.: on the frontiers of venturing and venture investing :.

Monday, January 21, 2008

The definitive definitions of venturing!

One of the surprising things that I came out of my latest exploration into the frontiers of venturing and venture investing is a set of definitions. I'm actually not one that likes to debate definitions ad infinitum but I found I needed to clarify things to be able to have meaningful conversations going forward. So here, is what I've come up with... for now (I'll keep updating this definitions as the evolve so feel free to check-back or link here for reference).

  • Venture: An agreement among people to do things in service of a purpose and according to a set of values.
  • Venturing: The process of creating and evolving a venture.
  • Venturer: A person primarily involved in or responsible for venturing.
  • Operator: A person primarily involved in or responsible for operating a venture.
  • Entrepreneur: A venturer that also carries primary responsibility for operating a venture.
  • Frontiers of venturing: The effective limit of conventional approaches to venturing.
  • Frontiers of venture investing: Investing in ventures that are on the frontiers.