investor

Definition

Someone who gives you money in exchange for a piece of your company, future profits, or the thrill of watching their capital evaporate. They're either your best friend or worst nightmare, depending on whether your quarterly numbers are trending upward. In startup land, they're the people whose calls you always take.

Example Usage

Our lead investor suggested we 'pivot' after burning through $2 million, which is venture capital speak for 'please try something else.'

Source: Finance terminology via Dictionary definitions

Related Terms

Intermediate

vesting acceleration

Speeding up the vesting schedule of stock options, typically triggered by acquisition or termination. It's the consolation prize when your startup gets acquired and you're suddenly unemployed.

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

preferred return

The minimum annual return (typically 8%) that limited partners receive before general partners can claim carried interest, functioning as a hurdle rate to ensure LPs get paid first. Think of it as making the GP eat their vegetables before getting dessert.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

Founder

The person who started a company and will remind you of this fact in every meeting, email signature, and LinkedIn post until the heat death of the universe. They wear the title like a crown, even when the kingdom is a WeWork desk and two interns.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

Disruption

The Silicon Valley term for replacing something that works fine with an app that does the same thing but with a subscription fee. Every startup claims to be disrupting something, the way every toddler claims to be helping with dinner.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

Moonshot

An ambitious, seemingly impossible project that aims to solve a massive problem, named after the Apollo missions because both require billions of dollars and a willingness to ignore the odds. For every actual moonshot, there are a thousand founders calling their food delivery app a moonshot.

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

overhang

Excess stock options or debt that will dilute existing shareholders, hanging over the cap table like a financial storm cloud. Future pain that everyone pretends isn't there.

🚀 Startup / VC

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