Every industry has its impressive panoply of words that somehow become basic nomenclature. Startupland has its doozies, and here are the ones at the top of my list:
- “Silicon [Whatever]” — must every global ecosystem have a nickname that cleverly refers to the Valley?
- “SoLoMo” — sounds like some kind of frozen treat for kids
- “Phablet” — there’s got to be a better word for this device
- “Mentor” — well aren’t you special
- “With Zero Marketing” — aka we’re not sure what to do about distribution yet
- “Big Data” — as opposed to small data…
- “Pivot” — I do this when I’ve picked up my dribble, not when dribbling in a completely different direction (and that never usually works out well either)
- “Ninja” — Even true ninjas probably don’t describe themselves as “ninjas”
- “Assassin” — see #8, and if true, you’ll need to raise bail before you raise your Series A
- “Ramen Profitable” — still not sure what satisfaction one gets from realizing that profit on paper is quite different than profit when scaling
- “No Competition” — then nobody cares
- “MVP” — they don’t give trophies for your minimum viable product
- “Collaborative Consumption” — the “Sharing Economy” rolls off the tongue far easier
- “Incubator” — make sure the lamp is warm and the air is circulated
- “Backend Developer” — no comment
I’m sure you can add plenty to the lexicon. No offense friends if these words have come out of your mouth — at some point I’ve used all of them (well, never “ninja” or “assassin”).
Join me in making the world a better place.
**Originally published 9/2/2013
