Tell that to EDD & the FTB ;)
A 1 or 2 person company can be a "real" company. I would love to co-found a 2 person company that did $30k/month, and I'd be proud of it.
But let's not pretend that trying is enough. Being a "real" company is hard. It takes a lot of planning and effort to be square with EDD/FTB/IRS/insurance, cut paychecks on time, pay your partners/vendors, keep PTO records & pay set aside the right way, and so forth. Doing those things is something to be proud of, and something a lot of startups that call themselves companies and give eachother CxO titles don't do.
I think companies who actually take the time, effort, and expense to run those things right -- and have the scale that makes doing those things make sense -- deserve to be called real companies. Just one man's opinion.
But it's just the sentiment I don't like. If young entrepreneurs give themselves trumped up titles and dream of grandiose things, that doesn't disgust me at all. Perhaps a wry smile, along with some encouragement.
And as a person who runs what you think of as a "real" company, I still don't like the sentiment that people who are trying aren't real companies.