What is a Start-Up?

In business, alot of terms are so difficult to define, and others lack a consensus meaning among experts. One of such terms is START-UP.

What really is a start-up business, and when does it ceases to be a start-up? Below are some of the expressions and illustrations of what a start-up is.

1.    A 'startup' is a company that is confused about --

• What its product is,
• Who its customers are.
• How to make money.             

      As soon as it figures out all 3 things, it ceases to be a startup and then becomes a real business.

                 - Dave McClure

 
2.    A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under  
       conditions of extreme uncertainty.  - Eric Ries 

3.  A startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. 
        - Steve Blank:

From the definitions above, a start-up is not yet a business, it is more like a moving object without precised direction and destination under high level of uncertainty, and its operations are temporal until it finds a proper business model.