The term is "small business." There are millions of them all over the world. More of them than there are "startups" by number at the least.
It never ceases to amaze me how warped and myopic the tech industry's understanding of the world is.
Startups in the SV notion of the term don't even compare in number, even in the US. Heck, every accounting firm you see, it's such as "small business". Every local grocery store. Every restaurant. Every ice cream parlor. Every jewelry maker. The list goes on and on...
[1] Well, they wouldn't say no to striking it big, but it's not like SV founders dreaming of $10B exit.
Grandiose slurs like this count as calling names in arguments, which is against the rules here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. There's no content in such a statement, merely indignation and setting yourself above others. That appeals to others who share the same identity sentiment (in this case, anti-"tech industry" as opposed to pro-"tech industry", not that these things mean anything), but it does not add information to a discussion, which is what we're looking for.
The rest of your comment is fine, of course, though not necessarily true—these terms aren't obviously synonymous.
I'm not sure if "small business" is an appropriate word to describe a product/service without geographic boundaries. It is if you're starting a dry-cleaner or restaurant, but I'm not sure that's what this crowd is doing.
Happy barnacling.
There really does need to be a term for "SME pursuing a growth-heavy strategy, to the degree that's possible without outside assistance."
I would say "technology enabled SME pursuing a growth-heavy strategy without outside assistance"
There is a fundamental difference in how you start/grow/manage an internet based business vs. a geographically based one.