Startup - What is it?

Startup – What is it?

Startup, it sounds like the beginning, it isn’t! Long before you start your startup you have a seed of an idea. That idea keeps floating around your brain, being tested every day with potential examples, hypothetical or real life ones. You initial idea is tested by talking to others about it, by Googling similar ideas to see if your idea is unique. You are still well away from creating a startup.

But, according to Google, one definition of a start-up is described as “the action or process of setting something in motion”. Another definition states “a newly established business”. Forbes describes it as “A start-up is a company working to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious and success is not guaranteed”. Nice try, but what Forbes describes is just one possible “process” of a company, any company, not just the process of a start-up. And that definition definitely IS not a startup.

Personally I prefer to define a start-up (in the business sense as opposed to the personal sense) like one of Google’s definitions “A 100% newly established business with based on a new idea, product or service”. The reason why I call it a 100% newly formed business is because when Gillette starts a new business in Timbuktu, it is not s startup. Also if you start a new company based on a product or service that already exists in the market, personally I would not call it a start-up.

So there you go, I hope the above explains things well enough to create clarity in your mind. In the end, pick whatever definition works for you.

Startup – Office or Home Business?

Startup, is that a business in an official office or can it be a home business? Can it be a business in a garage? Yes indeed, a start-up business can be a business started in a garage like Microsoft, or in a dorm room like Facebook. You can set up a start-up business at home in your attic or in your basement. It really does not matter.

Is your start-up business “corporate”, i.e. a real business or just a “home business” if you start it in your garage? It does not matter where you start your business, the moment you have actually created your business, registered your company, and it is for a new idea, a new concept, whether a product or service, you have a startup business. You can work on your business on the beach in Jamaica, if you have done all of the above, you have a start-up business.

So when is it not a startup anymore. Business.com describes it in a number of ways, one being that start-up equals growth. To a certain extent I agree. Facebook, twitter and other “startups” like that are still growing and thus rightly called a start-up. However, In my mind it’s not just growth of sales revenue or profit. It’s not just financial growth or headcount (number of employees) growth.

I believe that a start-up isn’t a start-up anymore when the basic concept upon which it started, stops growing, stops developing, in other words is established. Any further growth of the (Start-up) company are different concepts, even though they may overlap, synergistic with or complement the original concept. Once new strategic directions are taken and the core business has been established I believe it is not a start-up anymore.