On Finding Unicorns

Unicorn Club: Learning from Billion Dollar Start-ups

I read with great interest the TechCrunch article on the Unicorn Club: Learning from Billion Dollar Start-ups, defined as the .07% of companies started since 2003 that were valued at over $1 billion dollars by public or private market investors. It got me thinking about some indicators for unicorns: tech-educated professionals in their 30s starting companies with people they already know from school or work in the e-commerce (consumer pays), audience (ads or leads pay), SaaS (users pay) or enterprise (companies pay) space.

But beyond that, it got me thinking about what the next unicorns would be in the next decade, and of course how to facilitate innovation and business success for my clients and the community overall. Specifically, if the 60s brought on the decade of semiconductors, the 70s the era of the personal computer, the 80s, the prominence of networks, the 90s, the rise of the modern internet, and the 00s the prominence of social networks, what will the next decade bring?

As with previous decades, what came before is the technical infrastructure which would support the next era of technology discovery and economic success. And what we think is next will be the rise of the age of personalization. Below are ten potential successes to found and fund in the next decade:

E-commerce (consumer pays) –

1. Proactive Health Management with a Wearable, Diagnostic Component
2. Web and mobile-based proactive food/exercise choice solutions, with a way to compare self to others and implications of food/exercise choices made

Audience (ads or leads pay) – focus on volume of targeted users

3. Mobile Diagnostics (software only)
4. Interactive Mobile Games or conversations/content with targeted social media components

SaaS (users pay) – going beyond apps and storage

5. Mobile Diagnostics, with separate plug-in device (not just software)
6. Mobile and web proactive Health Management Solutions
7. Elder care management solutions for caregivers
8. Community-Based Funding and Gifting Solutions

Enterprise (companies pay) space – More efficiently serving and connecting employees and managing resources

9. Employee Health Management Solutions
10. Proactive, Integrated, Energy Management Solutions

For more information, read the TechCrunch article The Unicorn Club: Learning From Billion-Dollar Startups http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/02/welcome-to-the-unicorn-club/#

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Tags: Data Analytics