(1) Founders & Origin Stories
This company started because two roommates couldn’t afford rent
What is Airbnb?
This Google product failed so hard it became a meme for tech flops
What is Google Glass?
This is the document founders bring to convince investors to give them money
What is a pitch deck?
A very early version of a product used to test an idea
What is a prototype?
This app exploded in popularity during COVID for video meetings
Zoom
This founder dropped out of Harvard to build what became Facebook
Who is Mark Zuckerberg?
This company began as a failed online game called “Glitch” before pivoting into workplace messaging
What is Slack?
When an investor offers money for a percentage of your company, that percentage is called this
What is equity?
When a startup changes direction because the original idea isn’t working
What is a pivot?
This company is famous for its “Move fast and break things” culture
What is Meta (Facebook)?
This company started as an online bookstore before becoming… everything
What is Amazon?
This company started as an online DVD-by-mail service before becoming a streaming giant
What is Netflix?
This is the smallest version of a product built to test an idea with real users
What is an MVP?
A startup valued at over $1 billion
What is a unicorn?
This ride-sharing company started in San Francisco
This founder famously wore the same outfit every day to avoid “decision fatigue”
Who is Steve Jobs?
This company was days away from bankruptcy in 1997 before receiving a $150 million lifeline from Microsoft
What is Apple?
This term means how much your entire company is “worth” in an investor’s eyes
What is valuation?
The first money most startups raise - usually from friends or family
What is seed funding?
his company popularized short-form, algorithm-driven videos and reshaped how content goes viral worldwide
What is TikTok?
This app started as “Burbn,” a check-in app, before becoming a popular photo-sharing app
What is Instagram?
This platform launched with the slogan “Tune In, Hook Up” as a video-dating site before pivoting to general video sharing; its first upload was “Me at the Zoo”
What is YouTube?
A deal where founders give up no equity but still get funding
What is a grant/loan?
This phase of the design process is where engineers test a solution, find flaws, and improve it repeatedly
What is iteration/iterative design?
This autonomous-vehicle company began as Google’s self-driving car project before becoming an independent Alphabet subsidiary
What is Waymo?