Glossary

Investing and Personal Branding Terms, Defined.

38 terms an investor, founder, or journalist meets around equity investments, positions, and acquisitions, with the personal branding terms behind the Mashman Investments thesis. Each is linked so it can be shared on its own.

A

Accredited Investor

An individual or entity that meets the income, net worth, or professional thresholds the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sets for taking part in many private offerings. Most private equity investments, positions, and acquisitions are open only to accredited investors.

Related: Angel Investor, Private Equity

Acquisition

Taking full ownership of a company, rather than a stake in it. At Mashman Investments an acquisition is made where Mashman Consulting Group's personal branding discipline can change how a company is run and perceived, not only who holds the title.

Angel Investor

A private individual who invests their own money in an early company, usually in exchange for equity or a convertible instrument. Angels often back the founder as much as the idea, which is why a founder's reputation weighs so heavily at this stage.

B

Brand Audit

The Identity Positioning™ Brand Audit scores a personal brand across five pillars: Omnipresence, Credibility, Seamless Branding, Reputational Health and Risks, and Marketability. Every Mashman Investments position carries access to it. Audit scores are never produced by AI.

Brand Equity

The value a name adds beyond the product or service itself: what people will pay, trust, or forgive because of who stands behind it. A founder's personal brand carries its own brand equity, and it travels with them from company to company.

Burn Rate

How fast a company spends its cash, usually stated per month. Burn rate and the cash on hand together tell an investor the runway: how long the company can operate before it needs more money.

Related: Seed Round, Due Diligence

C

Cap Table

Short for capitalization table: the record of who owns what in a company, including founders, employees with options, and investors, before and after each round. Every new round, SAFE conversion, or option grant changes it.

Related: Dilution, Equity, Vesting

Convertible Note

A short-term loan to a company that converts into equity at a later financing round, usually at a discount or under a valuation cap. It lets an early investor fund a company before anyone has to agree on a price.

D

Deal Flow

The stream of investment opportunities an investor sees. Strong deal flow comes from relationships and reputation: founders bring their best opportunities to the investors they already know and trust.

Dilution

The fall in an existing owner's percentage of a company when new shares are issued, in a new round, an option pool, or a conversion. Dilution is not always a loss: a smaller share of a more valuable company can be worth more.

Due Diligence

The investigation an investor makes before committing: the financials, the legal standing, the market, and the people. Reputation is part of diligence too. What the public, the press, and search results say about a founder is now one of the first things checked.

E

Equity

Ownership in a company, usually held as shares. Equity holders share in the company's growth and its risk, and are paid after lenders if the company is sold or wound down.

Equity for Services

Ownership received in exchange for work instead of a cash fee. At Mashman Investments it describes a deal in which Mashman Investments or Mashman Consulting Group received equity for personal branding work.

Related: Equity, Stake, Personal Brand

Equity Investment

Buying a direct stake in a company. Mashman Investments evaluates an equity investment on more than the numbers: it weighs the strength or potential of the brand behind the company, corporate or personal, alongside them.

Related: Equity, Stake, Brand Equity

Executive Visibility

How well known and how well regarded a company's leaders are: in the press, on stages, in search results, and in their industry. Visible leaders attract customers, talent, and capital to the company behind them.

Exit

The way an investor turns a stake back into cash: a sale of the company, a public offering, or a sale of the stake to another buyer. The reputation of a company's leaders shapes how attractive it looks to the next owner.

F

Founder Brand

The personal brand of a company's founder: what people know, believe, and say about them. Investors weigh it alongside the business, because a founder's name draws attention, talent, and partners to everything they build. Read: what investors really weigh.

I

Identity Positioning™

The personal branding methodology developed by Isaac Mashman and Eric Chow at Mashman Consulting Group, academically published in 2024, and the technology built on it. Every Mashman Investments position gains access to it. The technology behind every position.

Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

The annual rate of return that makes the present value of an investment's cash flows equal to zero. Unlike a simple return, IRR accounts for timing: the same profit earned in two years carries a higher IRR than if it took ten.

L

Lead Investor

The investor who sets the terms of a round, often writes the largest check, and does the deepest diligence. Other investors frequently follow a respected lead, which is reputation working as capital.

Letter of Intent (LOI)

A document setting out the main terms of a proposed deal, most often an acquisition, before the final agreements are drafted. Most of an LOI is non-binding, though confidentiality and exclusivity terms usually are binding.

Liquidation Preference

A term that decides who is paid first, and how much, when a company is sold or wound down. A preference of one times means an investor receives their money back before common shareholders share in what remains.

Related: Term Sheet, Exit, Equity

M

Minority Stake

Ownership of less than half of a company. A minority holder does not control the company, so their influence comes from the terms they negotiate and the value they add beyond capital.

Related: Stake, Equity Investment, Position

P

Personal Brand

The perception others hold of a person, built from what they see, hear, and are told about them. In Isaac Mashman's words, a personal brand is the unique fingerprint of every human who has ever lived: it cannot be avoided, only directed, grown, and scaled.

Position

A holding in an investment. At Mashman Investments a position is a deliberate holding, built and maintained on purpose, with positioning language set beside the financial language from the outset rather than added afterward.

Post-Money Valuation

A company's value immediately after new money comes in: the pre-money valuation plus the amount invested. An investor's ownership is their investment divided by the post-money valuation.

Pre-Money Valuation

A company's agreed value immediately before a new investment. Founders and investors negotiate it, and it sets how much of the company each dollar of the new round buys.

Private Equity

Investment in companies that are not traded on a public stock exchange, whether by buying a stake or the whole company. Mashman Investments is a private investment firm: its equity investments, positions, and acquisitions are private.

R

Reputation Architecture

Designing a reputation on purpose rather than leaving it to chance: what a person or company is known for, who says it, and where it can be found. It is one of the disciplines Mashman Consulting Group brings to every Mashman Investments position.

Return on Investment (ROI)

The gain or loss on an investment relative to its cost, usually given as a percentage. ROI ignores timing, which is why investors also look at IRR.

S

SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity)

An agreement, introduced by Y Combinator in 2013, in which an investor pays now for the right to equity later, usually when the company raises a priced round. A SAFE is not debt: it carries no interest and no maturity date.

Seed Round

A company's first sizeable outside investment, used to prove the product and the market. At this stage there is little data, so investors lean heavily on the founder: their record, their network, and their name.

Stake

An ownership interest in a company, large or small. Capital buys a stake. What the stake becomes depends on everything that happens after the check is written.

Stake to Standing

The Mashman Investments thesis. Capital buys a stake. Positioning turns that stake into standing: the credibility and visibility that compound a position's value beyond the balance sheet. The story behind the thesis.

T

Term Sheet

A short document listing the key terms of an investment: the amount, the valuation, the type of security, board seats, and investor rights. It is mostly non-binding and becomes the outline for the final legal agreements.

V

Valuation

What a company is judged to be worth. Early valuations rest on judgment as much as arithmetic: the market, the traction, and the confidence investors have in the people building it.

Venture Capital

Investment from funds that back young, fast-growing companies in exchange for equity, expecting a few large successes to outweigh many losses. Research on how venture capitalists decide finds that they rate the management team above the product or technology. Source: Gompers, Gornall, Kaplan and Strebulaev, How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions? (NBER, 2016) (opens in a new tab).

Vesting

Earning ownership over time rather than all at once. Founders and employees commonly vest their shares over four years with a one-year cliff, which protects the company and its investors if someone leaves early.

Related: Cap Table, Equity

Definitions are general and educational. Nothing here is an offer, a solicitation, or investment, legal, financial, or tax advice; see the terms. Updated October 22, 2026. For how a founder's personal brand figures in all of this, read what investors really weigh.

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