Excellent points on what constitutes a "startup" as opposed to a "small business" but the approach, I think, too narrowly limits the idea of "startup" largely to the type of potentially industry-changing company that VCs will fund.<p>Among other distinctions that can comfortably be drawn within what I think are clearly "startup" companies are:<p>1. Founders who seek to make a pure technology play and sell to a larger company within a narrow window in the 7-figure range (up to $100M). The founders in this type of startup are not in it for the long haul and can potentially succeed without any form of VC funding (though they typically do not self-fund but rely on either friends/family or angels to give them needed capital). This is a bona fide startup, in my view, even though it may not scale quickly or at all by the time its technology is acquired.<p>2. Founders who seek to develop a new and innovative niche business that will not shake up an industry but will make for a good growth business yielding extraordinary returns (e.g., a player that succeeds in the virtualization space with a product that does not take on VMWare or the other large players but that works within the established environment to offer, e.g., low-cost, non-resource-intensive desktop virtualization solutions for the enterprise). This type of startup will tend to scale quickly but will never shake up an industry. It potentially could succeed with angel-level funding and bypass the VCs, though more likely it will need some form of VC funding. Typical exit: up to $300M via acquisition.<p>3. The type of industry-changing startup described by the author of this post. Typical goal here on exit: $400M and up but usually aiming at multi-B. This type of startup is invariably VC-funded and is indeed the "sweet spot" for tier-1 VC investments.<p>All of the above typically involve a founding team, normally small initial capital contributions by the founders themselves, a reliance on some form of technology or IP to define at least a key aspect of the business model, and an expectation of an extraordinary comparatively short-term return on the investment (typically 3-5 years).<p>This stands in contrast to the attributes of a typical small business, where the founders will often make more substantial initial capital contributions, will not tend to emphasize intellectual property rights, will fix their sights primarily on making immediate operating profits, and will typically have no expectation of any extraordinary return on investment in the short term (that is, will not aim for a near-term exit).<p>I think the above is a more useful way of distinguishing a "startup" from a "small business." That said, the post here is quite good and highlights very sharply the key attributes of what is perhaps the most important type of startup - the one that scales rapidly and seeks to conquer an industry.