Startup Glossary

A Professional Investor is an individual or entity deemed to have sufficient experience, expertise, and financial acumen to make informed investment decisions.

A Promissory Note is a financial instrument that contains a written promise by one party to pay another party a definite sum of money either on demand or at a specified future date.

A Profit and Loss Statement is a financial statement that summarizes the revenues, costs, and expenses incurred during a specific period, typically a fiscal quarter or year.

A Profit Forecast is an estimate of the future profitability of a business, predicting upcoming income, expenses, and net profits.

A Profit Margin is a financial ratio used to calculate the percentage of profit a company produces from its total revenue, indicating the efficiency at generating profits.

Profit Sharing is a plan that gives employees a share in the profits of the company, typically as part of their compensation package, encouraging ownership behavior and loyalty.

Profitability Analysis is the assessment of the ability of a business to generate earnings as compared to its expenses and other relevant costs incurred during a specific period.

Project Financing is a funding method in which lenders provide money for the development of a project solely based on the projected cash flows, with the project`s assets, rights, and interests as collateral.

Project Management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria.

A Project Sponsor is an individual or group that provides financial resources, support, and guidance for a project, often holding accountability for its success.

A Proof of Concept is a demonstration to verify certain concepts or theories have the potential for real-world application, often before full-scale production or development.

Proof of Stake is a type of consensus mechanism used by blockchain networks to achieve distributed consensus, where the creator of a new block is chosen via various combinations of random selection and wealth or age.

A Prospective Investor is an individual or entity showing interest in investing in a startup but has not yet committed capital, typically in the early stages of the fundraising process.

A Prospectus is a formal legal document that companies must file before going public, detailing the investment offering for the public and containing financial data, risks, and objectives.

A Prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process, serving as a thing to be replicated or learned from.

Public Debt refers to money or credit owed by any level of government; it can also refer to the total amount of money owed by a company to creditors in the form of bonds.

The Public Market refers to the marketplace for the buying and selling of publicly traded securities, including stock exchanges and over-the-counter markets.

A Public Offering refers to the process of offering shares of a private corporation to the public in a new stock issuance, allowing the company to raise capital from public investors.

Public Relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization to the public to influence their perception.

A Pump and Dump is a fraudulent scheme that attempts to boost the price of a stock through false, misleading, or greatly exaggerated statements, allowing insiders to sell at a profit.