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The Next Wave of ‘Unicorn’ Startups
- chadmhorner 8y agoHonestly haven't heard of any of those potential unicorns (except Zola), but I guess that is sort of the point!
- jhallenworld 8y agoThe online pharmacy (Alto Pharmacy) and online doctor (KRY) are the ones that sound like they could be unicorns, but they are going against entrenched interests. Uber took on cab drivers and won. Doctors and pharmacists have much stronger quasi-unions (the AMA and AphA).
- Kiro 8y agoKry has already won in Sweden. The resistance is dead.
- DeonPenny 8y agoMapbox, Check, Marqeta, and Segment are basically already unicorns. Wouldn't be surprised to see them IPO in the next 3 years.
- aresant 8y ago"Wow, 11 of these 50 were funded by Y Combinator:" - Paul Graham via Twitter - worth a read of that thread in which PG also notes that he has had nothing to do w/class selection since 2014: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1095075300852019201 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1095075300852019201
- sametmax 8y agoThat makes it sound like a PR piece.
- asadlionpk 8y ago*submarine
- jd20 8y agoMade me wonder how likely it was that "Funded by YC" was one of the criteria used by the analyst to come up with the list.
- DenisM 8y agoIt has to be. Many people know how to write software, only few get ongoing advice from the industry's top advisors and have a line out the door to fund them. King-making is a thing, even if only a partial thing.
- amackera 8y agoRelevant PG essay: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
- jjeaff 8y agoThat's like Warren Buffet saying "wow, look how so many of the stocks Berkshire Hathaway invested in shot up in value right after investing." The fact that y combinator invests in a company automatically gives them a leg up in raising tons of money at higher than normal valuations.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- basseq 8y agoDemographics: 21 in California (16 in San Fran) 11 in APAC 9 on the East Coast (including MapBox) 3 in Europe 3 in S. America 3 in "other US"
- kaikai 8y agoMapbox is also in sf, with most of the company leadership based there (I used to work there)
- person_of_color 8y agoWhy did you leave?
- dmode 8y agoDespite predictions to the contrary, San Francisco (and Bay Area) continues to kill it when it comes to unicorn production
- chrisco255 8y agoWho predicted the contrary?
- bdcravens 8y agoNo one really. I believe the GP comment is confusing that with sentiment against SF costs and culture, as well as sentiment against the value of unicorns in general.
- yuy910616 8y agohow about the economist? I wouldn't say 'predict', but definitely painting a negative portrait https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/08/30/why-startups-are-leaving-silicon-valley https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/08/30/why-startups-ar...
- tclancy 8y agoAn alternative hypothesis would be that who you know/ access matters more than good ideas.
- emiliobumachar 8y agoThat's not an alternative hypothesis. It's a possible mechanism. Note that both can be true at the same time.
- notfromhere 8y agoProbably more because there's access to capital than anything magic in the water
- mattmanser 8y agoIsn't that essentially the magic in the water? I've watched several UK startups try and get funding without going to SV and it is painful to watch how utterly amateur and pathetic trying to get startup or VC capital is in the UK.
- tomphoolery 8y agoEarnin is a scam that disproportionately targets young poor black/latino people. It's JG Wentworth in an app. Doesn't count as a unicorn because it's not innovative at all.
- ng12 8y agoThey're undercutting loan sharks and overdraft fees by a huge percent. I wouldn't be sad to see those go.
- JustSomeNobody 8y agoWow. That app is creepy. It tracks your location so it knows when you got to work and left work. It tracks your bank account so it knows when, how often and how much you deposit. Etc.
- randomacct3847 8y agoWhy is it a scam? Seems better than a payday loan if receiving paychecks daily instead of biweekly makes the difference
- etxm 8y agoSome creepy tracking, but curious why you think it’s a scam? I understand how payday lenders can be considered scams, but it seems like Earnin makes all the fees optional. I haven’t used the app, just read their marketing pages, BTW so I may have missed something.
- liveoneggs 8y ago"optional fees" doesn't sound very legitimate to me
- identity_zero 8y agoThat just means there's a tip functionality.
- gingerbread-man 8y ago
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- drdaeman 8y agoI didn't knew the meaning of "unicorn" when applied to companies. Maybe I'm the only person who still hadn't, but if there are others - to save them a search query: "A unicorn is a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn_(finance) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn_(finance)
- glbrew 8y agoYeah I'd say the majority of people here know what a unicorn is.
- jeffwass 8y agoThe parent is one of “today’s lucky 10,000” https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
- Rainymood 8y agoNot to be rude but you're aware that YCombinator (the website you're browsing on) is a startup incubator, right?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ASalazarMX 8y agoThank you. Suddenly last year many people repeated the phrase 'unicorn X', and I didn't know the meaning until today because it looks like a marketing buzzword and I just rolled my eyes and moved on.
- huntermeyer 8y agoNo Paywall: https://outline.com/qp6P8w https://outline.com/qp6P8w
- rrdharan 8y agoSeems like the linked article is more an analysis / summary and doesn't actually have the list, which is in this linked article: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/10/technology/these-50-start-ups-may-be-the-next-unicorns.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/10/technology/these-50-start... Did they rejigger things since the submission?
- dr_ 8y agoThey should describe how they came up with this list. For example, Alto pharmacy, which appears to primarily operate in California, is on the list. They raised $50 million last December. Capsule pharmacy, which essentially does the same thing, primarily operates out of NYC. They also raised $50 million a few months earlier, in August 2018, but are not on this list. Wonder why?
- web007 8y agoAmount of funding != value of company A funding round is for X% of a company at $Y dollars, which values the company at $ ((100 / X) * Y). Looking at two recent announcements that I follow, Aurora raised $530mm at $2.5b valuation and Nuro raised $940mm valued at $2.7b. Aurora sold ~21% ownership, and Nuro sold ~34% ownership, but both ended up around the same valuation.
- dr_ 8y agoI realize that, and I don’t have the valuation numbers for either company, presumably CB Insights does. But using the example you gave, if there were a list of companies entering the 3 billion valuation, business fundamentals aside, I’d be hard pressed to pick between Aurora and Nuro.
- anongraddebt 8y agoI'm not sure how up to date the wiki unicorn list is, but for those interested: China (131) U.S. (85) India (20) ---- Some of those listed will likely fall-off in the near future (e.g. Ofo).
- yowlingcat 8y agoThis list looks positively anemic. How is this anything but a business insider esque PR puff piece?
- freyir 8y agoIt looks like the list and the commentary are on separate pages: List: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/10/technology/these-50-start-ups-may-be-the-next-unicorns.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/10/technology/these-50-start... Commentary: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/10/technology/new-wave-unicorn-start-ups.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/10/technology/new-wave-unico...
- ackbar03 8y agoThey site a lot of stuff from cbinsights. I don't know about others but I find cbinsights analysis a bit sloppy sometimes. They kept crowing about the potentials blockchain and how it was the future all through the crash as though it wasn't even taking place. They also had this piece about we work which painted them in glowing colors right in the aftermath of the additional funding from softbank not coming through, giving fluffy reasons why they think their still going to continue to upend the industry. Plus all their emails end with "I love you" which is getting old and annoying. Not intentionally smashing them but just making the point that aside from the numeric data they collect on startups which is pretty cool, I'm skeptical about using their analysis pieces as a proper source