The startup world is filled with fancy terms, near-indiscipherable slang, and some critical words that any entrepreneur simply needs to know. To help make sense of the madness, we've created a Startup Glossary with all of the most important startup-related terms. Each section of our glossary is based on a stage in the startup process - from the earliest Ideation phase to successful scaling - and contains all relevant terms for each given phase.
Hungry for more startup terms? Take a look at all ten sections of our Startup Glossary.
The visions and ideas stage is the earliest stage of a startup, where entrepreneurs enter the brainstorming process and begin to lay the foundations for a successful business. This is perhaps the most important phase of building a startup, as choosing a weak idea for a startup can lead to tons of lost time, futility, and frustration.
Vision and Ideas
Alligator Arms - A state in which someone is unwilling to reach outside their comfort zone.
Apportunity - Opportunity to improve an app or turn it into something more desireable.
Boiling the Ocean - Phrase that describes an idea that is either too broad or trying to achieve too much.
Braindrawing - A type of visual brainstorming where a group of people sketches ideas for designs and visual concepts. (see more)
Brainwriting - Method to quickly brainstorm by having a group of people write down their ideas and share them anonymously. (see more)
Capital - Cash, goods, and assets at one’s disposal.
Challenger Brainstorm - A brainstorm method where a group lists all of their assumptions and attempt to invalidate them. (see more)
Chicken and Egg Dilemma - Situation where users are necessary to create content in order to attract more users.
Creative Intelligence - Ability to reach creative solutions by framing problems in new ways. (see more)
Deepness - A measurement of how much value an idea can ultimately deliver.
Discoverability - How people will learn about a product.
Disruptive - The creation of a new market that overcomes an existing one.
Ecopreneur - Entrepreneur who focuses on environmentally friendly products.
First Mover Advantage - Advantage gained by being the first company in a particular market space.
Founder - Entrepreneurs who have started a venture.
Freemium - Free service with paid features.
Gamification - Adding game elements to a non-game service in an attempt to increase engagement. (Watch this video on mastering gamification to learn more)
Generation Stage - The stage of creating ideas.
Greenfield - A market area with no restraints or previous solution attempts.
Ground Floor - Earliest possible startup phase.
Groupthink - Consensus of opinion without critical reasoning. This is to be avoided at all costs, as it damages creativity and idea generation. (see more)
Ideation - The creative process of generating, developing, and communicating ideas. (see also: Generation Stage)
Innovation - Successful introduction of a new change that adds value.
Innovator - An individual who introduces valuable changes.
Integrative Thinking - Problem-solving method that focuses on defining the relationship between two variable and determining causality. (see more)
Intrapreneur - Someone who practices entrepreneurship within a large company.
Invention - The creation of new forms. An idea that has become a reality.
Lifestyle Business - Company that runs itself and makes a profit, but will never grow into something gigantic.
Low Hanging Fruit - Task with a large positive potential with few drawbacks. In the context of startup ideation, this means an idea which is in a market area where competition is low.
Magic Quadrant - A complete, well-crafted vision with the means to execute it - the perfect startup idea. This notion is based on the Magic Quadrant, created by the firm Gartner, which rates companies based on their completeness of vision versus their ability to execute. (see more)
Market - People who want a product.
Meatspace - The opposite of cyberspace - real life!
Medici Idea - Idea in a seemingly isolated field that interconnects with a different field and fixes their problems.
Mind Map - A diagram used to display information, centering on a certain word or theme. (see more)
Mission Statement - A statement which is used as a way of communicating the purpose of an organization. (see more)
Monetization - A measure of how difficult it is to extract money from a product.
Obviousness - Clarity that everyone should be using a given product.
Pivot - To change the direction of a project, or pursue a different strategy.
Software as a Service (SaaS) - Technological service that is virtually hosted.
Scalability - The potential for a product or service to be expanded.
Secret Sauce - The factor which gives a company or product a unique competitive advantage.
Sitcom Startup Idea - A forced startup idea born of desire to create something rather than to solve a real problem.
Social Entrepreneur - A person who notices a social problem and attempts to bring about social change as a solution.
Startup - A company in an early stage of development.
SWOT - An analysis of a team’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. (see more)
Tentpole - A project whose success uplifts other similar projects.
Tractability - A measurement of how hard it will be to launch a functional version 1.0.
Unicorn - A tech company with a value higher than $1bn. (see more)
Venture - An endeavor involving a degree of risk and reward.
Wantrapreneur - Someone who wants to be an entrepreneur or enjoys the status of calling themself an entrepreneur, but lacks the direction, determination, or work ethic required to actually execute and build an impactful business.
Well - A narrow startup that aims to do one thing very effectively and caters to a specific audience.
Wideness - An estimation of how many people will eventually use a product.
Interested to see what comes next? Click the button below to look at all ten sections of our Startup Glossary.
