Will ‘Unicorns’ Deliver a Horn of Plenty in the Future?

Oct 5 2015, 9:08 AM5 min read

Traditionally a Unicorn is a mythical creature, much wished for but seldom seen outside the bounds of the Harry Potter universe and the pictures doodled on children’s notebooks and stencilled on their bedroom walls. However, a new type of Unicorn has been coming to the fore in recent years and is multiplying fast.

For those who aren’t aware of this phenomenon, a ‘Unicorn’ was a term coined by Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy Ventures, back in November 2013 and used to describe a start-up company whose value has exceeded $1 billion.

When you think of unicorns in this regard, think Facebook (actually classed as a ‘super-unicorn’ thanks to a valuation over $100 billion), Slack, LinkedIn and Uber. It is estimated that there are around 80 ‘unicorns’ prancing around currently, predominantly in San Francisco, but the odds of building or investing in a billion dollar organisation are around about the same as being struck by lightning…

So what’s the secret?

It depends who you listen to, but the common consensus is that there is no secret or magic bullet to creating a ‘unicorn’. As with any start-up, innovation plays a huge role in success, but for a unicorn it’s also about catching the right wave, at the right time, and taking advantage of prevailing trends and public opinion.

These trends, and their unicorns, go all the way back to the 1960s and look something like this:

The development of the semiconductor (Intel)
The advent of the personal computer (Apple; Oracle; Microsoft)
Development of new networks (Cisco)
The Internet (Amazon; Google)
The rise of Social Networks (Facebook; LinkedIn)

The list looks like a who’s who of powerhouse technology companies, all instantly recognisable, all companies we have come across or used ourselves during our lives. But where will the next trend come from?

The New Unicorns

Investors and experts have begun to look to the short-term future to see where the next unicorn might come from. According to a couple of sources, the Collaborative and On-Demand Economies may give birth to the next unicorns. You probably haven’t heard of them yet, but here are just some to keep an eye on:

Envato – an online marketplace for creative, enabling access to freelance talent, videos and tutorials
Canva – an online graphic design tool, aimed at making design accessible and easy for everyone
Campaign Monitor – providing easy creation, sending and reporting on e-mail marketing (clients already include Coca-Cola and Airbnb)
ROKT – online marketing platform aimed at delivering higher engagement for service advertising

Could the ‘Bubble’ Burst?

However, all this needs to be delivered with a word of caution. Most people in business are old enough to remember the dot.com bubble of the late 1990s. What started out as a rush of new, innovative online organisations, ended with a set of spectacular failures and the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.

This is the concern for some analysts with this new wave of technology start-ups and unicorns. Greycroft Partners founder, Alan Patricof, warns against the belief of being able to raise endless capital, with businesses vulnerable to changes in the market and the outlook.

Some organisations have lost their unicorn status, and even Facebook’s value dipped dramatically before reaching its current peak of around $225 billion.

Your Unicorn

So if you have an innovative idea, now might be the right time to get started and you could end up with a unicorn of your own. But be wary, you might want to get started soon, before someone takes your idea or the bubble bursts entirely…

We’d love to turn Procurious into a unicorn, but there’s plenty work to be done first. If you’ve got any ideas or comments about the site, we’d love to hear from you!

And just because we’re so good to you, here are some top headlines from procurement and supply chain this week…

No Evidence of Wrongdoing in London Garden Bridge Procurement

An audit has concluded that there was no evidence of wrongdoing in Transport for London’s (TfL) procurement for the London Garden Bridge project
The audit aimed to provide assurance of an open, fair and transparent process in the procurement of design and development services
While the audit found that in some instances where TfL policy and procedure were not fully complied with, it concluded that it had not identified any evidence that the final recommendations did not provide value for money from winning bidders
However, concerns have still been raised by the London Assembly Liberal Democrat Group as key documentation supporting the evaluation of the bidders had been disposed of during a TfL office move and could not be evaluated