> I can start a business without an investment round, but not a startup? The answer around me seems to be that a startup comes out of an idea without the capit

> I can start a business without an investment round, but not a startup? The answer around me seems to be that a startup comes out of an idea without the capital worked out. That the equity they have to offer is worth nothing, unless they execute the plan with money they don't have. If you have the capital worked out, you can go ahead into the business phase of the process right away, where profitability is king and there's no plan needed to answer the "how to raise more?" question. A lot of what we associate with startups is the justifications towards raising and a lot of what we see from a "business" is geared towards margins. For instance, better margins by extracting more profits on a lower revenue is better for one, but looks bad for the other.