THE SILICON VALLEY DICTIONARY
How much valley
do you speak?
Words you will hear in Silicon Valley, and what they actually mean.
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01 10x engineer/ˌtɛn ˌɛks ˌɛndʒəˈnɪɹ/
Developer claimed to produce far more than average.
They searched for a mythical 10x engineer for the team.
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02 30 Under 30/ˌθɝti ˌʌndɝ ˈθɝti/
A magazine list recognizing successful young professionals and founders.
The magazine chose her for the 30 Under 30 list.
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03 49ers/ˌfɔɹti ˈnaɪnɝz/
An insult for a woman judged a 4 out of 10 who is said to act like a 9; a pun on the football team.
Bitter after his dates, he complained the city was full of 49ers.
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04 ABG CMO/ˌeɪ ˌbi ˌdʒi ˌsi ɛm ˈoʊ/
Asian baby girl chief marketing officer, hired for viral marketing.
The ABG CMO created viral videos for the brand.
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05 acqui-hire/ˈækwiˌhaɪɹ/
Buying a company for its team.
The tech giant did an acqui-hire for the talent.
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06 Adderall/ˈædɝˌɔl/
A prescription stimulant used to improve focus.
She took Adderall to finish her project before midnight.
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07 agentic workflow/əˈdʒɛntɪk ˈwɝkˌfloʊ/
A process where AI programs operate without much human help.
The project utilized an agentic workflow for efficiency.
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08 AGI/ˌeɪ ˌdʒi ˈaɪ/
A type of AI that mimics human intelligence.
Researchers aim to develop true AGI in the future.
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09 AI alignment/ˌeɪ ˈaɪ əˈlaɪnmənt/
Matching AI behavior with human expectations.
The team focused on AI alignment to improve safety.
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10 AI wrapper/ˌeɪ ˈaɪ ˈɹæpɚ/
Product that is a thin interface over another model.
They launched an AI wrapper that lacked originality.
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11 ARR/ˌeɪ ˌɑɹ ˈɑɹ/
Yearly revenue from active subscriptions.
The company reached a million in ARR this year.
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12 backseat investor/ˌbækˈsit ɪnˈvɛstɝ/
A financial backer who interferes without running the company.
The backseat investor questioned every decision the founder made.
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13 based/ˈbeɪst/
Courageously true to oneself.
Her opinions are based, earning her many followers.
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14 bearish/ˈbɛɹɪʃ/
Doubtful about anything, expecting it to fail.
I'm bearish on that startup; nobody actually wants the product.
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15 bikeshedding/ˈbaɪkˌʃɛdɪŋ/
Arguing about trivial details while ignoring important decisions.
The team spent hours bikeshedding over color choices.
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16 bootstrap/ˈbutˌstɹæp/
To fund a startup with your own money.
She decided to bootstrap her business from scratch.
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17 bullish/ˈbʊlɪʃ/
Optimistic about anything, often because you stand to gain.
She is bullish on the neighborhood since she just bought a condo there.
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18 burn rate/ˈbɝn ˌɹeɪt/
The speed a company spends cash.
Their burn rate alarmed investors last quarter.
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19 cap table/ˈkæp ˌteɪbəl/
List showing ownership shares in a company.
The investors reviewed the cap table before investing.
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20 churn rate/ˈtʃɝn ˌɹeɪt/
The rate of losing customers over time.
The churn rate increased after the price hike.
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21 Cluely/ˈkluːli/
A computer app designed to help you cheat.
She used Cluely during her important job interview.
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22 context window/ˈkɑntɛkst ˌwɪndoʊ/
How much text a model can hold at once.
The context window limits the model's understanding.
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23 convertible note/kənˈvɝtəbəl ˈnoʊt/
Short-term loan turning into shares later.
He funded the startup with a convertible note.
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24 Corgi Cafe/ˈkɔɹɡi kəˈfeɪ/
All-night San Francisco coffee shop run by an AI startup.
Founders code at Corgi Cafe until sunrise.
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25 cracked/ˈkɹækt/
Highly skilled, especially in coding.
The team needed a cracked engineer for the project.
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26 crushing it/ˈkɹʌʃɪŋ ˌɪt/
Achieving exceptional success with something.
He is crushing it in his new business venture.
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27 decel/ˈdiˌsɛl/
A person who wants fast technological progress, especially in AI, slowed down.
He is known as a decel in the tech community.
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28 Delaware C-corp/ˈdɛləˌwɛɹ ˈsi kɔɹp/
A legal company structure often used by new businesses.
They formed a Delaware C-corp to attract investors.
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29 demo day/ˈdɛmoʊ ˌdeɪ/
Event where startups pitch to investors.
Founders nervously presented their ideas at demo day.
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30 dilution/daɪˈluʃən/
Shrinking ownership share due to new shares.
He faced dilution when the company issued more stock.
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31 dogfooding/ˈdɔɡˌfudɪŋ/
Using your own product for validation.
The team practiced dogfooding to improve their app.
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32 down round/ˈdaʊn ˌɹaʊnd/
Raising funds at a lower company valuation.
They had to accept a down round to secure funding.
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33 dry powder/ˈdɹaɪ ˌpaʊdɚ/
Money a fund has raised but not yet invested.
The venture capital firm has plenty of dry powder.
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34 duck syndrome/ˈdʌk ˈsɪnˌdɹoʊm/
Appearing calm while struggling underneath.
Many students experience duck syndrome during finals week.
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35 eng/ˈɛŋ/
Short for the engineering team at a tech company.
The eng team launched the new feature today.
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36 evals/ˈivælz/
Repeatable tests that measure model output quality.
The team ran evals to check the model's accuracy.
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37 exit/ˈɛgzɪt/
Event where founders and investors cash out.
The startup's exit made everyone wealthy overnight.
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38 flywheel/ˈflaɪˌwil/
Self-reinforcing loop that drives growth.
The company's flywheel kept gaining momentum each year.
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39 FOMO/ˈfoʊmoʊ/
Anxiety about missing a good financial opportunity.
His FOMO kicked in during the hot funding round.
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40 forcing function/ˈfɔɹsɪŋ ˈfʌŋkʃən/
A constraint you create on purpose so you can't back out.
Announcing the demo date was his forcing function to finish the code.
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41 founder mode/ˈfaʊndɝ ˌmoʊd/
A management style where the company creator stays hands-on.
She switched to founder mode to solve the crisis.
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42 fuck you money/ˌfʌk ˈju ˌmʌni/
Enough wealth to do whatever you want.
She sold her startup and now has fuck you money.
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43 golden handcuffs/ˈgoʊldən ˈhændˌkʌfs/
Financial incentives that bind employees.
His golden handcuffs made him stay at the job.
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44 hallucinate/həˈlusəˌneɪt/
Of an AI model, to state false facts as if they were true.
The model began to hallucinate details about the event.
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45 high agency/ˈhaɪ ˈeɪdʒənsi/
The ability to take action and shape outcomes.
Her high agency led to impressive project results.
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46 hockey stick growth/ˈhɑki ˌstɪk ˈgɹoʊθ/
A rapid increase following a flat period.
The company experienced hockey stick growth last quarter.
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47 liquidation preference/ˌlɪkwəˈdeɪʃən ˈpɹɛfɝəns/
Right to be paid first in company sale.
Investors have liquidation preference over the founders.
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48 locked in/ˌlɑkt ˈɪn/
Intensely focused and working with total concentration.
She was locked in while writing her final paper.
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49 long horizon/ˌlɔŋ həˈɹaɪzn̩/
Taking many steps or hours to complete.
The agent handles long horizon tasks like rewriting a codebase.
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50 making the world a better place/ˈmeɪkɪŋ ðə ˈwɝld ə ˈbɛtɝ ˌpleɪs/
A cliché startup mission line, claimed however small the product is.
The startup claimed it was making the world a better place.
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51 meat proxy/ˌmit ˈpɹɑksi/
Someone who copies chatbot answers without checking.
The meat proxy pasted the chatbot's response into the chat.
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52 microdosing/ˈmaɪkɹoʊˌdoʊsɪŋ/
Taking tiny amounts of drugs for subtle effects.
He started microdosing to enhance his creativity.
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53 moats/ˈmoʊts/
Defensive advantages against competitors.
Their strong brand created effective moats in the market.
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54 multimodal/ˌmʌltiˈmoʊdəl/
Able to process text, images, audio, and video.
The multimodal AI generated images from the text.
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55 normie/ˈnɔɹmi/
Ordinary person with mainstream tastes, outside niche subcultures.
The normie struggled to understand the tech jokes.
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56 NPC/ˌɛn ˌpi ˈsi/
A person who seems to lack independent thought, like a background character in a video game.
He joked that his friend was acting like an NPC.
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57 p-doom/ˈpi ˌdum/
Probability that advanced AI causes human extinction.
His p-doom estimate worried the rest of the group.
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58 pg/ˌpi ˈdʒi/
Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham, known by his initials.
The team discussed the latest essay by pg.
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59 PIP/ˈpɪp/
A formal warning for poor work performance.
She received a PIP after missing multiple deadlines.
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60 pivot/ˈpɪvət/
Change direction after realizing the original plan failed.
The startup decided to pivot to a new product line.
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61 postmortem/ˌpoʊstˈmɔɹtəm/
Review after an outage focusing on causes.
The team held a postmortem to analyze the server crash.
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62 pro rata/ˌpɹoʊ ˈɹɑtə/
Option to keep ownership percentage in future rounds.
The investor exercised their pro rata in the new round.
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63 product-market fit/ˈpɹɑdəkt ˈmɑɹkɪt ˌfɪt/
Point where product satisfies real market demand.
The team celebrated achieving product-market fit last quarter.
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64 ramen profitable/ˈɹɑmən ˈpɹɑfɪtəbl̩/
Making enough money to cover basic expenses.
The startup became ramen profitable last quarter.
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65 rest and vest/ˌɹɛst ənd ˈvɛst/
Staying at a job while stock grants pay out.
He enjoyed his rest and vest arrangement at work.
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66 runway/ˈɹʌnˌweɪ/
Time left before a company runs out of cash.
The startup has a six-month runway to reach profitability.
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67 SAFE note/ˌseɪf ˈnoʊt/
Contract for future shares in a startup.
He signed a SAFE note to invest in the company.
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68 seed round/ˌsid ˈɹaʊnd/
First meaningful round of outside investment raised.
The startup closed its seed round last month.
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69 ship/ˈʃɪp/
Release software work to actual users.
They plan to ship the update on Friday.
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70 slop/ˈslɑp/
Low-quality content generated in bulk by AI.
The AI tool added too much slop to the report.
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71 sprint/ˈspɹɪnt/
Short, intense work period for a team.
The developers planned a sprint to finish the app.
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72 stack/stæk/
A mix of technologies for building services.
The team chose a robust stack for the app.
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73 stealth mode/ˌstɛlθ ˈmoʊd/
A state of keeping business plans secret.
The startup is in stealth mode until its big reveal.
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74 sticky/ˈstɪki/
Keeping users engaged and returning.
The app's sticky features kept users engaged daily.
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75 SWE/ˌɛs ˌdʌbəlˈju ˈi/
Abbreviation for software engineer in tech jobs.
The SWE fixed the bug before lunch break.
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76 tech debt/ˌtɛk ˈdɛt/
Future work from choosing quick fixes over proper ones.
The developers acknowledged their growing tech debt.
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77 term sheet/ˈtɝm ˌʃit/
Document outlining main conditions of an investment.
They reviewed the term sheet before signing the deal.
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78 title promotion/ˈtaɪtəl pɹəˈmoʊʃən/
A better rank name without extra pay or duties.
She received a title promotion but no salary increase.
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79 token/ˈtoʊkən/
Small text unit read by a language model.
The model processes each token to create responses.
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80 tokenmaxxing/ˈtoʊkənˌmæksɪŋ/
Burning AI tokens on purpose to look productive.
Once the usage leaderboard went up, half the team started tokenmaxxing.
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81 unicorn/ˈjunɪˌkɔɹn/
A startup valued over $1 billion.
That company became a unicorn within three years.
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82 value add/ˈvælju ˈæd/
Help beyond money that an investor provides.
Her introductions were a significant value add to the startup.
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83 vanity metrics/ˈvænɪti ˈmɛtɹɪks/
Data that looks good but ignores real success.
The report showed vanity metrics that misled the team.
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84 vesting cliff/ˈvɛstɪŋ ˌklɪf/
Date before stock grant becomes yours, usually a year.
She eagerly awaited the vesting cliff to receive shares.
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85 vibe coding/ˈvaɪb ˌkoʊdɪŋ/
Creating software by using AI prompts.
He built the entire app using vibe coding.
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86 Waterloo/ˈwɔtɝˌlu/
A Canadian university known for engineering talent.
He graduated from Waterloo and moved to Silicon Valley.
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87 yak shaving/ˈjæk ˌʃeɪvɪŋ/
Doing unrelated tasks that block the real task.
He found himself yak shaving instead of coding.
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88 zero to one/ˈziɹoʊ tu ˈwʌn/
Completely new rather than copied.
She wanted a zero to one product, not a copy.
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89 zombie startup/ˈzɑmbi ˈstɑɹtˌʌp/
A stalled VC-funded company not growing.
Their zombie startup struggles to stay afloat each month.
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