A Data Processing Agreement (DPA) is the contract between a data controller and a data processor required by GDPR Article 28 and similar privacy regulations. The controller is the company that decides why and how personal data is processed; the processor is the vendor that handles data on the controller's behalf. The DPA specifies what security measures the processor will maintain, what the processor can and cannot do with the data, breach notification procedures, sub-processor restrictions, and data subject rights handling. DPAs are mandatory whenever a vendor processes personal data on behalf of a company subject to GDPR (or analogous regulations like CCPA). If a vendor handles personal data of your EU users, you...
Everything about raising capital, from the first SAFE to the IPO. This cluster covers every named stage (pre-seed through Series E+), the investor types (VC, CVC, angels, family offices, crossover funds, strategic vs financial), the fund mechanics that drive investor behavior (LPs, GPs, fund life, carried interest), the crowdfunding regulations and platforms, the round structures (up, down, flat, bridge, extension), and the closing mechanics that make deals real. 97 entries.
This is the most thoroughly covered cluster in the lexicon because fundraising decisions compound for years.
Series A funding is a startup's first major priced equity round, led by an institutional venture capital firm. It is raised to scale a business that has already proven product-market fit and is generating real, repeatable revenue. It sets a formal valuation for the company, brings the first institutional board member, and is the round where the company transitions from "we have early traction" to "we're a fundable growth-stage business."
The 2025 benchmarks (Carta and PitchBook):
| Metric | 2025 typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Round size | $10M-$15M | $15M-$25M for hot AI/deep-tech |
| Post-money valuation | $40M-$67M (median ~$50M) | Wide variance by sector |
| Pre-money valuation | $30M-$55M | After pool refresh |
| Founder dilution | 17-22% | Includin... |
A GA launch (General Availability) is the full public release of a product to all eligible customers, signaling production readiness with full marketing and operations. It marks graduation from beta or soft launch and is the moment the company commits publicly to the product as a stable offering. It is the milestone that transitions products from "we're testing" to "we're shipping".
What changes at GA launch:
Marketing: full launch campaign (PR, content, paid acquisition).
Sales availability: product available for all eligible customers; sales team enabled.
Pricing: published pricing; no special-case discounts beyond standard motion.
Customer success: full onboarding and support operations.
SLA commitments: production-grade reliab...
A private equity buyout is an acquisition of a company by a private equity firm using a mix of fund equity and significant debt financing. Typically 50 to 70 percent debt-to-capitalization in classic leveraged buyouts (LBOs). It is distinct from strategic acquisitions in motivation (PE seeks financial returns through operational improvements, multiple expansion, and eventual re-sale; strategics seek synergies with their existing business) and in post-close approach (PE firms run a defined hold period of typically 3 to 7 years before re-selling or IPO; strategics integrate and hold). It is a meaningful share of mid-market and large-cap M&A volume, and a growing share of tech and software exits as PE expanded into s...
Chief Product Officer (CPO) is the executive responsible for product strategy, the product organization, and the alignment between business outcomes and what gets built. The organization includes PMs, product designers, and sometimes product analysts and researchers. The role is increasingly common as a peer to CTO and CMO at modern tech companies of meaningful scale. It is one of the newer C-suite roles, becoming common in the 2010s as product management matured into a distinct strategic discipline rather than a project-management adjacency to engineering.
The scope of a typical CPO covers four areas: product strategy (the medium-term plan for which markets, customers, and outcomes the product organization will pursue...
Fund administration is the operational and accounting work supporting venture capital funds. It includes LP reporting (quarterly statements, annual financials), NAV calculations (net asset value per LP), capital call processing (collecting committed capital from LPs as deployed), distribution accounting (allocating exits and proceeds), tax compliance (K-1 generation), audit support, and other back-office operations. The work is typically performed by third-party fund administration firms (Carta Fund Administration, Standish Management, SS&C, etc.) rather than the venture firm itself. The discipline is invisible to founders but critical for the fund's LP relationships and regulatory compliance. Founders don't deal wi...
Double trigger acceleration is the vesting structure requiring two events before unvested shares accelerate: a change of control plus a qualifying termination. The change of control (acquisition, merger, asset sale) plus termination without cause or resignation for good reason within a 12-18 month window means holders accelerate only if the acquirer terminates them or pushes them out, protecting both the holder and the acquirer's retention lever. It is the modern default acceleration structure for founders and executives in venture-backed companies and the structure most aligned with investor preferences.
The mechanic of double trigger:
Multi-touch attribution (MTA) is the family of attribution models that apportion conversion credit across multiple marketing touchpoints in a customer's journey. Touchpoints might include a first paid-social impression, a later organic visit, an email click, a branded search, and a sales demo. Credit is assigned either through fixed rules (linear, time-decay, position-based / U-shaped, W-shaped) or through machine-learning models trained on observed conversion paths, with the goal of measuring channel contribution more honestly than single-touch models allow. It is the most-used class of attribution model among in-platform analytics tools and the one most affected by the post-2021 privacy shift.
The rule-based MTA fa...
A Customer Success Manager (CSM) owns the customer relationship post-sale, responsible for onboarding, adoption, retention, expansion, and renewals. CSMs drive new customers to value, monitor customer health, identify expansion opportunities, and renew or expand accounts at the appropriate cadence. Productivity is measured in net revenue retention (NRR), logo retention rate, and expansion ACV. CSMs are the retention-and-expansion side of the revenue org; AEs are the new-business side.
The CSM role specifics:
Owns: customer relationships post-sale, onboarding, adoption, retention, expansion, renewals.
Doesn't own: new business deals (AE domain), top-of-funnel pipeline (SDR/BDR domain).
Reports to: VP Customer S...