Seasons

Seasons refers to the current stage of a proposed business idea or concept. It's a term generally used by venture capitalists. The seasons consist of spring (infancy), summer (adolescence), fall (maturing) and winter (mature).

Like many investors, venture capitalists are always trying to discover the "next big thing". One of the keys to success is being able to discover the next hot investment before it's on anyone else's radar.

A concept or idea would be considered to be in the spring phase if it's so new and fresh that no one (including other venture capitalists) really knows about it or understands it. As it matures, it progresses through the other seasons.

For example, in the late twentieth century, there was lots of buzz about new technologies like high-definition television (HDTV) and radio-frequency identification (RFID) and these would have been considered to be in the spring season. However, once the ideas about the concepts became more widespread, it passed from the spring season to the summer season and beyond.