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Simply a 'company', or perhaps 'new business'.

I think Blank's distinction is helpful, in emphasizing that the term 'start-up' implies more model uncertainty and innovation.

(Sure, sometimes 'start-up' is used to describe things like a new laundromat or small consultancy, but the word is more useful when its connotations of novelty and discovery are prominent.)

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Best answer I'd say. I wonder how many people think they are running a 'startup' when it is actually just a 'company'?

The Phoenix area has been seeing what strikes me as variants of "start-up porn", with many people and places referring to themselves or their services as in some way related to start-ups. In some cases it's true, but quite a number of these "start ups" are, for example, run-of-the-mill (albeit ambitious) Web design or Web marketing companies.

Now, it's great that people are opting to work for themselves rather than go join some large, likely boring and cumbersome, existing business, but the conflation of "start-up" with "business" makes it hard to really know what's going on here or discuss what people are doing.

Having a reasonably clear and useful definition is valuable.

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