A quote from pg that, I believe, says more or less the same thing as the author did, and incidentally kind of apply to your coffeeshop example: "That difference

A quote from pg that, I believe, says more or less the same thing as the author did, and incidentally kind of apply to your coffeeshop example: "That difference is why there's a distinct word, "startup," for companies designed to grow fast... To grow rapidly, you need to make something you can sell to a big market. That's the difference between Google and a barbershop. A barbershop doesn't scale. For a company to grow really big, it must (a) make something lots of people want, and (b) reach and serve all those people. " I think the author is describing the vision a startup should have, even before it starts tackling the problem its trying to solve. Using your coffeeshop example, if the owner's goal is to, one day, change the way people drink their coffee (in a better way that the owner believes), then yes, this vision is worth pursing, and he/she might need to start out as a corner cafe at first. If the owner's goal is to have his/her own corner cafe and have a stable income from it, then its not a startup. But, as you said, "a huge number of people" and "augment the human condition in a meaningful way" is pretty vague wording, but the intend/meaning of his statement seems reasonable to me.