Startup Glossary

September 04, 2024

Welcome to the ultimate startup glossary - your comprehensive reference book for all relevant terms related to the world of startups! Whether you are just at the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey or in the middle of the startup development process, you will find everything you need to know here.

Our startup glossary offers clear definitions from A to Z - immerse yourself in the language of startups and founders to expand your vocabulary and achieve your entrepreneurial goals.

 

Special characters

10x-Thinking

A

Accelerator

ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)

ARPA (Average Revenue per Account)

B

B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer)

BC (Buying Centre)

Beachhead Market

Benchmarking

Participation agreement

Valuation

Bootstrapping

Branding

Break-even point

Bridge financing

Build-Measure-Learn cycle

Burn rate

Business Angels

Business Model Canvas

Business Plan

C

CAC (Customer Acquisition Costs)

Cap table

Cash flow

Cash burn rate

Churn rate

Closing

Co-Founder

Co-investor

Compliance

Content Marketing

Conversion rate

Corporate Design

CVC (Corporate Venture Capital)

Crowdfunding

CTA (Call to Action)

CTR (click-through rate)

CPA (cost per action)

Customer Development

Customer Journey

CLV (Customer Lifetime Value)

D

DAU (Daily Active Users) and MAU (Monthly Active Users)

Deal Flow

Deal Breaker

Decacorn

Design Thinking

Disruption

DMU (Decision Making Unit)

Down Round

Drag-Along Rights

GDPR

Due diligence

E

Early adopter

Early-Stage

Earn-out

EBIT multiple

Equity capital

Elevator Pitch

Entrepreneur

Equity Story

ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan)

EXIST

Exit

External Round

F

Family Office (FO)

Financing phases

Financial plan

Fin-Tech

Founder

Franchise

Freemium

Guidance

Fundraising

G

Go-to-market strategy

Green-Tech

Entrepreneurial spirit

Gross burn rate

Gross Margin

Gross profit

Growth Hacking

H

Hackathon

Hockey stick effect

Hurdle shares

I

Ideation

Incubator

Industry-Tech

Insolvency

Insure-Tech

Investor

IP (Intellectual Property)

ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)

IPO (Initial Public Offering)

Iteration

J

K

KPI (Key Performance Indicator)

L

Lead-Startup

Lean Startup

Liquidation preference

Liquidity

LTV (Lifetime Value)

M

Market Fit

Marketing automation

Jam paradox

Metrics

MoM (Month-on-Month-Growth)

MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead)

MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)

MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

N

NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement)

Negative liquidation preference

Net burn rate

Non-recurring revenue (NRR)

O

P

Pareto principle

Persona

Pitch

Pitch deck

Pivot

Positioning

Pre-Money

Pre-seed phase

Problem-Solution-Fit

Product-Led Growth

Prompt Engineering

PoC (Proof of Concept)

Product-Market-Fit

Purpose

Q

R

Profitability

Retention rate

Roadmap

ROI (return on investment)

Runway

S

Sales Funnel

SAM (Serviceable Available Market)

Scale-Up

SEA (Search Engine Advertising)

Seed financing

Seed phase

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

Series A to D+

Shareholder

SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market)

Spin-off

SQL (Sales Qualified Lead)

Stakeholder mapping

Startup Ecosystem

StartupBW Pre-Seed

Strategic investor

Sweat equity

SWOT analysis

T

Tag-Along Rights

Team

Term Sheet

TAM (Total Addressable Market)

Traction

U

UI (User Interface)

Sales planning

Unicorn

Unit Economics

UPB (Unique Perceived Benefit)

USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

UX (User Experience)

V

Value Proposition

VC Pitch

VC (Venture Capital)

Venture capital companies

Vesting

Full-time equivalent (FTE)

VSOP (Virtual Stock Option Plan)

W

Convertible loan

X

Y

Z

Zebra