Recent Posts
The word ‘start-up’ is tossed around more than that Caesar salad you had for dinner, but you may bite off more than you can chew if you try to define the term. With conflicting criteria and clashing timelines, understanding what it means to be a start-up company is tricky business.
Here’s a brief 101 on what’s up with start-ups.
Oxford Dictionary says a ‘start-up’ is a “newly established business.” Technically the first start-ups can be traced to traders and merchants in 17,000 BCE. However, successful start-up companies didn’t really begin until the twentieth century, with McDonald’s opening its doors in 1955, Walmart setting up shop in 1962 and Southwest Airlines taking off in 1971.
Today’s indie trend is likely linked to the Internet age, inspired by the launches of three tech platforms: fellow start-ups Mircosoft, Apple and Google. Applications like Snapchat, WhatsApp and Uber have also taken advantage of this start-up business model, taking the economy by storm online.
READ MORE: 5 Promising Startup Businesses Founded by Women
We rarely think of Google, Apple of Microsoft as “newly established” businesses. Even Snapchat, WhatsApp and Uber (all apps less than seven years old) aren’t really start-ups anymore. So business may be boomin,’ but these success stories could be flooding the market.
Professionals in the business world differ in their definition of the word ‘start-up.’ According to Forbes, some start-up founders say it’s an exciting state of mind while others describe it as attempting to fix something – often unsuccessfully. Not even start-ups can give the same answer about themselves.
These conflicting POVs trickle down into official reports about how well start-ups are doing, not to mention how many start-ups there are. According to Harvard Business Review, start-ups create jobs, but so do different businesses. Some of these companies swim in cash, while others struggle to make ends meet. Depending on the definition, a business could qualify for start-up status with one employee (or a thousand).
The point is that broad and conflicting definitions make it nearly impossible to point at an exact checklist and determine whether a company fits the start-up mold. While researchers still attempt to study the market, well-established companies refusing to let go of their underground cred may influence any assumption made about real start-up success.
READ MORE: 5 Tips Every Successful Businesswoman Should Know to Get Ahead
Although start-ups will continue to evade definitions and confuse experts, the trend probably isn’t ending yet. With millennials latched onto the term, young people will likely continue creating their own start-up businesses to fill any holes in the marketplace they perceive.
These millennials are “the largest, most diverse generation in the U.S. population,” which includes a ton of #WomenThatDo. If this group channels its fiercely independent spirits into some seriously entrepreneurial attitudes, what it means to be a start-up will continue to evolve and change.
