Eh! Do I Have a Business or a Startup?

Posted on May 5, 2008
Filed Under Startup |

Answering this question has nothing to do with longevity, yearly revenue/profitability, funding received, or the size of the staff – it has everything to do with being at the cutting edge of innovation.

Innovation is the main distinguishing factor that propels all other distinguishing factors between a business and a startup.

So What are Those Other Distinguishing Factors?

What other distinguishing factors can you think of??

Comments

2 Responses to “Eh! Do I Have a Business or a Startup?”

  1. Jason Wishard on May 5th, 2008 8:55 am

    The 37 gang (well, Jason that is) wrote this post several days back:
    http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/997-start-a-business-not-a-startup

    With that post and yours, I have to say, I dance in the middle. I see Jason’s points of thinking a start-up is a business and yours that a start-up is a start-up. I think for a start-up to be successful, you have to balance both. A start-up should be driven by passion and not by business, business aspects have to be there. I’ve seen my fair share of unplanned attempts at growth and all start-ups (even though some may not admit to it) want growth. There has to be some semblance of a business plan. If you don’t have an outlined vision, you just end up treading water.

    Of course, if it becomes too much like a business, then it loses that “ping pong table-wii playing-fose ball competition” madness that is a start-up.

  2. admin on May 5th, 2008 5:33 pm

    Jason,

    I strongly believe that startups need to have a plan for growing into a business…it technically used to be the flow of things but in the last few years we’ve seen a great deal more M&As (mergers and acquisitions) The quick M&As have caused a surge of projects, applications, and features to be called startups - when they are not.

    You must use a business mindset in your startup - it ought to be that mindset which made you think of the new innovation to begin with because you saw a need and a market for it - which is all business 101.

    Cool tech does not equal a need or justify a market. An example is twitter…it’s been thus far a cool application but it doesn’t really fit what a startup is and it certainly isn’t a business.

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