A startup company or startup is a company or temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model . These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets. The term became popular internationally during the dot-com bubble when a great number of dot-com companies were founded.

Startup companies can come in all forms, but the phrase "startup company" is often associated with high growth, technology oriented companies. Investors are generally most attracted to those new companies distinguished by their risk/reward profile and scalability. That is, they have lower bootstrapping costs, higher risk, and higher potential return on investment. Successful startups are typically more scalable than an established business, in the sense that they can potentially grow rapidly with limited investment of capital, labor or land.

Startups encounter several unique options for funding. Venture capital firms and angel investors may help startup companies begin operations, exchanging cash for an equity stake. In practice though, many startups are initially funded by the founders themselves. Factoring is another option, though not unique to start ups. Some new funding opportunities are also developing in crowd funding.

William J. "Bill" Warner (January 24, 1881 – February 2, 1944) was an American football player and coach. Warner graduated from Cornell University in 1903 and was a member of the Sphinx Head Society. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971.

Following his playing career at Cornell University, Warner was the head football coach at Cornell University, the University of North Carolina, Colgate University, St. Louis University, and the University of Oregon.

Warner was the brother of famed football coach Glenn Scobey Warner. In 1902, Bill and Glenn both played pro football for the Syracuse Athletic Club during the first World Series of Football, held at Madison Square Garden. It was during this event, that Warner played in the very first professional indoor football game as his Syracuse squad upset the heavily favored "New York" team. While Glenn was injured during the event with a head injury, Bill and the rest of the Syracuse team went on to win the event.

Steve Blank is a Silicon Valley-based retired serial entrepreneur, founding and/or part of 8 startup companies in California’s Silicon Valley. A prolific educator, thought leader and writer on Customer Development for Startups, Blank teaches, refines, writes and blogs on “Customer Development,” a rigorous methodology he developed to bring the “scientific method” to the typically chaotic, seemingly disorganized startup process.

Now teaching Entrepreneurship at three major Universities and the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps), Blank co-founded his first of eight startups after several years repairing fighter plane electronics in Thailand during the Vietnam War, followed by several years of defense electronics work for U.S. intelligence agencies in “undisclosed locations.”

Blank's first book, "The Four Steps to the Epiphany," detailed the Customer Development process and remains required reading among entrepreneurs, investors, and established companies alike, when the focus is optimizing a startup’s chances for scalability and success. Blank views entrepreneurship as a practice that can be managed rather than purely an art form to be experienced.