For the purposes of the poll, a startup can be defined as “a company working to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious and success is not guaranteed” and revenue does not exceed $10m per year.<p>If not, feel free to comment where or in what sector you work.<p>[I'd love to chat with you either way -- feel free to hit me up at shane at velodro.me]
<i>"For the purposes of the poll, a startup can be defined as 'a company working to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious and success is not guaranteed'..."</i><p>I don't think there are that many companies, big or small, that are trying to solve problems whose solutions are obvious, and I'm pretty sure that there are <i>no</i> companies whose success is guaranteed.<p>For example, is it obvious what McDonald's should do to remain profitable in the long term? Should they open more locations or close some of their locations? Should they change their menu? Invest in robots to cook hamburgers? Pay their employees more? Give more independence to their franchisees?<p>Now ask the same questions about General Electric, which has many major lines of business (jet engines, medical imaging, lighting, etc.). I don't think there are any obvious solutions there either.
For most startups I've seen, the only not obvious solution is "does anybody need this, and how can we convince them that they do?". Unless the startup is heavy on experimental R&D, there seem to be very few where the technical solutions aren't obvious.
I work for Red Hat (<a href="http://www.redhat.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.redhat.com/</a>), not remotely identified as a startup these days but I couldn't be happier with my job, work environment, and corporate culture.
Voted. I don't agree with the definition since most businesses are working to solve a problem where solution is not obvious esp guarantee.<p>Also if the revenue is anywhere in few mil then I wouldn't call that a startup. A startup is a business trying to find a scalable and repeatable business model. If a startup reaches few mil per year then it is no longer a startup.
Yes, we are a 2 man startup in customer success stories and how one can use them to get more leads/conversion from content marketing - <a href="http://rivet.ly" rel="nofollow">http://rivet.ly</a>. Right now we are pre-launch and busy coding!
I just began work at a startup for the first time. The company is about a year old, pre-revenue, and working on series B funding.<p>The caliber of people employed here is significantly higher than I am accustomed to working with.
Open source government transparency and governance data services.<p>I have been told by several of our customers that we aren't a startup anymore. But we are according to the criteria listed. Revenue $4.7m last year.
Education,<p>I come here to REALLY know what is going on in the tech industry. Usually find out about things I care about hours before 'others' around me do.