Ditch the confusion! Navigate the Shark Tank India waters with ease using our comprehensive Startup Glossary for every Startup Founder. Impress the Sharks & score funding.

Accelerator: A short-term program that provides support and resources to help startups grow.

Acqui-hiring: The practice of acquiring a company primarily for its talent, rather than its products or services.

Angel investor / Business angel: An individual who provides financial support to startups in exchange for equity.

Bootstrapped: A startup that is self-funded and does not rely on external investment.

Bootstrapping: Starting a business with limited financial resources and relying on self-funding.

Bridge loan / Swing loan: A short-term loan used to cover expenses until a longer-term financing option becomes available.

Burn rate / Run rate: The rate at which a startup is spending its available funds.

Churn rate: The rate at which customers stop using a product or service.

Cliff: A point in time when certain terms of a contract or agreement become effective.

Cottage business/industry: A small-scale business or industry operated from a home or small workspace.

Crowdfunding: The practice of funding a project or venture by raising small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the internet.

Disruptive technology: A technology that significantly changes the way a market operates or creates new markets.

Due diligence: The investigation or exercise of care that a reasonable business or person is normally expected to take before entering into an agreement or contract with another party or an act with a certain standard of care.

Exit: The process of selling or divesting a startup, often through an acquisition or IPO.

Exit strategy: A plan for how a startup will be sold, merged, or otherwise exited.

Founder: The person who establishes a startup and is typically involved in its initial development.

Freemium: A business model that offers a free version of a product or service, with premium features available for a fee.

Growth hacking: A process of rapid experimentation across marketing channels, product development, and customer experience to identify the most efficient ways to grow a business.

Hockey stick: A graph that shows rapid growth in a business's revenue or user base.

Incubator: An organization that provides support and resources to early-stage startups.

Intellectual property (IP): Creations of the mind, such as inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, and symbols, names, and images used in commerce.

IPO (initial public offering) / “Go public”: The process of selling shares of a private company to the public, typically through an exchange.

Iteration: The process of making incremental improvements to a product or service based on feedback and testing.

Launch: The process of introducing a new product or service to the market.

Lean startup: A methodology for building and scaling startups that emphasizes rapid experimentation and customer feedback.

Liquidation: The process of winding up a startup's affairs and distributing its assets.

Merger: The combination of two or more companies into a single entity.

MOAT: MOAT in business stands for "Margin Of Annual Turnover." It refers to the percentage difference between the cost of goods sold and the sales revenue generated, indicating a company's operational efficiency and profitability. A higher MOAT usually signifies a stronger competitive advantage and sustainable business performance. Monitoring and improving this metric can help businesses assess their financial health and make informed decisions to optimize their operations.

MVP (Minimum Viable Product): A basic version of a product that is used to collect feedback and validate assumptions.

NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement): A legal contract that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict access to or by third parties.

Pitch: A presentation of a business idea to potential investors or partners.

Pivot: A fundamental change in a business strategy or model.

Run rate: A company's financial performance for a specific period extrapolated to a longer period.

Runway: The amount of time until a startup exhausts its available funding.

Scalability: The capability of a startup to handle a growing amount of work or its potential to be enlarged to accommodate that growth.

Seed round: The first official equity funding stage.

Stealth mode: A startup's temporary state of secretiveness, usually undertaken to avoid alerting competitors to a new product or service.

Sweat equity: The contribution of effort to a startup in lieu of traditional compensation.

Term sheet: A non-binding agreement setting forth the basic terms and conditions under which an investment will be made.

Traction: The evidence that a startup is gaining market share and customer acceptance.

Unicorn: A privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion.

Valuation: The process of determining the economic value of a startup.

Vesting: The process by which an employee earns the right to receive benefits, such as stock options or retirement funds, over time.