What Is a Startup?

Startups are a fascinating universe with incredible potential, constantly in turmoil. We have decided to dedicate a column to this ferment that starts from a fundamental question: what is a startup?

What is a Startup?

“A startup is a temporary organization looking for a repeatable, scalable, and profitable business model.

This is how Steve Blank, a professor at New York University, defined in 2012 what was then a still little-known phenomenon: startup companies.

In that magical world called Silicon Valley, the first startups began to take shape already in the early 90s, companies characterized by a vocation for technology, innovation, and rapid growth.

Repeatable and scalable

What differentiates a startup from a traditional company?

The business model.

What does it mean?

The business model of a startup that wants to define itself as such must have two specific characteristics: scalability and repeatability.

Scalability: the startup’s business must grow quickly, and revenues and customers must increase rapidly up to double within a few years;

Repeatability: directly linked to scalability, the startup business model must be able to be replicated over time and/or in different contexts. In other words, it must not be tied to temporary fads and risk becoming extinct within a few years.

So what do you need to get started?

An idea.

Startups are the concrete realization of an idea, an intuition that, in most cases, arises in an attempt to solve a problem that primarily affects us.

The best ideas behind successful startups arise from personal experiences and from a real need to find innovative solutions to concrete problems.

But concretely?

Visions and skills: you need to have the ability to see beyond or in a different way what already exists and the skills necessary to transform the idea into a business.

Contrary to what you think, huge capital is not necessary, and it is not necessary to have the most brilliant idea ever: a modest budget, a feasible project, and working towards objectives are enough, relying on a team of professionals.

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