The point is that 37signals explicitly claims not to be a startup. Their line is that they're a profitable 10 year old company.

I once asked DHH in a Q&A his opinion on working on a startup outside of Silicon Valley. He corrected me.

That's not to say they were not once a startup. Every 'startup' should have the objective of becoming a sustainable business. Eventually the startup tag will go away, but that's not to say they were not once there. Microsoft was once a startup. Apple was once a startup. It makes me laugh here on HN where some guys weekend project can be considered a startup when it really has no potential to ever be a business.

"Better set of products than stack overflow"

This doesn't make any sense. That's like saying the Yankees have a better team than the Saints. Apples and oranges.

I don't use any 37s products, I have email.

However, I find StackOverflow invaluable. I will spend 20 minutes searching the web for answers, and when all hope is lost, I can ask a question on Stack, wake up in the morning and someone will have generously shared their knowledge, providing a perfect solution.

It is simply incredible.

Small business in the sense of few employees and little in the way of capital assets.

Just because you're making money hand over fist doesn't mean you're implicitly a "big business".

I guess I am trying to find out whats HN's definition of small business. Not sure why I am getting downmodded.

I too am wondering the HM definitions. Big/small business versus startup. What is the definition of startup? I don't understand why businesses that go for VC funds have the monopoly on the term "startup".

The definition I've seen given by PG is anything that scales up. In other words, a business that sells a product that can be used by many users. A small business is usually something that offers a service (a restraunt, a barber shop, or a consulting firm).

Funding has nothing to do with it.

I would say any business with fewer than 50 employees is a small business. According to Wikipedia, 37signals has 16. There are technical definitions in various countries of "small business", based in some cases on number of employees and in some case on revenues or other economic metrics. Any way you slice it, 37signals is a small business.