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Comment by parfe | Hacker News Reader

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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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".

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

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."

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.

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

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

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

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