embark

Definition

To board a vessel or aircraft, or more metaphorically, to start something new and vaguely terrifying. Whether it's a cruise ship or a startup, embarking means you've committed and there's no backing out now.

Example Usage

The team was ready to embark on the Q3 product launch, though nobody mentioned they were completely unprepared.

Source: Merriam-Webster via Free Dictionary API

Related Terms

Advanced

note tsunami

The overwhelming wave of convertible notes and SAFEs that convert to equity during a priced round, often revealing a far more complex cap table than founders realized. The moment when chickens come home to roost, except the chickens are financial instruments.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

revenue multiple

A valuation metric calculated by dividing company valuation by annual revenue, popular in tech because it works even when profits are mythical. Allows investors to justify astronomical valuations by citing "industry standards."

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

ownership target

The percentage of a company a VC aims to own to make an investment worthwhile relative to their fund size. It's why large funds often can't invest in your seed round—they need bigger slices.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

option pool

A reserve of shares set aside to recruit employees with stock options, typically carved out before valuation to dilute founders rather than investors. A necessary evil that feels like robbery when you're calculating founder ownership.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

Key Metrics

The numbers a startup tracks to measure success, carefully selected to be whichever ones happen to be going up. When those numbers go down, they become vanity metrics, and new key metrics are discovered.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

marking to market

The practice of revaluing portfolio companies to reflect current fair market value rather than cost basis, theoretically providing accurate fund performance but practically involving educated guesses and wishful thinking. Quarterly existential crisis as an accounting process.

🚀 Startup / VC

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