This Study of 195 Billion-Dollar Companies Found 6 Counterintuitive Truths About Building a Unicorn
After 15 months, 300 hours and 100 charts, here is what researchers discovered about creating billion-dollar startups.
- In the world of startups, capital efficiency refers to how much money a startup needs to spend in order to be able to sustain itself on internally generated funds.
- While that makes sense, it is not consistent with some billion-dollar startups, such as Rocket Internet, that were created in China, India, Germany and elsewhere over the last decade and were clones of startups like eBay, Amazon, Tinder, and Facebook.
- Too early and the market won't buy; too late, and all the early adopters will already be using another startup's products.
- Perhaps founders with a previous exit don't need the network, knowledge and mentorship that accelerators offer.