Okuzeka
Entrepreneurship & Startups vocabulary · Unit Economics & Metrics

Break even

Meaning in entrepreneurship & startups, with examples

/ˌbreɪk ˈiːvn/verbCommon term

In entrepreneurship & startups, break even means: To reach the point where revenue equals costs, so the company is neither losing money nor making a profit.

In Turkish: başa baş noktasına ulaşmak, geliri gidere eşitlemek

How it is used

The verb is two words (we expect to break even next year); the noun and adjective use a hyphen: break-even, the break-even point. Breaking even matters to startups because after that point they no longer need new funding to survive.

Example sentences

  1. At the current growth rate, we'll break even in about 14 months.

  2. We need 2,000 paying customers to reach the break-even point.

Common collocations

  • break even
  • break-even point
  • reach break-even
  • break-even analysis
  • burn rateThe amount of money a startup spends each month beyond what it earns, showing how fast it is using up the cash in the bank.
  • runwayThe number of months a startup can keep operating before its cash runs out, usually calculated as cash in the bank divided by monthly net burn.
  • profitableMaking more money than it spends, so that a business has money left after paying all its costs over a period.
  • cash flowThe movement of money into and out of a business over a period. Positive cash flow means more money is coming in than going out.
  • revenueThe total money a company earns from selling its products or services in a period, before any costs are taken away.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Unit Economics & Metrics

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: