Startup Principle: The Litmus-test of Products

There's ONE big litmus test of whether you're a real technology startup, or aspiring to be one but falling short. It's the automation philosophy (Secret: As with everything, philosophy reflects in data). 

Ask yourself: Can 80% of my customers work with my company if it had nothing except its technology? 

If the answer is a "no" - you're not a technology product company, but a services company (Challenges? Easy to replicate, no differentiation except perhaps specialized skillsets of your people, low scalability, and hence, long-term challenges on value)

If the answer is a "yes" or "maybe" - congratulations, you are (on you're on the way to being) a technology company that can run itself.

I like to call it Rule X (for convenience) - Any tech product company can serve 80% of its customers through purely the platform/technology, with no need for people/support/services to get involved.

EDIT: Elon Musk says this differently. "Any product that needs a manual to work is broken".