74% of Startups Have Trimmed Staff, 65% Have Less Than 6 Months of Cash

Re:74% of Startups Have Trimmed Staff, 65% Have Less Than 6 ... by trophycase on Saturday May 02, 2020 @03:28AM (#23050061)

Startup implies tech and/or "nontraditional" business and also tends to imply VC money. A restaurant isn't a "startup" because it's a restaurant, a hardware store is a hardware store. But what is a VC backed meal kit company: a startup. There's no actual word for it so startup is the catchall term

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Re:74% of Startups Have Trimmed Staff, 65% Have Less Than 6 ... by brutus1213 on Saturday May 02, 2020 @03:55AM (#23050176)

Extremely insightful comment! I've been in the industry for a while and this is an excellent definition. It pertains to whether or not a business model is well-established or not.

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Re:74% of Startups Have Trimmed Staff, 65% Have Less Than 6 ... by TheSpiceIsLife on Saturday May 02, 2020 @07:55AM (#23051216)

> what is a VC backed meal kit company

How about a meal kit company?

Words mean what people who use them intend them to mean, so we end up with things like this:

noun

a new business venture, or a new commercial or industrial project.

adjective

of or relating to the beginning of such a venture or project, especially to an investment made to initiate it

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/startup

NB: dictionaries are not authoritative sources for living languages, rather they can only be historical records. Thus, words mean what people who use them intend them to mean.

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Re:74% of Startups Have Trimmed Staff, 65% Have Less Than 6 ... by manigandham on Monday May 04, 2020 @03:10AM (#23065326)

Startup = new business model. However once those business models have become mature, it's no longer a startup.

Meal kits are not that revolutionary. Frozen meals have existed for decades, adding some different ingredients and shipping isn't a big innovation on it's own and is more of a standard evolution of food retail.

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Re:74% of Startups Have Trimmed Staff, 65% Have Less Than 6 ... by Legogris on Saturday May 02, 2020 @07:56AM (#23051221)

I also think a more important qualifier is the primary focus being development of a proprietary product or service, as opposed to e.g. consulting or providing infrastructure. (Not sure exactly how to word it properly to make the distinction clear, but I think you get the gist)

In my book, a VC money is not a prerequisite for being a startup (although that tends to be how things go these days)

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Re:74% of Startups Have Trimmed Staff, 65% Have Less Than 6 ... by Retric on Saturday May 02, 2020 @08:30AM (#23051361)

Plenty of startups are doing the same thing as giant companies that nobody is calling a startup. SpaceX started out building rockets just like everyone else in the industry. https://boomsupersonic.com/ designs and builds aircraft like say Boing.

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