Tech and Startup are Not Synonymous
I am sort of in love with words. I pay attention to them, and try to respect their meanings. I also mess around with them (a lot) and concoct new ones, but obviously so. It’s good clean fun. But I’m self-admittedly a bit of a word snob, and it rankles my feathers when words or sayings are repeatedly and ubiquitously misused.
Enter the use of “tech industry” being used synonymously with “startup”. Startups are startups, which may or may not be focused on technology. Granted, not many companies are using the abacus as their main computational device these days, but using technology to run a business does not a Technology Startup make. Even in the case where a company is heavily reliant on a technical solution, technology is rarely that company’s vertical or industry. For example, let’s say a company has created an analytics tool that predicts medical symptoms based on algorithmically driven criteria. In my ever-humble opinion, the vertical/industry is medical/healthcare, with a minor in technology.
My self-centered gripe stems from the fact that Fetch Recruiting, Inc. is a tech recruiting agency that supports Silicon Beach startups. We are not a recruiting agency that supports Silicon Beach tech companies (implying that we place any/all types of positions within startups.) I’m thankful for the many candidate referrals we get, however, at least half of them have nothing to do with tech. They are Attorneys, Controllers, Marketing Managers or Salespeople who have startup experience (or want to break into the startup ecosystem). We place nerds (I used to be one so I’m allowed to call us that) – CTOs, VPs, Engineering, Software Developers, DevOps Engineers, QA Engineers, Scrum Masters, etc. Thankfully, my network is large, and I can usually help connect these non-tech referrals to folks who can help, but it’s a regular reminder that our startup ecosystem is misnomering the crap out of itself (see, that’s an example of me concocting a word).
Startups are not limited to tech. Startups sometimes have nothing to do with tech. They have to do with innovation, invention, optimization, advancement and a lot of other similar nouns. Startups span verticals and industries. They disrupt. Sometimes they use tech. Sometimes they are tech.
I don’t care what Silicon Valley does, but propose that we in Silicon Beach honor our ecosystem by using the right terminology, and call a Startup a Startup.
That is all.
PS, I hope I did not make any grammatical or spelling errors in this one. If so, let me have it.
You're not alone in this peeve. Even in the business planning / idea stage of a startup I often find it necessary to remind people when they are NOT a technology company. They might be a media company, a service/consulting firm with some in-house technology or a whatever-with-an-app. Technology may play an important role in their business, but it's important to know where your core values lie. What are you actually selling? Virtually every new business is going to be supported in some way by technology. Doesn't make you a _tech_ startup, even if that sounds appealing. Thanks for saying it out loud!