me3dia: Pet peeve: when well-established technology firms are referred to as “startups.” Case in point, 37signals, which was founded in 1999 and has been thriving as a web application company since 2004. They’re done starting up. They’re off and running. At what point does a startup stop being a startup? Wikipedia says, “A startup company or startup is a company or temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.” 37signals has never been “searching” for a scalable business model, as founder Jason Fried will tell you at any given opportunity. But what about Facebook? Shouldn’t going public take them off the list? Or the fact that it’s been around since 2004, made $3.71 billion last year and has nearly a billion users? Yet I still see it referred to as a startup.

me3dia:

Pet peeve: when well-established technology firms are referred to as “startups.” Case in point, 37signals, which was founded in 1999 and has been thriving as a web application company since 2004. They’re done starting up. They’re off and running.

At what point does a startup stop being a startup? Wikipedia says, “A startup company or startup is a company or temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.” 37signals has never been “searching” for a scalable business model, as founder Jason Fried will tell you at any given opportunity.

But what about Facebook? Shouldn’t going public take them off the list? Or the fact that it’s been around since 2004, made $3.71 billion last year and has nearly a billion users? Yet I still see it referred to as a startup.