Disrupting disruption with disruptive disruptions since 2010.
The modern equivalent of passing the hat, except the hat is a slick website and you're asking thousands of strangers on the internet to fund your dream project, questionable invention, or potato salad. It's democratized investing meets collective optimism meets occasional fraud.
The process of taking an idea, product, or technology and transforming it into something that actually makes money, because apparently innovation for its own sake doesn't pay the bills. It's the startup world's coming-of-age ceremony, where brilliant concepts either become profitable products or expensive lessons. Essentially, it's the bridge between "we built something cool" and "people are actually buying it."
How much you spend to gain one customer—a depressing metric that determines whether your unit economics work at all.
A VC's strong belief in an investment thesis despite contrary evidence or market skepticism. The confidence to write a check when everyone else thinks you're insane—sometimes brilliance, often delusion.
A financing round where new investors impose harsh terms on existing shareholders who lack the votes to block it. It's democracy in action, if democracy meant 'whoever has the most money wins.'
The person you start a company with based on four hours of friendship and mutual delusion, who will become either your closest ally or your most expensive breakup. Dating is easier than finding a compatible co-founder.
In startup land, the terrifying gap between early adopters who'll buy anything shiny and the mainstream market that actually expects your product to work. Coined by Geoffrey Moore, this metaphorical canyon is where many promising startups go to die, usually because they assumed soccer moms would be as forgiving as tech bros. It's the entrepreneurial equivalent of realizing your mom's friends won't think your jokes are as funny as your college roommates did.
A spreadsheet showing who owns what percentage of your company, updated regularly as you dilute yourself with more funding rounds.
The art of building a valuable company while raising as little outside funding as possible, preserving founder ownership and bragging rights. It's increasingly rare in an era of mega-rounds and bloated valuations.
A sudden, catastrophic drop in value, performance, or viability—the moment your startup's growth chart becomes a ski slope in the wrong direction. Often used in VC circles to describe what happens when a company hits its scaling limit without a parachute.
The additional value investors pay for governance rights and control provisions beyond pure economics, willing to pay higher prices for board seats and veto powers. The surcharge for not trusting founders to run the company they founded.
A person who owns money and loves owning more money, preferably through means that maximize wealth accumulation. The ideological cheerleader for markets and minimal regulation.
A division of an established corporation that invests in startups, usually with the goal of finding complementary technology or market opportunities. Big companies' way of seeming innovative without actually being disruptive.
To engage in a battle of wills, skills, or resources against rivals for supremacy, positioning, or bragging rights. The corporate version of 'may the best person win' minus the actual physical combat.
The amount of money a VC firm typically invests in a single startup. Larger firms write bigger checks, which shapes their investment thesis.
When a startup's momentum suddenly stops and it dies, usually after running out of money or investors realizing the idea doesn't work. It's spectacular and tragic.
The number of months required for a customer to generate enough profit to pay back their acquisition cost. If it's over 12 months, your unit economics are questionable.