The word "startup"

The word "startup" is increasingly common in everyday life, and the number of start-ups is increasing every day. However, this meaning is far from clear to everyone. Let's find out what a startup is and what place it occupies in the field of information technology.

Startups are companies that have just appeared or are ready to appear soon. It would seem that the exact same definition can be given to any ordinary business that was recently created. But the key difference is that a startup is a business that has never existed before. It develops on the basis of either innovative ideas or untapped technologies, so it has another name - the venture business (from English. The enterprise is risky).

Among the world's first start-ups is the well-known company Hewlett-Packard, which begins its activity in the status of a small project of students at Stanford University, David Packard and William Hewlett. By the way, in the US, startups are still the prerogative of students: they can most often be met among owners of venture companies.

Startups are especially active in the IT field. Over time, the most interesting and sought-after ones turn into large successful enterprises. A similar history of development was, for example, among such pioneers in their field, as “Microsoft”, “Apple”, “Google”, “LinkedIn”, “Facebook”, “Livejournal”, “YouTube”.

But what helps startups grow into a larger business? Is there a good idea and a solid team of talented specialists? Unfortunately, this is not all that is necessary for business expansion. Statistics show that about 70% of start-up companies cease to exist in the first year of existence, and 40% of the rest close their activities during the second year. However, the chances of survival are greatly improved if start-up owners find strong investors. Capitalists should be involved in the initial stage of the company. Of course, for investors in a startup, there is a big risk, however, if successful, they are worth it quickly and fully pay off. An interesting tendency has developed here: as an investor, special funds, as well as relatives or friends, can act.

Startups can unite around themselves people of different qualifications, but a young business can also be created by a group of specialists in one area. A striking example of this is the GitHub social network for programmers. Its founders are Chris Vanstras and Tom Preston-Werner - Ruby hackers from San Francisco. Interestingly, while working on this project, Tom was offered a job at Microsoft with a salary of $ 300,000, and he refused, preferring his startup. It was a risky, but justified decision, because now GitHub is the largest web service for hosting IT projects and developing them. Here you can post codes, discuss professional issues and work on collective projects.

Anyone who has good knowledge in the field of information technology and understands economic subtleties can become an owner of an IT startup. In the presence of enterprise, analytical mind, the ability to accurately assess the present and think through the future of your company IT-specialist to make a successful enterprise from a startup.