What is a Startup?
What is a Startup?
Isn't it when someone does something from their bedroom or garage?
A startup is a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.
By Eric Ries in his book The Lean Startup
The most important thing about this definition is what it doesn't include.
It doesn't take into account the size, industry, or sector of the company.
Anyone who starts a new product or business in the midst of a lot of uncertainty is an entrepreneur, no matter how much they know or what kind of organization they work for, whether it's a government agency, a company with investors, a nonprofit, or a for-profit company.
Let's look at each part separately.
The term "institution" makes it sound like there's a lot of bureaucracy, processes, and maybe even slowness.
How can a startup have those things?
But successful startups do things that involve building an institution: they hire innovative employees, coordinate their efforts, and create a company culture that gets results.
We often forget that a startup is more than just a product, a big technological advance, or even a great idea.
A startup is more than the sum of its parts; it's about people.
It’s about the problem you solve.