiots to keep bailing him out. The deal with the Chinese govt was incredible. Eventually, this will run out of road but the bankruptcy will show that Telsa did create some value.
- tomashertus 7y agoI really hope this recession will bust AirBnB. It would lower the rents all over the world...
- naveen99 7y agorecession is going to lower rents. airbnb is not even a rounding error.
- dehrmann 7y agoWhile I agree, I think the main thing they have in common is they're pre-IPO with intent to IPO, not just a privately owned company.