4 ms·

I think there is something else about the startup culture of Silicon Valley that I don't see in say the midwest and that is the understanding of what a startup

I think there is something else about the startup culture of Silicon Valley that I don't see in say the midwest and that is the understanding of what a startup is - and it's not just a new tech business. As PG wrote Startup = Growth http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html What strikes me as a Silicon Valley outsider is the idea of 5-7% growth rate... per week. Comparing that to companies outside of the valley that grow that per year or per quarter and call themselves a startup and you see that there is something fundamentally different going on in the cultures. That growth oriented/obsessed mindset I just don't see in the midwest. Things move slower, can be less numbers driven, and it's far less about the big exit. There's nothing specifically wrong about that approach, but it's not the same startup mindset as YCombinator has. If the bar to being a successful startup is 5-7% weekly growth, than many/most non Silicon Valley areas don't have the same high bar for startups as SV does. Having a high density of quality people is great, but isn't not just the high density of people who are doing startups, so much as a high density of people doing rapidly growing companies. It's not just the tech, it's the marketing, the relationships, all of that. It's also possible that Startup = Growth is one big marketing lie and Silicon Valley is just lucky, but I doubt it.

greghinch 13y ago
I would argue that any successful small business that could be considered a startup is growing some metric much faster than 5-7% per year. Likely somewhere close to the per week rate. You just have to pick the right metric. What you're referring to is likely a 5-7% growth in revenue per year, and that can be surprisingly good. There are probably "successful" YC companies that aren't growing their revenue that quickly for the first couple years. But some other KPI is going crazy.
- programminggeek 13y ago
  Sure, I'm just saying that there are plenty of companies that think of themselves as startups that don't have KPI's growing at 5-7% a week or even a quarter, unless they invent some metric that makes them look good even if the needle isn't moving.
  - greghinch 13y ago
    Right but then they are probably mis-classifying themselves as startups, rather than small businesses. That's one of the points of "Startup = Growth", if they aren't going for major growth, they aren't a "startup". It's not a matter of saying "startup" is better than "small business" (despite the underlying tone you may feel on HN), it's just a way to classify how the businesses are being operated, and how each can define their own success. All startups are also small businesses, but not all small businesses are startups. If your small business isn't chasing that kind of rapid growth, calling yourself a startup is a misnomer.

greghinch 13y ago

I would argue that any successful small business that could be considered a startup is growing some metric much faster than 5-7% per year. Likely somewhere close to the per week rate. You just have to pick the right metric. What you're referring to is likely a 5-7% growth in revenue per year, and that can be surprisingly good. There are probably "successful" YC companies that aren't growing their revenue that quickly for the first couple years. But some other KPI is going crazy.

programminggeek 13y ago
Sure, I'm just saying that there are plenty of companies that think of themselves as startups that don't have KPI's growing at 5-7% a week or even a quarter, unless they invent some metric that makes them look good even if the needle isn't moving.
- greghinch 13y ago
  Right but then they are probably mis-classifying themselves as startups, rather than small businesses. That's one of the points of "Startup = Growth", if they aren't going for major growth, they aren't a "startup". It's not a matter of saying "startup" is better than "small business" (despite the underlying tone you may feel on HN), it's just a way to classify how the businesses are being operated, and how each can define their own success. All startups are also small businesses, but not all small businesses are startups. If your small business isn't chasing that kind of rapid growth, calling yourself a startup is a misnomer.