What is a unicorn?

• The term unicorn was coined in 2013 by venture capitalist Aileen Lee.
• Unicorns are characterised by having a value of over $1 billion, not being listed on the stock exchange and having a technological base.

What are the characteristics of a unicorn?

In addition to having a valuation of over $1 billion, as we just mentioned, unicorns are not listed on the stock exchange (although they probably will be at some point).

They are usually based on new technologies and/or the Internet, offering innovative solutions or radically improving existing ones to the point of even changing the industries in which they operate.

They are also companies marked by very rapid financial growth and, in terms of age, are less than a decade old.

Solving big problems, creating revolutionary products, building powerful teams, moving and adapting at the speed of the market, and thinking globally are other characteristics that define unicorns.

What is the origin of the term?

The mythological creature of the same name refers to a white horse with a twisted spiral horn on its forehead that symbolised innocence, power and purity.

The fact that they were extremely rare and difficult to find is the reason why these highly valuable and coveted start-ups are known as unicorns in the world of entrepreneurship.

The term was coined by Aileen Lee, an American venture capitalist and founder of Cowboy Ventures, who in an article in the prestigious publication Tech Crunch in November 2013, entitled ‘Welcome To The Unicorn Club: Learning From Billion-Dollar Startups’, described the peculiarities of these young and successful companies.

How many unicorns were there when the term was coined?

At the time Lee wrote the article, there were barely 39 companies that met the requirements set out in it. However, today there are hundreds.

Currently, some examples of start-ups that have established themselves as disruptive companies with enormous economic and social influence across the globe were once unicorns.

What are super unicorns?

In the same Tech Crunch article in which Lee defined unicorns, he established a higher category: super unicorns.

These, also known as hectocorns, differ from unicorns in that their valuation exceeds $100 billion.

From Lee’s list of 39 original unicorns, Facebook stands out—one of the most iconic social networks, founded in 2004—which was considered a super unicorn at the time.

Similarly, the author highlights how technological super-unicorns have also been created in previous decades, such as Google in the 1990s—one of the most influential Internet search engines, which has transcended this function to become a conglomerate offering numerous services—Cisco in the 1980s, Apple and Microsoft in the 1970s, and Intel in the 1960s.

Regarding the common features of these super-unicorns, Lee highlights the birth in each of these eras and linked to these companies of technological disruptions of enormous magnitude: the era of semiconductors in the 1960s; the personal computer in the 1970s; the networked world in the 1980s; the Internet as we know it today in the 1990s; and the emergence of social media in the 2000s.

In her 2013 article, Lee explained that each great wave of technological innovation had generated at least one super-unicorn.

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