What is a startup?

There is no one commonly agreed definition of what a startup is. StartupBlink, a research center that maps ecosystems, defines startups to be able to quantify and measure their rankings as: “Any new business that applies an innovative solution. The solution can be either technological or a unique business model” Another common definition comes from Investopedia as a “company that’s in the initial stages of business” At the risk of complicating things, startups can also be further categorized or defined by the number of employees, revenue and years of operation. Based on this, different entrepreneurs and business developers have proposed different criteria for when a startup ceases to be called a startup.

Startups are businesses that want to disrupt industries and change the world—and do it all at scale. Startup founders dream of giving society something it needs but hasn’t created yet—generating eye-popping valuations that lead to an initial public offering (IPO) and an astronomical return on investment.