From Forbes, yesterday: "Today, there are more than 80 unicorns, or companies with a valuation of at least $1.0 billion—that’s more than double the number last

From Forbes, yesterday: "Today, there are more than 80 unicorns, or companies with a valuation of at least $1.0 billion—that’s more than double the number last year, and, according to CB Insights, just three fewer than the last three years combined. As for unicorn exits: 2014 saw almost twice as many billion-dollar exits (32) as 2013 (17)." (http://www.forbes.com/sites/truebridge/2015/03/09/too-many-unicorns-why-billion-dollar-startups/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/truebridge/2015/03/09/too-many-u...) It's hard to tell if the "80 unicorns" includes the 49 exits from 2013 and 2014, although the wording (to me) suggests they do not. Regardless, many of these companies have co-founders and an early CTO hire often gets ~5-7% in options (which are then diluted, granted.) Also, if the minimum to be included is $1bn, then the average is somewhat higher (although not too much higher, given the shape of the distribution.) So, between the 2-5 people who might own more than 2-5% of the company, the 80-129 unicorns over the past few years, and the average unicorn valuation of $1.5bn to $3bn, all somewhat informed guesses, my swag was about 200 people with paper net worth of >$30mm. I mean, you could easily see a company like Slack, which grew very quickly, having 4 or 5. Of course, per the referenced paper, these people probably aren't flying much on private jets since, to my knowledge, NetJets doesn't accept unexercised stock options as boarding passes.