The startup glossary, written for founders
Browse by category
Jump straight into the area you care about.
Startup support systems.
Modern startup tech landscape.
How startups make money.
Everything related to incorporation, compliance, and governance.
Ownership structures and equity mechanics.
Trust, safety, and responsibility.
Financial management and metrics.
Core concepts every founder encounters at idea or early stage.
The human side of startups.
Capital, fundraising mechanics, and investor structures.
Scaling beyond borders.
Acquisition, growth, and scaling strategies.
Positioning and visibility.
How startups measure success.
Internal systems and execution.
Team building and organization.
How startups communicate their story.
Product building and tech concepts.
Downside scenarios and controls.
Revenue execution and customer lifecycle.
A–Z index
Every term, alphabetized. Hover to preview, click to read the full entry.
#4 terms
Regular meeting between manager and report for alignment and support.
An independent appraisal of fair market value used for option pricing (US).
Technique asking “why” repeatedly to find root cause.
US tax filing to recognize income early on restricted stock to reduce future taxes.
A36 terms
Experiment comparing two versions to measure impact.
Speeding up vesting upon events like acquisition or termination.
Time-bound program helping startups grow quickly, often ending in Demo Day.
Conditions that define when a feature is done.
Managing who can access systems and data.
Commitment to follow through on goals.
Money the company owes to vendors.
Money owed by customers.
The moment a user experiences initial value (aha moment).
Percentage of signups who reach the aha moment.
Annual Contract Value: yearly value of a customer contract.
Equity given to advisors for guidance and introductions.
Partner earns commission for referred customers.
An AI system that can plan, take actions, and use tools.
Iterative product development approach emphasizing flexibility and feedback.
Past cohort members who continue to support and collaborate.
An individual who invests personal funds in early-stage startups.
Protection that adjusts investor ownership if shares are issued later at a lower price.
Application Programming Interface enabling systems to communicate.
Aging of accounts receivable to track overdue invoices.
High-level structure of software components and their interactions.
Average Revenue Per Account.
Average Revenue Per User.
Annual Recurring Revenue (also used as a key metric).
Annual Recurring Revenue.
Legal document filed to create a corporation.
Systems that perform tasks requiring human-like intelligence.
The amount you are raising and what it will achieve.
Work done without real-time coordination, using docs and tools.
Applicant Tracking System for managing candidates.
Identifying which channels caused conversions.
Employee turnover over time.
Independent review of financial statements/processes.
Record of actions taken in a system for traceability.
Maximum number of shares a company can legally issue.
Using tools to reduce manual work.
B30 terms
Business-to-business model selling to companies.
Business-to-consumer model selling to individuals.
Links from other sites to yours; a key SEO signal.
Prioritized list of product work items.
A departing person who leaves under unfavorable conditions, often losing more rights.
Snapshot of assets, liabilities, and equity.
Legal process for insolvent entities to resolve debts.
A limited release for testing with real users.
Distributed ledger technology enabling decentralized records and transactions.
A group that governs and oversees a company, especially corporations.
Formal meeting of the board to make key decisions.
Recording financial transactions.
Bundle of offers/credits for startups (cloud, tools, services).
Market sizing based on realistic units × price rather than broad estimates.
Defining limits to protect time and health.
The perception and identity of a company in the market.
The value created by brand recognition and trust.
Rules for using brand assets and voice.
Visual and verbal elements that represent the brand.
Unauthorized access to data or systems.
Point where revenue equals total costs.
Short-term funding between major rounds to extend runway.
Assigning a peer to help a new hire ramp up.
Plan for expected revenue and spending.
Lean Startup loop for iterating based on data.
How fast a startup spends cash per month.
Emotional and physical exhaustion from chronic stress.
Deck section explaining how you make money.
Company repurchasing shares from a shareholder, often per agreement.
Rules for how a corporation is governed internally.
C50 terms
A corporation structure often used for venture-backed startups (especially in the US).
Customer Acquisition Cost: cost to acquire a customer.
A record of company ownership including shares, options, and SAFEs.
Defined levels and expectations for roles.
Detailed story showing customer problem, solution, and results.
Movement of money in and out of the business.
Controlling changes to reduce risk.
A route to reach customers (SEO, outbound, partners, etc.).
Loss of customers or revenue over a period.
Percentage of customers/revenue lost over time.
Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment for automated testing and releases.
A minimum period before any equity vests (commonly 1 year).
Final steps to sign and start the customer contract.
A founder who starts the company together with others.
Shared understanding on vision, roles, and decisions.
Costs directly tied to delivering the product/service.
A batch of startups participating together in a program.
A group of users acquired in the same period for analysis.
Tracking user groups over time to measure retention and behavior.
Unsolicited email to a prospect to start a sales conversation.
Standard shares usually held by founders and employees.
A group of users/customers who engage around a shared topic.
Growth strategy driven by community engagement and referrals.
Pay structure including salary, bonus, and equity.
Overview of competitors and how you differ.
Meeting legal and regulatory requirements.
Risk of breaking laws/regulations.
AI for understanding images and video.
Belief in ability to execute and learn.
User permission for collecting or processing data.
Creating helpful content to attract and nurture customers.
Maximum tokens a model can consider at once.
Profit after variable costs; useful for unit economics.
A safeguard to prevent or detect issues.
Percentage of users who convert to a goal action (signup, paid, etc.).
Percentage of users who complete a desired action.
Debt that converts into equity in a future round, often with a discount and cap.
Writing that persuades users to take action.
Shared workspace used by startups and freelancers.
Meeting regulations in multiple jurisdictions.
Receiving/sending payments across countries.
Selling complementary products to existing customers.
Customer Satisfaction Score from support or surveys.
Customer Success Manager.
Call to Action prompting the next step (e.g., Book a demo).
Hiring for complementary strengths that enrich culture.
Match between a candidate’s values and company culture.
Learning about customer problems through research and interviews.
A metric estimating risk and adoption based on usage and signals.
Function focused on helping customers achieve outcomes and renew.
D33 terms
Direct-to-consumer brand selling without intermediaries.
A visual view of key metrics for monitoring performance.
Labeling data by sensitivity.
Collecting only the data you truly need.
Contract defining data handling responsibilities under privacy laws.
Requirement to store data within a specific country/region.
How long data is stored before deletion.
Shared folder with documents investors request during diligence.
Daily Active Users.
Pipeline of investment opportunities for investors.
Reduced quality of decisions after many choices.
Startups based on significant scientific/engineering advances.
Money received for services not yet delivered (a liability).
Shared checklist for when work is complete.
Final binding legal documents for an investment or acquisition.
Assigning responsibility to others while maintaining accountability.
Product walkthrough tailored to a prospect.
Event where startups pitch to investors and partners.
Reusable UI components, rules, and patterns.
The unique advantage that makes customers choose you over alternatives.
Reduction in ownership percentage when new shares are issued.
A board member with fiduciary duties to the company.
A conversion discount given to early investors at the next round price.
Initial sales call to understand needs and fit.
Legal termination of an entity.
How a product gets in front of users at scale.
Company that resells or distributes your product locally.
Written guides, references, and knowledge base.
Vesting acceleration requiring two events (e.g., acquisition + termination).
A funding round at a lower valuation than the previous round.
India’s Digital Personal Data Protection framework (commonly referenced as DPDP).
Clause forcing minority holders to join a sale approved by majority.
Investor verification of claims: product, metrics, legal, financial.
E22 terms
A customer who tries a new product before the mainstream market.
Exercising unvested options early, usually subject to repurchase.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
Processing data near where it’s generated instead of in a central cloud.
Entrepreneur-in-Residence: founder working with a fund/incubator to explore ideas.
A 20–60 second summary of the startup and why it matters.
Numeric representations of text/images used for similarity search.
How connected and motivated employees feel.
Transforming data so only authorized parties can read it.
How frequently and deeply users interact with the product.
How companies are organized across jurisdictions.
A person who creates and builds a business by taking risk.
Ownership in a company, usually represented by shares.
Equity granted as part of pay (options, RSUs).
Employee Stock Option Plan—equity incentives for employees.
A formal plan defining how employee stock options are granted and managed.
Recording user actions for analytics.
Risk of failing to deliver due to team/process constraints.
Converting an option into actual shares by paying the strike price.
Revenue growth from existing customers via upgrades or add-ons.
A cost incurred to run the business.
Rules restricting export of certain technologies.
F21 terms
Toggle to enable/disable features safely.
Norms that encourage frequent, constructive feedback.
Legal obligation to act in the best interest of the company.
Spreadsheet/model projecting revenue, costs, cash, and metrics.
Training an existing model further on specific data.
A model where compounding activities create momentum.
Concentrating on the most important goals.
Additional investment by existing investors in later rounds.
Projected future financial performance.
Investigation to understand what happened in an incident.
The person(s) who start and own the company at the beginning.
Guidance to improve leadership and decision-making.
Disagreements among founders affecting execution.
Shares issued to founders at the start (often at nominal price).
Pressure from responsibility, uncertainty, and workload.
Match between founder’s skills/motivation and the market problem.
Early core team building the first product and culture.
Free tier with paid upgrades for premium features.
Ownership calculation including all potential shares (options, warrants, converts).
Steps users take from awareness to conversion.
Foreign exchange conversion between currencies.