Geoff’s Quantum Theory and Venture Capital Valuation posting (Feb. 2, 1917) presented an interesting  outline of discreet state changes that companies must go through to reach their full potential and valuation. I would like to submit that the state changes of a startup have an interesting similarity to the state and properties of matter in the physical world.

Matter has three states – Gas, Liquid and Solid.  I suggest that startups have the same three states. The goal of a startup is to achieve the right combination of results to graduate to the next higher state.