Seed Funding

Definition

The initial capital injection used to plant your business idea and hope it doesn't get eaten by birds before it sprouts.

Example Usage

We raised $500K in seed funding from angel investors and Y Combinator.

Origin

Derived from agricultural metaphor for early-stage investment

Fun Fact

Average seed round in 2023 was approximately $2-3 million in the US

Source: Venture Capital Institute terminology

Related Terms

Beginner

Deck Rotation

The process of pitching your deck to many investors in sequence, iterating based on feedback. Like a miserable version of speed dating.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

hub

The mythical center where everything important supposedly happens, whether it's a transportation network, a startup ecosystem, or your company's Slack workspace. Every city with a coworking space now claims to be 'the next innovation hub,' conveniently ignoring that actual hubs require more than overpriced lattes and motivational wall decals. In practice, it's where resources flow in, get distributed inefficiently, and occasionally produce something useful.

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

control premium

The additional value investors pay for governance rights and control provisions beyond pure economics, willing to pay higher prices for board seats and veto powers. The surcharge for not trusting founders to run the company they founded.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

PMF (Product-Market Fit)

That mythical moment when your product stops being something you force people to use and they actually want it. Also known as 'the point founders finally sleep at night.'

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

down round protection

A contractual mechanism that shields early investors from dilution when a startup raises money at a lower valuation than previous rounds. It's basically insurance against your company becoming less cool than you thought it was.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

gross margin

Revenue minus cost of goods sold, expressed as a percentage—the fundamental measure of whether your business model makes sense before accounting for all those pesky operating expenses. VCs want this above 70% for SaaS.

🚀 Startup / VC

Translate This Term

See “Seed Funding” 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

YSW

Someone who sends you YSW (yeah sure whatever) disagrees with you or does not care about the topic you're discussing. Wh...