What is a startup?

In the entrepreneurship world we live in, there exists different definitions for what a startup is, e.g.:

"A startup is a temporary organization used to search for a repeatable and scalable business model." Steve Blank, 2012.

For StartupRanking, a startup is:

"An organization with high innovation competence and strong technological base, which has the faculty of an accelerated growth and maintains independence through time. The max lifespan should be of 10 years."

What does an organization with high innovation competence mean?

It describes an organization which constantly innovates, in regard of business models, tools, organizational structure, as well as ideas and products, thus following profitability and scalability as objectives.

What does an organization with strong technological base mean?

It describes an organization which main business processes are heavily supported by technology, following the last trends in software and hardware.

What does maintaining independence through time mean?

It means that an organization should not have been acquired by other one and have not gone through an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Why 10 years?

It has been statistically proven that this is the average time for a startup to take off and become a profitable and self sustainable company.

To summarize

For StartupRanking to consider a startup as such, follows these rules:

To have less than 10 years of foundation.
Not to have been acquired.
Not to have gone through IPO.
To be heavily supported by technology.