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Comment by skrebbel | Hacker News Reader

Right. So a startup has to be about working 80 hours a week or it's not a startup?

The term "startup" doesn't intrinsically say anything about a business other than that it's new. But the discussion about "startups" on HN and in the popular press assumes it means 1) long hours 2) a bunch of young guys 3) aiming at extremely rapid growth (often measured by users, regardless of revenue)

It's probably a losing battle trying to and change that use. If the shoe fits, call it a startup, otherwise just use consulting business, small-business, or whatever other term describes it. It's not like you're losing out on something by not calling a web development shop a startup.

Personally I think the term startup is overused. I regularly see simple premium membership sites paraded around as startups in all the startup news feeds.

I work for a small company (less than 20 people including contractors) that has been in business for 16 years. When I left my giant-ass defense contractor job to come here, a couple people there insisted on referring to it as a "startup". It is rapidly becoming a word that means whatever the speaker wants it to.

Point 1 is decidedly a part of American work ethic. Plenty of startups in Europe have sane work hours, for example. Admittedly, the amount of startups that recently became successful here can be counted on a single hand, but that doesn't invalidate the point.

Don't tie local culture to a global term.

No, but a startup is a company designed to grow into something much larger very quickly — that (historically) requires a massive amount of work. Small businesses can require 80 hours a week too, but they traditionally serve a much smaller segment of the population.

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