Yep, which brings me to my interpretation of a "start up".
In my mind, a startup as defined by an entrepreneur is a tech-focused company shooting for rapid growth, with a liquidity event in mind.
On the other hand, a small business is built to operate for a substantial time period (sometimes generational) while providing a steady and reliable stream of income. Business growth is typically a lot slower (often intentionally controlled) but more sure-footed.
A vast portion of the multi-millionaires in this country are small-business owners...
This is an idiosyncratically YC definition of the term "startup". Go to NEWS.GOOGLE.COM, search for "startup", and you'll see the term used in the mainstream press in pretty much every conceivable way.
The word "startup" to me distinguishes new independent nationwide business from corporate spinoffs, established niche companies, and regional businesses. It doesn't have any more meaning than that.
You can say startup means "shoot the moon" all you want, but I'm going to keep calling my company a bootstrapped startup.
Everyone has their own definition of "startup" For a lot of the people here, it seems that startup==web2.0.
I tend more towards young companies that are building a hardware product (containing various proportions of hardware and software invention), when I hear "startup" I tend to think more along the lines of a new physical device.
To me, 2 guys collaborating on a project at night is not a "startup" it's an "experiment". And those 2 guys might think my job at a hardware-type company with a couple-dozen-million in VC dollars with an established process is "working for a big corporation". Doesn't really matter though, ultimately I think "Startup" is one of those words like "Pretty" it means something a little different to everyone, but the common denominator is that it tends to also be synonymous with "Good"...
Depends on your perspective. To those who organize and put on TC50 (and who fund them), these are small fish and would fit the 'startup' definition easily.
For regular 'joes' like you and I who are struggling to get any funding these are far, far beyond startups and represent success stories.
