jumpstart

Definition

To forcefully resurrect a dead project, company, or relationship using emergency measures and borrowed energy. Like CPR but for your failing startup's momentum.

Example Usage

We hired a celebrity advisor to jumpstart our flagging product launch.

Source: Common startup and business terminology

Related Terms

Intermediate

vest

In startup culture, to gradually earn ownership rights to company equity over time (usually 4 years), ensuring employees don't just grab the cash and run.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

Decacorn

A startup valued at over ten billion dollars, because apparently unicorn wasn't exclusive enough and Silicon Valley needed a word that makes mythological creatures sound like a tiered loyalty program. Next up: hectocorn, at which point we're just making up zoo animals.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

down-stack

Moving to build or sell products at a lower layer of the technology infrastructure, typically where margins are thinner but the market is larger. Often happens when companies realize their original niche is too small.

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

cram down

A financing round where new investors impose unfavorable terms on existing shareholders who lack the power to block it. Essentially a hostile takeover by people already inside your building.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

yellitocracy

An organizational dysfunction where the loudest voice wins every argument, regardless of actual merit or logic. Common in toxic startups and poorly-managed teams where decibel level is somehow confused with leadership ability, ensuring the best ideas often die in quiet corners while mediocre ones get screamed into existence.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

Angel Investor

A wealthy individual who gives money to startups in exchange for equity and the warm feeling of watching their investment evaporate. They're called angels because they appear from heaven with cash and then watch helplessly as you fly straight into the ground.

🚀 Startup / VC

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Negative Pledge

A loan covenant preventing borrowers from pledging assets as collateral to other lenders, protecting unsecured creditors...