There may be some confusion in my mind between companies that are only recently embarked upon a new business venture, and those who are already bringing in sufficient revenue to bootstrap further growth, but are adopting a generic "startup" branding strategy in order to shape their work culture and attract further investments.
That is, after being an indisputably young startup, the business declines to transition its identity into being a growing small business, and remains a self-described "startup" because it is secretly a huge business that is still in its second or third instar, ready to moult, and to also seem like a cooler place to work than it actually is, now that the HR department has multiple permanent employees.
The emergency all-hands pivot brainstorming meeting just doesn't seem like it can even take place in the same building as all those design discussions and code reviews.
Does anyone else think that "startup" has become a branding strategy rather than a descriptive term?