The strategic importance of costs has traditionally been addressed within mature industrial firms and in new product development (NPD), primarily for strategic differentiation, market positioning, margin and profitability moderation, and contingency planning—such as cost control, savings, or optimization. However, with the rise of the Knowledge Economy and the emergence of entrepreneurial startups (ESUs) driven by innovative, knowledge-based, technology-oriented, and intangible-intensive business models, many of the traditional notions of costs no longer apply. For ESUs, the primary focus is on value creation through the development of intellectual capital to capture market and venture value, with the ultimate goal of value extraction through a liquidation event, such as an exit. These ventures operate in environments characterized by ambiguity, uncertainty, and complexity, often dealing with untested ideas. They require long periods of incubation, development, and significant incremental investments. These investments are primarily directed towards costs associated with developing intangible assets—mainly intellectual capital—in new ventures that often have the potential for exponentially higher returns on investment compared to traditional NPD models focused on profitability. In the ESU lifecycle, cost investments primarily serve as enablers and mediators in the early stages, and as mediators and moderators during rapid growth in the mid-to-late stages.