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Entrepreneurship & Startups vocabulary · Founders & Team

Founder

Meaning in entrepreneurship & startups, with examples

/ˈfaʊndər/nounCore term

In entrepreneurship & startups, founder means: A person who starts a company and builds it in its early days, usually owning a large part of it and taking the biggest risks.

In Turkish: kurucu, şirket kurucusu

How it is used

A key word in startup talk, pitch decks and investor meetings. Investors often say they invest in founders, not ideas. Common forms are first-time founder, serial founder, solo founder and founder-led company. On LinkedIn people write Founder & CEO.

Example sentences

  1. The investors liked the founders more than the product, so they agreed to a second meeting.

  2. As a first-time founder, she asked two experienced CEOs to review her plan.

Common collocations

  • first-time founder
  • serial founder
  • solo founder
  • founder and CEO
  • founder-led company
  • co-founderOne of two or more people who start a company together and share the ownership, the work and the main decisions from the beginning.
  • entrepreneurA person who sees a business opportunity and starts a new company to use it, accepting financial risk in the hope of profit and growth.
  • startupA young company that aims to grow very fast by solving a problem with a new product or business model, often before it has found a way to make a profit.
  • technical co-founderA co-founder who leads the building of the product, especially the software, and usually becomes the company's first CTO.

More terms: Founders & Team

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