When isn't a startup a startup anymore?
During my stay here in Silicon Valley, I saw different kind of startups. Some I met in small 9 square meter silo's in CoWorking spaces (which you can rent by the hour, day, week, month - #WeWork), some in Venture Capital headquarters with again 9 square meters but now without the silo - informational exchange! Nevertheless, most people were wearing noise reduction headphones. Around the water cooler and in the open space areas, however, the information flow is constantly ongoing. And then there were the big startups - renting whole floors in a big building, having its own receptionist, some having subsidiaries in other countries in Europe or even Russia. Although having raised millions of dollars from VC's they still claim themselves as startup companies. Frederic Laluyaux, CEO of Anaplan replied to the question about the problem of growing and keeping the culture in a very straightforward way: ‘What is the culture at all?’ He is pointing out that a company - whatever its size - first has to answer this specific question for itself. Anaplan found it's answer: 'Culture is how decisions are being made!'. Having once replied the question for its own company, you just have to protect it so that growth doesn't ruin your culture.
According to Prof. Dr. J.M. Leihmeister from the University of St. Gallen, companies expand in the ascending power of 5. Companies with 1-5 employees need another guidance then companies from 5-25 employees as well as such of 25-125 employees. Having once recognised the kind of its own culture, you can take care of this fact during the growth phase more easily.
So, when isn't a startup a startup anymore? Todd Schofield, Managing Director SC Tech & Innovation Studios at Standard Chartered Bank, quoted Steve Blank: 'A startup is essentially an organization built to search for a repeatable and scalable business model’. The companies who already have defined its business model aren't startups anymore.
Taking this as a given fact brings me to the conclusion, that big cooperation’s should go back to its startup-phase to redefine themselves! And reinvention is what the challenges of digitalization are asking for. Those challenges seek not just for adjustments of the business model; they seek for complete new rethinking. If a company refuses to do so, others will take over its business. Starting with the cream on the top - as for example the FinTechs attacking the financial industry with the payment solutions - some startups will grow out of the first the ‘9-square-meter-startup-phase’ and some will even become active globally. There are enough such examples over several industries (travel, leisure, transport, manufacturing, etc.). No wonder much big cooperations have its outpost already in the valley (see also https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/silicon-valley-great-overview-corporate-innovation-stefan-lindegaard ), but is this enough for reinventing themselves and redefining new business models in this ocean full of new challenges?