Um, no. Your example, and the article, really stretch the meaning to the breaking point. An existing city can't be a startup. You may be an entrepreneur who the

Um, no. Your example, and the article, really stretch the meaning to the breaking point. An existing city can't be a startup. You may be an entrepreneur who then becomes a mayor, but it's not a startup unless you personally started the city. Callously throwing around the term "startup" does a great disservice to people who actually start companies, and historically, to those who started cities. EDIT: An example of "city as a startup" might be what Stan Gale is doing with his "instant city" concept: Outside Seoul in South Korea, Songdo International Business District bills itself as the world's smartest, greenest city and the most expensive privately financed real-estate project in history, with a price tag of $35 billion. It was originally commissioned by South Korea's government to be a magnet for attracting foreign direct investment. The American developer Stan Gale was hired to a build an instant city the size of downtown Boston on a man-made island connected to Seoul's airport via a 13-mile-long bridge. What was imagined as a hub for Western expatriates—not a Korean city, but a mini-Manhattan floating off the coast of South Korea, complete with a "Central Park"—has been settled instead by families from Seoul. The city won't be finished until 2015, at the earliest, but Mr. Gale is convinced that he's "cracked the code" of urbanism and aims to sell 20 more just like it to mayors across China. Chongqing and Changsha have already expressed an interest. The aerotropolis arrives at a moment when urban centers seemingly have started to rule the world. Just 100 cities account for nearly one-third of the global economy. "If the 20th century was the era of nations," South Korean President Lee Myung-bak pronounced at New Songdo's christening in 2009, "the 21st century is the era of cities." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703408604576164703521850100.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870340860457616... (Cities of the Sky - From Dubai to Chongqing to Honduras, the Silk Road of the future is taking shape in urban developments based on airport hubs. Welcome to the world of the 'aerotropolis.')(2011-FEB-26) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerotropolis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerotropolis EDIT: I am reminded of architect Paolo Soleri's Arcosanti, an experimental city started in 1970, in Arizona. He came up with the term arcology (combining architecture and ecology), started a city based on the principles represented by that term, and actually lives in it, effectively as "mayor" (given that he is head of the foundation which owns the city). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcosanti http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcosanti http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Soleri http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Soleri EDIT: Lastly, I want to point out that even though Arcosanti appears to be a failure, it has, over the last four decades, influenced how cities are viewed and built, as well as continuing to propel Soleri's arcology into vast, proposed projects such as the Shimizu Pyramid. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimizu_Mega-City_Pyramid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimizu_Mega-City_Pyramid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcology