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Calling Shopify a Canadian Tech Startup is really getting old. At 10k+ employees the term “startup” should really stop being applied to it. It is really big, an

Calling Shopify a Canadian Tech Startup is really getting old. At 10k+ employees the term “startup” should really stop being applied to it. It is really big, and many of its execs are from huge American banks. So even “Canadian” may soon cease to be a valid label for it.

barkingcat 4y ago
Shopify was also launched in 2006, making it a 16 year old company. While not all startups are young in time-age, calling shopify a "startup" is a misnomer.
- michaelcampbell 4y ago
  I've seen this a couple times; a startup makes it past whatever threshold you'd consider a startup, but doesn't want to let go of that "culture" or zeitgeist, or whatever romantic notion they had of yore. In one case they were bought, so now they were part of a 75k+ employee behemoth. But still, with only some irony, called themselves "scrappy". In another they're still privately owned, but are over 7 years old, with close to 500 employees, and allegedly #1 in their space. I feel they like to hide behind this "startup" idea because it relieves them of putting on the big-boy pants and accepting that the expense of moving fast being the #1 priority is actually something they're having a hard time paying.
Gene_Parmesan 4y ago
As a non-SVer, this has always been something that confused me. What is the actual definition for "startup"? It doesn't seem to be tied to age, funding level, employee counts, user counts, revenues, or really anything else at all. Honestly, it seems like a mostly self-selected tag used to indicate culture -- e.g., expectations of working conditions (hours, for instance) that in "normal" business we have long ago realized are actually counter-productive.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- Apocryphon 4y ago
  Open offices, beer kegs, and ping pong tables. Which, frankly, at this point might very well include every company founded since Facebook and including FB. Maybe every tech company post-dot com bubble is spiritually a startup.
- michaelcampbell 4y ago
  > mostly self-selected tag used to indicate culture This is _precisely_ how I've seen it (mis)used; a (IMO very creepy) need to hang on to those wonder-years that got you there. It's also when you typically see the "visionary" type leaders start heading out and doing it over again.
- pram 4y ago
  My favorite use of 'startup' has been at giant dysfunctional orgs (like Oracle) where they structure a new product team to have a 'startup' culture. AFAICT they think it means using kanban boards and having standup meetings.
- pyb 4y ago
  Startup = Growth : http://paulgraham.com/growth.html http://paulgraham.com/growth.html
- pramodbiligiri 4y ago
  Paul Graham has written that for him Startup = Growth (http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html). Another thought leader, Steve Blank, writes that "a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model" (https://steveblank.com/2010/01/25/whats-a-startup-first-principles/ https://steveblank.com/2010/01/25/whats-a-startup-first-prin...). A lot of the "startup type" characteristics of a company can possibly be correlated with one of the above categories. If you don't fall in either category, it would be weird to display those characteristics.
trinovantes 4y ago
Yea, it's a bit silly to call the largest Canadian company by market cap a year ago a "startup"

barkingcat 4y ago

Shopify was also launched in 2006, making it a 16 year old company. While not all startups are young in time-age, calling shopify a "startup" is a misnomer.

michaelcampbell 4y ago
I've seen this a couple times; a startup makes it past whatever threshold you'd consider a startup, but doesn't want to let go of that "culture" or zeitgeist, or whatever romantic notion they had of yore. In one case they were bought, so now they were part of a 75k+ employee behemoth. But still, with only some irony, called themselves "scrappy". In another they're still privately owned, but are over 7 years old, with close to 500 employees, and allegedly #1 in their space. I feel they like to hide behind this "startup" idea because it relieves them of putting on the big-boy pants and accepting that the expense of moving fast being the #1 priority is actually something they're having a hard time paying.

Gene_Parmesan 4y ago

As a non-SVer, this has always been something that confused me. What is the actual definition for "startup"? It doesn't seem to be tied to age, funding level, employee counts, user counts, revenues, or really anything else at all. Honestly, it seems like a mostly self-selected tag used to indicate culture -- e.g., expectations of working conditions (hours, for instance) that in "normal" business we have long ago realized are actually counter-productive.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Apocryphon 4y ago
Open offices, beer kegs, and ping pong tables. Which, frankly, at this point might very well include every company founded since Facebook and including FB. Maybe every tech company post-dot com bubble is spiritually a startup.
michaelcampbell 4y ago
> mostly self-selected tag used to indicate culture This is _precisely_ how I've seen it (mis)used; a (IMO very creepy) need to hang on to those wonder-years that got you there. It's also when you typically see the "visionary" type leaders start heading out and doing it over again.
pram 4y ago
My favorite use of 'startup' has been at giant dysfunctional orgs (like Oracle) where they structure a new product team to have a 'startup' culture. AFAICT they think it means using kanban boards and having standup meetings.
pyb 4y ago
Startup = Growth : http://paulgraham.com/growth.html http://paulgraham.com/growth.html
pramodbiligiri 4y ago
Paul Graham has written that for him Startup = Growth (http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html). Another thought leader, Steve Blank, writes that "a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model" (https://steveblank.com/2010/01/25/whats-a-startup-first-principles/ https://steveblank.com/2010/01/25/whats-a-startup-first-prin...). A lot of the "startup type" characteristics of a company can possibly be correlated with one of the above categories. If you don't fall in either category, it would be weird to display those characteristics.

trinovantes 4y ago

Yea, it's a bit silly to call the largest Canadian company by market cap a year ago a "startup"