To get even more pedantic, they are building apps, not launching them.

Not that I want to dismiss the efforts - a group of people all challenging themselves to build out a side project in 24 hours is commendable. But building an idea into an MVP on a Saturday is not the same thing as launching a company.

If it is live on a public url, then it is "launched", so they are launching apps/products.

Deploy to production = launch

I would agree that there is more to a business than a product

but what actually qualifies as a launch?

I agree with what you are saying but you saying it kind of feels like a wet blanket.

Props to these people doing what they're doing publically.

What is a startup anyway?

The term is stupid and overused imo.

A lot of people on HN would probably go with the Paul Graham definition: "A startup is a company designed to grow fast"

http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html

I've always liked Steve Blanks definition: "a startup is a temporary organization used to search for a repeatable and scalable business model"

https://steveblank.com/2010/01/25/whats-a-startup-first-prin...

That's what PG wants a startup to be because it's self serving. He isn't going to get rich off of people bootstrapping lifestyle startups.

So true. I think a startup should be what it literally denotes. A new business.

Then we wouldn't need the word "startup" at all. But since people intuitively see a difference between opening up a deli and starting a social network, I think the word has a use.

I think people associcate startups with technology, high risk (compared to a proven business model that has worked a thousand times for other people), and potential for fast growth (with regards to the investment).

I don't think that excludes lifestyle-ventures.

A new business that isn't limited by local only distribution.

I think that's a post appstore or post web definition. I'm all for unsexy startups if they can turn the entire city into a customer and yet not be relevant outside of the city

I think we can all agree it's not the process of building an app.

I have to think "has external funding" is a minimum.

Why? GH already had 1M repositories when it raised its first round, were they not a startup before?

No, they were a small company.

Quite some irony in the fact that while some people are trying to build products quickly, Hacker News (run by startup incubator YCombinator) has a 20-comment thread debating what 'startup' means.

Successful bootstrapping strategies would render something like YCombinator useless so. Expect some resistance.

By that logic, you can say people that build startups should never do something else in their 24h day.

Don't be silly. I've never seen anyone advocating for a 24 hour day. At the very most, I've seen 18 hour days. Let's be realistic. https://www.quora.com/How-did-CEO-Marissa-Mayer-pull-all-nig...

Want to be sarcastic here, but feel like people would look down on me.

That's not what I'm advocating. Just arguing against the parent who said some equivalent of "while others are building products, you wannabe entrepreneurs are all talks here on HN".

Realize that, I was making a sarcastic joke. :)

Haha. Never forget to add /s at the end, sarcasm is hard to convey over text and with an audience that doesn't know you well :-)

Oh no, you can spend it on whatever you want. Arguing about the definition of ‘startup’, though?

Experiments. Proof of concepts.

Give them a month, then maybe you could call it a 'start-up' or something substantial. It would also help build some level of anticipation.

Sure, in a month, if they are an actual startup I'll call them a startup.

How do you propose anyone will have a MVP within a day? Which is the purpose of this event. I mentioned giving them a month to develop and build some level of product and anticipation for what it is they're proposing. Nothing about calling them a 'start-up' based on any level of randomness. Or perhaps you don't understand the word 'maybe'.

Being pedantic around this is silly

Strong agree. It’s hard to understand how you would build a sustainable business around any of the products listed in this thread.

We should take back the word 'startup' from people who want to make us think it is reserved for something that involves a business plan and raising money.

If someone starts something, I call it startup.

Hey everyone, come invest in my new startup called "doing the dishes." Launching in about five minutes.

If I can pay you to come to my house and do my dishes, yeah it's a startup.

If I don't pay you, but you still come round when I ask, it's still a startup, but with a freemium price point.

If I don't pay and you don't turn up when I want, but you still are washing someone's dishes, it's a side project.

If you don't come and do my dishes, it's a pivot.

Except that words need to mean something, otherwise anyone can arbitrarily decide what they mean at their own convenience like what's happening now.

Having been interested in business since before the dot-com book, I've seen "Startup" transform from "New business, dealing with new business problems" to the very SV-driven notion that it's a new business expressly designed to scale quickly.

Words might need to mean something, but there's already been a lot of drift here.

The meaning of words has always been a negotiation.

That's of course not just happening now, it has always been a problem with the term. There has never been wide industry agreement as to what it means, going back decades.

That's how you end up with the media referring to 10 year old type companies that have thousands of employees as start-ups. I don't think a definition for it is going to get narrowed now, it will probably always be a broad/loose term.

In trying to “take back the word startup” and redefine it to fit your own preferred meaning. I expect you will find, most on HN will take a more conservative position in it’s definition.

I agree that the term "startup" is not strictly defined. But often the nuances are "can we only call a quickly growing company a startup" (a la Paul Graham) or "can we call any young company a startup".

What the definitions agree on is that a startup is company, a business. Making a business involves a lot more than creating a product and is a much more complex undertaking.