

Ask HN: When are you no longer called a "startup"? - justinchen

X number of years? Profitable?  Just curious when people decide to stop calling themselves a "startup" and say they're just a "business" or "small business".
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mikeleeorg
Great question. It seems to be the media tends to label dotcoms a "startup"
regardless of the the size of their user base or revenues.

According to the US Small Business Association, it varies depending upon the
industry. Here's what they have on Service industries (though I realize many
web businesses aren't really service businesses):

> Most common: $7 million > Computer programming, data processing and systems
> design: $25 million > Engineering and architectural services and a few other
> industries have different size standards. > The highest annual-receipts size
> standard in any service industry: $35.5 million > Research and development
> and environmental remediation services: the only service industries with
> size standards stated in number of employees

[http://www.sba.gov/contractingopportunities/officials/size/s...](http://www.sba.gov/contractingopportunities/officials/size/summaryofssi/index.html)

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brk
It's like saying "grownup".

There is no hard-and-fast rule or time.

IMO, there is some factor or ratio to where you are now vs. where you want to
get to and a matter of risk and acceleration involved in doing so.

EG: if you're selling website templates and making $100K/year and want to make
$250K/year and can do so mostly through basic growth with minimal risk, you're
not a "startup".

If you want to get to $25M/year and you're going to take some huge risks and
leaps of faith to do so at a rapid pace, you are a startup.

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justinchen
Sometimes I get stuck trying to decide how to introduce myself or explain what
I do. I feel like after being in business for 4 years and being profitable,
startup isn't the right word. I've been resorting to something along the lines
of "running online businesses" since "entrepreneur" seems to vague.

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cperciva
I saw a good answer here a while back: You're no longer a startup when the
supplies cupboard is locked.

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sandeepshetty
When your no longer searching for a business model and your done with the
customer discovery and validation process.

