Disrupting disruption with disruptive disruptions since 2010.
A wooden stick driven into the ground to mark territory or prop things up, or in the business world, the percentage ownership or financial commitment you have in a deal. High stakes mean high risk and high reward; low stakes mean you're testing the waters.
An SEC regulation allowing private companies to raise money from unlimited accredited investors without formal SEC registration. It's basically the loophole that makes startup funding possible.
Groups of angel investors or VCs pooling resources to make a larger investment than they could individually, because apparently teamwork makes the dream work.
Built entirely in-house by internal team without external consultants or enterprise solutions; a diplomatic term meaning 'we did this ourselves with our budget and talent level.'
In startup context: begging investors for money while pretending your MVP with zero revenue is worth millions. The permanent state of a founder's existence between pivots.
Investor insurance that says 'your loss is our gain' in math form. When a down round happens, this clause adjusts the math.
A professional investor who manages pools of money from institutions and wealthy individuals, and who will explain why your startup needs to 10x to be worthwhile.
A business innovator who shakes up stagnant industries with fresh ideas instead of recycling the same tired playbook everyone else follows.
Short-term money to keep you alive until someone actually funds you properly. Usually at slightly worse terms than you'd normally accept.
Financially obliterated; what happens when you've spent all your capital on ideas that looked good on a napkin at 2 AM. A state every entrepreneur fears and half have experienced.
The attempt to prove you weren't just lucky with Series A and that your unit economics actually work at scale.
Supposedly novel and revolutionary; corporate-speak for 'we added one feature that already exists elsewhere but with aggressively different marketing.'
When founders get a waiver from anti-dilution adjustments because they dilute themselves (or the math is too ugly). Technical term for 'let's not do this.'
A self-appointed visionary who had an idea first or adopted one early; startup world's favorite honorific for anyone owning three blockchain apps and genuine FOMO.
Total value returned divided by the original investment amount. The metric VCs use to measure how many times they multiplied their money.
The early release of a product to limited users for testing and feedback. It's a safe way to find bugs before the internet makes fun of you in public.
Proof that real customers exist, will pay for your solution, and actually want it—separating your assumptions from reality, though many founders skip this step entirely.
An event where startup cohorts (usually from accelerators like Y Combinator) pitch to 500+ investors in rapid-fire succession—speed dating for capital.
A moderate anti-dilution clause that factors in both the down round price and the number of new shares issued—less devastating for founders than full ratchet but still painful.
The process and cost of getting new users/customers. It's usually the most expensive thing a startup does and also the most important.
Low-fidelity sketches of how a user interface will work, before high-fidelity design. It's the cheapest way to validate UX before wasting designer time.
To fundamentally alter an existing market or industry with a new approach. Every startup claims to 'disrupt' something, and 99% of them are just adding a mobile app to an existing business model.
The total profit a customer generates for your company over their entire relationship—essentially predicting whether they'll be worth the investment to acquire.
A metric suggesting that growth rate + profit margin should equal 40% for a healthy software company—8% growth with 32% margin, or 35% growth with 5% margin, both equal 40.