
Ask HN: What are some 'startup lingo' you didn't know before? - ValentineC
I was inspired by this little discussion:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5732602<p>I'm a native English speaker myself, but I didn't know what a 'deck' was when [a management consultant] mentioned it to me at one of my first few startup events. (Normal, non-corporate people call it a PowerPoint presentation, I think.)<p>I'm hoping to compile a jargon/lingo cheat sheet for people new to the startup scene, so contributions and shares will be most welcome!
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neya
One of the most notable terms of the current start-up scenario is the
variation of the term 'hacker'.

The best example I can give you is 'Growth Hacker' (basically a marketing
guy/girl who does some extra work). So many start-ups and marketing teams
abuse this term so much that the value of a true hacker has become so vague.

It was confusing at first. But later on, you get used to it..

~~~
k-mcgrady
I always thought Growth Hacker was an engineer who specialised in scaling a
product (making sure the servers didn't fall down under load etc.) I guess the
OP's cheat sheet could come in handy! :)

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kmfrk
\- Vest (realized options)

\- Cliff (point in time where your options start vesting)

I still have to wrap my head around the different types of shares there are.

As an aside, InvestoPedia is, by far, the best online resource on financial
definitions and explanations. Use it often:
<http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cliffvesting.asp>.

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raldi
"Hockey stick" is a term for exponential growth that's just starting to
explode, named after the shape of its graph. As in, "Our user count just hit
two million, and it's a total hockey stick!"

The canonical kind looks like the stick in this orientation:

    
    
        ______/
    

Sometimes people jokingly use the term to refer to a graph that looks like a
hockey stick in this orientation:

    
    
         ______
        /
    

An example of that would be a product that's launched with great hype and sees
huge initial growth solely because of that, and then it quickly tapers off
because the product turns out to be a flop.

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depsypher
The first time I heard the word monetize (years ago) I thought it was was
silly and pointless. Of course I got used to it over time and now use it
myself.

Ideate on the other hand I'm not sure I'll ever be able to fully embrace.

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bjacokes
I compiled a jargon list when I did a summer internship in finance. They're
less frequently used in startups (thank god) but I still hear them used by
business types:

\- Human capital: "People", often referring to your employees.

\- Reach out: call or email.

\- Leverage: Basically equivalent to "use". "We will leverage our human
capital to generate exciting new products in this space." You should leverage
this word as frequently as possible when talking to finance people.

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sethammons
I'm fine with most of the terms and have come to accept them. The one that
bugs the ever-lovin' $#!+ out of me is convo instead of conversation. I don't
know if it wide spread and beyond start-ups, but it is the only place I've
heard it.

~~~
leetrout
I'm with you... add to it preso/prezo. Hate it so much.

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SilconValleyVC
There are two main types of liquidation preferences. First Participating vs.
Non-Participating. Best for us (VCs) (worse for founders): Participating
Preferred (i.e. VCs get our liquidation preferences PLUS we "double dip" and
share pro-rate in anything above). Non-participating means basically that we
take our pick: either the Liquidation Preference (usually amount VCs invested,
sometimes though 2x or 3x etc.) or share pro-rate as if we had converted to
common. So we take our pick of the higher amount

Participating Preferred: We get best of both worlds.

~~~
rdl
Of course, for a VC investing in an early round, it's actually often more in
the VC's long-term interests to take entrepreneur friendly terms, since later
rounds are never _less_ favorable to entrepreneurs and previous investors than
previous rounds.

So, if you go in at 2-3x PP in the A, you're basically dooming yourself to
even higher multiples in future financings. I guess you could pro-rata, but
still, the A tends to be significant.

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batgaijin
YOLO

~~~
angersock
You only launch once?

You often lose owners?

Y'all ogle ladies often?

You optimize Linux operations?

~~~
krapp
You Only Libre Office.

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pkmehta
Saw this one earlier by Fogcreek guy - TOMA where his phrase was that they'd
use their blogging to "achieve TOMA" -- still have no idea what it is

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5732024>

~~~
michaelmior
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOMA>

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rogerbinns
My pet peeve is "resources". It is usually used to mean people (and not having
enough of them), but somehow abstracts away the messy nature of humans by
implying they are a commodity no different than other resources like iron or
coal.

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dragos2
I read some comments around here, and I don't get 50% of what you guys are
saying. So maybe, it's a good idea for someone to create a quick dictionary-
like webapp to explain the startup lingo and/or HN lingo?

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worldsayshi
Bootstrap is a word that irks me. A language that can compile itself. Or a
startup that is self sufficient? Ok. But then some javascript framework. And a
hundred other uses. What's up with that?

~~~
IsaacL
The original meaning came from one of the stories of Baron Münchhausen where
he supposedly fell into a bog but escaped by pulling himself up by his own
bootstraps. So the basic concept of self-sufficiency gives you the meaning of
bootstrapping a compiler, or your OS's bootstrap loader, or a bootstrapped
startup. Stuff like Twitter Bootstrap does stretch the meaning somewhat (I
guess the idea is that's it's an easy way to get started on your website).

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t0
MVP, POC, Series A, Seed, Incubator, VC, SaaS, PaaS, RFP, NDA

~~~
C1D
To add on to what you said: Angel, lean startup, startup, YC, pivot, exit,
zombie startup

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nilsbunger
Pivot, soft-launch, lipstick on a pig, circle back, 'noodle on it' (older?),
ideate, high and to the right, CCA, channel model, freemium, cap table, term
sheet

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calpaterson
Series A - when you first take money from venture capitalists (even if
technically it's "Series B" because a previous round was called your Series A)

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yesimahuman
Adding one to the list: MRR - monthly recurring revenue

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angersock
I'll cheerfully parade my ignorance.

~

pre-money, post-money, pivot, vertical, terms sheet, angel, dilution

~

It'd be fun to do both a useful and a funny version.

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georgespencer
Prefs (liquidation preferences)

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Duckpaddle2
Lifestyle business sent us to Google the term when we first encountered it.

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kwntm
churn - for a recurring service the number of people who leave in a given time
period. Also represented as a percentage of total customers at the beginning
of the time period. related: leaky bucket.

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hack_edu
Marchitecture and Marketeering are my newest two "favourites."

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jsftw
grin fucker

[http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/03/28/dont-be-a-
grin...](http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/03/28/dont-be-a-grin-fucker/)

~~~
pcrh
That is such an apt phrase to describe certain people.

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pbharrin
talent acquisition or acquihire. Even if I did know what that meant I didn't
know how to spot one initially.

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dbarlett
SAS 70/SSAE 16, runway, ARPU

~~~
seiji
ARPU, ARPPU, MAU, DAU, MAUDAU, MUU, ping me

You should hear these jokers have actual conversations with each other.

~~~
narsil
For anyone wondering:

    
    
      ARPU: Average Revenue Per User
      ARPPU: Average Revenue Per Paying User
      MAU: Monthly Active Users
      DAU: Daily Active Users
      MUU: Monthly Unique Users

~~~
ricardobeat
The abbreviations take just as long to say out loud as their meaning.

~~~
walshemj
Not in German they don't :-) I actually use the company with the longest name
in the world as a test for validating web input forms.

Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerk-
bauunterbeamtengesellschaft

which is "association of subordinate officials of the head office management
of the Danube steamboat electrical services"

It also tests that you handle the high ascci characters properly

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mehrzad
Disrupt.

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antidaily
Blocking rights

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wes-k
B2B, B2C, B2B2C

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jschuur
Tranche.

