The word "startup" is used for multiple different things.
One is funded by VCs, pays you a healthy salary, and gives you a shot, if you're lucky, at wheelbarrows of money from stock options.
Another is a pretend job you do from the age of about 23 until 37, mostly by yourself, bouncing between "accelerators" and "mentors", paying yourself a wage that a graduate student would feel sorry for, slowly getting old, and eventually realizing, as you approach 40, that you are now actually unemployable.
One is funded by VCs, pays you a healthy salary, and gives you a shot, if you're lucky, at wheelbarrows of money from stock options.
Another is a pretend job you do from the age of about 23 until 37, mostly by yourself, bouncing between "accelerators" and "mentors", paying yourself a wage that a graduate student would feel sorry for, slowly getting old, and eventually realizing, as you approach 40, that you are now actually unemployable.
They're not the same.