Inglês para startups: vocabulário essencial

"seed round"

The earliest stage of formal startup funding, typically provided by angel investors or early-stage venture funds to build the first product.

"We closed our seed round of $1.2 million to hire two engineers and launch a beta version."

"Series A"

The first significant round of venture capital funding, usually raised after a startup has shown early traction and a scalable business model.

"After 18 months of strong user growth, the team raised a $9 million Series A to expand to new markets."

"runway"

The amount of time a startup can continue operating before it runs out of cash, based on its current burn rate.

"With only six months of runway left, the founders accelerated fundraising talks with three VCs."

"term sheet"

A non-binding agreement outlining the key terms and conditions under which an investor will make an investment.

"The VC sent over a term sheet with a $5 million pre-money valuation and a 20% equity stake."

"dilution"

The reduction in existing shareholders' ownership percentage that occurs when a company issues new shares to investors.

"Founders must weigh the benefits of raising more capital against the dilution of their equity stake."

"cap table"

A spreadsheet or table that shows the ownership stakes, equity percentages, and dilution of all shareholders in a company.

"Before the new round closed, the legal team updated the cap table to reflect the convertible notes."

"angel investor"

A high-net-worth individual who provides early-stage startup funding in exchange for equity or convertible debt.

"A local angel investor wrote the first $250,000 check that allowed the team to quit their day jobs."

"convertible note"

A short-term debt instrument that converts into equity — typically during a future funding round — rather than being repaid in cash.

"We raised $500,000 on a convertible note with a 20% discount cap ahead of our priced round."

"product-market fit"

The degree to which a product satisfies a strong market demand, evidenced by rapid organic growth and high user retention.

"After three pivots, the team finally found product-market fit when retention rates jumped to 65%."

"pivot"

A fundamental change in a startup's business strategy, product, or target market in response to market feedback.

"The company pivoted from a B2C app to a B2B SaaS platform after struggling to monetise individual users."

"freemium"

A pricing model where the basic product is offered for free and users pay for premium features or expanded usage.

"The freemium model drove rapid signups, and 8% of free users eventually converted to paid plans."

"churn rate"

The percentage of customers who cancel their subscriptions or stop using a product during a given time period.

"The team reduced monthly churn rate from 6% to 2% by improving the onboarding flow."

"unit economics"

The direct revenues and costs associated with a single unit of a business model, used to assess fundamental profitability.

"Investors asked to see unit economics to determine whether each new customer would eventually be profitable."

"go-to-market strategy"

The plan a company uses to reach target customers and achieve competitive advantage when launching a product or entering a market.

"Their go-to-market strategy focused on a narrow niche of enterprise HR teams before expanding broadly."

"virality"

The tendency of a product to spread from user to user through referrals, social sharing, or built-in network effects.

"The app's virality was built in: every time someone signed a contract, the recipient was prompted to try the tool."

"ARR"

Annual Recurring Revenue — the value of a company's subscription-based revenue normalised to a one-year period.

"The SaaS startup crossed $1 million ARR within 14 months of launch, attracting strong VC interest."

"MVP"

Minimum Viable Product — the simplest version of a product that can be released to test a core hypothesis with real users.

"They built an MVP in six weeks — just a landing page and a manual backend — to validate willingness to pay."

"sprint"

A fixed, short development cycle (usually one or two weeks) in which a team completes a defined set of tasks.

"The engineering team runs two-week sprints and holds a retrospective every Friday afternoon."

"user story"

A short, plain-language description of a feature written from the perspective of the end user to guide development.

"The product manager wrote the user story: 'As a freelancer, I want to send invoices in one click so I can get paid faster.'"

"technical debt"

The implied cost of rework caused by choosing a quick or easy solution now instead of a better approach that would take longer.

"Years of moving fast had accumulated so much technical debt that new features took three times as long to ship."

"A/B testing"

A controlled experiment in which two versions of a product element are shown to different user segments to determine which performs better.

"A/B testing revealed that the green call-to-action button increased sign-ups by 34% versus the original blue version."

"roadmap"

A high-level visual plan that outlines the vision, direction, priorities, and progress of a product over time.

"The team shared the product roadmap with investors to show how planned features would drive ARR growth."

"ship"

To release or deploy a product, feature, or update to users; widely used as an informal verb in startup culture.

"The CEO's motto was simple: ship fast, learn fast, and fix fast."

"API"

Application Programming Interface — a set of rules that allows different software applications to communicate and share data with each other.

"By exposing a public API, the startup enabled third-party developers to build integrations and extend the platform."

"equity compensation"

Payment to employees in the form of company shares or stock options, aligning their interests with the company's long-term success.

"The engineer accepted a lower base salary in exchange for a generous equity compensation package."

"vesting schedule"

The timeline over which an employee earns ownership of their granted stock options, typically four years with a one-year cliff.

"Under the standard vesting schedule, she would own 25% of her options after her first year at the company."

"culture fit"

The alignment between a candidate's values, behaviours, and working style and the company's culture and team norms.

"The hiring panel ranked culture fit alongside technical skills when evaluating candidates for the early team."

"remote-first"

An organisational model where remote work is the default rather than an exception, with processes designed around distributed teams.

"Being remote-first allowed the startup to hire the best engineers regardless of their physical location."

"OKRs"

Objectives and Key Results — a goal-setting framework that defines measurable outcomes to focus and align team efforts.

"The company rolled out OKRs company-wide after struggling to keep every team aligned on quarterly priorities."

"flat hierarchy"

An organisational structure with few or no middle management layers, giving employees more autonomy and direct access to leadership.

"The flat hierarchy meant engineers could propose and ship features without going through three approval layers."

"burn rate"

The rate at which a startup spends its cash reserves, typically expressed as the monthly net cash outflow.

"After hiring aggressively, the burn rate doubled to $400,000 a month, compressing the runway to eight months."

"10x engineer"

Informal term for an exceptionally productive engineer whose output is considered equivalent to ten average engineers.

"Early-stage startups often look for a 10x engineer who can build and deploy a full feature end-to-end in days."

"customer acquisition cost"

The total cost of marketing and sales efforts divided by the number of new customers acquired in a given period.

"Paid social ads drove signups, but the $120 customer acquisition cost was too high for a $30-a-month product."

"lifetime value"

The total net revenue a business expects to generate from a single customer over the entire duration of their relationship.

"With a lifetime value of $1,800 against a $200 acquisition cost, the unit economics were extremely healthy."

"sales funnel"

A model representing the stages a prospect passes through from initial awareness to becoming a paying customer.

"The marketing team mapped out a four-stage sales funnel: awareness, interest, evaluation, and purchase."

"inbound marketing"

A strategy that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to their needs, rather than pushing outbound messages.

"Their inbound marketing engine — built on SEO articles and free tools — generated 80% of their leads without paid ads."

"outbound sales"

A proactive sales approach where representatives reach out directly to potential customers through cold calls, emails, or messages.

"The sales team ran targeted outbound sales campaigns to enterprise HR directors every Monday morning."

"lead generation"

The process of attracting and capturing the interest of potential customers for a product or service to develop a sales pipeline.

"The free webinar series proved to be the most cost-effective lead generation channel the team had tried."

"conversion rate"

The percentage of users or leads who complete a desired action — such as signing up, upgrading, or purchasing.

"By simplifying the pricing page, they raised the trial-to-paid conversion rate from 4% to 11%."

"growth hacking"

A data-driven, experimental approach to rapid user or revenue growth, often using unconventional low-cost tactics.

"The team's growth hacking experiment — adding a "Powered by" badge to all exported files — drove 5,000 organic signups."

"venture capital"

Private equity financing provided by firms to early-stage companies with high growth potential in exchange for equity.

"Venture capital from top-tier firms can provide not just money but also network access and strategic guidance."

"accelerator"

A fixed-term, cohort-based programme that provides startups with mentorship, resources, and sometimes seed funding in exchange for equity.

"After being accepted into the accelerator, the team spent three months refining their pitch and business model."

"unicorn"

A privately held startup company valued at more than one billion US dollars.

"The fintech startup became a unicorn less than four years after its founding, a record for the region."

"exit strategy"

The plan by which a startup's founders and investors intend to realise their financial return, typically through an acquisition or IPO.

"From day one, the board expected the exit strategy to be a strategic acquisition by one of the major cloud providers."

"pitch deck"

A short visual presentation used by founders to give potential investors an overview of the business, opportunity, and ask.

"The pitch deck was 12 slides long and secured three follow-up meetings with top-tier venture firms."

"bootstrapping"

Building and scaling a startup using only personal savings and operating revenue, without outside investment.

"By bootstrapping for two years, the founders retained 100% equity before eventually accepting a strategic investment."

"acqui-hire"

An acquisition where the primary motivation is to recruit the target company's talented employees rather than its products or technology.

"The large tech company did an acqui-hire of the five-person AI team, absorbing them into its research division."

"disruption"

A process by which a startup with a new business model or technology displaces established industry leaders and reshapes a market.

"The CEO argued their platform would cause disruption in the logistics sector the way Uber disrupted taxis."