

What's a Startup, Anyway? - DanielBMarkham
http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2010/10/whats-a-startup.php

======
jacquesm
It's a lot easier to say what's _not_ a start-up than what is a start-up.

IBM: not a start-up.

Your side project that makes $2 on adsense every month: probably not a start-
up (but it might still become one).

You and your buddy working hard together on some web-app that nets you $2K per
month and has your eyes locked on the 'growth' stats: most definitely a start-
up.

Things like location, funding and so on have little to nothing to do with it.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
It amazes me how easy it is to get distracted from the basic definition.

For instance, I've read tons of articles that talk about young teams as being
so great because "they don't know enough to know what is impossible." The
implication is that a young team can change the world and do great things.

That's a wonderful point, and I agree with it. _But it's not a startup_. The
whole reason for the big-idea, change-the-world observation is that ideas that
change the world tend to scale very rapidly. And _that's_ the definition of
startup.

Easy to lose track of the main goal in all the bloggery and such.

~~~
jacquesm
So, to clarify, by your definition someone that does not have an original idea
and that won't/can't scale rapidly is not doing a start-up?

~~~
DanielBMarkham
I must have worded that poorly. Nope, I don't think the idea has anything to
do with it. It's the scaling.

You can have old, boring, been-there-done-that ideas and have a great startup:
as long as you can scale. In fact, I think it works the other way -- the more
boring and mundane your idea, as long as it can scale, the easier it probably
is to execute. Lots of folks want to make the next Twitter. Very few folks
want to help plumbers find the right hex nut when fixing antique toilets (or
something like that)

------
sabat
_How about working in Silicon Valley? Everybody knows that all the "real"
startups are out there.

I'm calling bullshit on this, once and for all. I love SV, and I love the
entire Bay Area, but it's not a requirement for startups._

He's mostly right, but he's also playing into the black-and-white fallacy. No
clear-thinking person would say that being in SV is a requirement for a "real"
startup. (It's not even technically true anymore, since I've been noticing
that more and more startups are popping up with main offices in SF instead.)

It's just that it's more likely that you'll find startups in SV. Culture,
draw, etc. It's true -- but don't mention that to the Foursquare boys in NYC.

