Startup

A company built to find a repeatable, scalable business model fast, not just a small business.

Also known as: startup, tech startup, startup company

A startup is a company designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model under uncertainty — not simply a small or new business. A restaurant opening its second branch executes a known model; a startup does not know yet whether its model works, and its early life is an organized attempt to find out.

small business:  known model → execute and optimize
startup:         unknown model → test assumptions fast until one works (or quit)

That distinction drives everything: startups raise outside money to fund the search, grow headcount ahead of revenue, and accept a high chance of failure in exchange for a chance at scale. If the model is already proven, the startup phase is over — it is a company now, with different problems.

The classic mistakes:

Calling any new business a startup. The label comes with expectations — venture funding, hypergrowth, exits — that make no sense for a profitable small business. Choose the game deliberately (see lifestyle business and venture-scale business).
Treating incorporation as starting. Filing paperwork creates a company; finding a problem worth solving creates a startup. Paper first is procrastination with a notary.
Assuming code is the hard part. Engineers over-weight building and under-weight distribution and customers. Most failures in why startups fail are about nobody wanting what was built.

When it fits you: when the idea needs scale to matter, you can fund the search (savings, revenue or investors — see bootstrapping), and you want the risk. Otherwise a profitable small business or indie hacking is the honest choice. See lean startup for how the search is run.