--- description: A tool to help determine if you're the audience for 'Valley Speak,' a new book intent on breaking down Silicon Valley slang title: How Fluent Are You in Silicon Valley Slang? image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # How Fluent Are You in Silicon Valley Slang? by [Katy Steinmetz](/author/katy-steinmetz/) and [David Johnson](/author/dave-johnson/) May 10, 2016 9:02 PM CUT by [Katy Steinmetz](/author/katy-steinmetz/) and [David Johnson](/author/dave-johnson/) May 10, 2016 9:02 PM CUT X for Y. Stealth mode. Failing fast. Term sheets. Get all that? Well, you just may live in Northern California. [Silicon Valley](http://time.com/4110095/tech-ipos "undefined") has a severe, likely incurable addiction to jargon. In an attempt to make this innovation mecca seem less opaque to newcomers or outsiders, Rochelle Kopp and Steven Ganz have [written a manual](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rochellekopp/valley-speak-deciphering-the-jargon-of-silicon-val "undefined") to explain all that jazz. “We really felt like there was a need for it,” says Ganz, a startup founder himself. “We’re working with companies that are sometimes new to Silicon Valley, that are needing to interact with people here and needing to understand how things are done here. And often the biggest stumbling block to that is the language itself.” To mark the arrival of [_Valley Speak: Deciphering the Jargon of Silicon Valley_](http://www.siliconvalleyspeak.com/ "undefined"), TIME has constructed a quiz based on the book’s definitions to determine whether you’re a whiz kid or the human equivalent of a down round. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4320012/silicon-valley-speak-slang-jargon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4320012/silicon-valley-speak-slang-jargon/"},"headline":"How Fluent Are You in Silicon Valley Slang?","datePublished":"2016-05-10T21:02:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:49:56.852Z","description":"A tool to help determine if you're the audience for Valley Speak, a new book intent on breaking down Silicon Valley jargon","url":"https://time.com/4320012/silicon-valley-speak-slang-jargon/","keywords":["Tech","Living","Books","language","Silicon Valley"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katy Steinmetz","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"David Johnson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dave-johnson/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4320012/silicon-valley-speak-slang-jargon/","name":"How Fluent Are You in Silicon Valley Slang?"}}]}] ```