Definition

The estimated worth of a company, a number that ranges from scientifically calculated to completely made up depending on who's doing the estimating. Startup valuations in particular are an art form, where a company with no revenue and an idea on a napkin can be worth a billion dollars if the napkin is impressive enough.

Example Usage

"Our startup's valuation is $500 million. Based on what? Vibes, mostly. Some projections too. The projections are also based on vibes."

Related Terms

Intermediate

take rate

The percentage of transaction value a platform extracts as revenue, revealing how much you're actually taxing your users for the privilege of using your service. Too high and users revolt; too low and investors revolt.

🚀 Startup / VC
Beginner

Iterate

To make small, incremental improvements to something, which is a sophisticated way of saying "it's not done but we're shipping it anyway." The philosophy of iterate fast, break things has broken many things and iterated on surprisingly few.

💻 Tech / IT🚀 Startup / VC
Intermediate

monetise

The delicate art of figuring out how to extract money from something that users currently enjoy for free, typically resulting in a barrage of ads, paywalls, or premium subscriptions. This verb represents the moment when platforms transition from "community-building" to "shareholder-pleasing," often coinciding with users complaining that everything good gets ruined. Monetization strategies range from subtle to obnoxious, but they all share the goal of turning engagement into revenue.

🚀 Startup / VC
Beginner

launch

The moment when something new is officially unleashed upon the world, whether it's a product, company, or ship sliding into water. In business and tech, launches involve coordinated marketing campaigns, press releases, and the collective hope that people will actually care. It's the corporate equivalent of a grand opening, complete with champagne (or energy drinks, depending on the industry).

🚀 Startup / VC
Beginner

aging report

A document that categorizes accounts receivable by how long invoices have been outstanding, essentially a report card showing which customers are ghosting you. The longer the aging period, the less likely you'll ever see that money.

💰 Finance / Accounting
Beginner

ventures

Risky business undertakings or investments that could either make you rich or teach you expensive lessons about market dynamics. In startup speak, it's what venture capitalists fund, hoping that one unicorn will make up for the nine failures. Think of ventures as business experiments where the hypothesis is "this will make money" and the results are usually mixed.

🚀 Startup / VC

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