Startup & Product Glossary: Terms Every Solo Founder Should Know
· 테크· Tips
Tips
Machine translation — switch to KO for the original.
Running a startup solo means switching context constantly: metrics review in the morning, product decisions at noon, launch prep in the afternoon. This glossary collects the terms that come up most in daily standups, retrospectives, and strategy sessions — so you can read and write them without stopping to look things up.
Organized by domain. Jump to what you need.
1. Business Metrics
| Abbreviation | Full Name | One-line meaning |
|---|---|---|
| NSM | North Star Metric | The single number that best captures your product's core value delivery |
| OKR | Objective + Key Results | Quarterly goal (O) + 3 or fewer measurable outcomes (KR) |
| KPI | Key Performance Indicator | Operational metrics tracked more frequently than OKRs |
| MRR | Monthly Recurring Revenue | Monthly subscription revenue — excludes one-time payments |
| ARR | Annual Recurring Revenue | MRR × 12 |
| DAU | Daily Active Users | Unique users active in a given day |
| MAU | Monthly Active Users | Unique users active in a given month |
| LTV | Lifetime Value | Total revenue a single user generates over their lifetime |
| CAC | Customer Acquisition Cost | Total cost to acquire one paying customer |
| TAM | Total Addressable Market | Maximum size of the market you could serve |
| WTP | Willingness to Pay | The price threshold validated before building (₩9,900? ₩30,000?) |
| D7 / D30 / D60 / D90 | Day 7 / 30 / 60 / 90 | Measurement checkpoints after launch for retention and KPI tracking |
| retention | — | Percentage of users who return after N days (e.g., D7 retention 30% = 30% still active 7 days post-launch) |
| funnel | — | Step-by-step user conversion flow (e.g., install → first action → paid upgrade) |
| activation | — | User completes the core action at least once |
| conversion | — | Rate of moving from one funnel stage to the next (e.g., free → paid) |
| close rate | — | Percentage of sales conversations that result in a purchase |
| ad-LTV | Ad-based LTV | LTV driven by ad revenue rather than subscriptions — typically a hypercasual game model |
2. Decision-Making & Strategy
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| kill criteria | Pre-defined conditions that trigger shutting down a project — defined before you start, so the decision is data-driven not emotional |
| kill signal | A data point that satisfies kill criteria (e.g., D7: 0 of 5 users retained → wrong message or wrong ICP) |
| green signal | A data point that clears a go-ahead threshold (e.g., ≥2 activations → proceed to next stage) |
| polish trap | The pattern of refining a product past the point of necessity before validating with real users — revenue-free polish is value-zero |
| pivot | Changing direction after a hypothesis fails (e.g., B2C → B2B) |
| wedge | The narrow, sharp entry point into a larger market |
| moat | A sustainable competitive advantage competitors can't easily replicate (data accumulation, network effects, brand) |
| flywheel | A self-reinforcing feedback loop that accelerates over time (users↑ → data↑ → accuracy↑ → users↑) |
| bootstrap | Growing entirely on self-generated cash flow without external funding |
| venture-scale | Revenue potential large enough to justify VC funding (typically hundreds of millions ARR ceiling) |
| anti-goal | An explicit "we will NOT do this" commitment — keeps scope from drifting |
| JTBD | Jobs To Be Done — the underlying goal a user "hires" your product to accomplish |
| MECE | Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive — a framework for classification with no overlaps and no gaps |
| Go / Hold / Drop | Project status: continue / maintain without new features / retire |
| hold mode | No new feature development; monitoring and notifications only |
3. Users & Market
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ICP | Ideal Customer Profile — the archetype of your best first customer |
| gatekeeper | Someone who influences adoption without being the direct end user (e.g., a therapist recommending an app to a family) |
| endorsement | A credible recommendation from an authority — more effective than broad cold outreach |
| cold outreach | Contacting strangers directly via DM or email with no prior relationship |
| warm intro | An introduction through a mutual contact |
| pre-screen | Qualifying a potential user for ICP fit and WTP before investing time |
| D3 returned | User returned within 3 days of first use — a strong early signal of genuine engagement |
4. Product Stages & Launch
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| P0 | Launch-blocking bug — must be fixed before shipping |
| P1 | Pre-launch fix if possible, not strictly required |
| P2 | Post-launch fix — deferred deliberately |
| ship-blocker | Any bug or unresolved decision that prevents shipping (equivalent to P0) |
| pre-launch | The stage immediately before going live to real users |
| staging | A production-equivalent environment for final verification before deploy |
| prod / production | The live environment real users access |
| listing | The product's public page on an app store or marketplace |
| smoke test | A quick end-to-end check that the critical path works |
| gauntlet | A full scenario-by-scenario QA pass before launch |
| TestFlight | Apple's iOS beta distribution channel |
| beta | Limited-access pre-release testing with real users |
| rollback | Reverting to a previous version after a bad deploy |
| hot patch | An emergency fix deployed to production immediately after a critical issue |
5. Technical Terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| PWA | Progressive Web App — web app that can be added to the home screen and works offline |
| Service Worker | Background script responsible for caching and offline functionality in a PWA |
| OAuth | Standard for delegating authentication to external services (Google, Shopify, etc.) |
| webhook | A callback where an external service POSTs to your server when an event occurs |
| idempotency | Property where sending the same request multiple times produces the same result as sending it once |
| dedup | De-duplication — removing repeated or redundant records |
| atomic update | A write operation that completes as a single unit with no race condition exposure |
| race condition | A bug caused by concurrent requests interfering with each other (e.g., credit double-spend) |
| funnel event | A tracked analytics event corresponding to a step in the conversion funnel |
| on-device | Processing that happens entirely on the user's device — no data sent to a server |
| inferenceMs | Time (in milliseconds) for a single ML model inference pass |
| p50 / p95 | 50th / 95th percentile latency — more informative than averages for tail-latency issues |
| bundle | The combined output file produced by a bundler (esbuild, webpack, Rollup) |
| externalize | Excluding a library from the bundle and loading it at runtime instead — reduces bundle size |
| localStorage | Browser key-value store that persists across sessions |
| standalone mode | PWA launched from the home screen, without the browser's address bar or tabs |
| flaky test | A test that produces inconsistent results without any code change |
| dependency | A task ordering constraint: task A must complete before task B can start |
6. Common Tools by Category
| Category | Tools |
|---|---|
| Hosting / Deploy | Vercel (web apps, Next.js, static sites) |
| Backend / Database | Supabase (PostgreSQL + Auth + Storage), Prisma (TypeScript ORM) |
| Payments | Shopify Billing API (app subscriptions), Stripe (direct payments), Gumroad (digital products) |
| Analytics | Plausible (privacy-first web), Firebase Analytics (mobile) |
| Mobile Deployment | TestFlight (iOS beta), App Store Connect, Google Play Console |
| UI Components | Shopify Polaris |
| Mobile Framework | Flutter (cross-platform Dart) |
| Bundlers | esbuild, Rollup |
| AI / ML Runtimes | TFLite (mobile inference), ONNX |
7. Quick Abbreviation Reference
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| B2B / B2C | Business-to-Business / Business-to-Consumer |
| GTM | Go-to-Market — strategy for reaching customers |
| SaaS | Software as a Service — subscription-based software |
| ASD | Autism Spectrum Disorder |
| ABA | Applied Behavior Analysis (therapy method for ASD) |
| EQ | Emotional Quotient — emotional intelligence |
| KST | Korea Standard Time (UTC+9) |
| carousel | Horizontally scrollable UI element |
| modal | An overlay dialog that appears above the main content |
| toast | A temporary notification that auto-dismisses (typically bottom or top of screen) |
| placeholder | Temporary value standing in for a real one (e.g., __PROD_URL__) |
| prepaid | Payment collected before service is rendered |
How to Use This
This glossary is meant to be a quick lookup, not a reading exercise. In practice:
- Metrics conversations: anchor everything to MRR or your NSM. Don't mix in ARR until MRR is meaningful.
- Strategy calls: state kill criteria before committing. "We'll kill this if D7 is 0/5" is a decision; "let's see how it goes" is not.
- Bug triage: label every open issue P0/P1/P2 before a launch. Unlabeled issues always inflate scope.
- User research: confirm ICP and WTP before building. One endorsed user beats ten cold-outreach contacts.
Keep the glossary alive — add terms as they appear in your work, and note why a term was added so future-you has context.
Comments
No comments yet. Be the first!
318 posts in 테크
- 341Migrating from Permanent Access Tokens to Token Exchange — Why Order Matters
- 326Startup & Product Glossary: Terms Every Solo Founder Should Know
- 325Context Management — How I Do It Now
- 324Claude Code Routines vs Cowork Schedule — What's the Difference?
- 323로컬 LLM + Claude Code로 PM 업무 자동화 에이전트 만들기
1–5 / 318