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rebelutionary / 2.0
When is a startup not a startup anymore?
We were debating the question of whether Atlassian is a startup anymore last week.
When exactly does a startup stop being a startup?
Do we still count? (with ~100 employees & ~$20m in revenue)
Dan Farber took a poll on this at ZDNet a month ago and the top rating response to the question was when the startup is "profitable and finally figuring a viable business model".
By that definition, Atlassian hasn't been a startup for 4 years. In some ways though I think that 'being a startup' is somewhat more of a mindset than a particular milestone or point in time.
Scott however came up with his own definition last week which I had to blog (and by which we still qualify):
A startup is still a startup as long as their is no lock on the stationery cupboard.
Free whiteboard markers! Unlimited staples! Post-it notes for all!
Comments
You stop being a startup at the point the founder can take a two week holiday and is able to switch his/her phone off for a while.
Andrew
Hey Mike,
man, you really are desparately seeking ways to still qualify as a startup. Multi-national corp. (with free staples and post-it notes) sounds good too, doesn't it ;-)?
You stop being a start-up when you recruit a director of engineering.
hahaha I love the definition. Now I have more ammunition to try some agile methods at my work!! 'We're a startup ppl!, let me grab (another) notepad and we'll jot down some user stories...
Profitability isn't the mark of a company not being a start-up. Wotif, for example, showed a profit in its first month - the lowest monthly profit they ever posted, but still profit. Since then, it's only gone up. And Wotif definitely was a real startup - (to my mind, it lost the startup feel in the leadup to going public last year).
Being a startup is about attitude. If it stops feeling like a startup, it's not a startup anymore.
The stationery cupboard thing isn't a real good indicator - I've worked at places that had an "open stationery" policy, but had definitely lost the startup feel long ago.
My indicators:
1) Someone writes a manual of procedures.
2) If someone asks why you do something the way you do, and the answer is "I don't know" or "thats how its always been done".
3) You have enough people that they start arguing about the aircon being too hot or too cold in their section.
4) The founder takes more than 1 day off and no one notices.
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I'm the co-founder and CEO of Atlassian.
I live in Sydney and San Francisco. I'm an Aussie. I travel (a lot). I learn. I read. I talk. I create. I bike. I drink. I'm all in.
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Advising startups is something I've started doing in the last year. It's a fascinating way to use one's brain and experience to solve other people's problems.
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Besides the few I advise, I've invested in one, HomeThinking.
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