4 ms·
People starting their own startups are not likely to get anything useful out of this article. There is little to "learn", as the link-bait title suggests, from
by unholiness 13y ago
People starting their own startups are not likely to get anything useful out of this article. There is little to "learn", as the link-bait title suggests, from a statistical analysis of billion-dollar companies.
There were, however, a few somewhat interesting takeaways amid the difficult-to-read mess:
The average founding age is 34.
80% of founders have started a company before.
Only 2 out of 39 have any female cofounders.
The billion+ startups are pretty evenly split into free, freemium, paid, and enterprise only pay structures.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but everyone I recognize on the list is a software-only company.
- imron 13y agoFrom the article: "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)." So yes, they are talking only about software companies.
- patmcguire 13y agoAverage founding age is something I wouldn't have been able to guess.
- hkmurakami 13y ago>Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but everyone I recognize on the list is a software-only company. Palo Alto Networks is a high security network infrastructure maker: https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/products/platforms/firewalls/pa-5000/overview.html https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/products/platforms/firewall...
- Nimi 13y agoMeraki sells devices, AFAIK. I have to kindly disagree with your opinion that there's nothing to learn here for aspiring entrepreneurs: one possibly actionable take-away seems to be "You haven't missed the train if you're 25, not even close. You still have time to learn, start a first company that probably won't take over the world, then try a second company."
- data_app 13y agoAnother interesting data point: 2 out of the 39 are YC alums.