A

2 terms

Activation Rate

Activation rate is the percentage of new signups who reach a defined milestone that shows they have experienced the product's core value, such as sending a first campaign or inviting a teammate. It is a leading indicator of retention and paid conversion.

Agency Client Acquisition

Agency client acquisition is how marketing, design, development and other service agencies win new clients, typically through referrals, content, partnerships and targeted outbound outreach to companies that need the agency's specific expertise.

B

3 terms

B2B SaaS

B2B SaaS (business-to-business software as a service) is software sold to companies on a subscription basis and delivered over the internet, with the vendor hosting, maintaining and updating the application instead of the customer installing it on its own systems.

Beachhead Market

A beachhead market is a small, well-defined segment that a company sets out to win completely before expanding into neighboring segments. Dominating it creates references, word of mouth and a base of revenue that make the next market easier to enter.

Bootstrapping

Bootstrapping is building a company without outside investment, funding it from the founders' own savings and, as soon as possible, from customer revenue. Bootstrapped companies keep full ownership and control but must grow within what their cash flow allows.

C

3 terms

Churn Rate

Churn rate is the percentage of customers, or of recurring revenue, that a company loses over a given period. In SaaS it is usually measured monthly or annually and is one of the main drivers of customer lifetime value and long-term growth.

Competitive Landscape

The competitive landscape is the full set of alternatives a buyer could choose instead of your product, including direct competitors, indirect substitutes, internal tools and doing nothing, together with how each is positioned, priced and perceived.

Customer Discovery

Customer discovery is the process of testing a startup's assumptions about who its customers are, what problem they have and whether they would pay to solve it, mainly by interviewing and selling to real prospects before building or scaling the product.

D

1 term

Design Partner

A design partner is an early customer that works closely with a startup to shape a product before it is generally available. The partner gives regular feedback and real use cases; in return it gets influence over the roadmap, early access and usually favorable pricing.

E

1 term

Early Adopters

Early adopters are the customers who buy a new product or technology soon after it becomes available, before it is proven or widely used. They accept rough edges in exchange for solving an urgent problem or gaining an advantage over peers.

F

3 terms

Founder-Led Sales

Founder-led sales is the early stage of a startup in which the founders personally find, pitch and close the first customers. The goal is to learn what buyers need and how they buy before handing the process to hired salespeople.

Free Trial

A free trial gives prospective customers full or near-full access to a paid product for a limited time, commonly 7, 14 or 30 days, so they can confirm its value before paying. At the end, the account converts to a paid plan, pauses or closes.

Freemium

Freemium is a pricing model in which a basic version of a product is free indefinitely, while advanced features, higher usage limits or team capabilities require a paid plan. The free tier acquires users cheaply; a minority upgrade and fund the business.

G

1 term

Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy

A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is the plan a company uses to bring a product to a specific group of buyers. It defines who the company targets, what problem it solves for them, how the product is priced and which channels will reach and convert them.

P

4 terms

Partnership Outreach

Partnership outreach is contacting other companies to propose a mutually beneficial relationship, such as an integration, co-marketing campaign, referral or reseller agreement, rather than selling them a product. It aims to reach a shared audience through a trusted partner.

Positioning

Positioning is the deliberate choice of how a product should be understood by its target buyers: what category it belongs to, what it is better at than the alternatives, and who it is for. It shapes messaging, pricing and sales conversations.

Product-Led Growth (PLG)

Product-led growth (PLG) is a go-to-market strategy in which the product itself is the main driver of acquiring, activating, retaining and expanding customers, usually through a free tier or free trial that lets users reach value before they talk to sales or pay.

Product-Market Fit

Product-market fit is the point at which a product satisfies strong demand in a well-defined market, so that customers buy, keep using and recommend it with little push. Marc Andreessen described it as being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.

S

2 terms

Sales-Led Growth

Sales-led growth is a go-to-market model in which a sales team is the main driver of new revenue. Reps find and qualify prospects, run discovery and demos, and negotiate contracts, rather than relying on users to adopt and buy the product on their own.

Startup

A startup is a young company built to find and scale a new business model quickly, usually around a product or technology with a large potential market. Unlike a small business, it is designed for rapid growth and often funded by outside investors.

U

1 term

Unit Economics

Unit economics are the revenues and costs associated with a single unit of a business, in SaaS usually one customer. They show whether each customer earns back what it cost to acquire and serve, which decides whether growth creates or destroys value.