Definition

Venture Capitalist or Venture Capital—investors who bet on high-risk, high-reward startups in exchange for equity. They're basically professional optimists with other people's money.

Example Usage

We're talking to three different VCs this week, and they all have wildly different opinions about our market size.

Origin

Formalized in the 1960s-1970s with the rise of Silicon Valley, though venture investing existed earlier

Fun Fact

The average VC has a 90% failure rate on investments; they only need 1 unicorn to make their entire fund profitable.

Source: Investment Industry Standard

Related Terms

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

tourist investor

A venture capitalist or firm that sporadically invests in startups outside their expertise or thesis, usually during hype cycles. They show up for the party, leave before cleanup, and wonder why founders don't return their calls.

🚀 Startup / VC
Beginner

term sheet

A non-binding document outlining the key terms of an investment deal—think of it as a letter of intent that's about as reliable as a Tinder profile. The real fun begins when lawyers turn these bullet points into a 60-page agreement.

🚀 Startup / VC
Advanced

pre-emption rights

The contractual right of existing investors to lead or participate in the next funding round before the company can seek outside investors. It's a first-look deal built into your cap table.

🚀 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
Beginner

Series A, B, C, D

Sequential rounds of venture funding with progressively larger checks and increasingly skeptical investors asking harder questions.

🚀 Startup / VC

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