10 ms·

At what point do you stop being a start up? They have a revenue of ~$6.5B and 12,000 employees.

by matart 9y ago

eridius 9y ago
When you IPO.
- ouid 9y ago
  you can stay a private company forever, surely walmart isn't a startup.
  - eridius 9y ago
    I suppose that's true, but startups generally take VC funding, and VCs want the company to either IPO or get bought. There are bootstrapped "startups", but if you're not taking VC funding and trying to go big, then it's less obvious what the difference is between a "startup" and a "company".
kelnos 9y ago
I think the criterion I like best is that if you're actively sacrificing profitability for growth, you're a startup. Obviously there are exceptions in both directions, and other factors to consider, but this seems to be a pretty good starting point for discussion to me.
- seanp2k2 9y ago
  Yep, Amazon was the first counter-example I thought of. Definitely not a start-up but they trade profit for growth all day.
yodon 9y ago
When you have a repeatable business model. Uber has repeat customers but is a long way from having figured out how to make the profits required by their business and funding history.
slezakattack 9y ago
Unfortunately, declaring your company a start up is sexy. My last company was about 130 employees, made some profit but mostly enough to keep the business afloat, been around for a little over 10 years, and was reluctant to call itself a start up. The company I'm currently at has close to 1,200 employees, been around for close to 10 years, its own free cafeteria, profitable enough to fund several high-risk initiatives, but easily calls itself a start up.. My personal opinion: you're no longer a start up if you're able to afford your own "free food cafeteria". ;-)
- seanp2k2 9y ago
  If "free food cafeteria" means something other than "the CEO is buying a few pizzas to feed the whole office" I would say it's no longer a start-up :)

At what point do you stop being a start up? They have a revenue of ~$6.5B and 12,000 employees.

by matart 9y ago

At what point do you stop being a start up? They have a revenue of ~$6.5B and 12,000 employees.

eridius 9y ago

When you IPO.

ouid 9y ago
you can stay a private company forever, surely walmart isn't a startup.
- eridius 9y ago
  I suppose that's true, but startups generally take VC funding, and VCs want the company to either IPO or get bought. There are bootstrapped "startups", but if you're not taking VC funding and trying to go big, then it's less obvious what the difference is between a "startup" and a "company".

kelnos 9y ago

I think the criterion I like best is that if you're actively sacrificing profitability for growth, you're a startup. Obviously there are exceptions in both directions, and other factors to consider, but this seems to be a pretty good starting point for discussion to me.

seanp2k2 9y ago
Yep, Amazon was the first counter-example I thought of. Definitely not a start-up but they trade profit for growth all day.

yodon 9y ago

When you have a repeatable business model. Uber has repeat customers but is a long way from having figured out how to make the profits required by their business and funding history.

slezakattack 9y ago

Unfortunately, declaring your company a start up is sexy. My last company was about 130 employees, made some profit but mostly enough to keep the business afloat, been around for a little over 10 years, and was reluctant to call itself a start up. The company I'm currently at has close to 1,200 employees, been around for close to 10 years, its own free cafeteria, profitable enough to fund several high-risk initiatives, but easily calls itself a start up.. My personal opinion: you're no longer a start up if you're able to afford your own "free food cafeteria". ;-)

seanp2k2 9y ago
If "free food cafeteria" means something other than "the CEO is buying a few pizzas to feed the whole office" I would say it's no longer a start-up :)