Your startup is not a startup, just a website.

Back in 2007, I started a free blog about games on Blogspot. After 6 months, with the help of Google Adsense (and other advertising services), he began to bring about $ 3,800 per month.

A year later, the site had 110,000 unique, 1.5 million page views and more than $ 10,000 in revenue per month, but it was just a blog with daily posts about games and, sometimes, reposts from the blogs of the games themselves.

Impressed by what I did, or rather, shocked by what happened to me, I told some about it at a startup conference.
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But what did several successful startups tell me?

This is not a startup. This is just a website.

Indeed, obtaining a huge unexpected income does not make a startup a startup. Thousands of unique visitors and views - either.

So what does a startup really do?

Does anyone believe that crranky.com is a startup? This is a simple idea that is simply implemented by me, not by techie and without the help of programmers. Not?

Turning from this, I decided to make a “real” startup this time. With a little money in your pocket. Hired a programmer who spent a year developing a profile system for teenagers. Think of this. About.me for virtual profiles called funhouse .

Several thousand dollars spent, no income, about 6,000 users. Can I now consider myself a startup? A real startup? Or am I just a serial entrepreneur?

My track record can be continued to describe, but I did not achieve “success of a startup”. I did everything with the money I received from that very first site.

If the meaning of the word “start-up” is to beat against the wall in order to develop something according to your own cool idea, and then to be bought by someone, then no, thank you, this is not for me.

I will just make big money creating a “website” every day.

Why? Because I don't want to make a “dent in the universe,” at least for now.

I just have to pay bills.