Our consulting business funds two FTE devs. We haven't taken a dollar of VC, we have two nice offices, we pay competitive salaries, we offer health insurance and a 401k, and we can turn out products whenever we want. I don't know what you'd call our company, but since you've never made payroll, I'm not sure why I'd care, either.
You're right. We didn't give up 6% of the company --- one year in, the equivalent of 4-8 rock star employees, or a CEO --- in exchange for what a single developer bills out in 2-3 weeks. We therefore do not meet Colin Percival's stringent standards. I see now that "startup" is actually a handicap measure, and not a description of a business ethic.
By the way, we launched product today. Obviously, we don't much give a shit about our website at the moment; our "real" website is the blog.
