I don't think it is quite that black. There are plenty of good companies and nice people that make bank from starting new companies. The hype and the bro-culture are not the only faces the start-up community has and if that all you see then you're missing a lot of the good that is happening: Female / minority participation in start-ups is substantially above country average for most countries in Western Europe, there are quite a few start-ups that are working hard to achieve something good for the world, but not in an 'Instagram' like manner kind of 'good for the world'.
SMEs are the backbone of private enterprise in Europe, they create more jobs and employ more people than all of the enterprises combined. They are the backbone of the economy and I'm more than happy to see a thriving eco-system around them.
SME aren't startups, quite the opposite. And my gripe with startups lays in the difference between those two. A regular company makes business, at some scale, and sometimes grow because they were efficient and profitable. They are the realm of people knowing their business and their market.
Startups raise funds, try to build a big scale business as fast as possible and sometimes become profitable because they became big enough fast enough. Move fast, break things (first websites, now satellites and automated cars, YOLO) and become rich ASAP please.
That's what people are trying to tell each other but it's BS. For every start-up that made it there are 1000 SME's that didn't. Usually you only know that your company has the potential to succeed big quite a few years after you've started it.
The whole idea that world wide scale companies are the only ones that deserve the label 'start-up' should die, it's a SV born re-purposing of words to suit a particular agenda.
Startups raise funds, try to build a big scale business as fast as possible and sometimes become profitable because they became big enough fast enough.
Comments
I don't think it is quite that black. There are plenty of good companies and nice people that make bank from starting new companies. The hype and the bro-culture are not the only faces the start-up community has and if that all you see then you're missing a lot of the good that is happening: Female / minority participation in start-ups is substantially above country average for most countries in Western Europe, there are quite a few start-ups that are working hard to achieve something good for the world, but not in an 'Instagram' like manner kind of 'good for the world'.
SMEs are the backbone of private enterprise in Europe, they create more jobs and employ more people than all of the enterprises combined. They are the backbone of the economy and I'm more than happy to see a thriving eco-system around them.
SME aren't startups, quite the opposite. And my gripe with startups lays in the difference between those two. A regular company makes business, at some scale, and sometimes grow because they were efficient and profitable. They are the realm of people knowing their business and their market.
Startups raise funds, try to build a big scale business as fast as possible and sometimes become profitable because they became big enough fast enough. Move fast, break things (first websites, now satellites and automated cars, YOLO) and become rich ASAP please.
That's what people are trying to tell each other but it's BS. For every start-up that made it there are 1000 SME's that didn't. Usually you only know that your company has the potential to succeed big quite a few years after you've started it.
The whole idea that world wide scale companies are the only ones that deserve the label 'start-up' should die, it's a SV born re-purposing of words to suit a particular agenda.
They can, but they don't have to.