You're not a startup anymore!

There seems to be a trend in digital of companies calling themselves a startup when they're well beyond what the term actually means.

What does it mean?

A startup company or startup is a company, a partnership or temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. - Wikipedia

If you haven't after a couple of years found that, then it's perhaps time to "pivot", unless you've taken on loads of VC funding to help become huge. If that's the case, you've already sold your startup. They own it and call the shots.

What it doesn't mean?

• Fancy offices
• Loads of benefits that actually benefit the company, and not the employee*
• Flat structure (it never really is as all companies need leaders. Less middlemanagement is what is valuable here)
• Foosball table or equivalent table-based sport (a distraction table is a more appropriate name ;-)
• Brooklyn warehouse inspired interior and/or graffiti on the wall.
• A business based on already proven models (such as a marketing, dev agency etc.)

*When reading a company benefit think about who it's actually benefiting. You, or the company? I.e one benefit I heard from someone who excitedly told me that they can order lunch to their desk! That's great, but it's encouraging you to work through your lunch break. Which is silly as that won't even end up benefiting the company or you as many studies have shown taking a break makes you more productive. It's discussed well here - Company benefits - trick or treat?

Letting go of the "startup" title should be a liberating experience. Like when you first leave home and have a job. Self-dependence! It's the reason many startups are created. This should be a moment to celebrate! For me it was around the time I hired my first employee in September 2012. Before that I'd rely on freelancers to help fill skills gap (many we still use today).

Otherwise you are now a SME. Yes, it's not as sexy. But it means you're a real business and you can start telling your parents that you have a real job now, one they're more likely to understand. It also means the company has grown up and is real. You'll have to have many more conversations with accountants, solicitors, pay taxes and other tasks we didn't have in mind as our reason for creating a startup. Calling your company a startup won't make these go away.

We need a new name for new, growing & innovative companies. Not post-startup. That's just lazy, besides we're in the post-post modern age now. Some have used the term "scaleup". A name for sustainable & growing young businesses is needed. They don't necessarily need to have high valuation targets. That shouldn't be the goal. In fact the likes of Steve Jobs never intended to be a billionnaire - he wanted to change the world. Sure, he wanted to make money along the way, but it wasn't his driving force.

So please, make it a new years resolution to not call yourselves a startup unless you truly are (i.e your income is close to 0, you're working insane hours, you're not quite sure how you're going to make money yet). And don't refer to other companies that aren't true startups as startups.

Startups are very important and we should leave the name for them. But we need to distinguish companies with a real and working business model, with a focus on self-sustaining ones, not ones that exist of repeated trips back to the Bank of V&C, they're not startups either - perhaps VC-owned SMEs is a suitable name.

For the rest of us we need to accept that we're a SME (pronounced smee for those not familiar, yes lovely isn't it?) and we're proud of it!

IMAGE CREDIT: ? Katrina Leigh