[rconti]

I have literally no idea what this means. At first I took "lifestyle company" to mean "company that produces things for people's lifestyles", but his description seemed to be more about one's work for the company being a part of their lifestyle.

Regardless, I recoil and avoid like the plague any product or service targeted at my "lifestyle" (typically with the word "luxury" thrown in for good measure). It's a sure tell of a company looking to separate fools from their money.

And therein lies the problem with the author's attempt to extract huge meaning from a two-word term. Or perhaps he truly understood what the CEO meant, but just utterly failed at articulating what he meant.

[disillusioned]

Erm, that's... no, not what they mean. A "lifestyle business" is a colloquial term for a business that is built to stick around, not on an aggressive growth trajectory, and which can provide a reasonable lifestyle for its proprietors, but not a meteoric rise, "fuck-you-money-providing" exit event. It's a business that's a going concern: a company that is profitable, healthy, and well-rounded, but not spectacular, and not a startup that is burning investor capital on the way to their hopeful exit.

I think you might have gotten caught up on the phrase and extrapolated quite a bit of meaning from that which isn't there. It's a pretty common phrase, and it has nothing to do with luxury goods or providing "lifestyle" products to people.