Key Employees: Professional management attracted by the founder to run the company. Key employees are typically retained with warrants and ownership of the company.

Key man clause: If a specified number of key named executives cease to devote a specified amount of time to the Partnership, which may also include time spent on other funds managed by the manager, during the commitment period, the "key man" clause provides that the manager of the fund is prohibited from making any further new investments (either automatically or if so determined by investors) until such a time that new replacement key executives are appointed. The manager will, however, usually be permitted to make any investments that had already been agreed to be made prior to such date.

Kurtosis - Measures the flatness of the tails of any investment distribution. A flat-tailed distribution has an increased chance of a large positive or negative realization. Kurtosis should not be confused with skewness, which measures the flatness of one tail. Kurtosis is sometimes referred to as the volatility of volatility.