Originally posted on https://petros.blog/calmup/ on July 30, 2019
What is a calmup? The opposite of a startup.
A startup needs to innovate, compete, and move fast. Most of the times a startup needs to survive without profit. That’s an afterthought. The company burns money that come from funding. A startup needs to grow fast, and in a large number of cases, there’s some kind of an exit if it goes well. Either an acquisition, or an IPO. There’s a huge number of startups that don’t make it past the first couple of funding rounds. A startup has crazy working conditions, pressure, and stress. This is not absolute of course. It’s just the majority. A startup often offers their services for free, until they figure out monetization. Some are locked in that model and try to make money indirectly, for example, by selling ads.
A calmup could innovate, but it is not necessary. It doesn’t have to grow fast. In fact, there is a conscious effort to avoid fast growth. It generally does not receive funding, other than self-funding from the owners. The goal is to start having revenue from the first customers, and grow from there. A calmup has calm working conditions. A calmup is here for the long run. It will probably not be acquired, and it doesn’t need to IPO. A calmup sells something that people want to pay for, day one.