Do you think that you have what it takes to be the next $1 Billion Startup?
What are the actual Odds of your business being the next Instagram, Tumblr or Twitter?
The odds that your tech startup will become worth $1 billion or more are incomprehensibly small, according to recent research done seed-stage investment fund, Cowboy Ventures.
They’re so tiny that the VC industry has coined a new term for $1 billion startups, “Unicorns!” and it seems unlikely that you’re getting into the Unicorn Club any time soon.
So far only 39 companies have reached the Magical $1 billion valuation mark or just 0.07% of tech startups, according to the research originally published on Techcrunch.
According to Cowboy Ventures, “We found 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). That’s about .07 percent of venture-backed consumer and enterprise software startups.”
On average, four unicorns were born per year in the past decade, with Facebook being the breakout “super-unicorn” (worth >$100 billion). In each recent decade, 1-3 super unicorns have been born.
Interestingly enough it seems that $1 billion startups tend not to come from 20-somethings like Mark Zuckerberg. They’re more likely the product of experienced founders in their mid-30s.
Very interesting stuff, but don’t let this lead to setting your targets too low, ok.
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