What's a startup?

Startups = rapid growth businesses (typically built in the last 10 years)

Great question.

I don't think there's really a monetary threshold but there is a time threshold. To me, a startup moves to a different class of firm after 5 years. After the 5 years, then they're classified by revenue/another measure.

My cut-offs: As long as they're getting revenue in the millions, I'd qualify it as a company and billions would qualify them as a giant. Ex) Lyft is a tech company while facebook is a tech giant.
Less than a million and it's probably more along the lines of a small/local business. Maybe that's too high or too low but just my thinking.

I would say if you have two or more of the following, your not really a "start-up" anymore

• Series D+
• >$1Bn
• >200 Headcount
• Average person on the street has heard of you
• You are considering, or have already, went public
• You're getting too big for VC funding
• You're cash flow positive (half-joking)

When I think of a start-up, I think of a early twenties Stanford kid that just raised a series A, has an office thats a converted 1 Br in SoMa with a few other programmers that barely built a MVP. Not a multi-billion dollar corporation with so many people that some employees that work in the same office barely recognize each other.

It's what happens when you take cialis.

I agree with BTown. Monetary threshold is not the only factor but there is a time threshold as well. You can check some quick and simple videos from the YouTube site of Bluebook Academy. They explained the whole ''startup'' thing quite simply and clearly. They also offer online courses with contents of your interest at bluebookacademy dot com

start-up (noun) -

1. A way for 20 year olds to get paid for tweeting

I don't think you can define it solely by >X employees, >Y years of operations, a certain financial metric or other quantitative factors, but it's more along the lines of the Supreme Court's definition of pornography: "I know it when I see it."

It's silly to call Uber a start-up but a company doesn't need to be valued at $50B (or whatever their ridiculous number is) and be a household name to cross the threshold. At some qualitative point, a company just becomes a VC backed company with a much lower probability of failure, and then maybe it can be mid, late, growth, pre-IPO stage or any other number of terms.

For me a start-up has to be, well, starting up.

If you have a portfolio company that is 5 years old and going for a round it's an "innovative entrepreneurial software company" (or some other bs) ..... not a start-up simply because it is done starting up and is in a consolidation / growth / P 2.0 phase.

Even if it takes on another guise I would (pedantically) refer to it as a greenfield opportunity because, as before, the actual starting up phase is over.

IMO in the literal form; start-up is any company that is up to 24 months old. The thing is, this term has been used so much to describe a specific category of young companies (see for example Graham's explanation) that its meaning has somehow changed. You just opened a local grocery store? That's a startup. You started a new social media website/app? That's a startup, too.

Also what's the difference between a Businessman and an Entrepreneur?