Essential startup business vocabulary

Nowadays, everyone must have heard of the term “Start Up”. Startup businesses are enterprises that begin from small origins and emphasize rapid growth potential. They are designed to be easily repeatable and scalable, utilizing technology or innovations as their core business model. They usually emerge from ideas that solve everyday problems or identify business opportunities that have never been thought of or actualized before.

In the start-up world, there are countless unique terms used that general audiences may not be so familiar with. Today we will get to know the meanings of various start-up vocabulary.

1. Founder – The founder of a company. Co-founders refer to joint founders.

2. Angel Investor – An investor who provides capital for startups in exchange for ownership equity or convertible debt. They often provide advice and funding during the early stages.

3. Venture Capital – A form of financing provided by firms or institutional investors to startups and small businesses with strong growth potential in exchange for equity ownership.

4. Keyman – An influential person whose decisions matter a great deal in an organization. This term is also well recognized in the business world.

5. Unicorn – A startup company valued at over $1 billion USD or around 31,000 million baht.

6. Pitching – Presenting a business idea or plan to potential investors to convince them to invest.

7. Machine Learning – Algorithms that allow computer systems to learn and improve from experience without explicit programming. This is an emerging field.

8. Hackathon – A portmanteau of “hacking” and “marathon”, it refers to invention competitions to collaboratively code and build innovative products and solutions.

9. Prototype – A preliminary model of a product or service based on an idea that is then tested with target users.

10. Burn Rate – The rate at which a company is spending its financing before generating positive cash flow.