If I were to start my business, that's what I'd set out to do though. I'd want to start a company that could grow from just me, to maybe 10 people in 10 years. Doing round the clock coding and VC pitches hoping to be sold to Google to me seems like a nightmare compared to trying to make a cereal store on the web with products I really enjoy.

This isn't just risk aversion, it's really that the tiny changce of being a billionaire doesn't really appeal to me more than a solid chance of just building a business and having a healthy work/life balance the whole way.

Nothing to be about "startups" means you have to have things that "scale" or hope for exponential growth or being able to sell the company, or even some new or impressive tech. To me it literally means "a young company bootstrapped with a small amount of cash, hoping to grow".

Then it's simply a business. Nothing wrong with that but calling your local grill or clothes shop a "startup" turns the term into just a synonym for "small business".

I use it as a term for "just-started company hoping to validate business model then grow". Not just "VC funded company looking to grow exponentially".

E.g. wikipedia

"startups refer to new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder"

I don't mind that definition. But I also wouldn't call my company not a startup if it doesn't want VC funding or doesn't hope to grow more than linearly/organically.