Definition

Minimum Viable Product: the absolute least you can build before showing it to humans, which somehow always ends up being the final product. It's the software development equivalent of serving someone a raw potato and calling it a restaurant soft launch.

Example Usage

"This is just the MVP," the founder reassured investors, about a product that would look exactly the same in two years.

Related Terms

Beginner

whacked

When technology or a system behaves in ways that defy all logic, documentation, and the laws of physics. The polite way programmers say something is fundamentally broken without admitting they have no idea why.

💻 Tech / IT
Beginner

Elevator Pitch

A 30-second summary of your startup that you deliver to investors in elevators, coffee lines, and restraining-order-adjacent proximity. If you can't explain your company in the time it takes to ride an elevator, your company is either too complicated or the elevator is too fast.

🚀 Startup / VC
Intermediate

feature factory

A product development organization obsessed with shipping features rather than solving customer problems or delivering value. The startup equivalent of a hamster wheel—lots of motion, no actual progress.

🚀 Startup / VC
Advanced

Microservices

An architecture where you split one big problem into 200 tiny problems that all need to talk to each other over the network. It's like replacing one difficult pet with a swarm of bees -- technically more manageable, but now you have a different kind of emergency.

💻 Tech / IT
Beginner

Seed Round

The first significant round of funding, where investors plant money in your startup like seeds in a garden, fully expecting that most gardens will produce nothing but weeds and regret. It's typically between $500K and $5M, which is a lot of money for a PowerPoint presentation.

🚀 Startup / VC
Intermediate

up-stack

Moving to build or sell products at higher layers of technology infrastructure, typically where margins are better and you're further from commoditized infrastructure. The opposite of down-stack, and usually more profitable.

🚀 Startup / VC

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