Entrepreneurship-What?
A company’s ability to increase revenue significantly while costs stay low and manageable
What is scalability?
This four-letter financing instrument stands for “Simple Agreement for Future Equity” and allows an investor to provide money now in exchange for the right to receive equity later.
What is a SAFE?
The total movement of money coming into and going out of a business over a specific period
What is cash flow?
This type of early version of a product is intentionally minimal and exists primarily to test assumptions and search for product-market fit, not to be a polished final product.
What is a minimum viable product (MVP)?
In the same CB Insights data, this underlying issue—building something the market doesn’t truly need—is the second most-cited reason for failure.
What is no market need / poor product-market fit?
Total amount of money a business earns from selling goods or services before any expenses are subtracted
What is revenue?
On a post-money SAFE, this term establishes the highest valuation used to determine the price at which the SAFE converts into shares.
What is a valuation cap?
The speed at which a startup spends its available cash reserves before it reaches positive cash flow
What is burn rate?
This metric, often paired with retention curves, measures how frequently users return to your product and is considered one of the strongest indicators that your solution has become a habit rather than a novelty.
What is user engagement?
CB Insights’ 2026 analysis of 431 failed VC-backed startups found this reason cited by about 70% of founders—often the final symptom rather than the root cause.
What is “ran out of cash”?
A business expense that doesn’t change when sales or production increases or decreases.
What are fixed costs?
Under a post-money SAFE with a valuation cap, ownership sold can generally be estimated by dividing the investment amount by this figure.
What is the post-money valuation cap?
A structured change in business strategy to test a new approach when the current plan fails to gain traction.
What is a pivot?
This three-step loop—central to Lean Startup thinking—describes how founders should iterate their MVP to move toward product-market fit: first create, then observe, then adjust.
What is the build–measure–learn loop?
Many guides recommend founders maintain this amount of runway—measured in months—to reduce the risk of cash-related shutdowns.
What is around 18–24 months of runway?
The exact financial milestone when a startup's total revenue equals its total costs
What is the break-even point?
When new shares are issued and an existing owner's percentage of the company decreases as a result
What is dilution?
Starting and growing a business using your own personal savings
What is bootstrapping?
This common mistake in early-stage startups involves chasing vanity metrics like press coverage or big logos instead of focusing on retention and real usage, often leading founders to believe they have product-market fit when they don’t.
What is confusing vanity metrics with true product-market fit signals?
This key financial concept describes whether a startup makes or loses money on each sale, and unsustainable versions of it are cited as a major reason for failure.
What are unit economics?
The financial percentage that shows how much of every dollar a business earns in revenue translates into actual profit after subtracting costs
What is profit margin?
This type of startup financing is technically a loan and commonly converts into preferred stock when a future financing round occurs.
What is a convertible note?
Process of deciding how to distribute a startup’s limited assets to high-impact initiatives that drive growth and survival
What is resource allocation?
Once a startup truly reaches product-market fit, the main strategic focus should shift from constant product changes to this growth-oriented priority
What is scaling acquisition and growth?
This classic startup methodology, associated with Eric Ries, encourages rapid experimentation, validated learning, and small batches instead of big, slow product launches.
What is the Lean Startup approach?