Definition

Software as a Service -- a business model where customers pay monthly to rent software they'll never own, like a never-ending apartment lease for your data. It's the tech industry's greatest invention: turning a one-time purchase into a lifetime of recurring payments.

Example Usage

"Our SaaS platform charges $99 per month for features you used to get for free, but now it's in the cloud, which is just someone else's computer with better marketing."

Related Terms

Beginner

graduation round

When a startup raises funding from institutional VCs after initially bootstrapping or taking only angel money. It's like moving from community college to the Ivy League, complete with higher expectations.

🚀 Startup / VC
Beginner

spray and pray

An investment strategy of making many small bets across countless startups, hoping a few will hit big enough to compensate for the inevitable carnage. The venture capital equivalent of buying lottery tickets in bulk.

🚀 Startup / VC
Advanced

pay-to-play

A provision requiring existing investors to participate in future funding rounds or lose their special privileges. The venture capital equivalent of 'use it or lose it.'

🚀 Startup / VC
Beginner

vulture capitalist

A pejorative term for investors who swoop in during distressed situations to extract maximum value at founders' expense. The same people who call themselves 'value investors' on their websites.

🚀 Startup / VC
Intermediate

Pre-Seed

The earliest stage of startup funding, which is a polite way of saying you're raising money based on nothing but a dream, a napkin sketch, and the audacity of a person who has never run a business. It's called pre-seed because the seed hasn't even been planted yet -- you're basically fundraising with dirt.

🚀 Startup / VC
Intermediate

tender offer

When a company or investor offers to buy shares from existing shareholders at a set price, providing liquidity without a full exit. A release valve for the equity pressure cooker.

🚀 Startup / VC

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