"But though the graph has the word "startups" on it, it is not a graph of the number of startups, but of all new businesses."

From what I have seen most of the world* that is not Silicon Valley, does define a startup as simply a new business. Yet whenever an SV person runs into someone understanding the term in the broad sense they don't go, "Sorry, I'm using the word in a more specialized way", they go "Sorry, you're using that word wrong". It seems to occur often enough that I feel like there must be a reason they feel the need to insist on it. Very similar to the word hacker in many ways.

* http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/start%E2%80%93up http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_eng...