A business is a startup when its goal is to raise investment with the understanding that it will use all the money towards rapid, aggressive growth, and then raise the next, much bigger round of investment, or get acquired, or go bust.
What's the current term then for a newly founded business that is pursuing some other strategy? For instance, bootstrapping to organic growth, or self-funding toward a long-term profitable "lifestyle" business?
I like to say a startup is a business where growth is far and away the primary goal and it becomes a regular business as that shifts toward revenue or stability or specialization. I don't think it HAS to be VC but a big chunk of VC cash is a great way to bet everything on growth so it might be the defacto definition anyway and I'm splitting hairs.
