A liquidation preference is a clause in a venture capital (VC) agreement that determines who gets paid first if a startup is sold, merged, or fails.

they show other entrepreneurs what not to do

Customer acquisition cost. The average expense of gaining one new customer, including marketing and sales costs.

Common Stock - the most basic type of ownership. Common stockholders are last in the liquidation stack.

A core component of Lean Startup methodology is the build-measure-learn feedback loop.

early-stage and late-stage

Experimenting with a 'lightweight' version of the product to gather qualitative feedback

The liquidation stack is the order of priority in which different classes of investors (or shareholders) are repaid when a startup is sold, merged, or liquidate

early investors do not, or never will, make money

The first official stage of startup funding

Lifetime value. The projected revenue a company expects from a single customer over the entire relationship with the business.

Because some drivers of success (e.g., fast growth) can also cause failure if overdone (a speed trap).