Why is it that someone referring to a new company as a “Startup” sets me on edge? Wikipedia describes startups like this, “A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history.”^wikipedia, which is a totally fair description, so that’s not it. I know people at these companies, and for the most part they are smart and driven and doing awesome things. That’s not it either.

The problem may be one of association. When someone (with some redundancy) says “it’s a new startup” I want to roll my eyes and grimace in anticipation of the rest of the conversation, which will probably include things like “pivot” and “serial entrepreneur” and “investor” and so on. Most of these strike me as nice ways of saying “we’re just throwing shit at the wall hoping to cash out as quickly as possible.”

I’m not sure when I started feeling this way, but it’s proving hard to shake.