FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

Definition

The panic investors feel when they suspect they're about to miss a hot deal or investment opportunity. The invisible hand that closes funding rounds at 11:59 PM on Friday.

Example Usage

Our lead investor dragged the negotiation out for three months until five other VCs expressed interest, and suddenly FOMO kicked in and we closed.

Origin

Psychological term popularized in the 2000s; applied to venture capital to describe time pressure-driven investment decisions.

Fun Fact

FOMO-driven investments have a higher failure rate than patient, deliberate ones, but FOMO feels more like decisive business acumen.

Source: Contemporary venture capital and business psychology terminology

Related Terms

Intermediate

moats

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.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

pirate metrics

The AARRR framework measuring Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue—the key metrics for growth-stage startups. Named because AARRR sounds like a pirate, which is somehow still funny to founders.

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

portfolio construction

The strategy for how a fund allocates capital across different investments, stages, sectors, and check sizes. The art of arranging your bets so at least one or two have to work out mathematically.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

founder-friendly

A marketing term VCs use to describe their approach, supposedly indicating fair terms and supportive behavior. In practice, it often means 'we won't screw you quite as hard as the other guys.'

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

j-curve

The pattern where a venture fund initially shows negative returns as it deploys capital and pays fees, before (hopefully) shooting upward when investments exit. A graph that looks like the letter J, assuming your fund doesn't remain in the vertical downstroke forever.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

transaction

Any exchange of goods, services, or money, elevated to sound more important when preceded by 'business' or followed by 'cost.' In startup world, it's the holy grail metric that proves people are actually using your product for its intended purpose rather than just kicking the tires. VCs obsess over transaction volume, transaction value, and transaction frequency as if counting exchanges of value will somehow predict the future.

🚀 Startup / VC

Translate This Term

See “FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator

Share This Term

Post on X Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn

Discover a Term

Beginner

Uninstall

Uninstall, when used in online gaming, means quit or give up. It is used as an insult to anothergamerto tell him he shou...