pivot or die

Definition

The startup mantra that romanticizes abandoning your original business plan when it becomes clear nobody wants what you're building. It's plan B through Z, pitched as strategic thinking rather than desperate flailing.

Example Usage

After our food delivery app failed, our NFT marketplace collapsed, and our Web3 social network flopped, we're pivoting to AI—fourth time's the charm!

Source: Startup culture and strategy

Related Terms

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

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

Series A, B, C

Sequential institutional funding rounds designated by letters, theoretically indicating maturity but practically just measuring how much money you've convinced people to give you. The alphabet of ambition.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

vesting acceleration

Speeding up the vesting schedule of stock options, typically triggered by acquisition or termination. It's the consolation prize when your startup gets acquired and you're suddenly unemployed.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

valuing

The process of slapping a number on something that probably doesn't have a real value. In venture capital, it's educated guessing dressed up as financial analysis—your startup is worth $100M because we feel like it is, and also because everyone else paid way too much for similar companies.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

growth stage

The phase when a startup has proven product-market fit and focuses on scaling revenue, typically raising Series B or C funding. Where dreams of changing the world meet the reality of quarterly revenue targets.

🚀 Startup / VC

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