proprietary deal

Definition

An investment opportunity sourced exclusively by one firm rather than through competitive process. The venture capital equivalent of finding $20 in your coat pocket—rare, lucky, and probably won't happen again.

Example Usage

The investment was a proprietary deal from a portfolio CEO referral, letting us lead at a fair valuation without competition.

Origin

Investment banking terminology for exclusive mandates

Fun Fact

VCs obsess over proprietary deal flow because competitive deals get bid up to irrational valuations—the auction curse of venture capital.

Source: Deal sourcing and competitive dynamics in venture investing

Related Terms

Advanced

reps and warranties

Legal promises in investment agreements where founders swear everything they've said is true and the company isn't hiding skeletons. Breaking these can result in personal liability, making due diligence the most stressful time to discover that intern you hired in 2019 never signed an IP assignment.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

term sheet

A non-binding document outlining the key terms of an investment deal—think of it as a letter of intent that's about as reliable as a Tinder profile. The real fun begins when lawyers turn these bullet points into a 60-page agreement.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

pitch deck

A PowerPoint presentation optimized for skimming, typically 10-15 slides explaining why your startup will change the world and only needs $2M to do it. It's fiction dressed up as financial projections.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

metrics-driven

A company culture claiming to make decisions based on data analysis rather than gut feeling, though which metrics get measured mysteriously align with what leadership already wanted to do. It's astrology for MBAs.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

Iterate

To make small, incremental improvements to something, which is a sophisticated way of saying "it's not done but we're shipping it anyway." The philosophy of iterate fast, break things has broken many things and iterated on surprisingly few.

💻 Tech / IT🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

CAC

Customer Acquisition Cost—how much you spend in sales and marketing to land one customer. VCs compare this to lifetime value to determine if your business model is actually viable or just an expensive hobby.

🚀 Startup / VC

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