Why We Need to Stop Calling NewCos Startups
In case you haven’t notice, the lockdowns have led to an uptick in entrepreneurship and as many newly-minted founders are discovering, starting a business is easy. Building one, not so much. Instead of ‘startups,’ we prefer to call them ‘newcos,’ as you’re building a new company, and a company is about doing business. Startup? You start up a car, you’re off to the races. Or to the grocery store or wherever, provided that you’ve maintained the car, it’s charged or filled with gas, etc. Eventually you will have to get it serviced, and if something goes wrong, you call in a specialist. In tech, they’re called mentors/advisors/consultants. Like the mechanic, they do expect to be compensated for their time and expertise. Like a mechanic, they may do a free assessment. But if you need some work done, well, you have to pay them. Otherwise your vehicle won’t…startup.