Twitter lands $800 million venture capital deal, breaking record

Re:Twitter lands $800 million venture capital deal, breaking... by parfe on Tuesday August 02, 2011 @09:29AM (#2837018)

Again with the "Startup" tag. AirBNB got it yesterday. How does this 4 year old billion+ valued company with hundreds of employees still get called a "startup"? What definition could people possibly be using? All companies "started" at some point. I don't see people calling GM a startup but then again I think they actually made money last year.

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Re:Twitter lands $800 million venture capital deal, breaking... by chucknthem on Tuesday August 02, 2011 @09:56AM (#2837106)

If you define a startup as a company still looking for a business model as Steve Banks might, then twitter very well fits in that definition. It's also easy to label companies with a startup culture of moving fast, raising capital and innovating a "startup".

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Re:Twitter lands $800 million venture capital deal, breaking... by tomkarlo on Tuesday August 02, 2011 @11:42AM (#2837513)

Neither of these are good reasons to label a company a "startup." Arguably, Salesforce.com is 'still looking for a business model' despite being public, as are any number of other companies. And every tech company likes to think they have a culture of 'moving fast, raising capital and innovating.'

Wikipedia provides a reasonable starting place: "A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets."

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Re:Twitter lands $800 million venture capital deal, breaking... by arethuza on Tuesday August 02, 2011 @10:09AM (#2837134)

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

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Re:Twitter lands $800 million venture capital deal, breaking... by bigohms on Tuesday August 02, 2011 @10:16AM (#2837167)

This may just be me, but I find it difficult to see how your comparison of a 103 year old vehicle manufacturer can be even remotely useful in this example.

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Re:Twitter lands $800 million venture capital deal, breaking... by parfe on Tuesday August 02, 2011 @10:21AM (#2837194)

Are you using age to define startup then? You've clearly demarcated GM as not-sartup based on age.

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Re:Twitter lands $800 million venture capital deal, breaking... by damoncali on Tuesday August 02, 2011 @12:16PM (#2837648)

Compared to GE, it seems to fit. It's all a matter of perspective.

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Re:Twitter lands $800 million venture capital deal, breaking... by garron on Tuesday August 02, 2011 @10:05AM (#2837124)

startup = A company with no real revenues yet? but with potential?

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