I have trouble with limited definitions. To me, "startup"  encompasses any newly started business, regardless of its aims.  Why? Because I find most other definitions are set by someone with an agenda, or rule out companies most would agree are startups for arbitrary reasons.<p>"Acquire venture funding" was not a 37 Signals goal. Ask most venture capitalists and that will be in their definition, though.<p>"Hire more employees" is arbitrary. Why is that a goal any more than "buy office chairs?" Hiring employees is a side effect, not a goal.<p>Ask someone who thinks single founder companies don't work and their definition will likely exclude companies like del.icio.us.<p>Ask techies, and startup means "a tech company" but personally, I would call Ben &#38; Jerry's in the 70's a startup.<p>In terms of goals, sometimes the process evolves--like hotornot.com and the goals aren't there at the outset. Sometimes the goal is "build a better search engine" and everything else evolves later.<p>For these reasons, I prefer an inclusive defintion of startups, rather than something that means "<i>startup like mine</i>, or <i>startup I'm looking to invest in</i>"