If you listen to the tech media, the definition of a startup is pretty much:
- A technology company
- Funded by venture capital
- Geared toward some kind of “exit” event (either acquisition or IPO, more often the former)
But the reality is that a startup can be any number of different kinds of businesses. The nature of a “startup” as opposed to simply a small or new business is — according to Paul Graham, the co-founder of Y Combinator — that it is designed for growth, and that it is in place to test the models that will fuel that growth.
By that definition, there are a heck of a lot more startups out there than you’ll ever read about in the cover story for Fast Company.
They don’t have to be in tech. They don’t have to take VC funding. They certainly don’t have to take an exit, or even want one.
Perhaps one of the reasons (The Reason?) that our view of tech is so skewed sometimes is exactly because we took our definitions of startups from the original dot-com boom and just sort of stuck with it. So all the companies that are designed for growth, testing business models, or using technology to fuel a more analog business (think something like tech-enabled health care) get sidelined from the tech discussions.
After all, that story isn’t nearly so sexy. You don’t want to try and become the next unicorn? Sniff. Next!
I’m going to add what small leverage I have at this point to spotlight some of the unsung startups, the tech people behind the scenes “doing the work” as they say, the technologies that are solving real, useful problems for people and businesses and working hard at it every day.
I have a feeling there are a bunch more out there than I even know about. I hope you’ll leave yours in the comments!
The reason I’ve come to care about this so much in recent months is simple, and rather selfish.
I’ve been looking for the leaders I want to follow, emulate, learn from, and connect with. I realized rather suddenly that as a non-SV tech exec and someone who works for a startup-that-isn’t-a-startup in its second revival, I didn’t have many resources to go to outside the obvious tech voices.
And I just didn’t relate to them. At all.
I find a few here and there, and for that I’m grateful (I’ll share more about them in upcoming posts). But they’re much harder to find than I’d like. Maybe I can help change that for someone else looking for the same thing I am.
So, help me out, friends and colleagues.
Share with me the startups that are doing cool things but not making the tech pages. Tell me about your job in tech and why it matters to you even if you aren’t profiled in TechCrunch. Point me to the people creating amazing tech-driven solutions that aren’t the sexy “Uber of something” that we’ll hear about on a stage somewhere.
I want to know about them and learn from them, and I want to give them the props they deserve.
Yay for the startups no one talks about…yet!
Amber– Thank you for writing this. I have worked for startups for the last seven years. None of the startups have been featured in tech media with a successful exit under my belt.
After going through a VC-backed startup exit, I have set my sights on building a small company by using web technologies to solve big problems with ridiculously simple solutions. People over dollars is my primary goal.
I’m starting to blog about my journey in building this new kind of startup.
We are launching a cooperative business model bringing credit unions together as not for profits and helping them share the cost and resources needed to utilize digital signage and digital marketing tools. Our hope is to create a marketplace that allows collaboration and although supports us, more so provides efficiencies and cost savings for all involved. Yesterday we kicked of a crowdfunding campaign as this is our first step to being a stat-up. view the site at http://www.secondlookdigital.com
Good perspective on this!
Amber,
Check out WAHVE (Work At Home Vintage Employees).This is a very unique staffing solution for the insurance industry. I have served on their advisory board and continue to help with strategic planning. While this is NOT a tech firm – it is technology that makes this model possible.
Sharon Emek, founder and CEO has become a recognized thought leader and spokesperson in the area of “preretirement”.
Rick,
We have been using Wahve for 2-3 months now and love it! It is such a unique business model and exactly what we need. A vintage employee working part time that has the experience to do the work in half the time we can train a new millennial to do it.
Hi Amber,
Really enjoyed your article, I work for a start-up accelerator and one of our current batch are using a tech solution to solve the simple yet infuriating issue of finding a football pitch!
They’re called Pitchwise and their founder, Kumar, is exactly the sort of enthusiastic, energetic entrepreneur that makes working with start ups great. Definitely worth reaching out to him, he’s using tech to try and get grassroots football back on its feet but it’s the sort of undervalued solution that nobody talks about!