B2C (Business-to-Consumer)

Beginner 🚀 Startup / VC

Definition

Selling directly to individual consumers—fun from a product perspective, but economically challenging because you have millions of tiny customers instead of dozens of large ones.

Example Usage

Our B2C consumer app reached 1M downloads and we celebrated until our accountant showed us that paying for customer acquisition cost more than what they spent.

Origin

Standard business taxonomy terminology, widespread since the 1990s internet boom

Fun Fact

B2C startups typically require more capital to achieve the same scale as B2B, making them a favorite of venture capital despite higher failure rates.

Source: Standard business terminology

Related Terms

Beginner

entrepreneurship

The romanticized art of starting businesses, taking risks, and pretending to enjoy working 80-hour weeks for the slim chance of eventual success. It's capitalism's version of the hero's journey, complete with failure, redemption arcs, and way too many LinkedIn posts about "grinding." Business schools teach it, VCs fund it, and most people quit it within three years.

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Beginner

VC

Venture Capitalist or Venture Capital—investors who bet on high-risk, high-reward startups in exchange for equity. They're basically professional optimists with other people's money.

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Beginner

Stealth Mode

When a startup operates in secrecy to avoid competitors copying their idea, which assumes competitors would care about the idea in the first place. It's the startup equivalent of whispering at a party where nobody is listening.

🚀 Startup / VC
Beginner

Deck (Pitch Deck)

A PowerPoint presentation that explains why your startup will either revolutionize the world or disappear within 18 months, with no middle ground. VCs will judge your entire company in 60 seconds based on your first three slides.

🚀 Startup / VC
Intermediate

conversion rights

The privilege granted to preferred shareholders to convert their fancy preferred stock into common stock, typically exercised when they want to sell or when common stock becomes more valuable (rare but delightful). It's a one-way ticket that investors usually only take when they're confident they're not leaving money on the table.

🚀 Startup / VC
Advanced

qualifying transaction

A financing or exit event that triggers specific contractual provisions in a term sheet, such as conversion of convertible notes or acceleration of vesting. The legal trip-wire that determines when various startup agreements activate.

🚀 Startup / VC

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