Startup Glossary For Entrepreneurs: An Introduction

Welcome to Startup Glossary for Entrepreneurs, created & maintained by Mobisoft Infotech, a leading mobile app development company based in the US and India.

Let’s find out the purpose and objective of this glossary.

Why Startup Glossary For Entrepreneurs Needed?

Well, entrepreneurship is like a maze, and the entrepreneur who has just ventured into this exciting & daunting journey can get overwhelmed and lost with different terminologies, industry jargon and complex terms, over a period of time.

Even experienced and seasoned entrepreneurs find it difficult to remain updated with all these terms, and it’s a time-consuming activity to search the importance and relevance of most of these startup terminologies.

This confusion and ignorance can lead to mistakes and/or missed opportunities, which can be avoided, if the entrepreneur is aware and informed about these terms. 

Understanding this need and requirement of entrepreneurs, our team did in-depth research and created a comprehensive and detailed guide of all the terms and jargon used in the industry, empowering them with a quick and handy guide that can provide them with knowledge about these terms, along with a very specific and detailed example for better understanding.

Segmentation Of Startup Glossary For Entrepreneurs

We have divided this entire Startup Glossary for Entrepreneurs into 9 different categories, each compassing a comprehensive list of related terms. These 9 categories are:

• Startup Funding
• Valuation & Financial Metrics
• Business Operations
• Technology & Development
• Marketing & Growth
• Legal & Regulatory
• Human Resources and Talent
• Artificial Intelligence
• Customer Service & Support

Each of these categories has hundreds of related terms and phrases that are frequently used by stakeholders, entrepreneurs, investors, technologists, marketers and regulators.

To make the concept and relevance crystal clear, we have also added highly specific and practical examples for each of these terms, thereby providing unprecedented clarity to the entrepreneur.

Whether seeking funding, or hiring a mobile app development agency, or recruiting sales & marketing team, or upgrading the tech stacks or any activity related to business and entrepreneurship, this comprehensive and in-depth Startup Glossary for Entrepreneurs will prove to be the go-to guide for anyone and everyone involved with innovation and disruption via business.

The Glossary Map

Startup Funding

• Angel group
• Accelerator
• Angel investor
• Angel round
• Angel Fund
• Venture capital (VC)
• Corporate venture capital
• Crowdfunding
• Crowdinvesting
• Issued shares
• Accredited investor
• Accelerated Vesting
• Private equity
• Seed funding
• Pre-seed funding
• Series A
• Series B
• Series C
• Series D
• Convertible Debt/Equity
• Convertible note
• Founders shares
• Convertible preferred stock
• Venture Debt
• SAFE note
• Equity Financing
• Debt financing
• Equity Grants
• Micro-VC
• Monetize
• Revenue-based financing
• Active Buyer
• Bridge Financing
• Bridge Loan
• Grants
• Flat round
• Loan
• Investment
• Buyout
• Buy Sell Agreement
• Recapitalization
• Leveraged Buyout
• Fund of Funds
• Secondary Purchase
• Secondary market
• Secondary Public Offering
• Initial Public Offering (IPO)
• Initial coin offering (ICO)
• Public Offering
• PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity)
• Reg A
• Reg CF
• Reg D
• SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company)
• Warrants
• Options
• Stock Options

Valuation & Financial Metrics:

• Accrued Interest
• Accrual Basis
• Accounts Receivable
• Accounts Payable
• Valuation
• Balance sheet
• Common stock
• Benchmark
• Blue Chip
• B Corporation
• Average Revenue Per User or ARPU
• Deepness
• Liquidity event
• Pre-money valuation
• Holding Company
• Long Term Liabilities
• Loss leader pricing
• Income Statement
• Closing
• Current Assets
• Post-money valuation
• Cottage industry
• 409a valuation
• 83(b) election
• Liquidation
• Liquidation preference
• Liquidation waterfall
• First mover advantage
• Double Entry
• First Refusal
• Drag-along rights
• Friends, Family and Fools
• Discounted convertible note
• Cap table or Capitalization Table
• Follow-on funding
• Down round
• Vesting
• Vesting Schedule
• Capitalization Table
• Enterprise Value
• Capped Notes
• Cliff
• Cliff Vesting
• Fixed Assets
• Stockholder
• Equity Compensation
• Stock Options
• Option pool
• Carried Interest
• Return on investment (ROI)
• Net Present Value (NPV)
• EBITDA
• Cash Flow
• Finder’s Fee
• Cash flow positive
• Cash flow statement
• Current Liabilities
• Revenue
• Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)
• Annual recurring revenue (ARR)
• Bookings
• Burn rate
• Funding round 
• Full-Ratchet
• Financial Model
• Run rate
• Gross Margin
• Authorized shares
• Average Order Volume
• Gross Profit
• Bayesian Statistic
• Net Sales
• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
• Cost Per Action (CPA) Marketing
• Cost Per Thousand (CPM)
• Closing Rate
• Sales to Cash Flow Ratio
• Sales Mix Variance
• Sales per Share
• Sales Pipeline
• Sales Funnel Leakage
• Sales Draft
• Revenue-based financing
• Operating Margin
• Deal memo
• In-App Purchases
• Deal flow
• Total Available Market (TAM)
• Serviceable Available Market (SAM)
• Target market
• Market penetration
• Lifetime Value of Customer (LTV)
• Average Size of Sale
• Churn
• Churn rate
• Retention Rate
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Business Operations

• Alpha
• Above Ground Risk
• Analytics
• Activation
• Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue or AARRR
• Laggards
• Acquired Knowledge
• Absolute Advantage
• Low Hanging Fruit
• Audit
• Actionable Metric
• Business Model Canvas
• Big Beast
• Build-Measure-Learn
• Business plan
• Association Technique
• Innovator
• Archetype
• Herd Mentality
• Apportunity
• Invention
• Innovation
• Hectocorn
• Keystone Innovation Zone or KIZ
• Keystone Opportunity Zones or KOZ
• Always Be Closing
• Mergers
• Mergers & Acquisition or M&A
• Badges
• Ad Hoc
• B2C
• B2B
• B2B2C
• Blacklist
• Alligator Arms
• Ideation
• Brand Licensing
• Licensing
• Diluted founders
• Moonshot
• Analysis Paralysis
• Amortization
• Indication of Interest
• Co-founder
• Break-Even Point
• Business As Usual Or BAU
• Boiling the Ocean
• Disruptive
• Disruptive technology
• Competitive Matrix
• Competitive Analysis
• Cohort
• Cohort Analysis
• Ecopreneur
• E-commerce
• Discoverability
• Deliverable
• Addressable Market
• Deliberation
• Deck
• Buying the logo
• Back Checking
• Back of the Napkin Model
• Advisory Board
• Agile Methodology
• Agile model
• Constraints
• Customer discovery
• Incorporation
• Cross-Elasticity
• Customer development model
• Dilution
• Demo day
• Client/Customers
• Commercialization
• Decacorn
• Chicken and Egg Dilemma
• Minimum Viable Product or MVP
• Concierge Minimum Viable Product
• Challenger Brainstorm
• Cost Structure
• Customer Archetype
• Customer Retention
• Discovery
• Dragon
• Earnout
• Exit
• Dogfooding
• Economies of scale
• Exit strategy
• Deal lead
• Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR)
• Ecosystem
• Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)
• Freemium
• Fixed Costs
• Integrative Thinking
• Failing Forward
• Forecasting
• Estimated Time of Arrival or ETA
• Intrapreneur
• Incubator
• Joint Venture
• Jumping the Shark 
• Leadership
• Lean Startup
• Management
• Market Share
• Market Value
• Organizational Culture
• Product-market fit
• Purchasing
• Risk Management
• Scalability
• Strategic Planning
• Stakeholder
• SWOT Analysis
• Team Building
• Term Sheet
• Vendor Management

Technology and Development

• API (Application Programming Interface)
• Android
• Algorithm
• Amazon Web Services or AWS
• Backend
• Alpha Test
• Beta Testing
• Java
• Blockchain
• Bug
• Localization
• Jailbreaking
• Material Design
• JSON
• CDN (Content Delivery Network)
• Do Not Disturb mode
• Domain Name
• App Store
• Device ID
• Chatbot
• Code Review
• Control Center
• Content Management System (CMS)
• Haptic Feedback
• iCloud
• Multi-Device Optimization
• Cross Platform App
• Hackers
• Iteration
• Hackathons
• Hybrid App
• Database
• Deployment
• Debugging
• DevOps (Development and Operations)
• Framework
• Frontend
• Functional Requirements
• Elastic
• Feature Creep
• Middleware
• Mobile App Development
• Mockups
• Native App
• Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
• Open Source
• Operating System (OS)
• Parsing
• Email Alias
• APK
• Prototypes
• REST (Representational State Transfer)
• SDK (Software Development Kit)
• SQL (Structured Query Language)
• SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)
• Software Architecture
• Software Testing
• User Interface (UI)
• User Experience (UX)
• Version Control
• Web Development
• Integrated Development Environment or IDE
• Widget

Marketing and Growth

• A/B Test
• Above Market Cost
• Advertising
• Affiliate Marketing
• Audience
• Branding
• Brand Narrative
• Brand Personality
• Anthropomorphization
• Influence Marketing
• Brand Strategy
• Hybrid Viral Model 
• Brand Identity
• Brand Image
• Brand Extension
• Boilerplate
• Brand Architecture
• Active Users
• Lead Generation
• Lead Generation Landing Page
• Brand Activation
• Backlink
• Creative Intelligence
• Impressions
• Hourly Active Users
• Hashtag
• Conversion Funnel
• Content Marketing
• Call to Action
• Banner Ad
• Click Through Rate (CTR)
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
• Customer Life Cycle
• Customer Segments
• Conversion Rate
• Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
• Digital Marketing
• Direct Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Daily Active Users
• Drip Campaign
• Explosive Growth
• Gamification
• Growth hacking
• Advertising to Sales Ratio
• Design Thinking
• Growth Hacker
• Influencer Marketing
• Market Research
• Market Segmentation
• Mobile Marketing
• Multi-Channel Marketing
• Marketing Automation
• Pay Per Click (PPC)
• Public Relations (PR)
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Social Media Marketing
• User Acquisition
• Viral Marketing
• Word of Mouth Marketing
• Website Optimization

Legal & Regulatory

• Securities
• SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission)
• Compliance
• Intellectual Property (IP)
• Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
• Legal Entity
• Patent
• Terms of Service (TOS)
• Investor Rights Agreement
• Privacy Policy
• Limited partner
• Limited Liability Company
• Trademark
• Copyright
• Trade Secret
• Limited Liability Partnership
• Regulatory Compliance
• GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
• Venture Capitalist (VC) Agreement
• HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
• PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)
• Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)
• Representations and warranties
• Corporate Governance
• Corporate Law
• Co-founder Agreement
• Business Law
• Disclosure Documents
• Due diligence
• Tax Law
• Contract Law
• Employment Law
• Securities Law
• Investment Regulations
• Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations
• Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations
• Insider Trading Regulations
• Anti-Dilution Agreement
• Articles of Incorporation (or Certificate of Incorporation)
• Advisor Agreement
• Service Level Agreement or SLA

Human Resources and Talent

• Employee Onboarding
• Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)
• Employment
• Remote Work
• Talent Acquisition
• Performance Evaluation
• Culture Fit
• Acquihire
• Functional Manager
• Employment Terms
• Key Employee
• Key Performance Indicators  or KPI

Artificial Intelligence

• Artificial Intelligence or AI
• AI ethics
• AI Algorithm
• Computer vision
• Cognitive computing
• Deep learning

• Hyperparameter
• Large language model
• Hallucination
• Generative AI
• Image recognition
• Machine learning
• Natural language processing
• Neural network
• Pattern recognition
• Reinforcement learning
• Sentiment analysis
• Siri
• Supervised learning
• Unsupervised learning
• Virtual Assistant

Customer Service & Support

• Customer Feedback
• Help Desk
• Ticketing System
• Customer Relations Management (CRM)
• Satisfaction Surveys
• In-kind support

We are sure that this Startup Glossary for Entrepreneurs will be helpful and resourceful for entrepreneurs, empowering them to break the shackles of jargon, and unleash and grow!

Here’s the part 1 of our exhaustive startup glossary:  Understanding Types of Investment for Startups.

In case you find any definition as incorrect or incomplete, or if you have any suggestions to make it better, feel free to reach out to us at info@mobisoftinfotech.com. We will surely appreciate your help and support to make this Startup Glossary as the best resource for all entrepreneurs and business owners, all across the globe.

Author's Bio

Nitin Lahoti