Open Coffee Club’s (OCC) third meet happened successfully in Bangalore yesterday. OCC has been getting good amount of traction in Bangalore since the day it kick off.
However, my key aim of writing this post is not to publicize OCC, rather, to ask a straight and simple question. ( This question was asked by one of the associates from OCC, yesterday).
What is a Startup?
My question however, doesn’t end with this, because, today’s startup wont be a startup tomorrow. How do we say or how do we differentiate between a Startup and a mid size company?
Any thoughts?
Cheers,
Vaibhav
http://technofriends.wordpress.com
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A startup can be defined as a place where 1 or more individuals work their “ass off” for continous hours keeping a single goal in mind and being satisfied with the holistic vision of creating value and not just salary.
remove “ass off” from the above definition…u get a mid size company
Startup is definitely a state of mind. A company can be said to be in a startup mode till any of the following things are happening in the company
1. Roles of individuals are not clearly defined (people wearing multiple hats for lack of money to hire more people)
2. Processes are not well-defined which means company’s success still depends on a very few individuals (usually the founding team)
Any company which has reached a stage where it can be run without the founders is no longer a startup.
I know a few companies which remained in the startup mode even after 4-5 years of existence!
A startup would be two or more people creating a new concept and building an organization from this. Could be done with Angel/VC funding or could be bootstrapped.
The answer is generally tied to revenues, the financial stability and state of the company, and also the age of the company. That is to say, even if a company is cash flow positive in its first year, that does not mean that it is no longer a startup. Similarly, if a company in still burning cash after 3 years (typical in a technology venture) it is definitely still a startup. However, startup is also a state of mind if you will, having to do a lot with the mind frame of the people working in and for the company, starting with the founders (who may or may not still be there). I doubt there is a text book answer to the question, in fact I am sure there are many. Cheers.
http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/how_long_is_a_startup_a_startup.php