Startup Lingo
Coined by Aileen Lee in 2013, this term explains a private startup that is valued at $1 billion or more, named after a mythical creature to describe its rarity.
What is a Unicorn?
Founded in1994 as an online marketplace called “Casabra”, this company changed its title after a lawyer misheard it as “Cadaver”.
What is Amazon?
These people give money to a company with the hope of receiving a financial return.
What are investors?
The type of research that helps entrepreneurs understand customers, competitors, and demand.
What is market research?
The type of funding when entrepreneurs use their own money or resources to start a business.
What is Bootstrapping?
This 3-letter metric, calculated as Total Sales and Marketing Costs divided by New Customers Acquired, measures how much a startup needs to spend to attract customers.
What is CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)?
In the year 2000, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings offered to sell his company for $50 million to this video rental giant, whose CEO famously laughed out of the room.
What is Blockbuster
This method of funding a business means using your own money instead of getting money from inside investors.
What is self funding?
The document that acts as a roadmap for how a new business is structured and operated.
What is a business plan?
The types of investors that lend money to startups, usually in exchange for some kind of ownership share of the company.
What is Venture Capitalists?
Popularized by Eric Ries in “The Lean Startup”, this explains a dramatic change in business model without changing the startups original vision.
What is a Pivot?
This social media platform started in 2010 as “Burbn”, a location-based app, before they stripped away all features except photo sharing and filters.
What is Instagram?
This method allows one to raise money from many different people, usually online.
What is Crowdfunding?
The specific group that a business intends to reach.
What is the target market?
The method that raises money from a large group of people (often done online).
What is Crowdfunding?
Created by Y Combinator in 2013, this standard financing agreement stands for “Simple Agreement for Future Equity”.
What is a SAFE (or Safe Note)
This ride hailing company originally launched in 2009 by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp under a name that included a German word meaning “super”.
What is Uber?
Entrepreneurs often need to take this because starting a business will not guarantee success.
What is risk?
The analysis that helps a new business understand competing businesses and identify ways to gain the upper hand.
What is competitive analysis?
The basic version of a product with enough features to test your ideas with customers.
What is a Minimum Viable Product?
Coined by Marc Andreessen in 2007, this 4 word phrase describes the critical part where a startup finds a good market with a product that is capable of satisfying that market.
What is Product-Market Fit (PMF)?
Launched in 1998 by Andy Bechtolsheim’s $100,000 check written to a non-existant corporate entity, this company was originally called “BackRub”
What is Google?
Talking directly with potential customers can give an entrepreneur information about what people like or dislike about an idea.
What is customer feedback?
The point where a company's total revenue equals its total cost.
What is the break-even point?
The term that describes changing the direction plan depending on what the entrepreneur learns about the customer and market.
What is Pivot?