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Another 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.
by benatkin 7y ago
Another 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.
- jedberg 7y agoI don't think so, because a whole lot of startups plan to get bought, not go public.
- digitaltrees 7y agoStart up has come to mean a company attempting hyper growth as opposed to a traditional business like a mechanic or brewery.
- jbay808 7y agoBut what about companies that achieved that hyper growth (Google, Airbnb, etc). Are they still startups? How would you view this dialogue? "I'm working at a startup". "Oh? Where?" "Google."
- Klinky 7y agoThis just sounds like marketing spin. It's hip to be a "startup" because that conjures up the idea that the company possesses certain advantages over larger organizations, even if it doesn't anymore.
- manigandham 7y agoThe definition is now so broad as to become meaningless.
- rumanator 7y agoThe definition hasn't changed. There's a lot of misuse and abuse for marketing purposes.
- chipotle_coyote 7y agoI mean, sure, but the fact that the objection is old doesn't mean it's wrong. While I wouldn't say there's a clear cutoff point in terms of time or employees between "startup" and "not a startup," there's got to be some point at which we say "company X was a startup, but really isn't one now." Google was a startup, but we wouldn't call it one now any more than we'd call Apple a startup, right? How about Facebook? They're younger, they pushed that whole "move fast and break things" schtick. But with a billion users and worldwide offices and an actual corporate campus, I'm gonna say "no, not anymore," aren't you? So I think it's fair to ask whether Airbnb, a profitable company with 12,000 employees and annual revenues of $3B+ for the last few years, can really be called a "startup" now. They were a startup. But now? Eh...
- onetimemanytime 7y ago>>Another thing that's almost a decade old is your objection. The term "startup" has come to have a broad meaning. The meaning of words changes over time. They use the word "startup" when it serves their interests. Yet, we don't call 10 year olds babies. Too bad
- jimbokun 7y agoCompanies are called start ups by people old enough to clearly remember when they really were just a start up, and haven't internalized just how long ago that really was.