Disrupting disruption with disruptive disruptions since 2010.
The portion of TAM you can actually reach with your sales and marketing strategy—much smaller than TAM but still wildly optimistic.
A funding round where the company's valuation is explicitly set and shares have a specific price—as opposed to convertible instruments where everyone kicks the valuation can down the road. Forces uncomfortable conversations about what the company is actually worth.
The right to maintain one's ownership percentage in subsequent funding rounds by investing additional capital proportionally. The 'I called dibs' clause of venture capital.
When a startup 'grows up' from an accelerator program or moves from seed to institutional funding, like leaving college but with more awkward Demo Days. Implies you're now playing with the big kids.
Rights allowing majority shareholders to force minority shareholders to join in selling the company. Corporate democracy's escape hatch, where your vote doesn't matter if enough people with more shares decide differently.
A small-scale demonstration that your idea actually works before you burn through millions scaling something that doesn't.
Section 409A of the tax code that requires startup stock options to be valued at fair market value when granted; 101 refers to California corporate code. It's basically the IRS saying 'no, you can't just give away equity tax-free.'
A startup fundraising round with overwhelming investor demand, usually led by a top-tier firm with multiple others fighting for allocation. The velvet rope nightclub of venture capital.
In medieval times, a water-filled ditch that kept invaders at bay; in modern business, the metaphorical competitive advantages that protect a company from rivals trying to steal its lunch money. Warren Buffett popularized this term to describe sustainable competitive advantages like strong brands, network effects, or regulatory barriers. The wider the moat, the harder it is for competitors to storm your castle and the more VCs will swoon over your pitch deck.
The magical moment when your paper wealth becomes actual money you can spend—typically through an acquisition or IPO. It's what everyone's working toward but few actually experience.
A handshake agreement between friends to keep something confidential—no lawyers, no paperwork, just mutual trust and the vague hope nobody steals your million-dollar idea. It's an NDA for people too broke to afford an actual NDA.
To speed something up faster than its natural pace—the startup equivalent of hitting the gas pedal on your growth metrics. Often used by VCs who want their portfolio companies to move at warp speed regardless of whether the infrastructure can handle it.
A half-baked version of your product with just enough features to validate whether customers actually want it—or to prove they don't.
A Stripe-era instrument designed to be even simpler than convertible notes—basically a promise to give equity someday, maybe.
An independent appraisal of your private company's value for tax purposes—made by third parties specifically so the IRS can't argue your strike price was fraudulently low.
The actual money behind venture capital—pension funds, endowments, and rich people who give VCs money to invest and hope they know what they're doing. They're 'limited' because they can't tell the GP how to do their job.
Stock-like compensation arrangements that mimic equity ownership without actually granting shares, often used to avoid dilution or regulatory complications. All the incentive alignment with bonus legal complexity.
A strategy where investors make many small bets, then heavily support only the winners in subsequent rounds. The venture capital version of throwing spaghetti at the wall, then only cooking the pieces that stuck.
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.
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.
To abandon ship faster than a rat on the Titanic. In startup parlance, when a feature, product, or entire business model gets the axe because it's hemorrhaging money or nobody wants it. No ceremony, no fanfare—just gone.
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.
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.
That mythical moment when your product stops being something you force people to use and they actually want it. Also known as 'the point founders finally sleep at night.'