acquihire

Definition

When a company buys a failing startup primarily for its talent, with the product being immediately shut down. A face-saving exit that's really just an expensive recruiting strategy with better PR.

Example Usage

Google's acquihire of our startup netted the team $2M and immediate job offers, while our product was deprecated before the press release went live.

Origin

Portmanteau of 'acquisition' and 'hire,' popularized in Silicon Valley in the late 2000s

Fun Fact

The typical acquihire values engineers at $1-2M each, which is roughly what big tech companies would spend recruiting them anyway, but with less paperwork than poaching.

Source: Silicon Valley M&A terminology

Related Terms

Beginner

pitch deck

A PowerPoint presentation optimized for skimming, typically 10-15 slides explaining why your startup will change the world and only needs $2M to do it. It's fiction dressed up as financial projections.

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

phantom equity

Fake stock that feels like ownership but isn't, giving employees the illusion of having skin in the game without actual legal rights. It's participation trophy capitalism.

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

ratchet

An anti-dilution mechanism that adjusts an investor's equity stake if the company raises money at a lower valuation, protecting them from down rounds. Full ratchet is brutal; weighted average is gentler.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

hockey stick growth

The mythical J-curve trajectory where metrics stay flat forever and then suddenly shoot straight up, resembling a hockey stick. Every founder claims this is coming; few actually achieve it.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

Pivot

A strategic change in business direction that's celebrated in Silicon Valley but called failure literally everywhere else. It's the entrepreneurial equivalent of missing your exit on the highway and announcing you meant to take the scenic route.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

optionality

Keeping multiple strategic paths open while committing to none, often praised as strategic flexibility or criticized as inability to make decisions. The business equivalent of dating multiple people because you're 'keeping your options open.'

🚀 Startup / VC

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