A vendor contract is the binding legal agreement between a startup as buyer and a third-party supplier (vendor, contractor, or service provider). The contract covers the services or products provided, fees and payment terms, data handling and security, IP ownership (especially for work product), indemnification, limitation of liability, and termination. It is the contract category that quietly accumulates the fastest as a startup scales, and it is the one founders pay the least attention to until something goes wrong.
The categories that matter: infrastructure and cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure, Cloudflare, Vercel; typically click-through ToS with separate Enterprise Agreements at $250K+ annual spend); payments and money movement (S...
An acqui-hire is an acquisition motivated primarily by the target's team rather than its product, with the underlying technology typically wound down post-close. It is structured as a soft landing for the founders and a hiring shortcut for the acquirer that bypasses the cost and timeline of conventional recruiting. It is the most-common exit outcome for early-stage startups that didn't reach product-market fit, and a meaningful pattern in talent-constrained markets where senior engineering teams (engineering, design, or domain expertise) are hard to assemble.
The structural pattern: deal sizes typically run $1 million to $5 million per engineer for typical engineering acqui-hires (more for AI talent in 2024 to 2025, where individ...
A venture studio is an organization that originates startup ideas internally, builds initial products, and assembles teams (including founding CEOs) to execute and scale them. Sometimes called a startup studio, company builder, or venture builder, it is distinct from accelerators that take in existing teams with existing companies, and distinct from traditional VCs that invest in founders' independent ideas. Famous examples include Atomic, Pioneer Square Labs, eFounders, Rocket Internet, Idealab, and Expa. The model has produced notable companies including Hims & Hers (Atomic), Front (eFounders), Zalando (Rocket Internet), and Tinder (Hatch Labs).
The structural mechanics: studio originates ideas through systematic research, ...
An option grant is the formal board action of approving and issuing stock options to a recipient. It is documented by a board resolution authorizing the grant, a Notice of Grant delivered to the recipient, and a Stock Option Agreement specifying share count, strike price (set by the current 409A valuation), vesting schedule, expiration date, and option type (ISO or NSO). It is the formal transaction that converts an option-pool reserve into an actual employee equity grant, and the documentation must be correct or the grant's tax-favored treatment can be jeopardized.
The standard option grant process:
A business plan is the written document describing a company's business model, target market, competitive position, operating strategy, team, and financial projections. It's used to align stakeholders and guide execution. Modern startup business plans rarely take the form of the traditional 30 to 40 page document; they more often appear as a pitch deck, a one-page Lean Canvas, or a short narrative memo.
The traditional business plan, with its executive summary, market analysis, organizational structure, marketing plan, operations plan, and 3 to 5 year financial projections, originated in mid-twentieth-century corporate planning and remains the format banks and SBA loan officers expect. For startups, the format has shifted. Mos...
Check size is the amount an investor commits in a single round, used as a primary differentiator between investor types. Typical ranges: angel $10K-$250K, super-angel $50K-$500K, micro-VC $100K-$2M, traditional Series A VC $2M-$15M, growth-stage VC $10M-$50M+, mega-fund $50M-$500M+ at growth stage. It is a key parameter in fundraising strategy because targeting the wrong-check-size investor for your round size wastes time on both sides. It is one of the most-basic but most-mismatched dimensions of investor targeting.
The typical ranges by investor type and stage:
A balance sheet is the financial statement showing a company's assets, liabilities, and stockholders' equity at a specific point in time. Unlike the P&L and cash flow statements that cover a period, the balance sheet is a snapshot, and the fundamental equation Assets = Liabilities + Equity always holds (hence "balance"). It is one of the three core financial statements (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow) that together provide a complete view of financial position. Balance sheets are more important at later-stage and public companies than at early-stage startups, where most items are minimal and cash is the only meaningful asset.
The standard balance sheet structure:
Assets (what the company owns):
Current Assets (convertible to ca...
An exit multiple is the valuation multiple at which a company is acquired or goes public, most commonly revenue, EBITDA, or ARR multiples. Common variants include revenue multiple, EBITDA multiple, ARR multiple for SaaS, or user-count multiple for consumer products. It is used to compare exits across deals, inform founder valuation expectations, and serve as a primary lens through which strategic acquirers and PE firms evaluate targets. It is the shortcut metric most M&A conversations actually run on, despite the existence of more sophisticated valuation methodologies.
The major multiples by business model: SaaS / subscription: typically valued on ARR multiple (annual recurring revenue), with public-market multiples ranging fr...
Option exercise is the action of paying the strike price to convert vested stock options into actual shares of common stock. It triggers tax consequences that vary by option type (ISOs create an AMT adjustment but no regular income; NSOs create ordinary income on the bargain element), requiring the holder to plan for both the cash outlay and the tax liabilities that arise. It is the moment options become stock, and the timing and structure of exercise significantly affect the holder's eventual after-tax outcome.
The exercise mechanics and methods:
Registration rights are contractual rights letting preferred stockholders require the company to register their shares with the SEC for public sale. They come in three flavors: demand registration (the holder forces a filing), piggyback registration (the holder rides on a company-initiated filing), and S-3 registration (short-form post-IPO filing), with the practical effect of letting investors actually sell shares in the public markets after an IPO. It is a critical structural right because preferred stockholders cannot freely sell their shares post-IPO without their shares being registered or qualifying for an exemption like Rule 144.
The three main types of registration rights: