Startup Glossary: 100 Essential Terms
A founder-friendly glossary of the most common startup terms across strategy, product, growth, finance, fundraising, operations, and the startup ecosystem.
Quick Jump
- Foundations and Strategy
- Product MVP and Development
- Growth Marketing and Sales
- Finance Metrics and Unit Economics
- Fundraising Investment and Ownership
- Operations Legal and Company Building
- Ecosystem Accelerators and Mindset
Term Index (A to Z)
- Accelerator, Activation, Advisory Board, Agile, Angel Investor, API, Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
- Board of Directors, Bootstrapping, Break Even Point, Brand Positioning, Business Model
- Cap Table, Cash Flow, Churn, Co Founder, Cold Outreach, Compliance, Competitive Advantage, Conversion Rate, Convertible Note, Culture, Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
- Delaware C Corp, Demand Generation, Dilution, Distribution
- Engagement, Equity, Exit
- Feature Creep, Financial Model, Founder, Founder Mental Model, Funnel
- Go To Market Strategy (GTM), Governance, Gross Margin, Growth Hacking
- Hiring, Hypothesis
- Incorporation, Incubator, Intellectual Property (IP), Iteration
- Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Lead, Lifetime Value (LTV), Limited Liability Company (LLC), Low Code
- Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Mission, Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), Moat
- Network Effects, No Code, North Star Metric
- OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), Onboarding, Operations
- Patent, Pivot, Post Money Valuation, Pre Money Valuation, Pre Seed, Problem Solution Fit, Product Led Growth (PLG), Product Market Fit (PMF), Profitability, Prototype
- Qualified Lead (MQL / SQL)
- Recurring Revenue, Retention, Revenue, Roadmap, Runway
- SAFE, Scaling, Scrum, Seed Round, Series A, Sales Pipeline, Sprint, Startup
- Technical Debt, Term Sheet, Trademark
- UI (User Interface), Unit Economics, User Acquisition, UX (User Experience), User Story, Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
- Validation, Valuation, Value Proposition, Venture Capital (VC), Virality, Vision
Foundations and Strategy
Startup
A company designed to grow quickly by solving a problem in a scalable way, often under uncertainty.
Founder
The person who starts the company and is responsible for shaping its vision, strategy, and early execution.
Co Founder
A partner who starts the company alongside the founder and shares ownership, responsibility, and risk.
Problem Solution Fit
The stage where you have clearly identified a real problem and built a solution that meaningfully addresses it.
Product Market Fit (PMF)
When a specific market strongly wants your product and adopts it without heavy persuasion.
Value Proposition
A clear explanation of why your product exists and why someone should care.
Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
What makes your solution meaningfully different and better than alternatives.
Vision
A long-term picture of what you want the company to become and the change it aims to create.
Mission
The practical purpose of the company and what it does day to day to move toward its vision.
Business Model
How your company creates, delivers, and captures value, including how it makes money.
Go To Market Strategy (GTM)
Your plan for how you will reach customers, convert them, and grow adoption.
Competitive Advantage
Something your company can do better than others that is difficult to copy.
Moat
A defensible advantage that protects your business from competitors over time.
Hypothesis
An assumption you believe to be true about your market, product, or customers that needs testing.
Validation
The process of testing assumptions with real users to reduce risk before scaling.
Product MVP and Development
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
The simplest version of your product that delivers value and allows you to learn from real users.
Prototype
An early, often incomplete version of a product used to test ideas and gather feedback.
Iteration
The process of improving a product through repeated cycles of building, testing, and learning.
Roadmap
A prioritized plan outlining what features or improvements you plan to build over time.
Feature Creep
The tendency to add too many features, often reducing clarity and slowing progress.
Technical Debt
Short-term technical shortcuts that make future development slower or more costly.
No Code
Tools that allow you to build software products without writing code.
Low Code
Platforms that require minimal coding while still allowing customization.
Agile
A development approach focused on small, iterative improvements and fast feedback.
Scrum
An agile framework that organizes work into structured roles, meetings, and short cycles.
Sprint
A fixed time period, usually one to two weeks, where specific work is planned and completed.
User Story
A short description of a feature written from the user’s perspective and goal.
UX (User Experience)
How easy, intuitive, and pleasant a product is to use.
UI (User Interface)
The visual and interactive elements users see and interact with in a product.
API
A way for different software systems to communicate and share data with each other.
Growth Marketing and Sales
User Acquisition
The process of attracting new users or customers to your product.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
The total cost required to acquire a single paying customer.
Lifetime Value (LTV)
The total revenue a customer is expected to generate over their relationship with your business.
Conversion Rate
The percentage of users who take a desired action, such as signing up or purchasing.
Funnel
The steps users move through from first contact to becoming customers.
Growth Hacking
Creative, data-driven experiments designed to accelerate growth quickly.
Product Led Growth (PLG)
A strategy where the product itself drives acquisition, retention, and expansion.
Virality
Growth that happens when users naturally refer or invite others.
Churn
The rate at which customers stop using or paying for your product.
Retention
How well you keep users over time after they first sign up.
Activation
The moment a user first experiences meaningful value from your product.
Engagement
How frequently and deeply users interact with your product.
Onboarding
The process of helping new users understand and start using your product effectively.
Lead
A person or organization that has shown interest in your product.
Qualified Lead (MQL / SQL)
A lead that meets specific criteria indicating they are likely to become a customer.
Demand Generation
Marketing efforts designed to create awareness and interest in your product.
Brand Positioning
How your company is perceived relative to competitors in the minds of customers.
Distribution
The channels and methods used to get your product in front of users.
Sales Pipeline
A structured view of where potential customers are in the buying process.
Cold Outreach
Direct contact with potential customers who have not previously engaged with you.
Finance Metrics and Unit Economics
Revenue
Money earned from selling products or services.
Recurring Revenue
Predictable revenue that repeats over time, often through subscriptions.
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
The total recurring revenue generated each month.
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
The yearly equivalent of recurring revenue, commonly used for SaaS businesses.
Burn Rate
The speed at which a company spends its cash reserves.
Runway
How long a company can operate before running out of cash.
Gross Margin
Revenue remaining after subtracting the direct costs of delivering your product.
Unit Economics
The profitability of a single customer or transaction.
Break Even Point
The point at which revenue equals expenses.
Cash Flow
The movement of money in and out of the business.
Bootstrapping
Building a company using personal funds or revenue instead of outside investment.
Profitability
When a company consistently earns more than it spends.
Financial Model
A forecast showing how the business is expected to perform financially over time.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Metrics used to measure progress toward business goals.
North Star Metric
The single metric that best reflects the core value your product delivers.
Fundraising Investment and Ownership
Pre Seed
The earliest funding stage, often used to validate an idea or build an MVP.
Seed Round
Early funding used to build the product and gain initial traction.
Series A
Funding focused on scaling a validated business model.
Venture Capital (VC)
Institutional investment in high-growth startups in exchange for equity.
Angel Investor
An individual who invests personal capital into early-stage startups.
Cap Table
A breakdown of who owns what percentage of the company.
Valuation
The estimated worth of a company.
Pre Money Valuation
The company’s valuation before new investment is added.
Post Money Valuation
The company’s valuation after new investment is included.
Dilution
The reduction of ownership percentage when new shares are issued.
Term Sheet
A document outlining the key terms of an investment.
SAFE
A simple agreement allowing investors to convert money into equity later.
Convertible Note
A loan that converts into equity during a future funding round.
Equity
Ownership in a company, usually represented by shares.
Exit
A liquidity event where founders and investors sell their ownership, such as an acquisition.
Operations Legal and Company Building
Incorporation
The legal process of forming a company.
Delaware C Corp
A common U.S. corporate structure favored by startups and investors.
Limited Liability Company (LLC)
A flexible business structure offering personal liability protection.
Intellectual Property (IP)
Creations of the mind such as inventions, brands, and content.
Patent
Legal protection for a new invention or process.
Trademark
Protection for brand names, logos, and slogans.
Compliance
Adhering to laws, regulations, and industry standards.
Hiring
The process of recruiting and bringing new team members into the company.
Culture
The shared values, behaviors, and norms within a company.
Advisory Board
A group of experienced individuals who provide guidance without formal authority.
Board of Directors
A governing body responsible for oversight and major decisions.
Governance
The systems and processes used to manage and control a company.
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)
A goal-setting framework that aligns objectives with measurable outcomes.
Operations
The day-to-day activities required to run the business.
Scaling
Growing the business efficiently without breaking systems or culture.
Ecosystem Accelerators and Mindset
Incubator
A program that helps very early startups develop ideas and foundations.
Accelerator
A structured program that helps startups grow quickly through mentorship and resources.
Pivot
A significant change in strategy based on new learnings.
Network Effects
When a product becomes more valuable as more people use it.
Founder Mental Model
The way a founder understands problems, makes decisions, and navigates uncertainty.
Conclusion
Now that you’re familiarized with some of the most important terms, try using our article on How to Start a Startup so you can better understand the process of startup creation and everything that comes with it. Additionally, if you have a startup idea, then you should try out our 14-day free trial for our Incubator Program so you can start trying our Idea Validation Course to validate your idea.