Abstract

Literature provides numerous ways for categorizing startups, however, the terminologies are often overlapping or incomplete. Based on the available literature in combination with interviews with founders a framework for categorizing startup companies is created and tested. In contrast to existing work, the framework presented puts great emphasis on the intention the founders of the startup have in mind when building the company as this factor –together with size in terms of number of employees- turned out to be not only a good segregating characteristic, it is also of high practical importance to the startup community. This conceptual work follows the Design Science Research approach and is tested through interviews with seven founders of heterogeneous startup companies. The feedback underlined the high practical relevance and the conceptual analysis indicates academic rigor.