Unicorn Founders Have Three Simple Things in Common: Study

Ever surprise what founders of “unicorn” firms, or startups value a minimum of a billion {dollars}, have in frequent?

After knowledge from 845 unicorns and a couple of,018 unicorn founders within the U.S. and U.Ok. from the previous decade, Defiance Capital discovered three frequent, qualitative traits within the “DNA” of unicorn founders:

1. They don’t have a backup plan
2. They’ve private tales of feeling restricted or unfairly handled
3. They consider in themselves.

“The tales which can be popping out present loopy dedication,” Defiance Capital founder Christian Dorffer advised TechCrunch.

Dorffer mentioned the founders all shared “starvation, self-belief, ingenuity, and resilience.”

Associated: A New AI Startup from Unicorn Founders Wants Businesses to Know Their ‘Worth’

The report discovered that 70% of unicorns had “underdog” founders, which the researchers outlined as founders who had been immigrants, girls, or individuals of coloration.

The examine additionally discovered that greater than half of the founders (53%) had levels from prime international universities. Most founder groups (70%) had a minimum of one particular person with a STEM diploma (science, expertise, engineering, or math).

Founder groups had been extra frequent within the billion-dollar startup bracket than solo founders, with 80% of unicorns led by a workforce. Half of the founders surveyed had been serial entrepreneurs, so that they had created a minimum of one different firm earlier than reaching a billion-dollar-plus valuation with their unicorn startup.

Associated: Want to Start a Billion-Dollar Business? Look to These Two Industries, Which Have the Most Unicorn Growth

A separate February examine found that two industries stood out final yr in producing unicorns: cybersecurity and synthetic intelligence. As of March 2024, there are greater than 1,000 unicorns all over the world, together with OpenAI, Canva, and SpaceX, in accordance with CB Insights.

Dorffer is now planning to create a podcast and interview lots of the unicorn founders surveyed within the examine.