full-stack startup

Definition

A company that owns and controls every layer of its product or service delivery, from manufacturing to customer experience, rather than relying on existing infrastructure or platforms. It's vertical integration for the startup age.

Example Usage

Tesla operates as a full-stack startup, controlling everything from battery production to their own sales and service network.

Origin

Coined by Chris Dixon at a16z in 2014, borrowing from 'full-stack developer'

Fun Fact

Full-stack startups require massive capital but can defend against competition better than platform-dependent companies.

Source: Startup strategy and business model terminology

Related Terms

Beginner

niche-down

The process of narrowing your target market to a smaller, more specific segment rather than trying to serve everyone. What pivoting looks like when you finally accept your TAM assumptions were delusional.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

network effects

The magical property where your product becomes more valuable as more people use it—or what every social startup claims to have despite zero evidence. True network effects are rarer than honest user growth numbers.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

Vesting

The process by which employees gradually earn their stock options over time, designed to keep people from taking the equity and running. It's a four-year golden handcuff that makes quitting feel like leaving money on the table, even when the money is imaginary.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

Freemium

A business model where the basic product is free but all the useful features cost money, like a restaurant that gives you a free plate but charges for the food. It's the startup equivalent of a drug dealer's first-one's-free strategy, but legal and with worse margins.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

retention cohort

A group of users who started in the same time period, tracked to see how many stick around. The cruel truth about how fast people abandon your product.

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

super pro rata

The right to invest more than your proportional share in a subsequent round, allowing early investors to increase their ownership. Pro rata's aggressive older sibling who always wants more.

🚀 Startup / VC

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