Definition
M&A
Mergers and acquisitions.
From the episode “How Gelu Sulugiuc Built AI Workflows That Beat Bloomberg by 47 Seconds”Hear it on the podcast2 episodes
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Related terms in Startups & Fundraising
Liquidity eventAny transaction that converts founder equity into cash.LOILetter of intent, the early signal Nick groveled for to prove demand.Loss RatioThe percentage of investments in a fund's portfolio that return zero capital. Seed funds run high loss ratios; growth funds run low ones.LP Interest (Limited Partner Interest)A proportional ownership stake in a limited partnership fund, entitling the holder to a share of the fund's assets and returns without direct management authority over the underlying investments. In Collective Liquidity's exchange fund, contributors receive LP interests representing their proportional share of the diversified pool of private company shares. Unlike direct stock ownership, LP interests in a diversified fund provide quarterly liquidity (the fund provides a mechanism to borrow against or exit LP interest), can be used as collateral for lower-cost loans than single-stock concentration would allow, and enable access to wealth management strategies like donor-advised fund contributions that are impractical with illiquid single-company shares. The LP interest is the instrument that converts illiquid, concentrated private company equity into a more flexible, manageable financial asset.Market TimingThe alignment between a product's launch and market conditions that make adoption natural. Mike's NFT metaverse startup succeeded in part because the timing was perfect during the 2021 boom; the same product would have failed 18 months earlier or later. A component of startup success that is not fully controllable but is prospectively analyzable — founders should assess timing explicitly before committing to a category rather than assuming a good idea will overcome a bad moment.Meta FactoryA system for spawning entire AI-led companies as outputs of a parent organization. The factory itself is the product — each company it produces runs on AI co-founders from day one.Mid-marketCompanies doing roughly $50 million to $500 million in annual revenue.Minimum Effective DoseBuilding or doing the least amount legally and operationally required to make a system functional — borrowed from pharmacology (the minimum dose required for therapeutic effect). In operations, it means studying actual legal requirements, identifying everything that exists only because someone was incentivized to create it, and eliminating all of it. Andy Seth applied this to the National Apprenticeship System to reduce compliance overhead to what is genuinely required by law.