acquisition (n.)
when one company buys considerable percentage (51% or higher) of another company which can be either agreed upon or not.
angel investor (n.)
a person who makes a relatively smaller amount of investment in a startup company in the early stage usually before the seed years.
benchmark (n.)
a standard according to which a company measures and evaluates its performance and take corrective measures if required.
board of directors (n.)
a group of people who has the responsibility to administer company operation; generally the board of directors in a startup company comprises of investors and mentors
bootstrapped (adj.)
derived from the phrase “pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps.” A startup is called bootstrapped if the money that has been invested in the business comes from inside (i.e. founder, company revenue)
capital (n.)
monetary assets available at present for financing company operation. It is needed for both starting and growing a business.
co-founder (n.)
when two or more people join together to start a new business, charity or other types of enterprise, they are called co-founders.
crowdfunding (n.)
raising funds for a company from individual donors through an online platform (i.e. kickstarter.com)
disruption/disruptive innovation (n.)
a sudden innovation-technological or otherwise-that brings about unprecedented changes in a particular business scenario. The mass availability of internet, for example, disrupted businesses all over the world in the eighties.
e-commerce (n.)
business conducted through electronic appliances (i.e. computers, telephones, barcode readers, ATMs) without using paper documents. In fact, an important thing to note here is that, e-commerce doesn’t necessarily mean internet business. It can take place with or without the use of internet.
incubator (n.)
an organization that provides assistance to early stage companies in operating and managing the business. Incubators usually require equity in return.
IPO (n.)
IPO stands for initial public offering. When private companies make IPOs, they offer company shares to security exchanges or to the public. It is the point where startups stop being startups and go public.
liquidation (n.)
the process of dissolving a company by selling off all of its assets
monetization (n.)
a process to measure how difficult it is to liquidate a product
portfolio company (n.)
term used to indicate a company in which a particular venture capital firm has invested.
recapitalization (n.)
a corporate reorganization of a company’s capital structure by changing the debt-equity combination.
return on investment (n.)
This is the much-talked-about "return on investment." It's the money an investor gets back as a percentage of the money he or she has invested in a venture.
startup (n.)
a startup company is a company in the early stages of operations. Startups are usually seeking to solve a problem of fill a need, but there is no hard-and-fast rule for what makes a startup. A company is considered a startup until they stop referring to themselves as a startup.
valuation (n.)
A process by which a company’s worth or value is measured. An analyst will examine a number of things for valuation which includes management team, capital structure, revenue and potential revenue.
venture capital (n.)
investments made by venture capital firms in emerging small, high-risk startup companies
vesting
When an employee of a company gains rights to stock options and contributions provided by the employer. The rights typically gain value (vest) over time until they reach their full value after a pre-determined amount of time.
Sources: FI blog
