Startup Dictionary
200 essential startup, funding, marketing, and growth terms — explained in plain English.
A
- Angel Investor
- An individual who invests their own money in startups
- Acquisition
- When one company buys another company
- Advertising
- Paid promotion of products, services, or brands
- Awareness
- Stage where a customer first learns about a brand or product
- Acquisition
- Process of gaining new customers
- ARPU
- Average Revenue Per User
- AOV
- Average Order Value
- AEO
- Answer Engine Optimization; optimizing content for answer-focused search experiences
- Attribution
- Determining which marketing activities contributed to a conversion
- Attribution Model
- Method used to assign credit for conversions across marketing touchpoints
- Analytics
- Collecting and analyzing business or customer data
- A/B Testing
- Comparing two versions to see which performs better
- Activation
- Point when a new user experiences the product's core value
- Adoption
- Extent to which customers start using a product or feature
- ARR
- Annual Recurring Revenue
- ACV
- Annual Contract Value
B
- Business Model
- How a company creates and earns money
- Burn Rate
- How quickly a startup spends its available money
- Bootstrapping
- Building a company using the founders' own money and business revenue
- Branding
- Building a recognizable identity and perception for a business
- Brand Equity
- Value created by a strong brand
- Brand Awareness
- How familiar customers are with a brand
- Brand Identity
- Visual and verbal elements that represent a brand
- Brand Voice
- The style and personality used in brand communication
- Brand Loyalty
- When customers repeatedly choose the same brand
- BOFU
- Bottom of Funnel; stage focused on purchase
- Backlink
- Link from another website to your website
- Benchmark
- Reference point used to compare performance
- B2B
- Business-to-Business; selling to other companies
- B2C
- Business-to-Consumer; selling directly to consumers
- B2B2C
- Business model where one business reaches consumers through another business
- Benchmarking
- Comparing business performance against competitors or standards
C
- Co-founder
- Someone who starts a company with another founder
- Cash Flow
- Money moving into and out of a business
- Cap Table
- Table showing ownership of a company
- Competitor
- Another business targeting the same customers
- Competitive Advantage
- A factor that helps a company compete effectively
- Customer
- Person or business that buys a product or service
- Consumer
- Person who uses a product or service
- Campaign
- Planned marketing activities around a specific objective
- Content Marketing
- Using useful content to attract and engage customers
- Content Strategy
- Plan for creating, distributing, and managing content
- Copywriting
- Writing designed to persuade or drive action
- Creative
- Marketing material such as images, videos, or ad copy
- CTA
- Call to Action; instruction asking users to take an action
- Conversion
- When a user completes a desired action
- Conversion Rate
- Percentage of users who complete a desired action
- CRO
- Conversion Rate Optimization; improving conversion performance
- Customer Journey
- Steps a customer takes from awareness to purchase and beyond
- Consideration
- Stage where customers evaluate possible solutions
- Churn
- Customers who stop using or paying for a service
- Churn Rate
- Percentage of customers lost during a period
- CAC
- Customer Acquisition Cost; average cost to acquire one customer
- CPC
- Cost Per Click
- CPM
- Cost Per Thousand Impressions
- CPA
- Cost Per Acquisition or Action
- CPL
- Cost Per Lead
- CTR
- Click-Through Rate
- CVR
- Conversion Rate
- Cohort
- Group of users sharing a common characteristic or start date
- Cohort Analysis
- Studying the behavior of specific user groups over time
- Cross-selling
- Encouraging customers to buy related products or services
- CRM
- Customer Relationship Management system
- Channel
- Method used to reach or sell to customers
D
- Dilution
- Reduction in an owner's percentage of company ownership
- Decacorn
- Private company valued at $10 billion or more
- Disruption
- Major change that challenges an existing industry or business model
- Demographics
- Customer characteristics such as age, income, and location
- Domain Authority
- Third-party metric estimating a website's ranking strength
- Dashboard
- Visual display of important business metrics
- DAU
- Daily Active Users
- D2C
- Direct-to-Consumer; selling directly without traditional intermediaries
- Deal
- Potential or completed sales transaction
- Distribution
- Process of getting a product to customers
E
- Entrepreneur
- A person who starts and runs a business
- Equity
- Ownership in a company
- Exit
- When founders or investors sell their ownership
- Engagement
- User interactions such as likes, comments, shares, or clicks
- Experiment
- Controlled test used to learn what works
- Engagement Rate
- Percentage of users who interact with content or a product
- Expansion
- Growing into new markets, products, or customer segments
F
- Founder
- A person who starts a company
- Funding
- Money raised to support a business
- Feature
- A specific function or capability of a product
- Funnel
- Stages a customer moves through before buying
- Flywheel
- Growth system where each stage helps strengthen the next
- Freemium
- Business model offering a free version with paid upgrades
G
- GEO
- Generative Engine Optimization; improving visibility in AI-generated search results
- Growth
- Increase in customers, revenue, users, or other business measures
- Growth Hacking
- Rapid experimentation to find scalable growth opportunities
- Go-to-Market
- Plan for launching and selling a product
- GTM Strategy
- Detailed approach for reaching target customers and generating sales
H
- Hypothesis
- Testable assumption about what may happen
I
- Investment
- Money put into a business expecting future returns
- Investor
- A person or organization that provides investment money
- IPO
- When a private company first sells shares publicly
- Innovation
- Creating or improving products, services, or processes
- ICP
- Ideal Customer Profile; description of the best-fit customer
- Impression
- One instance of an advertisement or content being displayed
K
- Keyword
- Search term used by people in a search engine
- KPI
- Key Performance Indicator used to measure performance
L
- Loss
- When expenses are higher than revenue
- Lead
- Potential customer who shows interest
- Lead Generation
- Process of attracting potential customers
- Lead Nurturing
- Building relationships with potential customers until they are ready to buy
- LTV
- Lifetime Value; expected revenue from a customer over their relationship
- LTV:CAC
- Comparison between customer lifetime value and acquisition cost
- Localization
- Adapting a product or marketing for a specific market or culture
M
- Margin
- The difference between revenue and costs, usually shown as a percentage
- Merger
- When two companies combine into one business
- MVP
- Minimum Viable Product; basic version used to test an idea
- Market Share
- Percentage of a market controlled by a company
- Moat
- A long-term advantage that is difficult for competitors to copy
- Marketing
- Activities used to attract and retain customers
- MQL
- Marketing Qualified Lead; lead showing meaningful marketing interest
- MOFU
- Middle of Funnel; stage focused on consideration
- Metric
- A measurable value used to track performance
- MAU
- Monthly Active Users
- MRR
- Monthly Recurring Revenue
- Monetization
- Process of generating revenue from a product, audience, or asset
- Marketplace
- Platform connecting buyers and sellers
- Market Entry
- Process of entering a new market or geography
N
- Niche
- A specific, focused market segment
- North Star Metric
- Main metric representing the core value a product provides
- Network Effect
- Product becomes more valuable as more people use it
O
- Organic Traffic
- Visitors who arrive without directly paying for the visit
- Onboarding
- Process of helping new users understand and start using a product
P
- Profit
- Money left after business expenses are paid
- Pre-seed
- Funding raised before or at the very early startup stage
- Pivot
- A major change in a company's product or business strategy
- Product-Market Fit
- When a product strongly meets market demand
- Product
- Something a company sells to customers
- Persona
- Fictional profile representing a target customer
- Psychographics
- Customer interests, attitudes, values, and lifestyle
- Positioning
- How a brand wants customers to perceive it
- Promotion
- Activity designed to increase awareness or sales
- Prospect
- Potential customer who fits the target market
- Paid Traffic
- Visitors acquired through paid advertising
- PPC
- Pay-Per-Click advertising
- Product-Led Growth
- Growth driven primarily by product usage and customer experience
- Pricing Strategy
- Method used to decide how much to charge customers
- Platform
- Product or system that enables interactions between users or businesses
- Pipeline
- Collection of potential sales opportunities
- Partnership
- Business relationship where companies work together
Q
- Qualified Lead
- Lead that meets specific criteria for becoming a customer
R
- Revenue
- Money a company earns from its products or services
- Runway
- How long a company can operate before running out of money
- Retention
- Keeping existing customers over time
- ROAS
- Return on Ad Spend; revenue generated per unit of advertising spend
- ROI
- Return on Investment
- Reach
- Number of unique people who see content or advertising
- Remarketing
- Showing ads to people who previously interacted with a business
- Retargeting
- Advertising again to previous website or product visitors
- Referral
- Customer recommendation that brings another customer
- Retention Rate
- Percentage of customers or users who remain active
- Recurring Revenue
- Revenue received repeatedly from customers
S
- Startup
- A new business built to solve a problem or serve a market
- Seed Funding
- Early-stage funding used to develop a startup
- Series A
- Funding round usually focused on scaling a proven business
- Series B
- Funding round generally used for further expansion
- Series C
- Later-stage funding used for major expansion or acquisitions
- Stake
- A share or ownership interest in a company
- Scale-up
- A company growing rapidly after establishing its business model
- Scalability
- Ability to grow without costs increasing at the same rate
- SAM
- Serviceable Available Market; portion of the market a company can target
- SOM
- Serviceable Obtainable Market; realistic portion a company can capture
- Service
- Work provided to customers in exchange for money
- Segmentation
- Dividing customers into groups based on shared characteristics
- SQL
- Sales Qualified Lead; lead considered ready for sales contact
- SEO
- Search Engine Optimization; improving visibility in search engines
- SERP
- Search Engine Results Page
- Search Intent
- The reason behind a user's search
- SEM
- Search Engine Marketing
- Stickiness
- How frequently users return to a product
- Subscription
- Recurring payment for continued access to a product or service
- SaaS
- Software as a Service; software delivered through subscription or online access
- Sales Funnel
- Process that moves prospects toward becoming customers
- Sales Cycle
- Time and process required to close a sale
- Sales Enablement
- Resources and processes that help sales teams sell effectively
- Strategic Partnership
- Partnership designed to support important long-term business goals
- Strategy
- A planned approach for achieving a business objective
T
- Term Sheet
- Document outlining key terms of a proposed investment
- TAM
- Total Addressable Market; entire potential market
- Target Market
- Group of customers a business wants to reach
- TOFU
- Top of Funnel; stage focused on awareness
- Touchpoint
- Any interaction between a customer and a brand
- Technical SEO
- SEO focused on website structure, crawling, indexing, and performance
- Traction
- Evidence that a business is gaining customers or market demand
U
- Unicorn
- Private startup valued at $1 billion or more
- USP
- Unique Selling Proposition; what makes an offering different
- User
- Person who interacts with a product or platform
- Upselling
- Encouraging customers to buy a higher-value version
V
- Venture
- A business project involving risk and potential growth
- Valuation
- Estimated financial value of a company
- Venture Capital
- Investment in startups with high growth potential
- VC
- Short form of Venture Capital or Venture Capitalist
- Value Proposition
- The main benefit a product promises to customers
- Validation
- Testing whether an idea or assumption is correct
- Viral Growth
- Growth driven by users encouraging other users to join
- Virality
- Ability of a product or content to spread through users