“A startup is a company designed to grow fast. Being newly founded does not in itself make a company a startup. Nor is it necessary for a startup to work on technology, or take venture funding, or have some sort of "exit”
— Paul Graham
Simplified Meaning:
A startup is a business that aims to expand very quickly. Simply being a new company isn’t enough to call it a startup. It's not required for it to be involved with tech, get investment money, or have a clear plan to be bought out or go public. Take a small local bakery as an example: if it dreams of becoming a large chain with many branches very fast, it could be seen as a startup. However, just opening up the bakery without plans for quick growth wouldn’t make it a startup. To start and grow a startup, the focus should be on strategies that allow for rapid expansion, such as finding a big market problem to solve or developing a unique product that quickly attracts many customers. This mindset and goal of fast growth are what separate startups from other new small businesses.
