R2B

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heidict entry

R2B — /ˌɑːr.tuːˈbiː/ · noun · sentiment: derogatory.

Inflections

Form	Value
expansion	retard to business	attributive	R2B

Definitions

(informal, playful, derogatory, business-slang, tech-slang) — *R*etard *to* *B*usiness: a business model in which an incompetent, unserious, or terminally online operator sells to an organization. The R names the supplier, not the customer. An R2B company can still close enterprise contracts; the joke is that its institutional buyer has mistaken a chaotic founder, thin wrapper, or barely governed operation for a dependable vendor.
- the product is pure R2B: one retard, six enterprise pilots, no support desk
- they went R2B as soon as procurement confused the deck for a roadmap
- R2B SaaS is just founder chaos with an annual contract around it
Positioned against: R2C (sense 1), R2R (sense 1) (axis: customer-type-in-parody-business-model) — R2B sells from the R to an institutional buyer; R2C sells to an individual consumer, while R2R keeps both sides inside the R class.

Etymology

R: Initial of retard, used here as a deliberately abrasive label for the incompetent or unserious party in the transaction.
2: Internet-era rebus for to, inherited from business-model labels such as B2B and B2C.
B: Initial of business, naming the institutional customer.

A parodic mutation of B2B, replacing the supplier-side business with retard. Part of the R2B/R2C/R2R taxonomy.

Usage

Use R2B for the direction of sale, not merely for a bad company. Contrast R2C, where the customer is an individual, and R2R, where both parties are being insulted.

Sources

Canonical entry: heidict — R2B
Source of truth (YAML): ~/ht/heidict/entries/r2b.yaml
Curated by Benedict under heidict editorial doctrine.

R2B