I am a big fan of "lifestyle" businesses. Why are your margins so low, if you are the only employee?

I've had a consultancy do all the development so far. They are good, but not cheap.

Hoping to bring that in-house later this year.

Want to build an outsource agency?

That's what I am working on this very minute!

You should read startup=growth.

I am not saying you are wrong to be proud of your achievement, but as a practical matter, YC doesn't think of startups as new companies. It thinks of startups as a specific kind of new company that is trying to grow very large, very quickly.

Edit: Just realized someone else brought up this point and linked to the essay downstream. I guess I'm leaving this point here because it is closer to the question.

I think he glossed over that type of business because it's not a startup. It is a perfectly reasonable style for many who wish to start a new business, but the course is focused on startups.

I don't think a startup is defined as a company aiming to be a unicorn. I simply consider it a new, for-profit business

Sure, it's not a well defined term with a universally agreed upon definition, but now we're just arguing semantics.

You like to define it as a new, for-profit business. Seems reasonable. However, I found that many others use the term to specifically refer to the kind of high risk, high growth company that meet the investment profile of typical venture capitalists.

It seems obvious that the good people of startup school are using the word startup in the latter sense. And honestly that sense of the word seems more common. Most people refer to what you do as bootstrapping, not a startup.

But is it really that interesting to have an argument over the definition of startup?

I don't think anyone at startup school is against bootstrapping. They're probably not against enterprises either. The event just has a focus.

> Sure, it's not a well defined term with a universally agreed upon definition, but now we're just arguing semantics.

The definition is pretty well agreed on. The version I like best is that a startup is a new business that's designed to arbitrage a temporary disequilibrium to produce extraordinary returns.

Other people phrase it differently, but claiming that, for example, your typical restaurant is a startup is unequivocally wrong.

Good points and true.

I really enjoy a lot of what YC puts out, especially the philosophy that growth is the ultimate no-BS filter. That was eye opening for my when u heard Jessica Livingston talk about it.

All-in-all, my initial comment is likely misplaced given the nature of startup school.

But I do believe that most businesses should aim for, and be happy, with linear growth.

Just FYI I listen to a lot of popular startup podcasts and oftentimes the guests are asked if they recieved VC or if they are bootstrapping.

As an aside, what are your recommendations for the best startup podcasts to listen to?

There isn't really a standard definition of the word "startup". But many in Silicon Valley think of it as how PG defined it:

http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html

> A startup is a company designed to grow fast. Being newly founded does not in itself make a company a startup. Nor is it necessary for a startup to work on technology, or take venture funding, or have some sort of "exit." The only essential thing is growth. Everything else we associate with startups follows from growth.

Fair enough. Forgot about that essay.

I'm more of a linear growth type of person but that's likely a product of my end market.

startup = high/exponential growth

Have you considered sharing with Indie Hackers (https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses)?

If you don't mind me asking. What's your business?

Farm accounting software. Boring to most, exciting to me! Just maybe that's a key

I enjoy developing new stuff, especially if it involves new learning, but I find I am also happy working with the mundane with incremental changes. Toggling between the two is kinda perfect for me. I just have not found a mundane niche that I could monetize - any tips on how to look for what others would consider boring?

Try to simply keep your eye open for problems people are having. Ideally, one that is in a B2B space. Wish I had more insight for you.

I think you are right. Everyone wants to build the next Facebook/IG/Uber. A software company that appeals to the masses and will be front page news. There's likely a lot of opportunity in the fringe area's that aren't mainstream.

How were you able to identify that there is/was a need for farm accounting software?

My family farms in W ND. I worked in private equity for a few years in Minneapolis.

Saw my friends and family turn down crazy good risk-free profit opportunities during the AG commodity bull market of 2008. "It's going higher!"

So I quit private equity and started consulting for family farms in the Upper Midwest. That led me to build a software package that I wanted my clients to use and started selling it to others.

Now if you could expand that to John Deere hacking software...