The Pitfalls of the Perpetual StartupMisrepresenting your company's life stage could carry steep consequences.

Here's a question for you: When did Facebook lose its startup status? I found myself befuddled by this question recently, and it led me to wonder when a business can no longer call itself a startup. Case in point: A 5-year-old company (which will go unnamed) I was profiling recently billed itself as a startup. I wondered: Is there any advantage to a company continuing to call itself a startup even though it has been around for a few years?

Perhaps there's some cachet to the startup nomenclature, vs. the more generic "small business." Or is it that the founders wish to maintain a startup state of mind, clinging to their early emphasis on running a lean, quick-moving outfit? Maybe it's a dollars-and-cents issue: If a company isn't yet reeling in revenue, can it really be called a sustainable business?