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Startups are pummeled in the ‘great unwinding’

nytimes.com

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Re: Startups are pummeled in the ‘great unwinding’

#21

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

_bxg1 wrote: post #12
cowsandmilk wrote: post #5

Classpass was founded in 2013. Wonderschool was founded in 2012. Can we stop calling companies that age a startup? Or at least stop using them as examples? I mean, the article then goes on to call Airbnb a "home rental start-up". It isn't a start-up, it is over a decade old and has over 10,000 employees.

And yet we all know what they mean when they call those companies "startups". The term has drifted pretty far from its original meaning, but it does carry a new meaning even though it's almost completely different

It means they're VC-backed webapps from San Francisco?

Re: Startups are pummeled in the ‘great unwinding’

#22

Post by StavrosK »

benatkin wrote: post #14
cowsandmilk wrote: post #5

Classpass was founded in 2013. Wonderschool was founded in 2012. Can we stop calling companies that age a startup? Or at least stop using them as examples? I mean, the article then goes on to call Airbnb a "home rental start-up". It isn't a start-up, it is over a decade old and has over 10,000 employees.

Another thing that's more than half a decade old is your objection. The term "startup" has come to have a broad meaning. The meaning of words changes over time. Fortunately, new terms often come along to fill gaps. In this case there is the term early-stage startup .

So "startup" now means "company" and "early-stage startup" means "startup". I look forward to having to call them "incipient early-stage startup".

Re: Startups are pummeled in the ‘great unwinding’

#23

Post by _bxg1 »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #21
_bxg1 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet we all know what they mean when they call those companies "startups". The term has drifted pretty far from its original meaning, but it does carry a new meaning even though it's almost completely different

It means they're VC-backed webapps from San Francisco?

Roughly. I would broaden the colloquial meaning to "new-wave tech companies". Ones from the past decade that aren't FAANG and maintain an agile culture (or at least purport to), and have a certain San Francisco sheen to them even if they aren't actually from there

Re: Startups are pummeled in the ‘great unwinding’

#24

Post by maxerickson »

_bxg1 wrote: post #23
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It means they're VC-backed webapps from San Francisco?

Roughly. I would broaden the colloquial meaning to "new-wave tech companies". Ones from the past decade that aren't FAANG and maintain an agile culture (or at least purport to), and have a certain San Francisco sheen to them even if they aren't actually from there

I feel like you are now vigorously explaining that the other poster was right, that we should use some other name.

Re: Startups are pummeled in the ‘great unwinding’

#25

Post by cjblomqvist »

cowsandmilk wrote: post #5

Classpass was founded in 2013. Wonderschool was founded in 2012. Can we stop calling companies that age a startup? Or at least stop using them as examples? I mean, the article then goes on to call Airbnb a "home rental start-up". It isn't a start-up, it is over a decade old and has over 10,000 employees.

Completely agree. I find the terms startup and scaleup as useful. Both aim for the same thing, but are in very different phases (pre/post business model validation). Then of course, in reality it's not that clear whether you're one or the other....

Re: Startups are pummeled in the ‘great unwinding’

#27

Post by rumanator »

_bxg1 wrote: post #12
cowsandmilk wrote: post #5

Classpass was founded in 2013. Wonderschool was founded in 2012. Can we stop calling companies that age a startup? Or at least stop using them as examples? I mean, the article then goes on to call Airbnb a "home rental start-up". It isn't a start-up, it is over a decade old and has over 10,000 employees.

And yet we all know what they mean when they call those companies "startups". The term has drifted pretty far from its original meaning, but it does carry a new meaning even though it's almost completely different

> And yet we all know what they mean when they call those companies "startups".

That isn't true at all. These companies were startups almost a decade ago, but since then they already matured and strayed very far from the classification. This is like calling a 40yo man a teenager just because he was one in the distant past.

Re: Startups are pummeled in the ‘great unwinding’

#28

Post by yborg »

StavrosK wrote: post #22
benatkin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another thing that's more than half a decade old is your objection. The term "startup" has come to have a broad meaning. The meaning of words changes over time. Fortunately, new terms often come along to fill gaps. In this case there is the term early-stage startup .

So "startup" now means "company" and "early-stage startup" means "startup". I look forward to having to call them "incipient early-stage startup".

I guess startup is generally understood now to mean a VC-backed company that doesn't make any money.

Re: Startups are pummeled in the ‘great unwinding’

#29

Post by _bxg1 »

maxerickson wrote: post #24
_bxg1 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roughly. I would broaden the colloquial meaning to "new-wave tech companies". Ones from the past decade that aren't FAANG and maintain an agile culture (or at least purport to), and have a certain San Francisco sheen to them even if they aren't actually from there

I feel like you are now vigorously explaining that the other poster was right, that we should use some other name.

I'm not arguing one way or the other, I'm just observing that "startup" is an overloaded term in 2020, and maybe the new definition is a bit silly, but it's also really hard to get everyone in a society to change the vocabulary they've become accustomed to.
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