Unicorn (finance)
Unicorn is a term in the U.S. investment industry, and in particular the venture capital industry, which denotes a start-up company whose valuation has exceeded the somewhat arbitrary value of $1 billion.[1] (Canadian tech unicorns have been termed "narwhals,"[2] and there is a new "buzzword, 'decacorn,' for those [companies] over $10 billion, which includes companies such as Airbnb, Dropbox, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Uber."[3])
The concept was thoroughly investigated by Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures, after that firm created a database of such firms to understand their financial, leadership, and technical characteristics.[4] Fortune magazine counted over 80 unicorns as of January 2015, and intends to update this list quarterly.[5]
Bill Gurley, as of October 2015, a partner at Benchmark, a venture capital (VC) firm that had invested in Instagram, Snapchat, and Uber (the latter a US$51 billion company),[6] as well as a VC investor with experience in previous economic downturns that affected Silicon Valley,[7][failed verification][better source needed] hypothesized in March 2015 that high investor confidence and the rapid increase in the number of unicorns may presage a speculative bubble that will eventually burst.[citation needed]
References
- ^ Griffith, Erin & Primack, Dan (2015). "The Age of Unicorns". Fortune (online, January 22). Retrieved 26 December 2015.
Subtitle: The billion-dollar tech startup was supposed to be the stuff of myth. Now they seem to be... everywhere.
{{cite journal}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|journal=(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Truong, Alice (2015). "Canadian Tech Unicorns are Called "Narwhals"". Quartz online (November 20). Retrieved 26 December 2015.
{{cite journal}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|journal=(help) - ^ Frier, Sarah & Newcomer, Eric (2015). "The Fuzzy, Insane Math That's Creating So Many Billion-Dollar Tech Companies". Bloomberg (online, March 17). Retrieved 26 December 2015.
Subtitle: Startups achieve astronomical valuations in exchange for protecting new investors... Snapchat, the photo-messaging app raising cash at a $15 billion valuation, probably isn't actually worth more than Clorox or Campbell Soup. So where did investors come up with that enormous headline number?
{{cite journal}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|journal=(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Lee, Aileen (2013). "Welcome To The Unicorn Club: Learning From Billion-Dollar Startups". TechCrunch (online, November 2). Retrieved 26 December 2015.
39 companies belong to what we call the "Unicorn Club" (by our definition, U.S.-based software companies started since 2003 and valued at over $1 billion by public or private market investors)... about .07 percent of venture-backed consumer and enterprise software startups.
{{cite journal}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|journal=(help) - ^ "The Unicorn List". Fortune. January 22, 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
- ^ Winkler, Rolfe (2015). "Bill Gurley Sees Silicon Valley on a Dangerous Path". The Wall Street Journal (online, October 26). Retrieved 26 December 2015.
Subtitle: Subtitle: Venture capitalist says companies hurt themselves by trying to delay going public.
{{cite journal}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|journal=(help) - ^ Blodget, Henry (2008). "Tech: How To Survive Great Depression 2.0 Without Firing Everyone". Business Insider (online, October 17). Retrieved 26 December 2015.
It seems every serious venture capital firm has now had a chat with its portfolio companies about how its time to fire people... VC-extraordinaire Bill Gurley's Benchmark has had the same chat with its companies, but Bill tells peHUB that there's actually an alternative to canning half your company: Move to San Jose.
{{cite journal}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|journal=(help)