FaceBook's product is on the market, and it's profitable. It's obviously not "finished", as they're adding to it daily. Most people would call FaceBook a startup.
Microsoft Windows is on the market, and it's profitable. It isn't "finished" either: just look at Vista. And certain areas of Microsoft - Silverlight, F#, LINQ - are most definitely not finished, and nobody knows if there's an eventual market for them. Yet most people would not call Microsoft a startup.
I don't call Facebook a startup. They were once, but they're an established company now. Once your first product is earning a profit (and I mean your real product, not Reddit T-shirts), you're out of the startup phase.
If foo.com causes enough people to buy foo.com t-shirts to feed you and clothe you, why not consider that "established"? Case in point: the guy who runs http://xkcd.com works on xkcd full time and is entirely supported by the stuff sold through the xkcd store.
FaceBook's product is on the market, and it's profitable. It's obviously not "finished", as they're adding to it daily. Most people would call FaceBook a startup.
Microsoft Windows is on the market, and it's profitable. It isn't "finished" either: just look at Vista. And certain areas of Microsoft - Silverlight, F#, LINQ - are most definitely not finished, and nobody knows if there's an eventual market for them. Yet most people would not call Microsoft a startup.