[austengary]

Growth isn't just exclusive to startups. It's a health indicator for a majority of businesses. Just the same, a tech company does not equate to a startup. There is a priced in expectation for growth in nearly all capital seeking companies. Yes, there are sectors and utilities where full saturation prevents growth, however population as a constraint is hardly common.

[Retric]

You can have a healthy company that's shrinking because it's in a cyclical industry or removing less profitable / overly risky part's of the business. Case in point during the run up to the banking collapse several banks where shrinking during the boom because they avoided 'overly' risky loans but they where ideally situated to take advantage of the bust.

[mvembu]

Is the source of growth an important metric to measure for success? The source of groupon growth is through excessive sales push. Compared to that, Google growth in early days is because of viral effect without too much sales & marketing spend.