

What's the difference between a startup and a small business? - bakhlawa

What makes a startup a startup? Does it have to be technology-related? If I start a small business selling widgets or a service, are the same elements not involved: some capital injection (from savings or family loans), one/two owners acting as CEO, CFO, CIO, Sales, Marketing, HR, Ops, etc., juggling many things and struggling with the same questions?<p>I am truly curious - what constitutes a startup and how is this different from the thousands of non-tech businesses that are started every day?
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pg
A startup is designed to grow rapidly. To do that it has to be a product
company rather than a service company.

<http://paulgraham.com/startupfunding.html> (search for "physical")

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AQR
My view: scale/size of market

A small business is going to be mainly local/regional. A car dealership is a
small business - might make the owner(s) millions, but still a "small"
business.

Car manufacturers like the new Tesla Motors are start ups.

There's plenty of start-ups that aren't tech based, but tech firms probably
lend themselves to scaling thus the majority of them being start-ups.

Non tech example: Stonyfield Farm = start-up Farms an hour from me =
small/medium businesses

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malandrew
Small businesses are typically based on an established business model.
Restaurants, bars, retail outlets, etc., count as small businesses.

Startups in contrast are an organization in search of a business model. Once
it finds one it doubles down on the product search with a viable business
model and develops it to profitability.

