> For it to be a startup, you have to have a large target market.
Making up your own definition of startup ? A start-up is just a newly established business.
Making up your own definition of startup ? A start-up is just a newly established business.
That's like calling a newly established barber shop a startup. It's not.
The GP is working on a podcast hosting company. The market for people who want to host podcasts is miniscule. Large enough to sustain a company, sure. But that's not a startup.
Besides, there have been multiple "podcast startups" (by the valley-definition of startup) in the past.
It doesn't matter whether it originated in the valley. It's not like calling an elevator a lift. A startup is a technical term with a precise meaning. You can call your bar a startup if you want, but that doesn't make it true.
My point is that it's really not. The term existed before the valley-definition and it exists outside of the valley-definition. Yes, Paul Graham and others popularised that definition (and I personally think it's a good definition and usually use t as that), but it has existed and continues to exist with other meanings, so it's far from a "precise technical term".
If a business is small and stays small, then at best it's a failed startup. If it's designed to stay small, then it's not a startup at all.
You can argue any other point, but you can't avoid the growth criteria. And if you have that, either you grow quickly or your competitor will put you out of business.
My point is that a podcast hosting company has no growth potential. The target market is too small. A startup could use podcast hosting as a stepping stone toward a bigger market, but in absence of that, it's a business like any other. And there's no shame in admitting that.
But it's really strange to insist it's a startup when it's not. Imagine insisting that a desktop computer is a chair just because you can sit on it.
I think companies that don't follow that definition have an agenda: startups are now prestigious, so they call themselves a startup in order to seem impressive.
Sad, but it's just human nature.
Dictionary.com says "a new business venture, or a new commercial or industrial project".
Merriam-Webster says "a fledgling business enterprise".
I don't mean to be difficult but it's annoying that some folks on HN insist that PG's definition of "startup" is the only possible one. It's a useful definition, but people who use it the non-PG way are not wrong either.
But more seriously, the term is somewhat vague and is often misapplied.