In our dictionary of entrepreneurial terms, you’ll find a list of entrepreneur-related words, phrases, acronyms, and other vocabulary defined in a plain-English manner.
Whether your a wantrepreneur or an established startup founder, this entrepreneurship glossary has all the jargon and industry-speak words you oughta know.
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Here are 33+ entrepreneur dictionary terms you should know:
Accelerator – An accelerator is a program to help newer startup businesses improve their growth. Accelerators are different from incubators in that they usually only work with startups which already have a business plan and basic strategy in place.
Acquisition – An acquisition is when one company takes ownership of another, usually smaller, company.
Agripreneurship – Agripreneurship is essentially entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector. Agripreneurship = agriculture + entrepreneurship.
Angel – An angel is a type of investor, often a wealthy individual, who provides capital and financial support to a fledgling startup in return for an ownership percentage.
Business Model – A business model is a description of how an existing business or business idea plans to achieve success, make a profit, and create value. Michael Lewis in his book, The New, New Thing, puts it succinctly as “how you planned to make money.”
Business Model Canvas – A business model canvas (BMC) is a template meant to concisely identify the main points of a business model in one simple diagram. There are usually 9 key components of a business model canvas, which are:
- Key Partners
- Key Activities
- Primary Resources
- Customer Segments
- Client Relationships
- Value Propositions
- Cost Structure
- Channels
- Revenue Streams
Crowdfunding – Crowdfunding is the practice of raising money online through many small donations from regular people, rather than one larger amount from an investor. The popular website Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform.
Earlyvangelist – An earlyvangelist is a portmanteau neologism, short for “early evangelist,” meaning an early adopter of a product or service.
Ecopreneurship – Ecopreneurship is entrepreneurship where a major, or perhaps the main, focus of the business is to operate sustainably or to help the environment, such as through recycling or fighting climate change. Ecopreneurship is also known as environmental entrepreneurship and green entrepreneurship.
Elevator Pitch – An elevator pitch is a short, to-the-point message from one person to another to propose an idea, often business-related. A startup founder might deliver an elevator pitch to a potential investor seeking funding, for example. Read more on our guide on how to make an elevator pitch.
Entrepreneurship – Entrepreneurship is the process of business creation, from ideation and design through to execution and managing it. A person who starts their own business is called an entrepreneur, and they can be described as entrepreneurial.
Environmental Entrepreneurship – See “Ecopreneurship.”
Fintech – Fintech is a portmanteau word meaning “financial technology,” referring to businesses and startups in the financial sector who use modern technology to facilitate their business. Think Robinhood, Revolut, or Betterment.
Fledgling – Fledgling refers to a company or startup that is young, lacking experience, and still struggling with their business ideas, business model, market, and products or services.
Green Entrepreneurship – See “Ecopreneurship.”
Imagineer – An imagineer is someone capable of taking creative ideas or using their imagination and turning them into reality, actual solutions. As a portmanteau of imagine and engineer, the definition of imagineer is almost self-explanatory.
Incubator – An incubator is a program to assist the newest startup businesses take ideas and create viable business models, strategies, and profit plans for them. Incubators differ from accelerators in that many people often seek incubators simply with little more than just a powerful idea.
Innovation – Innovation means new, creative, unique ideas and a way to turn those ideas into actionable solutions.
Intrapreneurship – Intrapreneurship is where someone displays the traits and characteristics of entrepreneurship while within and being part of a larger company.
Related Read: Everything You Need to Know About Internships
Launch – Launch is the event where a product or service is released to the public market.
Merger – A merger is when two companies join together to become one company. Usually, a merger happens when both companies dissolve and form a brand new entity, although they could also just rename one company to include both.
Minimum Viable Product – A minimum viable product (MVP) is a version of a product or service with just enough features and value to be released to the public.
Pivot – A pivot is a recalibration or shift in business focus or the business model based on innovation, customer feedback, or to seek better return on investment.
Proof of Concept – A proof of concept (POC) is an understanding about whether or not the an idea, product, or service is feasible and has potential.
SaaS – SaaS is the abbreviation for “software as a service,” which is a business model where software is provided on a subscription basis, rather than paying a one-time fee to own it. Microsoft Office, for example, once charged hundreds of dollars for customers to purchase the software, but now, with Office 365, customers pay a small fee on a monthly basis to continue using it.
Scale – To scale means to grow a company while maintaining or improving upon its performance, effectiveness, or efficiency as it grows.
Software as a Service – See “SaaS.”
Startup – According to Steve Blank, entrepreneur and developer of the customer development method, “a startup is a temporary organization in search of a scalable, repeatable, profitable business model.” According to Quantic, this means that “startups are adaptable organizations whose primary goal is to find a business model, not execute one.”
Technopreneurship – Technopreneurship is entrepreneurship with a massive focus or reliance on technology.
Unicorn – A unicorn is a startup company, usually privately-held, which reaches a valuation of over $1 billion.
Unique Selling Point – A unique selling point, or USP, is a thing that stands out about your product or service over that of another company.
USP – See “Unique Selling Point.”
Value Proposition – A value proposition is a statement or promise of value of a given product or service, including features and benefits.
Venture Capital – Venture capital, or VC, is a type of financing where the startup offers up a partial ownership stake in the company for money. In some cases, the company may also relinquish control to executives the VC chooses, though often only for a limited period of time.
Video Pitch – See “Virtual Elevator Pitch.”
Virtual Elevator Pitch – A virtual elevator pitch is a 30- to 60-second video alternative to the traditional elevator pitch, used to pitch ideas, whether to business investors or a community like Goodwall to find climate change solutions. Read our guide on why to use one and how to make your own virtual elevator pitch.
Wantrepreneur – A wantrepreneur is someone aspiring to become an entrepreneur, perhaps with ideas or a general goal but without having started yet. A portmanteau of “want” and “entrepreneur,” some might negatively use it to mean a “wannabe entrepreneur.”
Workshop – A workshop is an event where multiple people gather to receive training and education on a particular topic. A workshop can be anywhere from a few hours to weeks in length. Often, one or more instructors lead a workshopping event to guide the participants.
Well, there you have it, all the important vocabulary entrepreneurs need to know to survive and thrive.
Got any entrepreneurship terms we missed? Let us know in the comments below, and we’ll add it to our glossary of entrepreneur words. Thanks for reading!