&gt; the best startups, like Google, come out of a period like this<p>Google isn&#x27;t a startup. In fact, a company ceases being a &quot;startup&quot; once it finds a business model with which it can sustain itself. If a company can layoff a percentage of it&#x27;s employees, slow growth, and still make money, they aren&#x27;t a startup.<p>We really should stop putting ourselves in double binds with stupid statements like this and reject them when we hear others parroting them.