Your Startup Isn’t Really a Startup

I get tired of hearing this

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I’ve been told that my startup isn’t really a startup several times over 25 years. Founders who come to me for help hear the same thing a lot. They’re told that their business, regardless of the innovation they’re fostering or even the money it’s making, isn’t really a startup.

I don’t have an answer for this. I’m just thinking maybe you’ve heard it too.

Here’s an example from my long-ago past, when I went out to raise money to derive a product from a consulting firm that was already solving huge problems for big companies and small companies alike.

It’s not really a startup. It’s a consulting firm.

Yeah, but it’s not about the consulting hours. It’s about building a reusable framework to help big inflexible companies run more like startups, with tools and software.

It’s not really a startup. It’s a consulting firm.

Yeah, but I’ve done this before, as an employee, Financial Dynamics evolved from a technical consulting firm into a company that just produced frameworks for other technical consulting firms and we got acquired for around 20x revenue in four years. It’s the same principle and I’m using the consulting firm to apply the strategy and it’s working.

It’s not really a startup. It’s a consulting firm.

Yeah, but the consulting firm is just funding the development of the product. Like, this could be on the scale of something like Project Management Institute, only much less bullshitty.

I never got funding.

I feel like there was an opportunity there that got missed. And as much as VCs need deal flow, they’re super quick to call a startup not a startup.

But in their defense, sometimes they’re right.

Let’s Not Be Naive

I’m in this weird and unique position in my career where I’ve been through the entire startup lifecycle 13 times. And since I do a lot of advising, both paid and free, I’ve had the opportunity to dive into the weeds of hundreds of other startups, both real and not so real.