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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 clos
by 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 agoSure, 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 agoRight 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.