Most startups are expensive hobbies

This is because startup is now a buzzword, everybody wants to be a startup, from the guy in his bedroom that created the ultimate todo list app that only 5 people will see, to the huge companies that want people to keep talking about them.<p>Having a startup now is like being the cool kid of the neighbourhood. Some people might see it as annoying that everyone wants to "have a startup" but I think it's fine, it actually makes it easier for me to recognize those who are dedicated to what they do and those who will just waste my time.

Startups don't have time to worry about who calls themselves startups, they're too busy shipping awesome products.<p>Or in the fine words of Shakespeare: "What's in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet;"

Regardless if an organization has a business model or if they're still searching for one, the organization must be a business because businesses have business models (non-profits have/need business models too). Some business models fail, some prosper.<p>A model, generally speaking, is a lot like a map in that it serves its purpose as being a guide. What do I mean? Let's say I want to travel to France. I can look at a globe and get a pretty good idea of where France is and thus where I need to go. However, once I arrive in France, let's say Paris, that globe is not very useful anymore. I need a more narrow map to help me navigate Paris, so I buy a new map, or rather, I make a new model.<p>Models are meant to help us think about how to navigate a problem, and they change over time because models are not absolute truths. In that sense, since both startups and businesses have business models, perhaps the right logical segmentation is something to the extent that startups are merely a subset of businesses.<p>Then again, none of this really matters. I just tell people I'm starting a company.

In the sense that most startups, like most enterprises, fail without returning a positive reward to its owners or investors, then yes, I suppose startups do indeed look like hobbies.<p>However, in the sense that a startup is an enterprise, which aims to employ people, seek an exit through acquisition or IPO, or simply to scale to a large profit-driven enterprise, it is not like a hobby. Even if these startups fail, the intent is to create an enterprise that generates return to its shareholders, rather than something done simply for the personal interest or enjoyment of its owners. Of course...<p>Hobbies of course can become startups, and startups can become hobbies (once they give up on the enterprise aspect). And many startups are indeed run for the personal interest or enjoyment of the startup. So, it's quite possible you can only really identify a startup as a hobby either in the short-term (pre-revenue / pre-success) or in hind-sight (after they have proven to have failed).<p>Would this make Color a startup or a hobby?

You quoted a pretty good definition of a startup. So why not do the obvious thing, and call something a startup iff it meets that definition? Why encourage using a different and more generic word "business", if that doesn't clarify anything?<p>Next we're going to get a blogpost claiming that a startup with massive growth but no revenue model shouldn't get to call itself a business (because real businesses make profit!!). And so we go in circles again and again.<p>Yes, many people don't know the difference between a business, a business spin-off and a startup. The solution is to label things accurately, and to explain the difference when you notice people are confused. The solution is not to use a less accurate label in protest of people using labels inaccurately!

This reminded me of someone who called restaurants 'startups.' Probably an expensive hobby but intended to be a going concern.<p>Don't we have any budding taxonomists here? Surely we can come up with a taxonomic way of classifying human endeavors such that folks with anal-retentive properties can comfortably discuss them.

Interesting :)