[mseebach]

It's not the terminology's fault that you didn't understand what "startup" meant (even to yourself) when you used it to describe your project.

And if "startup" is indeed the correct abstraction for your project, why not use it?

Finally, consider your audience when picking your words. Your family is likely to be more interested in what you're doing than the fact that you're doing it in a startup. You wouldn't tell them "I work in a company" either, you'd say "I am a software developer on product X that does Y for Z. I especially like that I get to do W".

[untog]

I don't understand how terminology could ever lead you to such differening conclusions.

Maybe I own a cat. It's a great cat. But this morning, I decided that it is actually a fish, and as such, is a failed fish, because it can't breathe underwater. Or maybe it can breathe underwater, because it was a fish all along.

In any case, expecting a change in behaviour just because I changed the name... bewildering.

[hnwh]

ALOT of people in this industry don't understand what the terminology means, at that rate..

[pwang]

Then they should read Four Steps to the Epiphany, Lean Startup, Innovator's Dilemma, or any of the other, you know, actual books on the stuff, and learn what the term Startup means.

Some innovative Fortune 500 companies are more of a startup or engage in more startup-like behavior than some self-proclaimed "startups" that have no idea about customers, market, and the discovery thereof.

[mseebach]

That's probably true, but it doesn't logically follow that we should abandon the term.