
Ask HN: What's the difference between a website and a startup? - sega01
I received an email today. This person suggested I add my website to a list of startups. I won&#x27;t turn down free and reasonable advertising, so I posted it: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;betapage.co&#x2F;startup&#x2F;sporestack<p>I&#x27;ve always thought of it as a service, since it accepts payment and gives you something in return. What exactly is a startup? I&#x27;ve worked at a couple -- I kind of think it&#x27;s a marketing term. And well, almost certainly means pre-IPO.
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Veratyr
A website is simply a way to communicate. You can put information there and
people can read it. Other people can send you information if you choose. You
can allow other people to communicate with each other through it if you
choose.

A startup in regular English is a recently begun business. It doesn't have to
be tech related or doing anything spectacularly new, it could be a family run
bakery in a small town.

A startup in HN English is a recently begun entrepreneurial business. It's
trying to do something new and innovative and usually aims either to be
acquired by a larger company or make absurdly large amounts of money and IPO.

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throwaway2016a
One definition I've heard that I like:

A startup is a company that hasn't found or proven a reproducible and
sustainable business model yet.

Basically a startup is a company that hasn't yet found a way to reliably bring
in enough money to operate. I think this definition can also apply to non-tech
startups like a grocery store.

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rajnikant
A Startup is an aggressive business, and I think in modern terms it is
something which is bridging a gap in the market. Regular traditional
businesses are not considered in startups nowadays especially as per the
definition of investors because normal business can not achieve huge growth as
expected of a startup.

Website is something which is showing the information of an entity it can be a
nonprofit organization or a business, so a website is not a business in itself
as a startup. I checked your link of BetaPage and I think it is more like a
startup

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swampthinker
A website is a place for your startup to advertise itself and it's products.
And in many cases, the website is the product.

A startup is a business. Pebble was a hardware startup that had a website.
Facebook was a software startup that offered a social networking website.

As for what exactly a startup is, look no further than PG's own description:
[http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html)

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Alex3917
> What exactly is a startup?

A startup is a business that arbitrages a temporary economic disequilibrium to
produce extraordinary growth.

Most startups have websites, some startups are entirely web based, but most
websites have nothing to do with startups.

