From emerging regulation to deal mechanics, we write about the questions founders and investors actually ask — practical analysis you can put to work.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the principal U.S. federal regulator for securities markets — established by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 in response to the 1929 stock-market crash and subsequent Great Depression.
Spray and Pray is a venture capital investment strategy of writing small checks across a large number of startups (often 50-500+ portfolio companies), relying on power-law distribution — the expectation that a few outsized winners will return the entire fund — rather than concentrated, high-convi…
User Experience (UX) is the holistic experience a user has when interacting with a product, service, or system — encompassing usability, accessibility, emotional response, and outcome achievement. The term was coined by Don Norman at Apple in the early 1990s.
Over-the-Counter (OTC) Market is a decentralized marketplace where financial instruments — securities, derivatives, crypto — are traded directly between two parties without going through a centralized exchange.
A mentor in the startup context is an experienced operator, investor, or domain expert who provides guidance, introductions, pattern recognition, and emotional support to founders or executives, typically on an informal or semi-formal basis.
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) is a network or transaction architecture in which participants (“peers”) interact directly with one another without a central intermediary. Each peer can act as both client and server — requesting and providing resources or services.
OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) is a US Treasury Department office that administers and enforces US economic sanctions programs against foreign countries, organizations, and individuals threatening US national security, foreign policy, or economic interests.
Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard introduced by Anthropic in November 2024 for connecting AI assistants (LLMs) to external data sources, tools, and services.
An Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) is an experienced founder or executive who joins a VC firm (or accelerator, corporate innovation arm, or university) in a temporary, salaried role to source deal flow, advise portfolio companies, and explore launching their next venture from within the firm’s re…
Form S-1 is the principal U.S. SEC registration statement used by domestic issuers conducting their first registered public offering — most commonly the IPO of a private company seeking to list on Nasdaq, NYSE, or other registered exchanges.
