What is a start-up?

Just to answer the random question that came in (once and for all) …

A start-up is no longer a start-up when one of the following is true

1. It has been sold to a larger corporation or listed on a stock exchange, or

2. It is cash-flow positive and has no intention of raising funds at all or, if so, only off a bank, a PE firm, a hedge fund, or the public markets (i.e. any thing other than a VC or an Angel investor), or

3. It goes out of business, or

4. It converts to a ‘zombie’ company that just stays alive and has no chance of ever raising investor funds again

And a startup that never risks losing all of its equity investors’ capital, in order to supercharge growth, never was a startup; rather it was a small business