grubstake
📖 Definitions
noun
1. Funds supplied for launching an enterprise in return for a share of the profits.
2. Money or other assistance provided to sustain someone in difficult circumstances.
verb tr.
To supply with funds.
💬 Usage Examples
“Starting with a grubstake in the low six figures, Two Small Fish backed 22 companies, some of which became breakout stars in Canada.” Sean Silcoff; Two Small Fish Aims to Take Big Bite of Tech Market With New Venture Fund; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Oct 4, 2022. “If Bezos had any particular ingenuity, it was in realizing that not only could Amazon avoid paying taxes to get a leg up over its competitors, but it could rely on witless local, state, and federal government representatives to actively grubstake the company’s growth.
As a result, in 2018 Amazon contributed $0 in corporate tax on $11 billion in profit, and actually bagged a $129 million tax rebate. ‘[F]rom 2009 to 2018, the company paid an effective tax rate of 3 percent on profits totaling $26.5 billion’ writes MacGillis. Amazon wove a new social fabric by threading an astonishing number of loopholes in the American tax system.” Alexander Sammon; In Bezosworld; The American Prospect (Princeton, New Jersey); Mar/Apr 2021.