Disrupting disruption with disruptive disruptions since 2010.
Special privileges allowing certain LPs to invest additional money directly into specific portfolio companies alongside the fund, usually with lower or no fees. The VIP backstage pass of venture investing.
The art of building a valuable company while raising as little outside funding as possible, preserving founder ownership and bragging rights. It's increasingly rare in an era of mega-rounds and bloated valuations.
Patient, flexible funding that accepts below-market returns to achieve social impact alongside financial returns, pioneered by organizations like Omidyar Network. Capitalism with a conscience, or venture capital with lowered expectations, depending on your perspective.
A resilient company that survives on minimal resources and refuses to die despite market conditions that would kill competitors. They're scrappy, resourceful, and nearly impossible to eliminate.
The process of taking an idea, product, or technology and transforming it into something that actually makes money, because apparently innovation for its own sake doesn't pay the bills. It's the startup world's coming-of-age ceremony, where brilliant concepts either become profitable products or expensive lessons. Essentially, it's the bridge between "we built something cool" and "people are actually buying it."
A VC's strong belief in an investment thesis despite contrary evidence or market skepticism. The confidence to write a check when everyone else thinks you're insane—sometimes brilliance, often delusion.
In startup land, the terrifying gap between early adopters who'll buy anything shiny and the mainstream market that actually expects your product to work. Coined by Geoffrey Moore, this metaphorical canyon is where many promising startups go to die, usually because they assumed soccer moms would be as forgiving as tech bros. It's the entrepreneurial equivalent of realizing your mom's friends won't think your jokes are as funny as your college roommates did.
The additional value investors pay for governance rights and control provisions beyond pure economics, willing to pay higher prices for board seats and veto powers. The surcharge for not trusting founders to run the company they founded.
A sudden, catastrophic drop in value, performance, or viability—the moment your startup's growth chart becomes a ski slope in the wrong direction. Often used in VC circles to describe what happens when a company hits its scaling limit without a parachute.
How much you spend to gain one customer—a depressing metric that determines whether your unit economics work at all.
A person who owns money and loves owning more money, preferably through means that maximize wealth accumulation. The ideological cheerleader for markets and minimal regulation.