spray and pray

Definition

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.

Example Usage

Their fund took the spray and pray approach, investing $100K in 200 companies instead of $2M in ten, banking on finding the next Uber.

Origin

Adapted from military slang for automatic weapons fire; applied to VC strategy in the 2000s

Fun Fact

500 Startups pioneered this model with their accelerator program, making hundreds of micro-investments—critics said it couldn't work, but their exits proved otherwise.

Source: Venture capital strategy terminology and fund management literature

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