Business and metrics
https://ecosystem.samcarlton.com/business
Last changed: 2026-11-14. Dates track content changes, not independent source checks.
Hard tech
Concept
Companies whose product rests on physical engineering or new science, such as machines, materials…
SaaS
Concept
Software as a service.
Intellectual property
Concept
Things you create that can be owned, such as code, designs, brand names and inventions.
Go-to-market
Concept
Your plan for reaching customers and getting them to buy: who you go after first, where you find…
Usage-based pricing
Concept
A way to charge where the bill follows how much the customer uses, instead of a flat fee.
B2B / B2C
Concept
Who you sell to.
Social media
Concept
Sites and apps where people share posts, photos and videos and follow each other, such as…
Revenue
Concept
All the money customers pay your business, before any costs are taken out.
Payments
Concept
The service that lets a company charge customers' cards and bank accounts and receive the money.
Ecommerce
Concept
Selling products or services online, with a store website, a cart and online payments.
Government contracting
Concept
Selling products or services to a government agency under a formal contract.
KPI
Concept
Key performance indicator.
Pilot
Concept
A small, time-limited trial of a product with one customer, run to learn whether the product works…
Programmatic advertising
Concept
Buying and selling online ad space automatically through software, often in auctions that run in a…
Retention
Concept
The share of customers who keep using or paying for your product over time.
Burn rate
Concept
How fast your company is using up its cash, usually counted per month.
CAC
Concept
Customer acquisition cost.
CRM
Concept
Customer relationship management.
Licensing
Concept
Letting another party use something you own, such as software, a patent or a brand, in exchange…
Online advertising
Concept
Paying to show ads on search engines, social media, websites and apps, often aimed at specific…
Profit
Concept
What is left of your revenue after every cost is paid.
Runway
Concept
How many months your company can keep going before the money in the bank runs out, if spending…
Sales funnel
Concept
The stages people move through from first hearing about a product to buying it.
Cloud service agreement
Concept
A contract between a company that sells cloud software and a business that buys it.
MRR
Concept
Monthly recurring revenue.
Sales cycle
Concept
The steps and time from a first conversation with a prospect to a signed deal.
Traction
Concept
Proof that real people want what you are building, such as paying customers, growing use or signed…
Business model
Concept
How your company makes money: who pays, what they pay for and how often.
Email marketing
Concept
Sending planned emails to a list of people who signed up, such as newsletters, announcements and…
Lead generation
Concept
Finding and collecting contact details of people or companies who might buy, so sales can follow up.
Master services agreement
Concept
A contract that sets the general terms between a client and a provider once (payment, ownership of…
Pricing tiers
Concept
The set of plans a product sells, from a cheap or free starting plan up to plans for large…
Spreadsheet
Concept
A grid of rows and columns for numbers and lists, with formulas that calculate totals.
Bill of materials
Concept
A complete list of the parts, materials and quantities needed to build a product.
Bookings
Concept
The total value of the contracts customers signed in a period.
Call to action
Concept
The one next step a page, email or ad asks the reader to take, such as 'Book a demo' or 'Start…
Cash flow
Concept
The timing of money coming into and going out of a business.
Conversion rate optimization
Concept
Improving a website or app so a larger share of visitors take the action you want, such as signing…
Letter of intent
Concept
A short document that sets out what two parties intend to agree on, such as a purchase once a…
Managed service provider
Concept
An outside company that runs part of another organization's technology for a monthly fee, such as…
NDA
Concept
Non-disclosure agreement.
Pay-per-click advertising
Concept
Online ads where you pay each time someone clicks, most often shown beside search results.
Retainer
Concept
An ongoing services arrangement where a client pays a set amount each month to reserve a…
Revenue share
Concept
An arrangement where partners split the revenue a product or deal brings in by an agreed…
Search engine optimization
Concept
Making a website easier for search engines to understand and more likely to show up when people…
TAM
Concept
Total addressable market.
Video conferencing
Concept
Meeting with people over live video and audio on a computer or phone.
AI addendum
Concept
An add-on to a software contract for a product that uses AI.
Cold outreach
Concept
Contacting people who do not know you yet, by email, phone or message, to start a sales or…
Cyber liability insurance
Concept
Insurance that helps pay the costs of a data breach or cyberattack, such as investigation…
Developer relations
Concept
A role, often at platform companies, that helps outside developers use the company's tools through…
Engagement letter
Concept
A short contract that starts a professional services relationship.
ERP
Concept
Enterprise resource planning.
Fixed-price engagement
Concept
A services deal where the client pays one agreed price for a defined result, no matter how many…
Gross margin
Concept
The part of each sale you keep after paying the direct cost of making and delivering what you sold.
Joint development agreement
Concept
A contract between two organizations that build something together.
Per-seat pricing
Concept
A way to charge for software where the customer pays for each person who uses it.
Retargeting
Concept
Showing ads to people who already visited your site or used your app, to bring them back.
Time and materials
Concept
A way to pay for services by the hour or day worked, plus costs, instead of a set price for the…
Unit economics
Concept
Whether you make or lose money on one customer or one sale, once you count what it cost to win and…
Ad exchange
Concept
The digital marketplace where ad space from sellers is auctioned to advertisers in real time.
Affiliate marketing
Concept
Paying partners a commission when people they refer, usually through a special link, make a…
ARR
Concept
Annual recurring revenue.
Break-even
Concept
The point where the money coming in equals the money going out, so the business is no longer…
Business associate agreement
Concept
A contract that US health privacy law (HIPAA) requires before a clinic, health plan or other…
Churn rate
Concept
The share of your customers who stop paying or stop using your product during a set period, such…
Commission
Concept
Pay that is a share of the sales a person brings in, rather than, or on top of, a fixed salary.
CPM
Concept
Cost per thousand impressions.
Data management platform
Concept
Software that collects and organizes audience data, such as interests and past behavior, so…
Data processing agreement
Concept
A contract that says how a service provider may handle personal data for its customer: what it may…
DAU / MAU
Concept
Daily active users and monthly active users.
Default alive
Concept
A phrase from investor Paul Graham.
Demand-side platform
Concept
Software that advertisers use to buy ad space across many websites and apps automatically, with…
EBITDA
Concept
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
EdTech
Concept
Education technology: software and devices for teaching and learning, and the market of companies…
IRS Section 7216
Concept
A US tax rule that limits how tax return preparers may use or disclose clients' tax return…
Omnichannel
Concept
Handling a customer across every channel, such as phone, email, chat, text and in person, as one…
Order form
Concept
A short document that records one purchase under a contract already in place: what the customer…
Original equipment manufacturer
Concept
A company that makes products or parts that another company sells or builds into its own products…
Partnership agreement
Concept
A contract between two companies that work together to sell, market or support their products, for…
Referral fee
Concept
A one-time payment to someone for introducing a customer or deal that closes.
Request for proposal
Concept
A document a buyer, often a government or large company, publishes to invite vendors to bid on a…
Spinout
Concept
A new, separate company created from part of an existing company, university or lab, often taking…
Supply-side platform
Concept
Software that websites and apps use to sell their ad space automatically to many buyers at once.
Value-based pricing
Concept
Setting a price based on how much the result is worth to the customer, not on how much it costs…
White label
Concept
A product or service made by one company that another company sells under its own name.
Win rate
Concept
The share of deals or bids you pursue that you actually win.
Accounts receivable
Concept
Money customers owe you for work already delivered or goods already sold, but have not paid yet.
Answer engine optimization
Concept
Making your content easy for AI chat and AI search tools to find, understand and cite when they…
Beachhead market
Concept
A small, specific first market a startup aims to win completely before expanding to others.
Business process outsourcing
Concept
Hiring an outside firm to run a business function, such as customer support, billing or data entry.
Campaign budget optimization
Concept
An ad platform setting that shares one budget across several ad groups and moves money…
Change management
Concept
Planning and supporting the people side of a change, such as a new tool or process, so staff…
Continuing professional education
Concept
Ongoing training that licensed professionals, such as accountants, must complete each year to keep…
Contract amendment
Concept
A short signed document that changes, adds to or clarifies the terms of a contract already in…
FAANG
Concept
Shorthand for a handful of the largest US tech companies, originally Facebook, Apple, Amazon…
General contractor
Concept
The company that manages a construction project and hires and coordinates the specialist…
Geotargeting
Concept
Showing ads or content only to people in a chosen place, such as a city or a few miles around a…
Lead magnet
Concept
Something useful given away free, such as a guide or template, in exchange for a person's contact…
LTV
Concept
Lifetime value.
Microtransaction
Concept
A small purchase inside an app or game, such as extra lives or a cosmetic item.
NAICS code
Concept
A number from the North American Industry Classification System that labels what industry a…
Net promoter score
Concept
A survey score based on one question: how likely are you to recommend us, from 0 to 10.
Offline attribution
Concept
Connecting sales or sign-ups that happen outside a website, such as in a store or over the phone…
OKRs
Concept
Objectives and key results.
Price anchoring
Concept
Showing a reference number first so that the real price is judged against it.
Sales engineer
Concept
A technical expert on a sales team who explains how a product works, answers technical questions…
Standard Occupational Classification
Concept
The official US system that sorts jobs into numbered occupations.
Standard operating procedure
Concept
Written step-by-step instructions for doing a routine task the same way every time.
Moat
Concept
An advantage that makes it hard for competitors to copy your business or take your customers, such…