Setting aside the question of whether this is true, why is it bad to have a smaller business? I can think of several advantages, not the least of which is the luxury of remaining the sole developer.
It's weird that you spend the comment telling Colin what he's doing wrong, and then ask him at the end what he wants.
It also isn't as weird that I wrote that comment considering I alarmingly find myself falling into Colin's shoes as a single founder. If there's a trap laying ahead that I could avoid, I'd rather know about it sooner than later. It's not to disparage Colin that I wrote the comment. It's to learn from him. I like Tarsnap and I'm a Tarsnap customer.
If there's a way forward that is unexplored terrain, I at least would like to learn more about it.
I wonder how far YC pondered over this question actually. What do you do with the cpercivas?
This gutsy, uncompromising quality is a trait of successful founders. I'm curious to see what will happen.
That is not what the word means in common usage.
Merriam-Webster: "a fledgling business enterprise"
Oxford: "A newly established business"
Wikipedia: "A company, partnership or temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model"
Etc.
No wonder that's not what the word means in common usage considering startups themselves haven't been common enough to make it into hundred-year old dictionaries.