Building a Startup v. Building a Business

Building a Startup v. Building a Business(battlehardened.wordpress.com)

40 points by kentonwhite 14 years ago | 6 comments

mikeleeorg 14 years ago |

I really like Steve Blank's definition of a startup:

"A startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model."

Source: http://steveblank.com/2010/01/25/whats-a-startup-first-princ...

akrymski 14 years ago | |

And by that definition, creating a great product (which I believe is what he's tried to do) isn't the goal. Sad but true?

And by business model I guess Steve means selling something at a profit. And scalable means having enough stuff to sell or enough people to sell to? I saw Steve's presentation in person, and I can't see I fully agree, because it seems to me that awesome products can't be made like that (eg the iphone). And there's the danger of falling into "consulting" with that approach cause after all it kinda fits the definition: you can scale your salesforce to find clients, there are loads of potential customers, and you can scale your workforce (through outsourcing) as much as you want to. Probably a great business though, but to me startups are about building great products first, taking a leap of faith to do that, and finding ways to monetize them later (google, facebook, apple have all done that) even if they can't be sold for money directly to consumers.

keiferski 14 years ago |

I'm all for eliminating the term startup entirely. You're either a website or an online business. Pretty simple.

akrymski 14 years ago | |

While at it, lets eliminate "online business" cause what does that mean anyway? Having no offline store? And how can you "be a website" anyway?

There are just "businesses with websites". Which is most businesses these days. Like Gap. Gap is a business with a website (their online store). So is Amazon. Should we call them different things cause Amazon has warehouses but no commercial premises? No they are both "retailers with a website". So startup should be replaced by:

"[ type of ] business with a website".

Some are software businesses, like Facebook or Google or Microsoft. Some are B2C, others are B2B. Just cause some of them choose to make digital products (software) and deliver them via a website doesn't make them a "startup" cause there are startups that make physical stuff.

kkt262 14 years ago |

I truly believe that there should be no distinction between the two. A startup is a business.

funthree 14 years ago |

Axiom: Words are just pointers to actual thoughts we intend to project

A startup is definitely a business, by definition of anyone who runs a startup that actually works. The author might have conveyed his point more astutely by choosing different terms. Saying that you are just building a startup and not a business because you are forcing your hand at growth prematurely seems a little immature because all of the people that have a different understanding of the word startup are going to be shaking their heads a little bit.

Startup are as much about marketing as they are about scaling out.

You have to have both balanced out, and there are many equally important aspects of any business. I think that forcing your business to grow before there are really any sales only works if you have a greater and over-arching sales or marketing plan that this plays into. That is, if you haven't proven your idea with real customer testimonials, or you arent better-solving some other problem that has already been proven to bring in revenue then it's just a mistake.