Value Investing

Buying stock for less than what they are worth.

Value Proposition

Value proposition is a description of the customer problem, the solution that addresses the problem, and the value of this solution from the customer's perspective.

Venture Capital

Money used to support new or unusual business ventures that exhibit above-average growth rates, significant potential for market expansion and are in need of additional financing to sustain growth or further research and development; equity or venture financing traditionally provided at the commercialization stage, increasingly available prior to commercialization.

Venture Capital Company

A company organized to provide seed capital to a business in a formation stage, or in its first or second stage of expansion. Funding is obtained through public or private pension funds, commercial banks and bank holding companies, small business investment corporations, private venture capital firms, insurance companies, investment management companies, bank trust departments, industrial companies seeking to diversify their investment and investment bankers acting as intermediaries for other investors or directly investing on their own behalf.

Venture Capital Limited Partnerships

Designed for business development, these partnerships are institutional mechanisms for providing capital for young, technology-orientated business. The investor's money is pooled and invested in money market assets until venture investments have been selected. The general partners are experienced investment managers who select and invest the equity and debt securities of firms with growth potential and the ability to go public in the near future.

Venture Capital Network (VCN)

A computer database that matches investors with entrepreneurs.

Venturepreneur

An entrepreneur building a high-risk-high-return venture around a new-to-the-world product or service.

Vision

Corporate vision is a short, succinct, and inspiring statement of what the organization intends to become and to achieve at some point in the future, often stated in competitive terms.

Working Capital

The cash available to an enterprise for day-to-day operations. This can be a firm's short-term investment of current assets, including cash, short-term securities, accounts receivable and inventories.

Yield

The rate of income returned on an investment, expressed as a percentage. Income yield is obtained by dividing the current dollar income by the current market price of the security. Net yield or yield to maturity is the current income yield minus any premium above par or plus any discount from par in purchase price, with the adjustment spread over the period from the date of purchase to the date of maturity.

Zero-base Budgeting

Requires managers to justify their entire budget request in detail rather than simply referring to budget amounts established in previous years.

ZOPA (zone of possible agreement)

The range of investment terms or amounts open to possible negotiation, ranging from the lowest the entrepreneur is willing to accept (the minimum) to the most the investor is willing to pay (the maximum).