Equity
a portion of ownership/share of ownership in a company.
""We are offering you a 5% Equity stake in the company in the form of stock options""
#finance
15 entries
Runway
The distance between now and the moment everyone quietly updates their LinkedIn.
"We have eight months of runway, which finance calls four."
Burn rate
How fast the company sets investor money on fire to stay warm.
"Our burn rate is fine if you do not think about it, which is the strategy."
EBITDA
Earnings before all the parts that make the earnings look bad.
"We are profitable on an EBITDA basis, ignoring rent, payroll, and reality."
Down round
A funding event celebrated in the press release and mourned in the cap table.
"We raised at a down round, or as the email called it, a strategic recalibration."
Cap table
A spreadsheet that quietly decides who in this room actually got rich.
"I read the cap table once and never felt the same about my equity."
Pro forma
Numbers describing a future that exists only in the deck.
"The pro forma has us at a billion in revenue by a year that keeps moving."
Cost center
What finance calls your entire team right before the reorg.
"We got reclassified from strategic to cost center on a Tuesday."
Haircut
A polite word for the money you were promised getting noticeably shorter.
"The valuation took a haircut. It is basically bald now."
Bridge round
Emergency funding to reach the next funding you also cannot reach.
"We are raising a bridge round to bridge to the bridge."
Synergies
The savings a merger promises and the layoffs it actually delivers.
"The synergies were realized. The synergies were the whole Greg department."
Pipeline
A list of deals that are all closing very soon and never do.
"The pipeline is healthy, said the rep with one real lead."
Churn
The polite term for customers quietly leaving and never coming back.
"Churn is up, but engagement is also up, mostly people leaving."
ROI
Return On Investment. The number you invent to justify the thing you already bought.
"The ROI on the offsite was strong, mostly in vibes."
SME
Small or Medium Enterprise. Big enough to have meetings, small enough to feel them.
"We sell to the SME market, which means everyone is overworked, including us."