The phrase "early-stage" is a common term used to describe the early phase of a project or a startup company. However, there are various other words that can be used instead of "early-stage," such as embryonic, nascent, incipient, rudimentary, and emerging. These words convey the same idea of the beginning or initial phases of something. For example, embryonic refers to something in its earliest stages of development, nascent refers to a project or idea that is just beginning to come into existence, incipient means something that is just starting to develop, rudimentary means something that is undeveloped and in its earliest stages, and emerging refers to something that is starting to become apparent. Using these synonyms can add variety to your writing and help you convey your ideas more effectively.