What's the difference between a startup and a small business?
What makes a startup a startup? Does it have to be technology-related? If I start a small business selling widgets or a service, are the same elements not involved: some capital injection (from savings or family loans), one/two owners acting as CEO, CFO, CIO, Sales, Marketing, HR, Ops, etc., juggling many things and struggling with the same questions?
I am truly curious - what constitutes a startup and how is this different from the thousands of non-tech businesses that are started every day?
(
3 comments
| 4 points
| on HN
)
http://paulgraham.com/startupfunding.html (search for "physical")
A small business is going to be mainly local/regional. A car dealership is a small business - might make the owner(s) millions, but still a "small" business.
Car manufacturers like the new Tesla Motors are start ups.
There's plenty of start-ups that aren't tech based, but tech firms probably lend themselves to scaling thus the majority of them being start-ups.
Non tech example: Stonyfield Farm = start-up Farms an hour from me = small/medium businesses
Startups in contrast are an organization in search of a business model. Once it finds one it doubles down on the product search with a viable business model and develops it to profitability.