What is a Unicorn Company?

1K Blog Marathon: Day 65

Unicorn, a legendary creature that looks like a white horse with a single (uni) horn on its head. This is a mythical creature that symbolizes magic. Who would have thought that this cute creature would be a depicting character in the business world?

So, Why Unicorn, and Why in Business?

Unicorn is a term used in business world pertaining to a private company with value of over $1 Billion. Yes, I billion dollars! It was used by Aileen Lee in 2013 to represent a successful venture of a business. Now, I don’t see Unicorn the same way before.

Many companies, especially the startups, were shooting to be a unicorn. Most of them were located in the heart of the technology, the Silicon Valley in Palo Alto, California. Companies that started from a garage, backyard, and even from a meet up – when founded, followed by investors, a strong MVP – then another soon to be unicorn will be created!

Please take note that a unicorn company is a “private” company, which means you can’t find it on the stock market. When a company opens up in public, in their IPO (Initial Public Offering), they will not be valid to be a unicorn.

But not all companies created from garage will become a unicorn. A real unicorn company is a very rare one. It may look like an underdog at first, then with some pixie dust it will sky rocket to a billion, thus a new unicorn was born.

Other species of Unicorn

When a unicorn company grew larger that it reaches $10 Billion, a new variant of unicorn will be born – called a Decacorn.

But, if the universe conspire and throw all the money in the world to this company, to the point that it reaches over $100 Billion, then we will call it a Hectocorn. Sounds crazy right?