3 ms·
Those are called small businesses. When you tell people you are doing a start-up it is deeply implied you're doing something with the hopes of hitting it big.
by hemancuso 14y ago
Those are called small businesses.
When you tell people you are doing a start-up it is deeply implied you're doing something with the hopes of hitting it big. Because if it wasn't you would just tell them you "run a roofing company" or are "an electrician" or "sell stationary on the internet"
A start-up, even to non-technicals, connotes an attempt to hit it big.
- pav3l 14y agoExactly, start-up entails growth. http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html
- redguava 14y agoYou realise that's an opinion piece written by one person right? PG has a very specific angle on the start-up world.
- homosaur 14y agoI usually think it connotes some stupid social app.
- baddox 14y agoThe two are far from mutually exclusive.
- byoung2 14y agoIt's interesting how nomenclature changes your perception of a business. It is acceptable for a tech startup, for example, to pursue try to increase adoption rate by giving away a service for free in the hopes of securing investment. It would not be nearly as acceptable for a restaurant to give away free food to get more diners in an effort to lure investors.
- pbreit 14y agoDespite that food actually costs money many restaurants do in fact give away a lot of food in hopes of gaining customers.
- byoung2 14y agoA slight distinction is that no restaurant would make it an ongoing policy to give away free food to every customer who walked in the door. Rather, restaurants will have a buy one get one free promo, or a free dessert with entree purchase to lure more paying customers.
- rayiner 14y agoI've worked for two tech companies doing fairly cutting-edge R&D that were definitely "start-ups" in every sense of the word, called themselves such, but were never developed with the intention of getting a bunch of VC money then making a big exit. These are much more common than you probably realize, even within the tech sector. Getting really big then exiting basically necessitates that you have to be in a mass-market business. But do only mass-market businesses get to call themselves start-ups? Is there no place for start-ups in specialized fields with significant revenue potential but without the kind of universal applicability that makes VC's wet their pants?
- hemancuso 14y agoIsn't cutting edge research a very pure version of trying to hit it big? Sure, there might be no VC involved. But what does that matter?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- skarmklart 14y agoIsn't there something inbetween? I'm currently developing SaaS for a certain service industry in Sweden. I wouldn't say this is hitting it small, nor is it batting for the major leagues. It's a decent sized chunk of project that will build the skills and capital needed for our next level-up sometime in the future.
- ef4 14y agoLook at the specific sentence I quoted to criticize. Do you really agree that "The concept of entrepreneurism as a small-time life-style has evaporated from the culture"?