Startup Definitions

Made in ATL by Landon Howell

The jargon of the innovation economy.When a VC in SF asks about the CAC and DAU of your MVP, you should know WTH they’re talking about.

531 definitions as of March 2026

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Term	Definition
A/B Testing	A method of comparing two versions of something to determine which one performs better.
AARRR or AAARRR (The Pirate Metric)	A startup success model that combines awareness, acquisition, activation, retention, referrals, and revenue.
Above The Fold (ATF)	The part of a website visible before scrolling, often where important news stories are published.
Absolute Advantage	Producing a good with fewer inputs.
Accelerated Vesting	Faster vesting of stock options, allowing individuals to receive benefits earlier.
Accelerator	A program that provides startups with mentorship, education, and resources, often in exchange for equity.
Accessibility	The design and development of products usable by all people, including those with disabilities.
Accredited Investor	An individual legally qualified to invest in a business venture.
Accrual Basis	An accounting method that reports income when earned and expenses when incurred.
Accrued Interest	Interest accumulated on a debt or asset since the last payment.
Acqui-hire	The acquisition of a company primarily for its talent rather than its products or services.
Acquisition	Taking a controlling interest (50% or more) in a company.
Acquisition (Customer)	The process of gaining new customers through marketing and sales strategies.
Actionable Metric	Data linking actions to results, enabling decision-making.
Activation	The process of encouraging users to take a specific action that demonstrates engagement or commitment.
Activation Rate	The percentage of new users who complete a key action that indicates they have experienced the product's core value.
Active Buyer	A customer whose most recent purchase was within the last 12 months.
Active Users	The number of users engaging with a product or platform.
Ad Rank	The position of a pay-per-click ad on a search engine results page, based on various factors.
Adjacent Innovation	Leveraging the core business and value proposition of an organization in a new market space.
Advertising to Sales Ratio	Measures advertising effectiveness by comparing ad spend to sales increase.
Advisor	An experienced entrepreneur who provides guidance and support, most often through compensation and equity.
Advisor Agreement	A document outlining an advisor's commitment to a company, sometimes granting equity.
Advisory Board	A group of external advisors providing strategic advice.
Affiliate Marketing	A performance-based marketing strategy where businesses reward affiliates for driving traffic or sales.
Agentic AI	AI systems capable of autonomous decision-making and multi-step task execution without continuous human guidance.
Agile	A flexible and iterative approach to project management and software development.
AI Agent	An autonomous AI system that can perceive its environment, make decisions, and take actions to achieve specific goals.
AI Wrapper	A startup that builds a product layer on top of an existing AI model (like GPT) without training its own model.
AIOps	Using AI and machine learning to automate and improve IT operations, including anomaly detection and incident response.
Alligator Arms	Unwillingness to reach beyond one's comfort zone.
Alpha Test	Controlled internal testing of a pre-production model to detect flaws.
Always Be Closing (ABC)	A sales strategy focused on constantly seeking new customers and cutting through small talk.
Amortization	The scheduled process of gradually paying off a debt.
Analogy Thinking	Applying learnings from adjacent categories or market spaces for new solutions.
Analysis Paralysis	The state of being unable to make a decision due to having too much data.
Analytics	The use of math, statistics, predictive modeling, and machine learning to find patterns and insights.
Angel Fund	A group of angel investors coordinating in the investment process.
Angel Investor	An individual who provides capital to a startup, often in the early stages, in exchange for equity.
Angel Round	A funding round aimed at attracting angel investors.
Angels	Individual investors who provide capital and expertise to early-stage startups.
Annual Contract Value (ACV)	The average annualized revenue per customer contract (excluding any one-time fees).
Anti-Dilution Agreement	A legal agreement ensuring an investor's shares are not diluted by future investments.
API (Application Programming Interface)	A set of rules and protocols that allow different software applications to communicate.
ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)	The value of all recurring revenue generated annually from customers, excluding one-time fees.
Async Work	A work style where team members contribute on their own schedules rather than requiring real-time collaboration.
Attribution	The identification of points in the customer journey that contribute to a conversion.
Average Order Volume (AOV)	Measures the size of each product order.
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)	How much you earn for each customer you have, calculated by dividing total revenue by the number of users.

Term	Definition
B Corporation	A for-profit business dedicated to addressing social and environmental issues.
B2B (Business-to-Business)	Transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler.
B2C (Business-to-Consumer)	Transactions between businesses and individual consumers.
Backlink	A link from one website to another.
Bayesian Statistic	Probability calculated by combining prior knowledge with accumulated experience.
Behavioral Targeting	A marketing method that targets customers based on their previous online behavior.
Benchmark	A metric used by a company to gauge success.
Beta Release	A pre-release version of a product that is closer to completion, released to a wider audience for testing.
Beta Test	External testing of a near-complete product by a limited number of customers to find flaws.
Blue Chip	A large, established, and successful company.
Board of Directors	A group elected by shareholders to oversee the management of a company.
Boilerplate	An organization's standard description used repetitively, often in emails.
Boiling the Ocean	Describes an idea that is too broad or trying to achieve too much.
Bookings	A contract between a company and a customer for a product or service.
Bootstrapping	Funding a startup with personal savings or revenue without external investment.
Bottom Line	Comparison of net income versus net expenses, resulting in net profit.
Bounce	A single-page visit to a website where the user leaves without interacting with the page.
Bounce Rate	The percentage of visitors who navigate away from a website after viewing only one page.
Brand Activation	Integrating all communication streams to activate consumers and generate brand recognition.
Brand Architecture	The family tree of a company's brands and their relationships.
Brand Equity	The value of a brand, based on consumer perception and loyalty.
Brand Experience	A brand's reputation as perceived by an individual.
Brand Extension	Launching a new product in a new market under an established brand.
Brand Identity	The intended customer perception of a brand, shaped by name, logo, practices, and communication style.
Brand Image	The associations customers have with a brand.
Brand Licensing	Allowing a manufacturer to produce and sell products under a brand name for a percentage of sales profit.
Brand Narrative	The story of a brand's ideas, origins, and experiences as they relate to customers.
Brand Personality	Attributing human traits to a brand to achieve differentiation and authenticity.
Brand Strategy	The details of how a brand intends to appeal to its target audience.
Break-Even Point	The amount of revenue needed to cover all operating costs.
Breakthrough Innovation	Substantial improvements built upon new enabling technologies and/or business models.
Bridge Financing	Short-term financing expected to be repaid quickly.
Bridge Loan	A short-term loan that helps a startup access money in between rounds of funding.
Build-Measure-Learn	A feedback loop used to continually research and improve a product.
Burn	The rate at which a company is spending its capital, often used to evaluate runway and sustainability.
Burn Rate	The rate at which a startup spends its cash reserves before generating positive cash flow.
Business Model Canvas	A map that helps companies design, develop, pivot, and plan their course.
Business Plan	A document describing how a company will reach its goals.
Buy-and-Sell Agreement	A document specifying what will happen if a co-owner of a company leaves.
Buyout	A common exit strategy that involves the purchase of a controlling stake in a company.

Term	Definition
C Corporation	A basic corporation legally viewed as a separate entity from its owners.
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)	The total cost of acquiring a new customer, calculated by dividing all sales and marketing expenses by number of new customers.
CAC Payback	The time it takes for a company to recoup the cost of acquiring a customer.
Call-to-Action (CTA)	Text or image urging users to take action, such as signing up or attending an event.
Cap Table	A table showing the ownership stakes and equity distribution among the founders, investors, and employees.
Capital	Cash, goods, and assets at one's disposal.
Capital Expenditures (CapEx)	Items purchased by a company with the expectation of future benefits.
Capital Gain	The difference between the purchase price and selling price of an asset.
Capital Under Management	The amount of capital available for venture capital investment.
Capitalization Table	A table showing the ownership stakes and equity distribution in a company.
Capped Notes	Investment rounds where a cap is placed on a company's valuation.
Carried Interest or Carry	The portion of investment gains fund managers receive without contributing their own capital.
Cash Basis	Accounting that reports revenue and expenditures when payments are made, suitable for startups.
Cash Flow	Net cash moving in and out of a business, indicating liquidity and solvency.
Cashflow	The movement of money in and out of a business, including income, expenses, investments, and financing.
Challenger Brainstorm	A brainstorming method where assumptions are listed and challenged.
Chicken and Egg Dilemma	A situation where users are needed to create content to attract more users.
Churn	The rate at which customers leave or stop using a product or service.
Churn Rate	The percentage of customers who stop using a product during a given time period.
CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment)	A practice of automating the building, testing, and deployment of code changes.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)	The ratio of users who click on a specific link to the number of total users who view the page or email.
Client/Customers	The direct beneficiaries of a product or service.
Cliff (Vesting Cliff)	A specific point in time when a significant portion of vesting accelerates.
Cliff Vesting	Granting all long-term benefits, stock options, or retirement funds at a single point in time.
Closing	The final stage in the investment process where legal documents are signed.
Closing Rate	Sales effectiveness measured by the number of proposals per sale.
Co-founder	A joint founder sharing equity in a company.
Co-founder Agreement	An agreement detailing the nature, function, and equity split of a company.
Co-Working Space	An office shared by employees from different companies, often used by startups to reduce costs.
Cohort	A customer group unified by a specific trend or factor.
Cohort Analysis	Identifying trends by breaking up users into experimental groups.
Community-Led Growth (CLG)	A growth strategy where a brand's community of users drives awareness, adoption, and retention.
Competitive Advantage	Unique attributes or capabilities that give a business an edge over its competitors.
Competitive Analysis	Identifying competitors and evaluating their strategies to determine their strengths and weaknesses.
Competitive Matrix	A tool comparing one's product to a competitor's.
Competitor's Advantage	The strengths or advantages that a competitor has over your business.
Compilers	Tools that translate high-level programming code into machine language or intermediate code.
Composable Architecture	A modular technology approach where businesses assemble best-of-breed components rather than relying on monolithic platforms.
Concierge Minimum Viable Product (CMVP)	A manual service simulating the steps users would take with the final product.
Concurrency	The ability to perform multiple computations or processes simultaneously.
Constraints	Limitations outside the control of a project team.
Consumer Goods	Products intended for everyday use by the general public.
Consumer Products	Products designed and marketed for individual consumers.
Containerization	Packaging software code with its dependencies into lightweight containers that run consistently across environments.
Content Marketing	A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant content.
Conversion Funnel	The journey from discovering a product to becoming a customer.
Conversion Rate	The percentage of visitors to a website that complete a desired goal.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)	Improving a landing page or website to drive traffic and retain users.
Convertible Debt/Equity	Investments turning into equity at a future valuation point.
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)	The expense of producing goods sold by a company.
Cost Per Action (CPA) Marketing	Online advertising strategy where payment is based on results.
Cost Per Thousand (CPM)	Standard measurement of ad costs per 1,000 impressions.
Cost Structure	Analyzing business expenses versus necessity.
Cottage Business	Startups that work best at a small scale, often operated from home.
Creative Intelligence	Framing problems in new ways to reach creative solutions.
Credit	An accounting entry that decreases assets or increases liability.
Cross-Elasticity	Consumer behavior proving which products are substitutes.
Cross-Selling	Selling an additional product or service to an existing customer.
Crowdfunding	A form of funding where a company sources capital from a wide range of investors and clients.
Current Assets (CA)	Assets to be used within one year.
Current Liabilities	Debts payable within one year.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)	The total cost associated with acquiring a new customer, including marketing, sales, and other related expenses.
Customer Archetype	A typical customer profile for a company's target audience.
Customer Development	A systematic process of building and understanding customer relationships.
Customer Discovery	The process of identifying and understanding the needs and problems of customers.
Customer Journey Mapping	A visual representation of every experience a customer has with a business.
Customer Life Cycle	The steps a customer goes through when using a product.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)	A prediction of the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer.
Customer Relations Management (CRM)	Practices to analyze customer interactions and improve business relations.
Customer Retention	Strategies and tactics businesses use to encourage customers to continue using or buying their products.
Customer Segmentation	Dividing a customer base into groups of individuals that are similar in specific ways.

Term	Definition
Dark Funnel	The invisible portion of the buyer journey that occurs in channels you cannot track, such as word of mouth, private communities, and DMs.
Data Mining	Querying large data sets for precise analysis.
Data-Driven Marketing	Using data and analytics to guide marketing strategies and make more informed decisions.
DAU (Daily Active Users)	The number of unique users who engage with a product within a 24-hour period.
Deal Flow	The steady stream of potential investment opportunities evaluated by venture capitalists.
Deal Room	A central location for investment pitches and negotiations.
Debt	Loans that must be repaid over time.
Debt Financing	Raising money by selling bonds or notes to be repurchased with interest.
Decacorn	A startup company valued at over $10 billion.
Deep Work	Focused, uninterrupted cognitive effort on demanding tasks that produce high-value output.
Deepness	Measuring the potential value an idea can deliver.
Default Alive / Default Dead	A framework for evaluating whether a startup will reach profitability with its current trajectory and resources.
DeFi (Decentralized Finance)	Financial services built on blockchain technology that operate without traditional intermediaries like banks.
Deliverable	A tangible outcome produced by a project, either internal or external.
Demand Generation	The focus on targeted marketing programs to drive awareness and interest in a company's products.
Deployment	Introducing a new activity, procedure, or program to an organization.
Design Thinking	Creative problem-solving by immersing in customer experience and analyzing interactions.
DevOps	A set of practices combining software development and IT operations to shorten the development lifecycle.
Digital Twin	A virtual replica of a physical product, process, or system used for simulation, testing, and optimization.
Dilution	The process by which founders lose equity ownership.
Direct Marketing	Advertising featuring physical items to communicate product information.
Disclosure Documents	Documents prepared for prospective investors detailing an investment or acquisition.
Discoverability	How people will learn about a product.
Disruption	Creating a new market that displaces existing ones.
Dogfooding	Using one's own product to demonstrate confidence in it.
Down Round	A funding round where a company raises capital at a lower valuation than the previous round.
Dragon	A startup that raises $1 billion in a single round of funding.
Drip Campaign	A marketing method involving repeated actions and ads to attract customers.
Drip Marketing	A communication strategy that sends a pre-written set of messages to customers or prospects over time.
Due Diligence	An investor's analysis of a company or product before investment.

Term	Definition
E-Commerce	Any transaction involving the transfer of information online.
Early Adopters	The first customers to buy and use a new product, often considered key to a product's success.
Early Stage	The earliest phase of a startup, often pre-valuation.
Ecopreneur	An entrepreneur focused on environmentally friendly products.
Ecosystem	The network of organizations, resources, and support systems that drive the startup community.
Edge Computing	A distributed computing model where data is processed closer to the source rather than in a centralized cloud.
Elastic	When a small price change leads to a large demand change.
Elevator Pitch	A brief, persuasive speech to spark interest in what your organization does.
Email Marketing	The use of email to promote products or services and develop relationships with potential customers.
Embargo	An agreement to delay the publication of a story by a press agency.
Employment Terms	Legal document detailing employment requirements and benefits.
End-User	The final consumer or user of a product or service.
Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR)	An experienced entrepreneur advising a venture capital firm.
Equity	Ownership in a company, measured in stock or other units.
Equity Crowdfunding	Raising capital by offering shares of your company to the general public through an online platform.
Equity Financing	Raising money by selling ownership stakes in a company.
Equity Grants	Stock or equity rewards given to key employees.
Escape Velocity	A company's momentum as it grows revenue and becomes self-sustaining without additional financing.
Evangelists	Passionate users of a product, brand, or cause who spread positive word-of-mouth.
EVG (Earlyvangelists)	Highly potential customers who are early adopters and promoters of a new product.
Exit	The process of selling or merging the company to provide a financial return to the founders and investors.
Exit Strategy	A planned approach to selling ownership in a company to investors or another company.
Expansion Revenue	Revenue gained from existing customers through upsells, cross-sells, or upgrades.
Exploding Offer	An investment offer retracted if not accepted within a short time.

Term	Definition
Failing Forward	Learning from failures to build a more successful product.
Feature Flag	A software development technique that allows features to be toggled on or off without deploying new code.
Financial Model	An abstract, often quantitative, representation of a real financial situation.
Finder's Fee	Payment to a third-party for introducing a company to investors.
Fine-Tuning	The process of further training a pre-trained AI model on a specific dataset to improve performance for a particular task.
First Mover Advantage	The advantage gained by being the first company in a market space.
First Refusal	A clause requiring founders to offer shares to existing investors before selling to third parties.
Fixed Assets (FA)	Long-term assets benefiting a company for over a year.
Fixed Costs	Costs that do not change with sales volume.
Flat Round	A funding round where a company raises capital at the same valuation as the previous round.
Forecasting	Planning tool that uses past data to predict future trends.
Foundation Model	A large-scale AI model trained on broad data that can be adapted for many downstream tasks.
Founder	Entrepreneurs who start a venture.
Founder Mode	A leadership style where the CEO remains deeply involved in operational details rather than delegating broadly.
Fractional Executive	A part-time C-level executive hired to provide senior leadership without a full-time commitment or cost.
Freemium	A pricing strategy where basic services are provided for free with the option to purchase additional features.
Full-Ratchet	An anti-dilution provision protecting investors from extreme equity dilution.

Term	Definition
Gamification	Adding game elements to non-game services to increase engagement.
General Ledger	A complete record of all financial transactions of a company.
Generative AI (GenAI)	AI systems that create new content such as text, images, code, or audio based on learned patterns.
Geotargeting	Delivering content or advertisements to a user based on their geographic location.
Go-to-Market (GTM)	A company's plan to gain market share and grow.
Golden Handcuffs	Benefits or payments designed to prevent an employee from leaving.
Golden Parachute	Large compensation for the dismissal of an executive, usually after a takeover.
GPT Wrapper	A product or startup built primarily as an interface layer on top of OpenAI's GPT models.
Greenfield	A market area with no prior constraints or attempts at solutions.
Gross Margin	Percentage of revenue retained after production costs.
Gross Profit	Revenue minus the cost of production, support, and delivery.
Ground Floor	The earliest stage of a startup.
Growth Hacker	An employee who creates rapid, viral growth.
Growth Hacking	A creative and experimental approach to marketing that focuses on rapid growth using unconventional strategies.
Guerrilla Marketing	An unconventional marketing strategy that aims to achieve maximum results from minimal resources.

Term	Definition
Hallucination (AI)	When an AI model generates false or fabricated information that appears plausible.
HAU (Hourly Active Users)	The number of unique users who engage with a product within a one-hour period.
Heatmap	A graphical representation of data where values are depicted by color, often used to analyze user behavior.
Hectocorn	A company valued at over $100 billion.
Herd Mentality	Following a leader without independent thought.
Hockey Stick	A rapid upward growth trend.
Hockey Stick Growth	A growth pattern where slow or stagnant growth is followed by a sharp, exponential rise.
Hyper-Personalization	Using data to provide more personalized and targeted products, services, or content to customers.
Hyperautomation	Combining AI, machine learning, and robotic process automation to automate as many business processes as possible.

Term	Definition
IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)	A cloud computing model providing virtualized computing resources like servers and storage over the internet.
Ideation	The creative process of generating, developing, and communicating ideas.
Impressions	Metric for the number of users generated by an advertisement.
In-App Purchases	Sales from current users within an application.
Inbound Marketing	A marketing approach that focuses on attracting customers through valuable and relevant content.
Incorporation	Legally forming a company.
Incubator	An organization that helps startups grow by providing workspace, resources, and mentorship.
Indication of Interest (IoI)	A potential customer showing interest in a product.
Inelastic	When a price change does not significantly affect demand.
Influencer Marketing	A form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placements from influencers.
Initial Public Offering (IPO)	The process of offering shares of a private company to the public in a new stock issuance.
Inside Round	A funding round where only existing investors participate, with no new outside investors.
Integrative Thinking	Problem-solving by defining the relationship between variables and determining causality.
Intellectual Property (IP)	Legal ownership of ideas or concepts, considered intangible assets.
Intrapreneur	Practicing entrepreneurship within a large company.
Investor Rights Agreement (IRA)	A legal document protecting investor interests during investment.
Iteration	The repeated process of testing, learning, and improving a product or service through incremental changes.

Term	Definition
Joint Venture	A business arrangement where two or more parties agree to pool resources for a specific goal.

Term	Definition
Key Employee	A co-founder or early employee crucial to a company’s success, often rewarded with equity.
Key Performance Indicators (KPI)	Metrics tracked to measure progress or success.
KPI (Key Performance Indicator)	A specific and measurable metric used to track and evaluate the success of a particular business objective, activity, or initiative.

Term	Definition
Laggards	A market segment hesitant to adopt new products.
Landing Page	A standalone web page created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign.
Large Language Model (LLM)	A deep learning model trained on massive text datasets to understand and generate human language.
Late Majority	The last major customer segment to adopt a product.
Late Stage	A startup with a viable product and business model that has been in existence for a noteworthy period.
Lead Generation	The process of attracting potential customers and capturing interest.
Lead Investor	The principal provider of capital in an investment syndicate.
Leads	Prospective customers who have provided their contact information.
Leaky Bucket	An analogy explaining how products lose customers.
Lean Startup	A methodology for developing businesses and products that emphasizes rapid iteration and customer feedback.
Letter of Intent (LOI)	A business document outlining deal terms between two companies.
Leveraged Buyout	Buying out remaining shares of a company using debt to achieve ownership.
Liabilities	Debts and financial obligations of a company.
Liability	The state of being legally responsible for something.
Licensing	Granting permission to manufacture a product in exchange for payment.
Lifestyle Business	A profitable company that will never grow into a large enterprise.
Limited Liability Company (LLC)	A company structure preventing members from being held personally liable for company debts.
Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)	A partnership allowing limited liability to mitigate risks.
Limited Partner (LP)	An investor with little control over management, in exchange for fewer restrictions on liquidation.
Liquidation	Turning securities into cash, often as part of an exit strategy.
Liquidation Preference	The right to receive a specific monetary value in exchange for equity if a company dissolves.
Liquidity Event	An event allowing venture capital firms to realize gains or losses by liquidating equity.
Long Term Liabilities	Debts payable over a period exceeding one year.
Loss Leader Pricing	A strategy where a product is sold below market cost to attract customers who will purchase other items.
LTV (Lifetime Value)	The total revenue a company expects to earn from a customer over the entire duration of their relationship.

Term	Definition
Market Penetration	The extent to which a product is recognized and bought by customers in a particular market.
Market Segmentation	Dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers who have different needs or characteristics.
Marketing Strategy	A plan for promoting products or services to reach target consumers.
MAU (Monthly Active Users)	The number of unique users who engage with a product within a 30-day period.
Mentor	An experienced entrepreneur who provides guidance and support to help founders grow their businesses.
Microservices	An architectural approach where an application is built as a collection of small, independently deployable services.
Mobile Marketing	Multi-channel online marketing technique focused on reaching an audience on their smartphones.
Model Collapse	The degradation of AI model performance when trained on AI-generated data rather than human-created data.
MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)	The value of all recurring revenue generated monthly from customers, excluding one-time fees.
Multimodal AI	AI systems that can process and generate multiple types of data such as text, images, audio, and video simultaneously.
MVP (Minimum Viable Product)	A version of a product with just enough features to satisfy early adopters and gather feedback.

Term	Definition
Net Dollar Retention (NDR)	A metric measuring the revenue retained from existing customers, including expansion, contraction, and churn.
Net Promoter	Customers likely to recommend a product to others.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)	A measure of customer loyalty, calculated by asking customers how likely they are to recommend a company.
Net Sales	Sales after deducting returns, damaged, and missing products.
Network Effect	The positive impact of user contributions on a product.
North Star Metric (NSM)	A single key metric that drives a startup's long-term growth by reflecting the core value delivered.
NRR (Net Revenue Retention)	A metric that shows how much revenue a company retains, accounting for expansions, downgrades, and churn.

Term	Definition
Omnichannel Marketing	A multi-channel approach to sales that seeks to provide customers with a seamless shopping experience.
Onboard	Reaching out to new customers to establish brand loyalty.
Onboarding	Acquiring necessary knowledge and skills to become effective members of a company.
Open Rate	Percentage of successfully delivered emails that were opened.
Operating Margin	Ratio measuring pricing strategy and operational efficiency.
Outbound Marketing	Traditional marketing methods that push messages to a broad audience.
Overhang	When investor liquidation preferences exceed the company's current value.

Term	Definition
PaaS (Platform as a Service)	A cloud computing service that provides a platform for developers to build, run, and manage applications.
Pages Per Visit	Average number of pages viewed per visit, indicating user engagement.
Paper Prototype	Usability testing with a manual, early-stage version of an interface.
Party Round	A funding round with many small investors and no clear lead, often considered a weak signal.
Pay Per Click (PPC)	Internet advertising model where payment is based on ad clicks.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)	An online advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked.
Pay-to-Play	A provision requiring existing investors to participate in future rounds to maintain their preferential rights.
Persona	Fictional representations of ideal customers to guide product design.
Pipeline Value	The value of all sales opportunities in a sales funnel.
Pitch	A presentation where a startup founder explains their business idea to potential investors.
Pitch Deck	A brief presentation that provides an overview of your business plan and market opportunity.
Pitch Deck or Deck	A presentation used by startups to pitch their business idea, plan, and potential to investors.
Pivot	A significant change in a startup's business model, product, or target market.
Platformization	The strategic expansion from a single product into a broader ecosystem or platform of interconnected services.
Positioning	Differentiating a company from its competitors.
Positioning Statement	A detailed expression of how a brand, company, or product meets customer needs.
Post-Money Valuation	The valuation of a company after receiving external investment or financing.
Pre-Accelerator	A program offering advice to companies not yet in an accelerator.
Pre-Emptive Right	A clause allowing investors to maintain equity percentage after restructuring.
Pre-Money Valuation	The valuation of a company before receiving external investment or financing.
Pre-Sales	Selling a product before it has been produced or finalized.
Pre-Seed Funding	Initial funding to help take an idea from concept to product development.
Preferred Stock	Stock with a fixed dividend that takes priority over other forms of stock.
Present Value	The current value of a future sum of money.
Press Release	A public announcement sent to media about company developments.
Price Point	Suggested retail price designed to be competitive.
Price to Sales Ratio	Ratio comparing market capitalization to revenue.
Primary Domain Name	The first domain name mapped to a hosting account.
Principal	The original sum invested.
Private Equity	Investments in private companies not publicly traded.
Pro-Rata	Division of stocks or equity based on equal proportions.
Product-Led Growth (PLG)	A business strategy where the product itself drives customer acquisition, expansion, and retention.
Product-Market Fit (PMF)	The extent to which a product meets market demand.
Production Environment	The setting where a product is used by customers regularly.
Profit and Loss (P&L)	Financial statement summarizing revenue, expenses, and profit over a period.
Project Team	Individuals assigned to work on a specific project.
Promissory Note	A legal document detailing the amount of debt owed and repayment plan.
Prompt Engineering	The practice of crafting specific inputs to guide AI models toward desired outputs.
Prototype	An early-stage product testing the scalability of a concept.
Purchase Funnel	Steps an individual goes through before deciding to use a product and become a customer.
Purchase Pretzel	A complex model of customer decision-making, similar to the Purchase Funnel.

Term	Definition
Qualifying Opportunities	Determining if a lead has characteristics classifying them as a target market member.
Quality Assurance (QA)	Ensuring a product meets required specifications and customer expectations.

Term	Definition
RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)	An AI architecture that combines information retrieval from external sources with language model generation for more accurate responses.
Ramen Profitable	A company profitable enough to cover basic living expenses of employees.
Recapitalization	Reorganizing a company's capital structure by changing the mix of equity and debt.
Recurring Revenue	Revenue streams that are consistent and repeat over time, excluding one-time fees.
Referral Marketing	Spreading product information via existing customers, often incentivized.
Registered Users	The number of users registered for a product or service.
Release	A functional product sent to customers.
Repositioning	A marketing strategy to reshape a product's purpose or image.
Request for Proposal (RFP)	A bidding solicitation announcing available funding for a project.
Requirements	Descriptions of the qualities and specifications a product must meet.
Response Bias	Biases that can undermine self-reported and survey data.
Responsive Design	A website design strategy focused on usability across all platforms.
Retargeting	Marketing where previous users are shown ads for the product on other sites.
Retention	The ability to keep customers engaged and continuing to use a product or service over time.
Retention Curve	A graphical representation of the rate at which customers continue to engage with a product.
Retention Rate	The percentage of customers a company retains over a specific time period, excluding new customers.
Return on Investment (ROI)	A measure of the profitability of an investment, calculated as net profit divided by cost.
Revenue	The total income generated by a business from its sales, services, or other activities.
Revenue-Based Financing (RBF)	A funding model where investors receive a percentage of ongoing gross revenue in exchange for capital.
Reverse Trial	A freemium model where new users start with full premium access that downgrades to free after a set period.
Risk Tolerance	The amount of risk an investor is willing to accept.
Roadmap	A strategic plan outlining steps to achieve goals or complete a project.
Rolling Fund	A venture capital fund structure that accepts new commitments on a quarterly basis rather than all at once.
Run Rate	A financial projection based on current performance, often used to estimate future revenue or expenses.
Runway	The amount of time a startup has before it must either achieve profitability or secure additional financing.

Term	Definition
S Corporation	A corporation allowing limited liability protection and direct flow-through of profits and losses.
SaaS (Software as a Service)	A software licensing model where users access software over the internet, typically through a subscription.
SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity)	A fundraising instrument that gives investors the right to receive equity at a future priced round.
Sales Cycle Time	Average number of days a potential customer spends in the sales funnel.
Sales Draft	A summary document indicating a credit card purchase.
Sales Funnel	A step-by-step process that allows you to bring your potential customer one step closer to your offer.
Sales Funnel Leakage	Potential customers eliminated from the sales funnel at different stages.
Sales Mix	Ratio of different product types sold by a company.
Sales Mix Variance	Difference between actual and expected sales quantities per customer.
Sales Pipeline	Steps from initial contact to closing a sale.
Sales to Cash Flow Ratio	Ratio comparing product sales to overall cash flow.
SAM (Serviceable Available Market)	How big is the market that you could reach now?
Sandbox	An environment for experimentation without consequences for failure.
Scalability	The ability of a startup to grow and handle increased demand efficiently.
Scaleable	A company maintaining or improving profit margins as sales increase.
Scheduled Vesting	The timeline by which an employee gains access to equity.
Scope	The boundaries and extent of a project.
Scrum	An iterative product development method with self-directed teams.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)	Marketing focused on purchasing prominent ads on search engine results pages.
Secondary Public Offering	A company offering stock for sale to the public after an IPO.
Secondary Purchase	Purchasing stock from a shareholder instead of the company.
Secret Sauce	The unique factor giving a company or product a competitive advantage.
Securities	All types of equity or debt.
Seed	An early stage of venture capital funding that provides capital to startups to prove their concept.
Seed Funding	Early-stage funding to help a startup grow, typically provided by angel investors or venture capital.
Seed Round	The first official equity funding stage.
Seed Stage	Early startup phase requiring seed funds to gain customer insights.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)	The practice of optimizing a website or online content to improve its visibility in search engine results.
Series A	Often considered the first significant round of business financing, used to optimize product and user base.
Series A, B, C, D, E, F+	Different rounds of venture capital funding for startups as they grow and scale.
Series B	This round is about taking businesses to the next level, past the development stage.
Series C	At this stage, companies are looking to scale quickly and effectively.
Series D	Raised by successful companies to expand, acquire businesses, or prepare for an IPO.
Series E	Pursued for additional capital to meet growth targets or improve market position.
Series F	Indicates preparation for an IPO or facing significant challenges.
Serverless	A cloud computing model where the provider manages infrastructure and automatically scales resources on demand.
Serviceable Available Market (SAM)	The possible market targeted by a product within reach.
Session Length	The amount of time individuals spend on a site.
Share Consent	Legal clause requiring investor consent for a business to sell shares.
Signal-Based Selling	A sales approach that uses real-time data signals like job changes, funding rounds, or product usage to prioritize outreach.
Sitemap	XML file listing all URLs for a website to aid search engines.
Social Media Monitoring	Using social media channels to gauge attitudes and collect public perception data.
Social Proof	A psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect correct behavior.
Soft Sell	Advertising and sales with subtle language and suggestions.
Software as a Service (SaaS)	Software hosted virtually and accessed over the internet.
Solopreneur	An entrepreneur who works alone, running their business single-handedly.
SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market)	What is the market you can reach with your current resources?
Soonicorn	A startup with high growth potential, nearing Unicorn status.
Specifications	The exact customer needs a product must meet to be considered successful.
Sprint	A set period for achieving milestones and completing work for review.
SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle)	A legal entity created for a specific investment or financial purpose, often used for deal-by-deal investing.
Stack	The set of technologies, programming languages, frameworks, and tools used to build and run a software application.
Stakeholder	A person or group with an interest or concern in a company.
Startup	A company in its early development stage with the aim of seeking, developing, and validating a scalable business model.
Statutory Voting	Voting method where board members receive one vote per share they own.
Stealth Mode	A startup operating in secrecy.
Steps to Revenue	A roadmap detailing steps a company must take to begin generating revenue.
Stickiness	User retention rate.
Stock Options	The right to buy or sell stock at a set price during a specific period.
Stockholder	Individuals or entities owning stock in a corporation.
Story Point	A measurement used by scrum teams to gauge the effort required to achieve a goal.
Strategic Investors	Investors adding value through industry ties or experience.
Subdomain Name	A second website with unique content under a primary domain name.
Subscription Model	Payment model requiring a regular monthly or yearly charge to use a product.
Sweat Equity	The value added to a business through human effort, hard work, and expertise, often in lieu of cash.
SWOT Analysis	Analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats within an organization.
Syndication	Venture capital practice of multiple investors funding a company.
Synthesis	Combining different elements into a unified whole.
Synthetic Data	Artificially generated data used to train AI models when real-world data is scarce, expensive, or privacy-sensitive.

Term	Definition
Tag-Along Rights	Clause allowing existing investors to sell shares to a buyer if a founder decides to sell.
TAM (Total Addressable Market)	How big is the largest market?
Target Market	The specific group of potential customers that a product or service is designed to reach.
Target Market Profile	Attributes of a target population intended to be buyers of a product.
Technical Requirements	Specific technical properties a product must fulfill.
Tentpole	A project whose success supports other similar projects.
Term Sheet	A document that outlines the key terms and conditions of an investment.
The Chasm	A metaphorical gap in the technology adoption lifecycle between early adopters and the mainstream market.
The One Metric That Matters (OMTM)	A focused, single-metric approach to measure success.
Time to Value (TTV)	The amount of time it takes a new customer to realize the value of a product after signing up.
Tokenomics	The economic design and incentive structures of a cryptocurrency or blockchain-based token.
Total Available Market (TAM)	All existing market demand for a product.
Tractability	Measurement of how difficult it is to launch a functional version 1.0.
Traction	The momentum and progress that a startup has achieved in the market.
Trade Secret	Protected information within a company that derives value from exclusivity.
Transformer	A neural network architecture that uses self-attention mechanisms to process sequential data, forming the basis of modern LLMs.
Trend Naming	Analyzing social trends before choosing a name for a startup.

Term	Definition
Uncapped Notes	Funding practice protecting founders without guaranteeing specific equity per dollar invested.
Underwriter	An investment bank obligated to take securities into their books if the vested company fails.
Unicorn	A startup that has reached a valuation of $1 billion or more.
Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)	A standardized set of business laws regulating financial contracts.
Unique Value Proposition (UVP)	A clear statement describing the benefit and problem-solving nature of a product.
Unit Economics	Revenue and costs associated with a business model expressed per unit.
Unqualified Prospects	Potential clients not previously vetted.
Usability	The ease with which users can learn, use, and navigate a product or service.
Usage-Based Pricing	A pricing model where customers pay based on how much they consume rather than a flat subscription fee.
User Acquisition	The process of gaining new users or customers.
User Engagement	The extent to which customers interact with a product.
User Experience (UX)	The overall experience and satisfaction that users have when interacting with a product or service.
User Interface (UI)	The visual and interactive components of a software application or website.

Term	Definition
Validation	The process of testing and confirming that a business idea, product, or service meets needs.
Valuation	The process of determining a company's value.
Value Proposition	The unique value that a product or service provides to customers.
Vanity Metrics	Metrics that boost self-confidence without actionable implications.
Vaporware	A product advertised as sold while still in the prototype phase.
Variable Costs	Costs that change in proportion to the level of production or sales.
VC (Venture Capitalist)	An investor who provides capital to startups with potential for long-term growth.
Vendor	A supplier needed to create a product.
Venture	An endeavor involving risk and reward.
Venture Capital	A form of private equity financing that provides capital to startups and emerging companies.
Venture Capitalist	An investor who provides capital to startups with high growth potential in exchange for equity.
Venture Debt	A type of debt financing for venture-backed startups that supplements equity funding.
Version Control	The management of changes to documents, programs, and other information stored as computer files.
Vertical Search Engine	A search engine focusing on a specific industry or topic.
Vesting	The process of earning rights to stock or other forms of compensation over time.
Vibe Coding	A development approach where programmers describe what they want in natural language and let AI write the code.
Viral Coefficient	The number of new users generated by each existing user.
Viral Cycle Time	The time it takes for a user to invite another user to try a product.
Viral Loop	A cycle in which users are incentivized to share a product, creating exponential growth.
Viral Marketing	A marketing strategy that relies on individuals sharing a message or product.
Voting Right	The right of shareholders to vote on corporate matters.

Term	Definition
Wantrepreneur	A person who aspires to be an entrepreneur but has not yet taken the steps to launch a business.
Warrant	A security that gives the holder the right to purchase stock at a specific price before expiration.
Waste	Human activity that brings no value.
Waterfall Methodology	A sequential design process, often used in software development.
Website Pageviews	The number of times a web page is viewed by visitors.
Weekly Active Users (WAU)	The number of users who engage with a product within a week.
White Label	A product made by one company but rebranded by another company to appear as their own.
Wideness	The potential user base of a product.
Widget	A small application with specific functionality that can be installed and executed within a webpage.
Wireframe	A visual guide that represents the skeletal framework of a website.
Wireframing	The process of creating a visual blueprint or schematic for a website or application.
Wizard of Oz Minimum Viable Product (WOOMVP)	A product that appears automated but is manually operated behind the scenes.
Word of Mouth Marketing	A marketing method that relies on casual social interactions to promote a product.

Term	Definition
Yak Shaving	A task that seems irrelevant but is necessary to achieve a larger goal.

Term	Definition
Zombie Startup	A startup that is still operating but has no realistic path to significant growth or a meaningful exit.

Carefully curated and somewhat edited by Landon Howell in Atlanta Georgia USA.

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