entrepreneur

Definition

A glamorized term for someone who decided that working for themselves would be less stressful than having a boss (spoiler: they were wrong). These brave or foolish souls start their own ventures, risking everything from savings to sanity in pursuit of the dream of being their own boss and working only 80 hours a week instead of 40. Every LinkedIn bio now includes this word because 'unemployed but optimistic' doesn't have the same ring to it.

Example Usage

After quitting his corporate job, Dave became an entrepreneur, which is a fancy way of saying he now has three side hustles and no health insurance.

Source: Business and startup terminology

Related Terms

Intermediate

option pool

A reserve of shares set aside to recruit employees with stock options, typically carved out before valuation to dilute founders rather than investors. A necessary evil that feels like robbery when you're calculating founder ownership.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

product-led growth

A go-to-market strategy where the product itself drives customer acquisition, retention, and expansion rather than traditional sales teams. Users fall in love before ever talking to a salesperson.

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

mezzanine financing

Late-stage debt or hybrid securities used to bridge the gap between venture rounds and an exit. It's called mezzanine because it sits between the ground floor (equity) and penthouse (IPO).

🚀 Startup / VC

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tiger cub

Venture funds started by former Tiger Global partners or investors, inheriting their aggressive growth-at-all-costs investment philosophy. They're the offspring that learned well from their parent's playbook.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

Key Metrics

The numbers a startup tracks to measure success, carefully selected to be whichever ones happen to be going up. When those numbers go down, they become vanity metrics, and new key metrics are discovered.

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

graduated rights

Term sheet provisions where investor rights decrease as the company hits performance milestones. A way to say 'we trust you more as you prove you're not incompetent.'

🚀 Startup / VC

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See “entrepreneur” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

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