While we all know from where “Tu Beer Hai!” came but we all are beginners when it comes to Startup lingo. In this article, I will try to cover some of the basic and advanced terminologies that are being used in the Startup Universe.
1. Growth Hacking: Growth Hacking is a paradigm shift from traditional marketing. It is to come up with rapid, innovative, and cost-effective methods of marketing. The main objective is to be frugal but still be able to get as many customers and leads as possible. The popular ones among them are the Tinder Growth hack or Dropbox Hack.
2. Tinder Growth Hack: The right fuel that contributed to Tinder’s Growth was its introduction to college campuses in the US. It provided them the system required for the word of mouth marketing. It also helped in tapping the right consumer segment (aged 18-25). The concept of installation of the free mobile app as an entry fee for frat parties was another innovative approach at that time.
Dropbox's referral system led to a 60% increase in signups and their easy signup process contributed to growth too.
The incorporation of Gamification by LinkedIn is another excellent example of growth hacking. The progress bar for the profile gives you a sense of being in the game, and you want to complete it.
3. Unit Economics: Unit economics looks at the Cost and profit analysis associated with a company's most basic element. It tells us about the sustainability of the business model. It is being looked up by investors while making their investing decisions.
For a manufacturing company like in the case of a shoe manufacturer, the shoe is the most basic element. All the analysis associated with it becomes part of Unit Economics. Whereas in the case of a service provider like Ola and Uber, every cab booking placed by the customer becomes a unit and each client represents one unit. And once you have identified the unit, metrics like Cost per acquisition and Lifetime Value (LTV) are used to thoroughly analyze Unit Economics.
In the early stage of a Startup, Negative Unit Economics is not a bad thing because we are in the process of building, but for your business to be sustainable, Unit Economics should turn positive eventually to attract investors.
4. Pivot: Pivoting is very natural for Startups. They have to change their strategy in response to the industry's changes, customer preferences, or any other factor that impacts its bottom line. Pivot can be a change in the products or services offered, or it can be a change in the marketing and advertising efforts to attract new customers.
Radical pivots like Instagram are the most popular ones across the Startup community. Instagram started as a location-based check-in service, while YouTube began as a dating site. But most of the time, Pivot is addressing a single problem in the business model. It is a translation of the feedback received into changes.
Pivoting doesn't mean that the Startup is failing. It is just the next step in the journey. The important thing is that pivot must create ample growth opportunities for the business.
5.Founder Market Fit: FMF is the match between the founding team and the problem they are trying to solve. Three main traits that are looked at under FMF are Prior experience in the domain, Passion (obsession with the problem), and Purpose (the motivation behind the pursuit).
At an early stage of the Startup this metric acts as a source of comfort for investors.
6. MVP: MVP is the minimum viable product in the Startup world and not the most valuable product as you were thinking. A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a product that has the minimum set of features to prove that people will actually be interested in your offerings.
7. ARR & MRR: Both ARR & MRR are specific revenue metrics used to depict progress. The cash flow that you anticipate will be recurring on an annual basis is ARR and revenue that you anticipate will be recurring on a monthly basis is MRR.
8. A/B Testing: A/B Testing is a comparison of two versions of a web page or other marketing asset by splitting users into each to figure out the better-performing version. The process involves collecting data, setting goals, generating hypotheses, creating variations, running experiments, and finally analyzing the result.
A/B Testing is mainly used in digital marketing to figure out the best promotional and advertising strategy.
I have tried to cover all the basic terminologies that are there in the field of Startups. I hope that startup enthusiasts who want to pursue an MBA find it useful and get a better hang of the startup lingo.
Ciao!