[averageRoyalty]

> We’re fortunate to have landed in a middle ground that more founders should be aware of earlier on (and I think awareness is increasing).

You mean the area 97% of businesses who don't go bust operate? I think most business owners are well aware of it. For some reason though, startup founders live in a different reality.

[edanm]

You're comparing unlike things here.

97% of businesses are things like "open up another pizza place in the corner", "franchise a McDonald's", "open up a town hardware shop", etc. That's what being an entrepreneur means for much of the world.

Startups, at least the kind that are usually built in tech, and which VCs usually fund, are an entirely different thing. They are pursuing innovation, trying to build a new product that didn't exist before into a real business. The majority of failures are various forms of product-market fit failures - the product either doesn't fill a real need, or else can't be made into a viable business.

You can totally build the first kind of business, even in tech. (I should know, I've done it twice.) But it's important to remember that it is different, and not confuse the two.

[averageRoyalty]

> Startups, at least the kind that are usually built in tech, and which VCs usually fund, are an entirely different thing. They are pursuing innovation, trying to build a new product that didn't exist before into a real business.

Is "new pizza place that makes dessert pizzas" really that different to "new financial modelling website that can import from Excel and Xero"?

I've also run multiple businesses, and the qualifier for startups seems to be less around innovation and more around self-labelling.

[meiraleal]

> "new pizza place that makes dessert pizzas"

That would be Brazilian pizza!

[edanm]

> Is "new pizza place that makes dessert pizzas" really that different to "new financial modelling website that can import from Excel and Xero"?

Yes. I mean, I'm not thinking of "dessert pizzas", which I guess is some innovation, I'm just thinking "another franchise of Pizza Hut" or something.

But yes, that is different, depending on what the modelling website is trying to do. If it's trying to build a high-growth product with a lot of potential customers and a lot of potential for growth, by building a new product that doesn't exist yet - then yes, that's a very different thing from a pizza place. The kind of questions they need to ask and answer are different, the kinds of actions they need to take are different, and their potential outcomes are very different.

> I've also run multiple businesses, and the qualifier for startups seems to be less around innovation and more around self-labelling.

I mean, self labelling as in "deciding I'm trying to build a high-growth product"? Then yes, obviously that's right, if you're not trying explicitly to do t then you're likely doing it wrong.

It's pretty self evident that there is a difference between something like Microsoft or Facebook and something like the corner branch of Target, no?

[mritchie712]

I think they meant the middle ground of an exit that is:

1. small by vc standard

2. still life changing for founders & employees