Startup is a concept known in Poland for several years. Practically every day we can hear or read about them in the media. However, the definition of a “startup” is still fluid and inconsistent. A startup is often referred to as a young company (e.g. up to 2 years after registration) or a company operating in the Internet or digital industry (e.g. creating applications for the phone or websites). However, as the researchers note, “a startup is not a small version of a large company” and also not limited to one industry. A startup is a type of organization that operates under a specific philosophy. Read the article to the end and find out what a startup is.
Features of a startup
The most commonly mentioned features of a startup include:
- creation of a new product, innovativeness (the service or product must stand out, be a novelty new to the market in solving a problem),
- scalability,
- higher risk and return on investment (startups are characterized by uncertainty of whether a given service will be well received on the market or will turn out to be a failure. It is a result of the fact that there is no similar business on the market, on the basis of which it would be possible to predict the success of the venture or the reaction of the demand),
- short operating history (5-10 years, the moment when a company ceases to be considered a startup can be profit, merger or acquisition).
Startup according to Steve Blank
Steve Blank is considered a leader of innovative solutions in the methodology of developing startups and teaching entrepreneurship. He calls a startup “a temporary organization that seeks a viable, scalable, and repeatable business model.” As it is easy to see, it does not matter what form we are talking about, whether it is a registered company or an informal group of people. According to Blank, an important feature of a startup is scalability, i.e. the ability of a given business to grow practically unlimited. A good example of such businesses are online platforms (e.g. Facebook, Youtube, DropBox) that serve customers all over the world. Although, on the other hand, they have their limitations. The growing number of users forces more and more server resources. What is certain is that the business should be well thought out and planned. Only in this way the profits coming from new clients will more than cover the costs of necessary investments. Then you can say that the business is scaled.
