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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’

#41

Post by KoftaBob »

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.

The term "start up" generally means any relatively young company (compared to companies that are multiple decades old) that's growing rapidly in revenue and/or valuation. The number of employees isn't as relevant.

Re: Startups are pummeled in the ‘great unwinding’

#42

Post by JMTQp8lwXL »

tedd4u wrote: post #33

Startups have had years to prepare, work on their plan, strengthen their fundamentals, and raise capital if necessary. I think the shock is that probably this is a faster onset and deeper drop scenario than most had modeled. Every [1] startup has been thinking for the past couple years about their plan for when the recession would come. Probably hundreds of articles written in mainstream and economic/financial press…

People always write about coming recessions. I could "recession year 20NN" and find someone proclaiming a recession would happen that year. Given someone in the peanut gallery is always claiming recession is near imminent, when are businesses supposed to prepare? Leaving piles of purposeless cash is poor business acumen: it could be put into R&D, expanding operations, or returned to shareholders.

Re: Startups are pummeled in the ‘great unwinding’

#43

Post by manigandham »

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 .

The definition is now so broad as to become meaningless.

Re: Startups are pummeled in the ‘great unwinding’

#44

Post by manigandham »

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.

Indeed. Startup = entirely new business model. That's what venture capital is designed for.

Otherwise it's just a small business, until it becomes medium, big, public, etc.

Re: Startups are pummeled in the ‘great unwinding’

#45

Post by hogFeast »

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.

The reason AirBnb is a startup is because it makes no money. A company stops being a startup when you aren't relying on someone cutting you a check every month to keep it all going.

Most of these companies will now fold. The number of employees or, even, revenue is irrelevant.

Re: Startups are pummeled in the ‘great unwinding’

#46

Post by gamblor956 »

School-Cotton wrote: post #15
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.

For better or worse, in colloquial American English, "startup" means a particular type of company, and is only weakly correlated with age.

To most of America, the term "startup" means a vaguely tech-ish company which doesn't know how to make a profit.

As a former techie, I strongly agree with that usage.

Re: Startups are pummeled in the ‘great unwinding’

#48

Post by rhizome »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #17

> For start-up workers, the past few weeks have been sobering. Many had bought into the tech industry’s change-the-world ideals, had few boundaries between their work and personal lives and hoped for big payouts if their start-ups went public. This saddened me, because it's a refrain that we hear over and over and over. Same exact thing happened during the .com bust (which scares me to believe that was 20 years ago a…

What does "best" mean here? Successful? Affability? A tautology that the people with rich, fulfilling lives outside of work are the best people in business?

Re: Startups are pummeled in the ‘great unwinding’

#49

Post by gamblor956 »

KoftaBob wrote: post #41
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.

The term "start up" generally means any relatively young company (compared to companies that are multiple decades old) that's growing rapidly in revenue and/or valuation. The number of employees isn't as relevant.

While PG tried to redefine the term "startup" to include "growing rapidly in revenue" or whatever, this redefinition never took hold outside of a very limited sphere centered in Silicon Valley.

Outside of the valley, startup means a company that doesn't know how to make money.

Re: Startups are pummeled in the ‘great unwinding’

#50

Post by DEADBEEFC0FFEE »

save_ferris wrote: post #35
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #17

> For start-up workers, the past few weeks have been sobering. Many had bought into the tech industry’s change-the-world ideals, had few boundaries between their work and personal lives and hoped for big payouts if their start-ups went public. This saddened me, because it's a refrain that we hear over and over and over. Same exact thing happened during the .com bust (which scares me to believe that was 20 years ago a…

> I’ve also found that the best folks in business tend to have rich, fulfilling lives outside of business as well. Totally agree, but I’ve been burned multiple times by startups that see any kind of multifaceted lifestyle as “not fully committed” to the team or company, which is ridiculous. I’ve been so disappointed how frequently this happens in tech.

How does the response manifest? Is it overt?
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