Speak Like a Founder

Every industry have its own inner language and startups are no different. If you really want to be a part of the startup industry you must learn all of the abbreviations and term that fill the industry and we got you covered…

Term:

Term	Interpertation
A/B Testing	A common research method for testing features performance by randomly exposing one of two options to users and measure which option performs better
Accelerator	a short trem program (usualy 3-6 months) where a startup goes through a growth acceleration by outside advisors
Account Payables	It's a short-term debt and a liability on a balance sheet where a business owes money to its vendors/suppliers that have provided the business with goods or services on credit
Account Recievables	Accounts receivable, abbreviated as AR or A/R, are legally enforceable claims for payment held by a business for goods supplied or services rendered that customers have ordered but not paid for. In plain english it means a collection of the accounts that still owe you money.
Acquisition	One company purchases all or the majority of the shares of another company, either in exchange for its own shares or for cash
Activation velocity	The percent of activated account within 48 hours of creation. This is a metric that measure the effectiveness of your onboarding process. It's important to note that the meaning of Activation is different between each SaaS company so make sure you define it properly. To use the metric, plot the activation velocity against time to see how your onboarding process improve
Active trials	Active trials are a great metric for businesses with a freemium business plan. It’s a good indicator of the success of your marketing efforts, and is especially helpful when testing out different messaging. The formula for active trials is pretty straightforward: Active trials = Σ all active subscriptions during a period
Adjacent Innovation	Adjacent innovation is a form of innovation in an innovation portfolio arranged along the Three Horizons of Growth. Adjacent innovation refers to leveraging the core business and value proposition of an organization in a new market space
Adkar-Framework	ADKAR is a change management framework that focuses on how change happens on an individual level. It describes the different stages to take into account in the change process, for example such as activating employees to participate in ideation
Affiliations	Refers to the accelerators, incubators and entrepreneurship programs that a company is affiliated to through past or current participation
Agile	Agile is a software development process that focuses on short and focused sprints with high frequency of delivery. The opposite of agile is called Waterfall (look it up in the dictionary)
AgriTech	The term AgriTech group all the startups who operate or serve the agriculture sector
Alpha	The first version of the product, which is slated for testing and evaluation.
Analogy Thinking	Applying learnings from adjacent categories or market spaces to gain inspiration for new solutions
Angel Group	Refers to several angels that collaboratively invest in enterprises. Angel Groups are "force multipliers" for angel investors. They share their market research and pool their investment capital in order to leverage their investing processes and results
Angel Investor	An affluent individual who invests capital in a venture, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. Angels presented in Finder are those who are serial angels, Israeli or residing permanently in Israel, have invested multiple times, address themselves as angels and conduct deal flow. An angel investor must be an Accredited Investor (a SEC term) which puts some qualifying terms on income andqor networth
AOV	AOV stands for Average Order Value. It's a unit that measure what is the average dollar value of a single order of sale.
API	API stands for Application Programing Interface. It's a way for external sources to programmatically use features from an application without knowing its code
Appreciation	Appreciation refers to an increase in the value of an asset over time
Architectural Innovation	Architectural innovation is an innovation where the core components of the product remain the same but the relationship between these components changes. This type of innovation entails the overall design, system or the way components interact
ARPU	ARPU stands for Average Revenue Per User. It's a measure for how much monthly revenue (MRR) is generated from an average user. Calculated by dividing the total MRR by the number of active users. Also called ARPA
ARR	ARR stands for Annual Recurring Revenue. It's the sum total of all the recurring revenues from a given year
Artificial Inteligence	A subset of machine learning that focuses on the intelligence of machines
ASO	ASO stands for App Store Optimization. It's an umbrella term for all the actions that improve the ranking of an app inside an app store
ASP	ASP stands for Average Sales Price. This is the average price you are selling your product or service for
Asset	An asset is a resource with economic value that an individual, corporation, or country owns or controls with the expectation that it will provide a future benefit. Assets are reported on a company's balance sheet. They are bought or created to increase a firm's value or benefit the firm's operations
Average first response time	This metric is the average time it takes for a support team member to respond to a customer's initial inquiry or ticket submission. It is calculated by Average First Response Time = Total time to first response / Total number of inquiries Tracking average first response time can help SaaS companies identify inefficiencies in their support process, like understaffing or poor ticket routing. Reducing this time can help ensure you have fewer annoyed customers waiting on hold to troubleshoot a glitch
Average resolution time	Average resolution time tracks the efficiency of a company's customer support team in resolving customer inquiries. It refers to the average amount of time it takes for a support agent to resolve a customer's issue, from the initial help request to the final resolution. Calculated by Average Resolution Time = Total time taken to resolve all issues / Number of issues resolved
Average sessions per day	A metric to track how much a user is using the product. Calculated by: Average sessions per day = total # of sessions over a given time span ÷ the number of days in that time span
AWS	AWS stands for Amazon Web Services. It's the cloud computing division of Amazon Inc.
Azure	Like AWS, Azure is a cloud computing service but this time it's the service provided by Microsoft
B2B	B2B stands for Business for Business. It's a term used to describe a business that sell to other businesses.
B2B2C	B2B2C stands for Business to Business to Customer. It's a term used to describe a business that sells to another business a procudt that the second business turns around and sell to a customer
B2C	B2C stands for Business to Consumer. It's a term used to describe a business that sells a product directly to customers.
B2E	B2E stands for Business to Enterprise. It's a term used to describe a business that sells a product to large enterprises.
B2G	B2G stands for Business to Government. It's a term used to describe a business that sells a product to a governments.
Backend	The back end of a product usually refers to the side not visible to the customer. In web based products, the back end refer to the server side of the product.
Benchmarking	A benchmark is a point of reference. In the business world the process of benchmarking represent how well a product is performing compared to an industry norm
Beta	The nearly finalized version of the product, which is slated for testing and evaluation. This version usually includes all fully functional features of the product
Big Data	Big data is term used to represent the analysis of large quantities of data. Many tech companies today gather enormous amounts of data about their users and harness big data tools to extract insights about their behavior
Bitcoin	A type of cryptocurrency
Blockchain	A technology that uses strings of blocks to store information
Bootstrapping	The building of a startup without outside investors.
Brainstorming	Brainstorming is a technique for coming up with new ideas or creative solutions to a specific problem or around a specific theme. This group creativity technique is often used to break out of traditional thinking patterns
Breakthrough Innovation	A type of innovation that leads to substantial improvements (greater efficiency or cost-effectiveness) built upon new enabling technologies and/or business models in the market. A breakthrough innovation can be either disruptive, radical, architectural or incremental in nature to your organization
Bug	An unintented behaviour of a product (usually something bad like a crash or an error)
Burn Multiple	Burn multiple measures the efficiency and sustainability of a company's growth model — Calculated by taking your net cash burned per year, divided by your net new ARR in a given period. It's a fantastic complement to growth metrics like NRG because it contextualizes growth as a function of investment.
Burn Rate	The pace in which a startup burns through the funding received from its investor. This ratio can help establish a company's chances of survival and also the timing for raising money
Business Case	A business case is a detailed assessment of a perceived opportunity or solution (its costs, risks, benefits, and the organization’s capabilities to solve it) that is used to decide whether it is worth pursuing by an investment panel
Business Model	A business model represents the framework in which a business brings value to the world and get paid in response
Business Model Canvas	The Business Model Canvas is a tool by Strategyzer that can be used for describing, designing, challenging, and pivoting your business model
Buyout	A common exit strategy that involves the purchase of a controlling stake in a company. A leveraged buyout (LBO) involves borrowing money to finance a portion of the purchase price. A secondary buyout can occur when a private equity firm or group of private equity firms sell a controlling interest in a portfolio company to another private equity firm or group of private equity firms
CAC	CAC stands for Customer Acquisition Cost. It's the metric that represent the amount of money a business is paying to get a paying customer for its products. CAC is calculated by taking the total amount of money spent on marketing and dividing that amount by the umber of customers that marketing spend has generated
CAC to LTV ratio	This is another important metric that indicate the efficiency and sustainability of the customer retention efforts. It's is calculated by dividing the CAC by the LTV. A raio of 1:3 means the company is generating $3 on each $1 spent to acquire a customer. A ratio of 1:1 indicate the company is losing money
Cap	The maximal valuation for a company define in the SAFE agreement. The SAFE agreement defer the valuation problem to the next round, but nobody knows when this will be or what the market cconditions will be then. This is where a cap comes into play to define the maximal value of a company for the equity distribution for the SAFE investors
Cap Table	Cap (short for capitalization) table is a summary of share holders on a company. It contains the owners details, the amount of shares each owner have, how many total shares are in the company, the value of each share and the entire company
Cashflow	The amount if money that flows through your company. The term often mean the future (and past) analysis of how much money you will have in your bank account, which is a very important operating metric. This is different than income because income usually include expenses, so what you bring in is not how much you will have in your bank account. Moreover, some companies pay after 30-60 days so you will send out an invoice and your accounting system might consider that as an income, but the actual money will only appear in your bank 30-60 days later.
Centaurs	Describe startups that have reached valuations of more than USD 100 million (IDR 1.4 trillion) but aren’t unicorns yet. One way to measure a company’s valuation is based on funding obtained from investors
CEO	CEO stands for Chief Executive Officer. It's the person who stands at the head of a company.
CFO	CFO stands for Chief Financial Officer. It's the person that's in charge of the financial side of the business. His responsibilities include managing the cash flow, balancing the accounts, collections, managing the books, paying the payroll and to suppliers and advising the CEO and board on the financial capabilities of the company
Churn Rate	A metric that monitor the percent of users that left the platform in a given time frame (month/year). Calculated by dividing the amount of users that have left the platform/app during a time frame, divided by the amount of users that were active at the first day of that time frame
CIO	CIO stands for Chief Information Officer. It's the person in charge of IT in an organization. Another term for CIO is Chief Innovation Officer which is the person responsible for managing change and innovation processes in an organization
CISO	CISO stands for Chief Information Security Officer. This is the person in charge for the information security in an organization
Client	An individual or business who will be purchasing or engaging with a particular valuable solution. Their needs and wants must be solved sufficiently to adopt the value created. A client can also be a buyer as in B2B
Cliff Vesting	Generally speaking, the classic cliff vesting definition revolves around the retirement-plan-related benefits of a company. For instance, it may give employees retirement pension account ownership after a certain number of years of service. But in a more narrow startup sense, cliff vesting often refers to such employee vesting that provides an opportunity for an employee to receive company equity or stocks after a specific period of time
Climate Tech	The term Climate Tech group all the startups who operate or serve the climate sector
Clinical Trials	Early testing of a technology's functionality, applicability and safety. Relevant only to companies in the medical, pharmaceuticals and other biotechnology fields. In a clinical study, participants are assigned to receive one or more interventions (or no intervention) so that researchers can evaluate the effects of the interventions on biomedical or health-related outcomes
CMO	CMO stands for Chief Marketing Officer. It's the person who is responsible for the marketing side of the business. His responsibilities change between companies depending on the way that company define marketing
Co-Creation	A product-development approach that brings multiple entities – often customers, suppliers, startups, or business partners – together to come up with solutions or new concepts in both B2B and B2C
Cohort Anaysis	A type of behavioral analytics in which you take a group of users, and analyze their usage patterns based on their shared traits to better track and understand their actions. A cohort is simply a group of people with shared characteristics
Collaboration	Collaboration refers to working together with internal or external partners to solve a problem or to achieve a common goal
Commercialization Of Innovation	Commercialization is a component of product innovation process that converts ideas and prototypes into viable products
Communities	In order to differentiate between various terms that are often mistaken with the term "community" (terms such as network, forum, group and others), there are three basic elements essential for a group of people to be termed as a community. Communities have common ground, common space and community leadership. The common ground is a shared interest that includes a clear definition of the target audience, defines what the community stands for, and defines a process it wants to take its members through. The common space is the main place where the community interacts and communicates. The community can and should define rules and/or principles for using the spaces. The members must be registered or formally affiliated with the space. The community leadership are the facilitators of the community, administrators and decision-makers of the group. The community leadership needs to share their background and obligation to the continuation and success of the community
Competitive Edge	The factors that allow a company to compete more effectively than its industry peers. Competitive advantages are attributed to a variety of factors including cost structure, branding, the quality of product offerings, the distribution network, intellectual property, and customer service
Conversion Rate	The amount of leads or users who move from one step to the next one. Conversion rate is measured for each step of your funnel and/or onboarding process.
Convertible Debt	A type of interest-bearing debt that is designed to convert into equity at some future point in time subject to specific criteria. This is the basis of early stage investing, where most of the funds are raised through some sort of convertible debt
COO	COO stands for Chief Operating Officer. It's the person that's in charge of the day to day operations of a company. Part of his responsibilities is cost reduction projects, safety etc.
Coopetion	The act of cooperation between competing companies; businesses that engage in both competition and cooperation are said to be in coopetition. Certain businesses gain an advantage by using a judicious mixture of cooperation with suppliers, customers, and firms producing complementary or related products
Core Innovation	Core innovation refers to small, incremental improvements to existing products or services that are the main sources of revenue, and is something companies do daily
CPA	CPA stands for Cost Per Action. It’s a payment model from the digital advertising world where an advertiser pays every time a user takes an action on his ad. An action can be anything from a click, a view or even a purchase.
CPC	CPC stands for Cost Per Click. It’s a payment model where advertisers pay the advertising platform every time a user clicks on their ad
CPM	CPM stands for Cost Per Mile. It's a payment model where advertisers pay the advertising platform for every 1000 impressions
CPO	CPO stamds for Chief Product Officer. This is the person who manages the product management inside the organization
Critical Assumption	A high-risk assumption that needs to be proven true in order for a potential solution to be a success. Also referred to as a LOFA: Leap of Faith Assumption
Critical Thinking	Making reasoned judgments that are logical and well-thought-out, accomplished through honest and open discussions where feedback is meant to strengthen and challenge an idea
CRM	CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It's a system designed to save each interaction with a customer and help a business and its marketing and sales peple generate better relationships with customrs.
CRO	CRO stands for Chief Revenues Officer. This is usually the person who is responsible for the sales department at a company. Another abbreviation for CRO is Conversion Rate Optimization. The process of optimizing the sales funnel for better performance.
Crossing The Chasm	Crossing the Chasm is a book written by Geoffrey A. Moore which explores and extends the diffusion of innovations, and is closely related to the technology adoption life-cycle. Moore's main argument is that because of very different expectations of early adopters and early majority, there's a chasm between these two that is relatively difficult to cross
Crowdfunding	Organization that facilitates funding a project or venture by raising money from private individuals from the public, typically through social media and crowdfunding websites
Crowdsourcing	Crowdsourcing means gathering information and new ideas with the help of external networks, typically via online channels
Cryptocurrency	A form of money that is digital.
CTA	CTA stands for Call to Action. This is a term used by marketers to let prospects know what they want them to do next
CTO	CTO stands for Chief Technology Officer. It's the person who is in charge of the technical side of the business. This person manages the R&D efforts for the company.
CTR	CTR sands for Clickthrough Rate. It's a metric measuring how many prospects have clicked and move to the naxt steps. It's calculated by taking the amount of users that performed the desired action (i.e. visitors of a landing page who clicked on the next button or submitted their info) and divide it by the total amount of visitors of the previous page (i.e. amount of visitors to a landing page)
Customer Development	A stage in which the product is in the most initial stages of development. In this stage, the founders of the company are still engaged in market research, finalizing the direction of the product
Customer engagement score	Customer engagement score measures the level of engagement and interaction customers have with a company's product or service. It's a quantitative measure that assesses how often and how deeply customers engage—because customers who actually use your product are less likely to churn. Since the customer interactions each business may choose to measure may vary, there's no one formula for finding this metric. Interactions like user sessions or webinar attendance can give SaaS companies valuable insights into customer needs and preferences and use them to encourage further engagement like signing up for trials or demos.
Customer growth rate	An important metric for understanding business growth is your customer growth rate—how quickly you’re gaining new customers. It shows how effectively your business is growing and where you are lacking
Customer health score	Customer health score refers to the overall health and satisfaction of your customers. It's usually based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative factors, like usage frequency, feature adoption, customer feedback, and support interactions. The formula for calculating customer health score varies depending on the specific factors used, but it typically involves assigning weights or scores to each factor and aggregating them into a single score or rating
CVC	A corporate investment arm that directs funds directly to external start-ups. Such entities usually invest with the intention of integrating the sponsored technology and potentially its creators into the corporate. These activities are represented by entities in the Hubs section
Dataroom	A data room (in the context of raising funds) is a dedicated folder where a company collect all of its fund raising documents for invetors. Usually contains article of incorporations, material agreements, contracts, cap table etc.
Deal Flow	The quantity of investment opportunities available at a given time to a particular company or investor or within a particular region or market sector
Debt Financing	A type of loan, offering finance that must be fully repaid with interest and does not result in ownership of any equity
Decacorns	Companies values at $10B
Delisting	The removal of a listed security from a stock exchange. In other words, the company goes from being publicly to privately held. The delisting of a security can be voluntary or involuntary and usually results when a company ceases operations, declares bankruptcy, merges, does not meet listing requirements, or seeks to become private
Depth of usage	This metric reveals how many of the total number of features your product offers the average user engages with. How to calculate it: Depth of usage = (# of features used ÷ # of available features) × 100
Depriciation	Depreciation refers to an decrease in the value of an asset over time
Design Thinking	Design Thinking is the creative and systematic approach to problem-solving by placing the user/customer at the center of the experience. It consists of 5 phases – Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. It is best applied to innovation projects where the problem domain is not fully known or understood with a high degree of uncertainty and ambiguity. Design thinking is an outcome-focused methodology that is used for creating better solutions for customers. Design thinking applies actionable design principles to the innovation strategy and ways of working
Digital Marketing	A branch of marketing that focus on the digital domain
Digitalization	Digitalization refers to the application of digital technologies and digitized data to transform core business models such as customer engagement, relationship management, or revenue streams. Digitalization relies first on the digitization of processes from analog or offline systems
Discount	When investing in a SAFE agreement the company's valuation is deferd to the nexy funding round. To incentivize the SAFE investors the SAFE agreement allow for a discount on the share price which will be defined in the next funding round. For example: If a SAFE gave its investors 10% discount, and the set share price at the next round was set to $100. The SAFE investors equity will be determined according to a share price of $90
Discovery Phase	The project discovery phase, or scoping, is the stage that goes after idea initiation and before development works start. It includes research and proof of concept, defining the target audience and forming the product vision, choosing the tech stack, selecting the features, and planning the overall work ahead
Disruptive Innovation	Disruptive innovation refers to a new technology that completely changes the way the industry or market functions, creating a new value proposition in an uncontested market space
Down Round	An investment round in which the valuation of the company drops. This usually indicate that the company has missed to reach a milestone or that it is in difficulties.
Drag Along	Drag along is a tern usually found in invetment agreements. A drag along means that if the majority share holders make a decision, their decision is automatically afecting the minority share holders, basically dragging them along with them
Due Diligence	The process of "checking" a company before a big liquidation event (either an investment, m&a etc.). In the due diligence process the investors' attorney go over all the important company documents, their CPA will verify that everything is good with the books, their tech guys will verify the technology stack etc. The purpose is to eliminate unforeseen risks that might exist within the company
Early Adaptor	A person who starts using a product or technology as soon as it becomes available
EBITDA	EBITDA starnds for Earnings Before Interest, Taxed, Depriciation and Amortization. What it means is your profit after operating expenses.
Elevator Pitch	A short (under 30 seconds) description of the value your startup create
EPS	EPS stands for Earnings Per share. It is the monetary value of earnings per outstanding share of common stock for a company. It is a key measure of corporate profitability and is commonly used to price stocks
Equity	An accounting term that describes the founders investment in the company. Basically it's the percentage of ownership one have in a company.
Equity Crowdfunding	A form of crowdfunding where a broad group of people invest money in a private company in exchange for equity. Equity crowdfunding platforms allows investors to tap into opportunities once reserved only for banks, private equity, and venture capital firms. On equity crowdfunding platforms, the potential investor can find exclusive opportunities to invest in privately held startup companies on the ground floor rather than waiting for a company to go public, putting his money to work alongside experienced investors
Etherium	A type of cryptocurrency
Evaluation Criteria	Benchmarks or objectives that can be used as a selection lens through which ideas can be compared, evaluated, and prioritized whilst limiting personal biases in decision making
Evangelist	These are the ambassadors of a product who, for the most part, are in the company's ecosystem
Exit	A liquidation event where a startup is being sold to a third party
Expansion revenue	Expansion revenue refers to additional revenue generated from a customer after their initial purchase through upsells and cross sells. The timeframe to consider can be defined based on your other business parameters
Family Office	A family office is a private wealth management advisory firm that serves ultra-high-net-worth individuals (HNWI). Family offices are different from traditional wealth management shops in that they offer a total solution to managing the financial and investment needs of an affluent individual or family
Feasibility	The third phase of the innovation process attached to technical competencies needed in order to execute and build a new innovation
Feature	A designed functionality of a product
FFF (Friends, Family And Fools)	Very early stage funding, where friends and family and believers give the young entrepeneur small amounts of cash, usually as aloan to the founders
FinTech	The term FinTech group all the startups who serve or operate in the Financial sector
First Right of Refusal	A first right of refusal means that if an owner wants to sell their asset they have to first offer it to the first right of refusal owner and only after he or she turns their offer down they can offer the same offer to any third party
First-Mover Advantage	First-mover advantage is the competitive advantage gained by a first entrant in a market or segment. First-mover advantage is often achieved through advanced technology or the control of scarce resources and applies only to disruptive innovations
Follow-On Investment	A subsequent investment made by an investor who has made a previous investment in the company
Food Tech	The term Food Tech group all the startups who operate or serve the food sector
Freemium	A freemium is a pricing strategy that offers a part of the product at no cost. As a rule, this customer acquisition model can provide users partial access to only basic functionality, whereas the more intricate solutions, add-ons, features, or services come at an extra charge when opting for the paid plan
Front End	The side of the business that is exposed to the customer. In a website or an app the front end is the user interface. In a traditional business this might be the store itself
Full Rachet	A full ratchet is a contractual provision designed to protect the interests of early investors. Specifically, it is an anti-dilution provision that applies, for any shares of common stock sold by a company after the issuing of an option (or convertible security), the lowest sale price as the adjusted option price or conversion ratio for existing shareholders
Funding Stage	Represents a company's latest equity funding event:Pre-Seed, Seed, Round A, Round B, Round C, Round D, Round E, Round F, Round G, Round H Companies that has not raised external equity funding will be considered Pre-funding. For publicly traded companies, the funding stage is Public
Generative AI	A branch in AI that focus on creating something new using AI
Go To Market	The phase in a startup's life cycle where it tries to penetrate to the market
Grant	Generally non-refundable financing where the grantor does not receive equity or a right in the assets or future cash flows of the company. There are exceptions where a grant is awarded in accordance with certain predefined conditions. Typically, this form of financing is done by government agencies
Gross Margin	The portion of a company's revenue left over after direct costs are subtracted. Gross margin is one of the most important indicators of a company's financial performance. It's the portion of business revenue left over after you subtract direct costs, such as labour and raw materials
Growth Hacking	Growth hacking refers to a combination of startup growth strategies aimed at driving quick and effective business and product growth. The main goal is to get the maximum number of customers while spending as little as possible
Growth Mindset	Individuals who spend time and effort constantly challenging their status quo. They continually self-reflect in order to find key areas to grow and improve, whilst accepting being outside of their comfort zone
Growth Stage	Funding stage, usually after the second round of fundraising and when the company already is generating revenues or income from its product
Hackathon	a program that brings a large number of participants that work in teams to tackle a big challenge or market insight. These events typically run for 48 hours, are high-energy and involve 50+ people from a variety of organizations, and private individuals. Organizations have taken on this model to increase organizational innovative thinking for organizational challenges in an engaging way
Health Tech	The term Health Tech group all the startups who operate or serve the health sector
HR	HR stands for Human Resources. This is the part of the company that deals with the employees and everything relevant to them
Hubs	An accelerator, entrepreneurship program, or coworking space housed in Israel, whose membership includes Israeli companies. Finder categorizes hubs into five types: Accelerator, Corporate Accelerator, Communities, Co-Working Space, Entrepreneurship Program
Hype	In contrast to a trend, a hype is a collective and often spontaneous fad that disappears after a short period of time
ICO	ICO stands for Initial Coin Offering. A means to raise capital for a new cryptocurrency/blockchain venture. In an ICO, a quantity of the crowdfunded cryptocurrency is sold to investors in the form of "tokens", in exchange for legal tender or other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. An ICO is often used by startups to bypass the rigorous capital-raising process required by regulators
ICP	ICP stands for Ideal Customer Profile. Like the name suggest, this is a description of who is your ideal customer. Your ICP is not your total market but rather the current customer that will get you to your next stage of growth. Who is willing to buy now.
Impact Investing	Investments that make a social ot enviromental affect
Incremental Innovation	A type of innovation that provides gradual improvements to existing products, processes, or methods, in order to maintain/sustain a competitive position over time
Incubator	A technological incubator is a center for entrepreneurship intended to invest in new startup companies and provide them with technological, business and administrative support. Incubators offer a supportive framework for the establishment of a company and development of a concept into a commercial product. Within the incubator, a company will refine its idea(s), and work on its business and product(s). Incubators can be focused on a specific market or vertical. As of today, incubators in Finder are categorized as programs under the Incubators Incentive Program of the Israeli innovation authority. The incubators are selected through competitive processes for a license period of eight years and are spread across Israel, especially in its peripheral parts
Interdisciplinary Teams	A coordinated group from several different fields who bring together complementary skills while solving a needs and problems from the customer point of view
Intrapreneur	An employee who brings entrepreneurial skills to a corporate’s innovation process and generates new ventures for the business. A constructive trouble maker who get’s s*** done without letting the bureaucracy get in the way
Investment	An investment is an asset or item acquired with the goal of generating income or appreciation
Inventory Turnover	Inventory turnover is the rate that inventory stock is sold, or used, and replaced. The inventory turnover ratio is calculated by dividing the cost of goods by average inventory for the same period. A higher ratio tends to point to strong sales and a lower one to weak sales
IoT	IoT stamds for Internet of Things. This is a tern used to describe a multitude of devices that are connected to the internet that their main purpose is not user interface (like a PC, tablet or mobile phone)
IP	IP stands for Intelectual property. These are all the non-tangible assets of a company Another interpetation is Internet Protocol which is a digital address on the internet
IPO	IPO stands for Initial Public Offering. This is when a private company or corporation raises investment capital by offering its stock to the public for the first time
Joint Venture	A business arrangement in which two or more parties agree to pool their resources for the purpose of accomplishing a specific task. This task can be a new project or any other business activity
KPI	KPI stands for Key Perfromance Indicator. It's basically a metric to measure a person, team or company’s progress.
Lagging Metric	A metric that indicate a response and not an input. By definition most metrics are lagging, but for the sake of definition let's stick to our ability to respond. A lagging metric will measure something that we can't, or it is too late, to respond to.
Lead Investor	An individual investor (or group) who initiated the deal, taking the most active role in the investment round and.or who invested the most money. Most of the time the lead investor would be the one sitting on the board
Lead to Customer ratio	This is the high-level convertion metric for your marketing and sales funnel. It tracks how many leads moved on to become customers from the entire leads population. Calculated by dividing the number of customers by the overall number of leads.
Leading Partner	A specific team member of the venture capital firm that led the investment round
Leads by lifecycle stage	SaaS companies use leads by lifecycle stage to track the number of potential customers in each stage of the sales funnel. Tracking leads by lifecycle stage helps identify the bottlenecks everyone hates and get those conversion rates up. Calculated by: Leads by Lifecycle Stage = Total number of leads x % of leads in each lifecycle stage This metric is used to indicate issues in the different funnel stages
Lead-to-Customer Rate	This is the main convertion metric for your sales process and marketing funnels
Lean Canvas Model	Also known as Lean Startup Model, a project management methodology for developing business ideas, products and services through condensed product-launch cycles that involve experimentation, iteration and validated learning
Lighthouse Project	A project that aims to act as a successful and exemplary model, which future innovation teams can learn from and strive towards
Liquidation	An event where money is being received for assets being sold
LOI	LOI stands for Letter of Intent. This is a legal document indicating an intention of one side to take action.
LP	LP stands for Limited Partner. This is an investor who join a fund, usually managed by a VC. The LP is called limited because he does not get a deciding vote in where the funds are invested.
LTV	LTV stands for Life Time Value (sometimes also called CLTV where the C stand for Customer).The meaning of LTV is the amount of revenues that a customer brings to the company during his entire life time. It's simply a summation of all the purchases a customer makes
M&A	M&A stands for Merger and Acquisitions. A term that refers to the consolidation of companies or assets through various types of financial transactions. Mergers and Acquisitions are commonly done to expand a company's reach, expand into new segments, or gain market share. In a merger, two companies join forces to create a new, unified organization. In an acquisition, one company purchases all or most of the shares of another company either in exchange for its own shares or for cash
Machine Learning	The branch of science that research and develop machines that improve their performance over time
Makerspace	A joint workspace set up with prototyping tools and technologies, from 3D printers to drill presses, sewing machines et-al
Marketplace	a website hich brings together both buyers and sellers to help facilitate the sale. Amazin, eBay, Alibaba are great examples of marketplaces.
Maturity	A stage in a company's life cycle when it is operationally sound, has regular sales, positions itself as competitive and with brand awareness amongst its customers
MAU	MAU stands for Monthy Active Users. It’s a metric that track how many users have been active on a platform during a month
Merger	In a merger, two companies join forces to create a new, unified organization
Metric	A quantifiable measurement that indicate the status of a certain area in a business
MFN	MFN starnds for Most Favorite Nation. It's an unusual convertible note term that allows the convertible note holder to elect to inherit any more favorable terms that are offered to any subsequent investors following the original investor’s investment and prior to a next equity round. The MFN clause is sometimes seen on uncapped convertible notes as a way to balance a company’s desire not to cap the note, and an investor’s concern that a capped note may subsequently be issued
Mockup	a mockup is a frond-end only version of your product. Its purpose is to show off the visual aspects of the product and to enable demoing in before actually developing all of the actual functionality
Months to recover CAC	This is an important metric in the SaaS world. It measures how many months takes for the company to recover the cost of acquiring a new customer through their subscription revenue. The goal of this metric is to evaluate the profitability of a company's customer acquisition strategy. This is calculated by: Months to Recover CAC = CAC / (Monthly Recurring Revenue x Gross Margin)
MQL	MQL stands for Marketing Qualified Leads. It means a prospect who has taken additional research steps that indicate a genuine interest in your products, such as downloading ebooks and returning to your website
MRR	MRR stands for Monthly Reccuring Revenue. The amount of reccurring revenue a company achieves during a month
MSR	MSR stands for Marketing Sourced Revenue. It measures how much revenue comes from your marketing efforts
Multinationals	A multinational corporation (MNC) that originates abroad, has headquarters abroad, and in addition has a subsidiary or branch located in Israel with R&D activities. If a company was founded by Israeli founders and started its activity abroad and in Israel simultaneously (or with a one-year gap) it will be addressed as an Israeli company. If the company had an office with R&D activities abroad and only after more than one year from its foundation opened an office in Israel the company will instead be considered a multinational and its activities will be presented under the Multinationals section in Finder
MUV	MUV stands for Monthly Unique Visitors. It measures the number of individual visitors to your company's website or platform over a month. This metric allows your company to track the growth of your user base, evaluate how successful your marketing campaigns are, and find ways to improve user acquisition and retention strategies. You can track this metric in Google Analytics (or a comparable analytics platform), as Google assigns unique identifiers to website visitors in order to track returning and unique visitors to your website
MVP	MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product. It’s a tern coined by The Lean Startup movement describing the minimal product (feature wise) required to test a business hypothesis.
Narrowing of the TAM Funnel	This is the process of drilling down to understand your true number of customers based on the definition of your value proposition and understanding the WTP and the actual price you might be able to sell your product or service. This is a focusing process where you ask yourself drilling down questions like is it all of this or only a segment of... to slice and dice the total market and identify only your truly potential TAM numbers. The process usually follow the focusing of the target customers, then the pricing, then the geography of your potential reach and then expanded with new or additional products. It's always bottom up.
NDA	NDA stands for a Non-Disclosure Agreement. It's a legal document that enabe to share sensitive information (such as trade secrets, patents and ideas) without the risk of the other party stealing or exposing them.
Network Effects	Netwok effect is the effect where a product gains substantially more value the more users it has. A social network for example becomes a lot more useful and valuable to its users the more people join it.
Networking	Networking is the exchange of information and ideas among people with a common profession or special interest, usually in an informal social setting
Net Income	Net income, or net earnings, is the bottom line on a company's income statement. It's calculated by subtracting expenses, interest, and taxes from total revenues
New Users Churn	The percentage of users who churn within 30 days of activating. Calculated by dividing the number of users churned within 30 days of activation by the overall number of new activated users from the last 30 days
Newsletter	A periodic update that a company send to its users, prospects or customers
Non-Compete	A legal term that prevent from someone to open a competing business after exiting a company
NPS	NPS stands for Net Promoter Score. It's a metric used to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty. The score is based on survey answers to one question: "How likely are you to recommend our software to a friend or colleague?" Customers rate their response on a scale of 0-10, with 0 being not likely at all and 10 being extremely likely. Respondents whose ratings fall between 0 and 6 are considered "detractors," and those that fall between 9 and 10 are considered "promoters," with everyone in between landing in the "passives" category. The formula for calculating NPS with these responses is: Net Promoter Score = % promoters - % detractors
NRG	NRG stands for Natural Growth Rate. It measures how quickly a company would grow without any effort (marketing and sales — or outside investments). Essentially, NRG allows SaaS companies to determine what percentage of their recurring revenue comes from organic channels and begins with the product. Here's the calculation: Natural Rate of Growth = 100 x Annual Growth Rate x Organic Signups (%) x ARR from Products (%)
OKR	OKR stands for Objective and Key Results. Similar to KPI, it’s another progress measuring metric
One Pager	A single page document descrbing the startup to investors
Open Innovation	Open Innovation means combining and using internal and external ideas together to advance the development of new technologies. external ideas are used together with the internal ones. Open innovation stresses the importance of relationships between the firm and its outside partners
Operating Margins	The operating margin measures how much profit a company makes on a dollar of sales after paying for variable costs of production, such as wages and raw materials, but before paying interest or tax. It is calculated by dividing a company's operating income by its net sales.
Opposite Thinking	An ideation tool that flips logic and assumptions on their head to provide interesting challenge statements to come up with radical ideas.
Output Metrics	measurements that calculate your innovation investment yields. Typical output metrics are for example ROI of innovation activities and revenue growth from new products
Outsource	The situation where a company is hiring outside help to complete certain tasks
PaaS	PaaS stands for Platform as a Service. This is a name used to describe platforms that provide services to other products (like cloud computing)
Patent	A granted right to the owner of an invention to exclude others from producing or selling their invention for a limited period of time
PE	PE stands for Provate Equity. It refers to a company that invests venture capital in companies, usually in growth stage, in exchange for a private equity stake.. PE firms directly invests in private companies or engages in buyouts of public companies. PE investments are characterized by long holding periods and substantial holding shares
Pilot	The pilot project is an initial small-scale implementation that is used to prove the viability of a project idea. This could involve either the exploration of a novel new approach or idea or the application of a standard approach recommended by outside parties but which is new to the organisation
Pitch	A concise story of a venture or startup for potential investors or customers
Pitch Deck	A presentation delivered to investors that explain everything they need to know about your company. The pitch deck is presented when a founder is trying to raise funds from investors
Playbook	A step-by-step guidebook designed to help teams follow the innovation process autonomously
PLG	PLG stands for Product Led Growth. Product-led growth is a business strategy that relies on using your product as the main vehicle to acquire, activate, and retain customers. Unlike sales-led companies where the whole goal is to take a buyer from Point A to Point B in a sales cycle, product-led companies flip the traditional sales model on its head. Product-led companies make this possible by giving customers a way to experience the product for free, either through a freemium product or some kind of free trial. If the customer experiences a meaningful outcome while using the product, upgrading to a paid plan becomes a no-brainer
POC	POC stands for Proof of Concept. It's a basic experiment designed to prove or disprove an hypothesis
Portfolio Company	An innovative company that is part of a group of company's an investor has invested in
Portfolio Management	Refers to the process of making decisions about investments and how different assets are allocated
PoS	PoS stands for Point of Sale.
Post-Ipo Equity	Equity raised by a public company after its IPO
Post-Money Valuation	The post money valuation is the value of the company, including the new investors' money at the funding round. For example, if a startup is valued at $10M pre-money and it raises additional $2M, its post-money valuation will be $12M.
PPC	PPC stands for Pay Per Click. It’s an advertising payment method where the advertiser pay for every click on his ad
PRD	PRD stands for Product Requirements Document. It’s a document describing the required features and functionaity of the product used by the business and development teams as a guideline for how to build the product
Pre-funding	Pre-funding, also known as bootstrapping, refers to the initial stage of a business where the company is self-financed through personal savings or revenue from initial sales. A pre-funded startup may have limited assets and resources and may rely on bootstrapping to sustainably finance its continuous operations. Although a pre-funded startup may have received grants or initial sales revenue, it has not yet secured external funding from investors or venture capitalists
Pre-Money Valuation	In every funding round the company receive a pre-money valuation, which means how much it is worth before the investors put in their money. For example, if a startup is valued at $10M pre-money and it raises additional $2M, its post-money valuation will be $12M. There are a lot of factors to determine the pre-money valuation and it is a critical number in each funding round since it determines the dilution of the existing investors/founders
Pre-Seed	A financing round given to early stage startups prior to a Seed round, usually for the purpose of minimum viable product (MVP) development. The pre-seed stage usually refer to the ideation and/or team building stages of a company
Pre-Seed Round	The first external funding round in a startup's life. The money is raised in order to build a prototype of the initial MVP
Product Market Fit	The point where a startup find the right product for the right market with the right business model
Product Stage	The current development stage of the company's first product: Customer development, R&D, Clinical Trials, Alpha, Beta, Released
Profit Margin	A profit margin is a business metric that measure how much of a business revenue is retained as profit. Calculated by subtracting the expenses from the revenues and dividing the result by the revenus to get a percentage. (revenue - expenses)/revenue
Pros-Cons Matrix	A tool that helps you visualize the pros and cons solutions quickly and prevents teams from wasting time discussing too many options without moving forwards
Prototype	The first version of a product or technology that is being tested and from which later versions will be developed
Provisional Patent	A provisional patent application (PPA) is a document issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that helps protect a new invention from being copied during the 12-month period before a formal patent application is filed
QA	A stands for Quality Assurance. It's the process that comes at the end of the development cycle in the purpose of testing that there are no defects in a product
Qualified Marketing Traffic	This is a metric that separate the qualified leads from the overall traffic at your site. It's importat to measure this to understand the accuracy and efficiency of your marketing budget spend
Quick Assets	Quick assets are defined as the most liquid current assets that can easily be exchanged for cash. Assets like cash, Marketable securities (stocks, bonds etc) and Net Account Receivable
Quick Ratio	The quick ratio, also known as the acid-test ratio is a type of liquidity ratio, which measures the ability of a company to use its near cash or quick assets to extinguish or retire its current liabilities immediately. It is calculated by dividing the Quick Assets by the amount of liabilities a company have.
R&D	R&D, or RnD, stands for Research and Development. It's the depertment in an organization responsible for developing the next phase of products
Rachet	A ratchet in private equity is a mechanism to vary the amount of equity held by founders, managers and employees post-investment. In a venture capital context, ratchets operate as anti-dilution provisions. They protect early-stage investors from dilution by subsequent fundraisings at lower entry prices
Radical Innovation	A type of innovation where entirely new technical competencies are required to bring it to market, but the business model more or less stays the same. Significant R&D investments needed for new technologies to emerge as main competitive advantage. Radical innovation happens when a new technology completely disrupts existing business or economy and creates a new business model
Released	For the product being available for use by the target markets (and beyond)
Retention Rate	Retention rate looks at the number of customers at the end of a given time frame compared to the number of customers from the same cohort at the beginning of the same time frame. It's a metric that indicate how many users keep on using the product. Calculated by: Retention rate = (# of customers at the end of a given period – number of new customers) ÷ total # of customers at the beginning of that period
Revenue churn	Revenue churn, also known as monthly recurring revenue (MRR) churn, describes the loss of revenue from existing customers over a given period of time — Typically a month. To make sure your growth chart is moving up and to the right, you need to evaluate how much money you're losing from customers canceling or downgrading their subscriptions, as that directly impacts your revenue stream. the calculation goes as follows: Revenue Churn = (Lost revenue from existing customers in a given period / Total revenue from existing customers in the same period) x 100 This metric assist in predicting cashflow, runway, revealing any pricing issues etc.
Reverse Engineering	The practice of taking something apart in order to learn how it is working
Reverse Innovation	Reverse innovation refers to innovations that are first seen and used in emerging markets and only after that introduced to the developed markets
Reverse Merger	A reverse merger allows a company to go public without going through the lengthy and complex process of a conventional initial public offering. In a reverse merger, the company acquires the majority of the shares of a public shell company, effectively transforming the acquirer into a public company
Risk Analysis	Risk analysis refers to the process of identifying and assessing factors, either internal or external, that could potentially threaten the success or progress of a project or initiative. This includes determining the likelihood of a risk to occur and the magnitude of the potential impact
Roadmap	A visual representation of the innovation milestones and deliverables required to manage an organization’s transition from its current state to a future state over a specific time perio
Roadshow	The roadtrip founders go out for when trying to raise funds for their startup. During the short timeframe of a roadshow a founder (and their team) will jump from places and meet multiple investors
ROAS	ROAS stands for Return on Ad Spend. It's a metric that measure how much revenue is earned on every dollar spent on ads.
ROCE	ROCE stands for Return on Capital employed. Return on capital employed – sometimes referred to as the 'primary ratio' – is a financial ratio that is used to measure the profitability of a company and the efficiency with which it uses its capital. Put simply, it measures how good a business is at generating profits from capital. Measure by dividing the earning beofre interests and tax (EBIT) by the capital employed
ROI	Roi stands for Return on Investment. It's basically how much money you get back after you invest. ROI is calculated by dividing the returned amount by the invested amount.ROI is usually presented in precentages
Round #	The post seed rounds (or growth rounds) are numbered by the letters of the alphabet. Round A, followed by Round B etc.
ROA	ROA stands for Return on Assets. It's a profitability ratio that provides how much profit a company can generate from its assets. In other words, return on assets (ROA) measures how efficient a company's management is in earning a profit from their economic resources or assets on their balance sheet. ROA = Net Income / Total Assets
ROE	ROE stands for Return on Equity. It measures the profitability of a business in relation to its equity. ROE = Net income / Shareholder's equity
SaaS	SaaS stands for Software as a Service. It's a business model where a piece of software is lisenced on a monthly base and sold as a service instead of a product
SAFE	SAFE stands for Simple Agreement for Future Equity. It's an investment agreement written by Y combinator designed to simplify the legal part of an early investment round
SAM	SAM Stands for Serviceable Addressable Market. The segment of the TAM targeted by your products or services which is within your reach (usually geographic)
Scaling	To grow or expand a venture in a proportional and profitable way once Product-Market Fit has been conclusively demonstrated
Scoping	The first step in the innovation process which requires teams to align on key goals, responsibilities, teaming and outcomes for an innovation project to get the initial go-ahead from the organization
Scouting	The process of observing shifts and developments in the innovation ecosystem. The role includes collecting pertinent data, contextualizing change, identifying trends, technologies, start-ups, and potential partners that hold both impact and relevance
Scrum	A set of project management practices used in agile project development that emphasize daily communication and the flexible reassessment of plans that are carried out in short, iterative phases of work via a backlog
SDK	SDK stands for Software Development Kit. It's a package containing all the tools required by a developer in order to develop on a specific platform
SDR	SDR stands for Sales Development Rep. This is an entry level job in the sales devision. The SDRs are the reps that qualify the leads, run the demos and act as a filtering agent before the account managers are deployed.
Seat utilization rate	Seat utilization rates help measure whether customers get the most bang for their buck from your product. How to calculate it: Seat utilization rate = # of seats being used regularly ÷ total # of seats
Secondary funding	Secondary funding refers to the process of raising capital for a company that has already received initial investment or primary funding from investors or venture capitalists. This type of funding is typically obtained when the company needs additional capital to expand or scale its operations beyond what was initially planned on veritable notes
Seed Round	Seed round is one of the first external funding rounds in a startup's life. The money rasied in this round usually goes toward achieving product market fit or an initial proof of concept
Six Sigma	Six Sigma is a process that makes use of statistics and data analysis to analyze and reduce errors or defects. In this process, the purpose is to improve cycle times while reducing manufacturing defects to no more than 3.4 defects per million units or events
SLA	SLA stands for Service Level Agreement. If you are providing a service to a customer, this document will define all the terms and conditions of that service. An SLA is a good tool to also use internally between devisions to align on the responsibility of each and define the interface between them
SLG	SLG stands for Sales Led Growth. Sales-led growth relies on salespeople's personal touch and expertise to drive conversions. This approach often involves a more hands-on sales process, with sales reps actively engaging with prospects, conducting demos, and negotiating deals
Social Innovation	New ideas or strategies that are designed to meet different social needs, such as health or education
Solopreneur	Combining two words, "entrepreneur" and "solo", the term describes a person who has founded a business and runs it on their own. That is, no one else is helping them manage and grow the business. They handle all the company-related matters independently without external support, employees, or co-founders
SOM	SOM stands for Serviceable Obtainable Market which is the portion of SAM that you can capture
SPAC	SPAC stands for Special Purpose Acquisition Company. It is a company without commercial operations and is formed strictly to raise capital through an initial public offering (IPO) for the purpose of acquiring or merging with an existing company
Sprint	A time-boxed iteration of a development cycle used in Agile development in which a planned amount of work is completed by a team and made ready for review
SQL	SQL stands for Sales Qualified Leads. It means a prospect who has moved beyond the initial research phase, is most likely evaluating vendors, and is worth a direct sales follow-up. These are leads with real buying intentions.
Stakeholder Mapping	Identification of the internal decision makers and external customers/users whose needs and opinions must be taken into account throughout the innovation process
Stockholder	A stockholder, also referred to as a shareholder, is someone who possesses a company's shares (or specific corporate ownership units). This means that they get profit or dividends from these stocks and may have a vote when major decisions are made. They differ from stakeholders who have other forms of interest in the company apart from stocks
Strategic Investor	An organization financially invested in a company that provides greater value to it than financial revenue. These types of investments are usually higher
Sustaining Innovation	A type of innovation that exists in the current market and instead of creating new value networks, it rather improves and grows the existing ones
TAM	TAM stands fro the Total Addressable Market. The sum of all the revenues or market demand for a product. You must calculate this bottom up and explain how you build it because it's not about the size of the problem, but rather the size of the market for your product. The only true calculation is: Number of customers (where and who are your customers) * Your price (how do you know that your price is the right one, make sure you use your price). If you go top to bottom you will not get your TAM but rather someone else's… Make sure you are talking about the current market, and not the future or non-existing market
Tech Ecosystem	A tech ecosystem is a network of interconnected and interdependent diverse business entities. They come together to support each other and spur innovation sustainably. Many people understand the term ecosystem as it pertains to living organisms
Technology Adoption Life Cycle	The Technology Adoption Life Cycle is (first introduced by Geoffrey Moore in his book Crossing the Chasm), is a theory that explains why companies with disruptive products and technology often have difficulties with succeeding in the mainstream market
Technology Push	Starting the innovation process with inspiration drawn from new and existing technology in order to search for and connect with key market unmet needs and problems. This is typically a high-risk innovation process as outcomes may never align sufficiently with customer needs in order for them to be purchased as value
Term Sheet	A non-binding legal dicument describing the terms of an upcoming deal. Usually given by investors to a startup during a funding round
Three Horizons of Growth	The Three Horizons Framework, also known as the Three Horizons of Growth, consists of three horizons: Horizon #1: Maintain and defend the core business Horizon #2: Nurture emerging business Horizon #3: Create genuinely new business
Toyota Way	The Toyota Way is a comprehensive expression of the company's management philosophy, which is based on the two foundational principles of Continuous Improvement (kaizen) and Respect for People
Traction	A progress in your KPIs. Getting traction means identifying your important metrics and showing an improvement, preferrably constant and over time in them.
Transformational Innovation	Transformational innovation is rare and powerful. It transforms the way organizations do business and offers completely new value for many generations. Only 10% of innovations are transformational
Trend	A demand driver that represents new consumer attitudes, expectations, behaviors, or other market shifts that drive new change. Trends are an indication of market pull, guiding innovators in knowing what consumers need, desire, and occasionally demand
Trend Scouting	Trend scouting is an environmental scanning activity and refers to the systematic scanning of information related to emerging, evolving, and existing consumer needs and market pull that have impact and relevance in an organization’s environment. Trend scouting involves aggregating, assessing, and disseminating trend information to enhance innovation intelligence
UI	UI stands for User Interface. It's the part of the product whih the user uses to interact with the product
Unicorn	A unicorn is a startup that was valued at over $1B
Unit Economics	Unit economics describes a specific business model's revenues and costs in relation to an individual unit. A unit refers to any basic, quantifiable item that creates value for a business. Thus, unit economics demonstrates how much value each item—or “unit”—generates for the business
User Journey Map	A tool that maps out key customer steps or phases a user takes when moving through a particular product or service. It is designed to help teams identify key moments in the user experience and opportunities for continuous improvement
UX	UX stands for User Experience
Validation	The process of discovering if an idea has the potential to survive in the market. Typically, only the most critical assumptions related to an idea, prototype, or hypothesis are tested and reported on within a project team
Value Creation	The process of creating a product or service offering that solves a job to be done, need, pain or problem for a customer to such a degree that it will be purchased
Value Proposition	A clear and concise description of the key value a solution provides to a customer or user
VC	VC stands for Venture Capital. This is a subset of investments that focus on high risk ventures (like startups)
Vesting Schedule	The schedule that describes the vesting of equity or shares for a founder or employee
Viability	Economic viability is the point at which a sustainable and repeatable business model has been prototyped and validated by a project team
VoC	VoC stands for Voice of Customer. A role that makes sure the voice of the customer is heard within the company
VP	VP stands for Vice President
Waterfall	A software development methodology where the entire product development is executed from start to finish. This is an old development approach which was replaces by the agile approach for a faster and more responsive development
Whitepaper	A white paper is an informational document issued by a company or not-for-profit organization to promote or highlight the features of a solution, product, or service that it offers or plans to offer
Wireframe	An initial visual representation of the product, usualy a website
WTP	WTP stands for Willingness To Pay. It's a measurement that indicate how much a potential customer will be willing to pay for a product or service
DMU	DMU stands for Decision Making Unit. These are the group of people in an organization that are in charge of making the decision (usually a purchase). As a stsrtup who wants to sell you need to identify the members of this unit and understand each member's motivation. Usually you might encounter: the visionary, the technocrat, the influencer or sponser, the economic buyer and the decision maker (agai, probably the manager or sponser)
MANACT	MANACT stands for Money, Authority, Need, Ability, Competition, Time scale. These are the criteria sales peopl euse to qualify leads

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