“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 special type of company that aims to expand quickly and significantly. Just being a new business doesn't automatically mean it's a startup. For example, a small local bakery that just opened isn't a startup if it only plans to serve its neighborhood. Instead, think of a startup as a company like a tech firm that creates an app intended to reach millions of users around the world in a short time. Importantly, a startup doesn't need to be about high technology, get investor money, or plan to be bought out by a bigger company. Its main goal is rapid growth, reaching a large market quickly. This means a local food delivery service might be a startup if it plans to expand to many cities within a year, showing that the focus is more on the speed of growth than the industry or initial funding. If you want to start a business and call it a startup, concentrate on how fast you can grow it rather than just the fact that it's new.
