Q: What is the core difference between a startup and an established firm?
The core difference is startups can execute without regard to legacy products, people, and systems.
An established firm:
- Has to worry about a huge customer base
- Can’t invest in new products unless they can be as large or larger than their current products
- Has to worry about cannibalizing existing revenue streams
- Has more employees, but has to allocate them based on existing revenue streams
Startups are still startups when the majority of their efforts are toward doing something new.
And even with fewer people, dollars, and resources … they can focus everything they do have on what’s new. Without conflicts with what’s older.
