"Startup" is another popular word in this era. Especially among the younger generation that everyone Would like to be a startup. Because it sounds cool, reflecting a new generation who loves challenges, creative, and ready to grow rapidly. But even though it is a word that many people are familiar with, there are still many questions about startups that people want to know or want to understand more clearly. Initially, many people are still confused about how Startup is spelled. Stick together or separately. It can be spelled in two ways: adjoining Startup and Start-up (written separately, must have dashes). Which type of spell will be chosen, choose according to the convenience Let's start with understanding the startup with 5 questions that people want to know.

1. What is a startup?

Startups that are often heard Do you know what a startup is? In fact, there are many versions of the definition of the startup. But overall, startups Are a new business entrepreneur and focusing on rapid growth. By responding to consumer demand or market demand by offering new production or a new service process Which is known as Innovation. Startups are like a small company. That may have a single owner or do business in a partnership that is designed to grow fast and can be reduced or expanded easily. Mostly we are familiar with startups that offer products or services that use technology. That is because most startups focus on new technology development. To meet the needs of the market. Especially the use of technology in various areas such as the internet, e-commerce, telecommunications, or robotics to make products or services more responsive to modern consumers. The process will focus on research, design, experimentation, and verification that the innovation or hypothesis can be used

2. When did the startup occur? Who is the first generation of startups?
 

In fact, startups have been around for a long time, such as the British East India Company, which could be called the pre-startup. But to talk about the beginning of today's startups, there is often a link to Silicon Valley in California. Which is currently the center of the Tech company. Examples of early startups, such as International Business Machines, better known as IBM, founded in 1911.

 But if talking about the new version of the startup That we are familiar with today are formed in the late 1990s. In an age known as the dot.com boom that people believe that technology and the internet can change the world. The companies that formed at that time, such as Amazon, Netscape, or Google itself, founded in 1998.
 

3. When to stop as a startup (Change to Enterprise)

In truth, this question is difficult to answer because there are no fixed rules. For example, some startups may take 4 years to switch to the enterprise. While some places take 7-10 years. Which may be measured by net income, profit, the number of employees that reach a certain point. One person had set criteria for determining whether that startup Too big to be called a start-up or not using the 50-100-500 rule. The criteria were created by Alex Wilhelm. If any start-up has a number exceeds a certain number, it is considered too big to be called a start-up.

• Net income equal to or greater than $ 50 million (in 12 months)
• Number of employees 100 people or more
• Company value equal to or greater than $ 500 million

4. How are startups different from SMEs?

Both startups and SMEs are similar in the sense of being a small organization, having low turnover, and a small number of employees. However, both are clearly different as well. By dividing the differences into 3 corners, namely

INTENT: Startups are intended to grow into large organizations. Want to make a change in the old business industry (disruptive). Lead to new products or service processes Until reaching the creation of new markets. While SME wants to be the owner of their own business Have a stable income in your own market (Local market)

FUNCTION: The organizational structure of a startup is focused on a repeatable model structure. Can be enlarged or reduced. By using the research process Hypothesis testing and evaluation. That means that the startup Maybe successful as a large organization if the assumptions set are correct. But if the hypothesis and the experiment are wrong, it may be abandoned and must start to find new opportunities or hypotheses. While SME has an organizational structure that focuses on delivering value to its customers. Therefore, the SME organization structure does not need to change frequently or must change quickly.

FUNDING: For startups in order to be able to grow into a large organization that can create change for the industry. Must have raised funds, find joint investors both for-profit sharing and finding investors to invest in the project. While SME business owners will run their own business, find their own funds Which may be private capital or bank loans

5. How to start-up financing?

There are 4 main ways to find funds:

1. Bootstrapping Or using your own funds It's the right way to start a business that doesn't have any results or outcome to show to investors.
 

2. Crowdfunding is another method that is popular and suitable for startups that are famous, whose work can be clearly shown. The owner of the startup must provide details of the business. Business goals Plan to generate profit and the amount of capital needed, as well as reasons to show on the crowdfunding platform. When people are interested in ideas and plans, they can provide funds, which may be in the form of paying for goods or services in advance. Or may give in the form of donations. Which provides an opportunity for everyone who is interested and believes in the idea of ​​that startup Able to contribute funds.

3. Angel Investment is to find investors who are interested and have expertise in investing in startups. Usually, proposals are often requested and checked before investing. In addition, investors may be able to provide advice or be mentors for startups. Investors have contributed a lot to helping prominent and potential startups like Google or Yahoo in the past. This type of investment usually occurs during the initial stages of growth. In which investors expect profits of up to 30% from their investments and tend to prefer high-risk investments for high returns as well.

4. Venture Capital (VC) Is a finance manager and a professional investor who invests in high-potential outstanding startups. This group of investors is often out of investment when the start-up grows into the stock market or bought from other investors. In addition to providing funding, VCs also provide advice and assessments in terms of sustainability and scalability as well.

From the 5 questions, it should be clearer what the startup is and what is the starting point? Including what kind of business ideas. Being a startup may sound modern and cool. Is a new generation that has creativity and big dreams. But not every individual will succeed Because the study found that 90% of startups do not reach the shore. But if you are deciding to be a startup, don't let this number push you backward. Because you may be one of the 10% successful. And we hope to have Thai startups flying as far as unicorns soon.

References

https://www.growly.io/what-is-a-startup-the-historical-background/

https://starting-up.org/en/starting-up/introduction/startup-history/

https://www.business.com/articles/at-what-point-are-you-no-longer-a-startup/